Cooking ·
Recipe: Stove-top Mulled Wine
Nothing says Chrimbo better than the wafting aroma of warmed cinnamon, citrus and mulling spices.
We've taken it outdoors this year and made some on the stove. Staying constantly warm as the fire simultaneously takes the chill off, top-ups of this sweet spicy drink go down like a homesick mole.
Here's our go-to recipe (we have to credit good old Jamie for this one!) for your next outdoor stove-top adventure. We look forward to seeing your pictures and hearing your stories!
Stove-top Mulled Wine Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 2 clementines
- 1 lemon
- 1 lime
- 200 g caster sugar
- 6 whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 fresh bay leaves
- 1 whole nutmeg , for grating
- 1 vanilla pod
- 2 bottles Chianti or other Italian red wine
- 2 star anise
Method:
- Peel large sections of peel from the clementines, lemon and lime using a speed-peeler.
- Put the sugar in a large saucepan on the stove with top plate removed, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice.
- Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Halve the vanilla pod lengthways and add to the pan, then stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar.
- Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine, then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup. This is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It’s important to make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn off the alcohol.
- When your syrup is ready, put the top plate on the stove and pop the pot on top, adding your star anise and the rest of the wine. After around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into heatproof glasses and serve.
Bottoms up!
