Ingredients
2 bottles of light cleanskin red wine
2 mandarins or 1 large orange
1 lemon
1 Lime
200g caster sugar
6 whole cloves
1 stick of cinnamon
3 bay leaves
2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp good quality vanilla bean paste
2 star anise
Summary
Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s easy-as Mulled Wine Recipe, this batch of mulled wine is made using good quality spices, and left to mull on the stovetop so all the wonderful flavours fuse, making it a brilliant Winter warmer.
- Using a peeler, take large sections of peel from the mandarin/orange, lemon and lime.
- Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in mandarin juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10-12 gratings of nutmeg (you can use 2 tsps ground nutmeg if you have to).
- Then add the vanilla and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar.
- Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4-5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup.
- It’s important to make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot for the flavours to infuse, and if you do this with both bottles of wine you’ll burn off the alcohol.
- When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and the rest of the wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.
Hints and Tips
Note: if you have a cold, this will clear it right up!
