Mulled wine, nothing invokes the sense of Christmas quite like this subtle, spiced aroma wafting through the house on a cold Winter night.
It couldn’t be easier to make a batch up for a party, all you need is a decent sized cooking pot and these fresh ingredients:
- 2 clementines
- 1 lemon
- 1 lime
- 150g of caster sugar
- 6 whole cloves
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- 3 fresh bay leaves
- 1 whole nutmeg for grating (or 1 and a ½ teaspoons for powdered)
- 1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways
- 2 star anise
- 2 bottles of good quality red wine
This recipe is so easy to make and to adapt to your own personal preferences, if you have your favourite spice – throw it in the pot, you could also add half a red chilli to really stave of the winter chills.
Peel your clementines, lime and lemon, squeeze the juice out of all the fruit into the pot with the rinds and throw the remaining pulps away.
Add in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, bay leaves and the vanilla pod and a few cups of wine and stir well, until all the sugar is dissolved and forms a thick, syrupy paste that will smell amazing.
Bring to the boil and keep on a high heat for around 4 minutes, this gets all the flavours fully infused with the wine. (Without burning off all the alcohol of two bottles.)
Finally add your star of anise and the remaining wine, turn the heat right down and leave on a low heat.
Ladle out into glasses for guests at a party or take of the heat and bottle for a later date. All the wine will need if a quick 5 minutes later to bring it back to temperature – the flavour will be even more intense after a few days.
Christmas in a glass, easy-peasy mulled wine.
Enjoy responsibly…but do enjoy!