When you won't drink it: how to use that wine

One day at lunch I was speaking with my dear friend Jane, and I said "I have this GREAT recipe to use up leftover wine." She put up her hand. "Save it dear. We never have left over wine."
I believe it. My friend David and I could probably medal in the tandem wine drinking events (both sprints and long distance), but Jane and her novio would drink us under the table every single time.
Ok, that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, except that we're dealing with wine. You know the rule: never cook with anything you wouldn't drink.
Well, sometimes, you open a bottle and you don't say "this is really awful," but you also say "not on my table." That happened to me not that long ago. I had bought some chardonnay from a vineyard that makes SOME really good wines. Unfortunately, their chardonnay table wine, is not one of them (HINT: if you are looking at a wine that describes itself as "table wine," it probably isn't). So, while I gave it 2 or 3 tries, it wasn't making it. Frugality being the way of the world these days, however, I tried to think of what to do with it. And I found a way to deal with some of it.

It IS true that you should always use wine you would drink at table when you cook, but when it's just at the edge, if the sauce you are going to make is flavored with some other, strong ingredients, go girl go. And that's what this is about.

We were eating monkfish tonight, one of my favorite fish to cook. The texture of monkfish is so nice and dense and firm, that it is hard to overcook it. Use it if you're not comfortable cooking fish. But it is a bland fish. It needs something. And that's where the wine came in. Here we go.

First, take about a pound of monkfish. This is probably two nice sized chunks. Pat it dry and season it with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, bring your oven to 400. Put about two tablespoons of olive oil, in a non-stick pan. When the pan is hot, put the monkfish in. It will sizzle, and after five minutes or so, it will brown. Turn it so that the unbrowned side is on the pan surface, pour off the fat, and put the whole thing into the oven and let it cook for ten minutes.

After ten minutes, CAREFULLY take the pan out of the oven, and let the fish drain on some paper towel. Slice it vertically into big thick slices. You probably want 8-10 in all.

Now, for the sauce. Pour a cup of that wine into the pan, and turn on the heat. When the wine begins to boil, toss in a good slug of dijon mustard - maybe two tablespoons or so, maybe more - and then put the fish back in, spooning the sauce over it, as it reduces. The whole thing will reduce to a few tablespoons, and you will be done.

Plate the fish, and then pour the sauce over the fish. Maybe a squirt of lemon, maybe a grind of pepper, and maybe nothing at all.

We ate this with plain white rice (because I couldn't find the brown rice), and something I'll tell ya about tomorrow: asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.

To be continued....