CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, MULLED WINE

An essential for winter days, hot beverage to warm you and your hearth: Mulled wine! It really goes together well with all the glowing Christmas decorations and white snow. It is a reason to be happy, to love cold weather and makes you miss winter season. If you have started making a list of beverages to serve for Christmas dinner, be sure that you have mulled wine in the list. This beverage will fill your house with spicy smell and make even you feel dizzy.

Mulled wine is mostly consumed in the countries where winter days are cold. It is mainly made with wine and cinnamon sticks. Other than these two ingredients, it is completely up to you to choose which fruits and spices to add. You can use plenty of cinnamon which controls blood sugar, prevents you from cold and helps your digestion. Ginger, clove, anise and black pepper are other spices which used widely in mulled wine recipes. It is usually suggested to consume those spices in winter season against cold, so with these ingredients, mulled wine is considered as a strong defender for your body.

 

Mulled wine, which is traditionally consumed as Christmas beverage in Europe, has different name and recipe in different countries. In the 17th century, heating of beverage named “Grog” before consumption against cold weather by British, started to shape mulled wine recipes we have today. Later, Scandinavians added vodka, wine, cinnamon, clove, ginger, cardamom, sugar and orange to original recipe and named “Glögg”. It is known as “Glühwein” in Germany, “Vin Chaud” in France, and “Vin Brulé” in Italy. It varies in taste in different countries, since it is prepared by different recipes. 

Preparing mulled wine is simple and entertaining. It does not require much effort because you can simply cut fruits in any size, put them in a saucepan and boil. Also, you can add spices as you please, so you can create recipes for your own taste. In order to preserve look and maintain ease to drink, spices should not be used in powdered form. Most of the people think that mulled wine is boiled while preparing, which is totally wrong. Wine should not be directly heated and boiled in order to prevent alcohol from evaporating. So that, wine is poured into previously boiled ingredients, and it is heated by the heat of those ingredients. If you prepare mulled wine by paying attention to those kinds of tips, you can be sure that it will be your winter favorite beverage. 

While we are counting the days to Christmas, get ready with your fruits, spices and wines. Decorate your glass of mulled wines, and greet New Year with your home filled with smell of spices and fruits.

 

For 3 liters...

Ingredients 

2 liters dry red wine 

1 liter cherry juice 

½ cup honey 

2 oranges 

2 apples 

1 quince 

Seeds of 1 pomegranate 

Peels of 1 lemon 

20 dried black pepper seeds 

15 buds of clove 

15 cinnamon sticks 

1 pod of cardamom 

2 seeds of star anise 

1 teaspoon of grated ginger root

NOTE: It is not necessary to use aged, high quality wine for the recipe. Average quality wine would suffice.

 

Instructions

1. Cut off oranges, apples and quince into large pieces without peeling. Put pomegranate seeds, lemon peels and fruits into a saucepan. You are going to prepare 3 liters of mulled wine, so choose saucepan accordingly. 

2. Remove seeds from pod of cardamom, add them with black pepper seeds, clove buds, cinnamon sticks, star anise seeds and grated ginger root into the saucepan. 

3. Put all cherry juice into a jar, add honey and mix them well. After, pour the mixture into saucepan, over other ingredients. 

4. Put saucepan into heat, boil fruits and spices that you have mixed with cherry juice for 30 minutes. 

5. After 30 minutes, remove saucepan from heat and in order to prevent wine from contacting with boiled mixture, allow 5-10 minutes to cool. 

6. Add 2 liters of wine into mixture and stir well. Allow 15 minutes to make sure that taste and smell of mixture passed into wine. 

7. After 15 minutes, using a sieve, filter all fruits and spices.

TIP: If you’d like, you can leave 2-3 cinnamon sticks, 1-2 clove buds and some fruits at the bottom of saucepan to enhance the taste.

8. You can serve mulled wine in a glass or in a cup with a stick of cinnamon and a slice of orange inside.

I wish all of you a merry Christmas… 

Bon appetite...