Mulled Wine

It's the festive season: the season to be jolly and usually "jolly". Gallons of festive cheer are consumed by revellers. One particularly seasonal tipple is mulled wine. This can be a bit of a double-edged sword. Good mulled wine is excellent; bad stuff is truly horrific. Therefore, being the thoughtful, sharing type I thought I would give you my recipe for mulled wine so you can guarantee to enjoy yourself and impress your guests over Christmas.

Step one: throw away those ghastly pre-made sachets. All they do is make the wine taste like old feet.

The major ingredient is of course red wine. Since it's going to have a lot added to it, leave the Petrus in the cellar and go for something a little less expensive. A full-bodied North Italian red is my usual bottle of choice although whatever is on special offer is usually a good rule of thumb.

Next add some dark rum (I like Lamb's Old Navy but OVD is a good substitute). For a guide to quantity, add enough rum that you think, "my that's a lot of rum" and then a bit more for luck. The aim is to get the "warming" effect of the spirit along with the physical warmth of the drink.

Along with the rum, add some caster sugar (about 150g) and a cinnamon stick. Pour in about 250ml of good orange juice - the smooth stuff and then start preparing the fruit. I usually use an orange and a lemon. Massage both until they are soft and pliable so they are ready to release their juice (10 seconds in the microwave will have a similar effect but be less soothing). Slice the lemon about a third of the way through in several places and put in the mixture (ideally contained in a heavy-based saucepan). Next stud the orange all over with whole cloves. It's a lot of effort and quite fiddly but the visual effect is stunning and it adds a real richness to the flavour.

In an ideal world I would heat this up until just warm then allow it to sit for a couple of hours before warming it again and serving however it can be warmed and served immediately. Enjoy with mince pies and (if you must) carols.

Cheers

TFB

P.s. Warning: if you're even in the same room as the pot don't even look at a car never mind think about driving!