As the nights get darker and winter settles in, what we all need to raise our spirits is some lovely and warming homemade mulled wine.
Recipes vary as to the optimum combination of flavours because everyone's tastes are different, but here we present the recipe for Catherine's Best Mulled Wine, which is highly rated and very frequently requested amongst our friends and family. Catherine tends to ad lib when she's cooking, so this recipe should be viewed as a guide for you to adapt to your own personal taste.
Mulled wine: ingredients
1 lemon
1 orange
1 litre orange juice
1 bottle cheap red wine
2 to 3 glugs of cheap brandy
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons honey
Spices
1 heaped teaspoon each of:
Nutmeg
Ground cloves
Ground cinnamon
Ground ginger
Plus about 12 whole cloves
This recipe makes 8 to 10 glasses, depending on the size of glasses used (and the thirstiness of your guests).
Mulled wine: method
Making the mulled wine involves little more than combining all the ingredients in a large pan, warming it through and then tweaking the spices according to taste. But if you'd like it broken down into a little more detail, see the following steps:
Place your pan on the the hob and turn the heat up to medium. Pour in the wine and orange juice and start warming the liquid through.
Slice up the lemon and orange and then chop into small pieces, and add them to the pan of wine.
Pour in a couple of glugs of brandy.
Add the sugar and the honey to the liquid in the pan, and stir through.
Add the ground spices and most of the whole cloves. Keep a few cloves back to be added later after tasting. Stir it all together.
Heat gently so that the liquid is only just on the edge of simmering. Stir occasionally and keep half an eye on it to make sure that it doesn't start boiling. Your kitchen should now smell amazing!
Taste to check for the balance of flavours - you don't want one flavour to overwhelm the others. Add a little more honey if the mulled wine still tastes a bit sharp or bitter, add a drop more brandy for a richer flavour, or a few more cloves if it needs to taste a touch more Christmassy.
The mulled wine is ready to drink after it has been simmering for 10 to 15 minutes, but the flavours will blend more the longer you leave it.
To serve, ladle your homemade mulled wine out into heat-proof glasses and enjoy!
How to make mulled wine
For a quick video demonstration of how to make mulled wine using this recipe, see below:
Music credit: Music: We Wish You A Merry Christmas | Musician: amaksi https://pixabay.com/.../-we-wish-you-a-merry-christmas.../
How long will mulled wine keep?
If you don't want to drink the mulled wine in one sitting, you can re-heat it the following day - like curry, it is often better the next day. Or you can allow the wine to cool and pour it into a clip top bottle and store it in the fridge (it should keep for up to a week) then gently reheat it when you're ready to drink it.