Seven innovative ways to cook with leftover wine.

Have an unfinished bottle of wine lurking in your fridge from the holidays and you don’t want it going to waste?

Before you pour it down the sink, consider trying some clever and creative ways on how to use those reds and whites leftovers.

We spoke to Durban born chef, Michael Deg, who was recently appointed as the Executive Chef at Cavalli Estate, and asked him to share seven of his best secrets on how to go about using those precious last drops.

Wine Popsicles

Wine popsicles

Use ice moulds in the freezer to keep any leftover wine for easy storage space and simply pop out of moulds when needed.

Make a Pickling Mix

Use leftover white wine to make an easy pickling mix, remember the ratio 1,2,3,4 when making a pickling mix, 1 part sugar, 2 parts vinegar, 3 parts white wine, and 4 parts water. Use any spices you like to give your pickling mix a kick, personally I like to use fennel seeds, star anise, cardamom and a few sprigs of thyme.

Make an Oxtail Stew

- Marinate your oxtail overnight in red wine, thyme and garlic.

- Remove from marinade but keep the wine, brown off the oxtail and then remove from the pot

- Add some chopped carrots, onions, garlic, a few bay leaves and thyme, brown the vegetables off, add a table spoon of tomato paste

- Add the oxtail back to the pot and cover with the reserved red wine and beef stock, cook at a simmer for about 4 to 5 hours.

- The oxtail should be falling off the bone before serving, add some cooked butter beans and finish off with a handful of chopped parsley, serve with creamy mash or polenta.

Make a white wine & lemon sauce to go with grilled trout

- Heat 400ml of chicken stock, 200ml of white wine, 100ml cream and 100ml lemon juice and reduce by half again. Reserve until needed

- Pre- heat the oven to 180c and bake the trout on a non-stick pan skin side up for 10-12 minutes, take out the oven peel the skin off gently

- Spoon the sauce over, serve immediately

- Great with a prawn risotto.

Make a Sabayon with left over sweet wine

- Add 100ml sweet wine, 3 egg yolks, 40g caster sugar, in a large bowl and place over simmering water in a pot.

- Start whisking over the double boiler, make sure the bottom of the bowl odes not touch the water though.

- Continue whisking for about 8-10 minutes and the mixture should have reached a light ribbon consistency, when the temperature reaches 55 C, the Sabayon is cooked.

- Once it reaches the required temperature, the Sabayon should have a very thick ribbon consistency and a fluffy, rich, and shiny texture.

- Remove the bowl from the pot, serve immediately over some red berries, and place under the grill for a few seconds until the Sabayon is lightly browned.

Citrus fruits in a sparkling wine jelly

- 1 medium orange, 1 medium grapefruit, 1 lemon, 50g caster sugar, 2 leaves gelatine, 375ml sparkling wine.

- Segment the orange and grapefruit, making sure no pith is left on the segments, cut each segment into 3 small equal pieces, refrigerate separately.

- Zest the lemon, try to get long zest pieces

- In a small pot add the 50g sugar and 50ml water and bring to the boil, add the lemon zest and simmer for 6 minutes to candy, drain off the syrup and lay the candied zest on parchment paper.

- Soften the gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes, in a small pan, warm 50ml of the sparkling wine, take off the heat.

- Drain the gelatine, squeeze out excess water and whisk into the warm sparkling wine to dissolve, then stir in the rest of the sparkling wine.

- Pour into a jug and place in a fridge, as soon as the wine starts to thicken into jelly, pour it into chilled shot glasses, working quickly, push the segments in the semi set jelly at different depths, so the segments appear to be floating in the glass

- Refrigerate to set fully for at least 2 hours

- Serve with candied zest on top of the glass.