I’ve had lots of requests for the mulled wine recipe I used at our Christmas drinks party last night, so here goes. It’s based on a Jamie Oliver recipe which can be found here.  It takes a bit more effort than the pre-prepared stuff you can get in tea bags, but it is definitely worth it.

Ingredients

• 200g sugar
• 2 clementines
• 1 lemon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 vanilla pod (halved)
• A couple of fresh bay leaves
• A few gratings of whole nutmeg
• 6 or 7 whole cloves
• 2 star anises
• A couple of bottles of red wine (I used a Sicilian Nero D’Avola, but any red wine will do fine I’m sure)
  

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Method

1. Put the sugar into a large saucepan and place on a medium heat.
2. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the clementines and the lemon, trying to get just the outer layer and avoiding the white pith (much like when peeling the lemons in my recipe for limoncello).
3. Add the peel to the pan.
4. Squeeze the clementines and add the juice to the pan.
5. Add the cinnamon stick, bay leaves, vanilla pod, nutmeg and cloves.
6. Pour in a little wine, just enough to cover the sugar.
7. Stir it all together and let the sugar dissolve.
8. Bring the mixture to the boil for about 5 minutes. It should create a thick syrup, and will smell amazing. This stage is important as the high heat allows all the flavours to infuse.  If you add the wine before, then the alcohol will burn off with the heat.
9. Turn the heat down, add the star anise and add the rest of the wine.
10. Heat the mixture gently for 5 minutes or so.
11. Ladle into glasses and enjoy.
    

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Have a great Christmas everyone!