Mulled Wine

'Tis the season to be jolly, and 'tis also the time for the German Christmas Market to come back to Birmingham and set their little wooden shops all over the town. Dark cold evenings are much better spent in the market - warm mulled wine, huge glasses of unfiltered German beer and sausages, what's better than that?  
As good as it sounds, sometimes leaving your warm house to enjoy a glass of mulled wine and a German munch in freezing cold doesn't sound very appealing. Well, with this recipe for mulled wine, you can make your home feel like your very own warm and cozy German Market (however, I have to tell you, it won't be the same without the singing moose).

You will need:

a bottle of red wine - not the cheapest, but doesn't have to be the best stuff either,
150ml spiced rum,
250ml cranberry juice,
2 tbsp honey,
3 tbsp brown sugar,
2 clementines,
half an orange, sliced
peel of 1 lime,
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tbsp of vanilla sugar,
8 cloves,
a cinnamon stick,
a pinch of nutmeg,
a pinch of allspice.

Peel the clementine with a sharp knife or a peeler, chuck it in a deep saucepan, and squeeze the juice from your clementines. Now add everything else apart from wine and rum.

Let it all simmer until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil and leave it for a few minutes - the spices and fruity peels will mingle together releasing beautiful flavours into the syrup. 

Now turn the heat down and add the wine and rum (adding the alcohol at the end means you won't burn off the alcohol). 
Heat it on low until warm, and don't forget to try it for yourself, you might prefer it sweeter/fruitier/stronger - add whatever you feel it needs. Look at you making your own mulled wine! 

Serve your wine in mugs if you want a real 'German Market' feel, or in glasses/jars - I ladled mine into sugar rimmed jars. Enjoy these bad boys on a comfy sofa or in your bed, while watching newest episodes of 'Dexter' and 'Walking Dead'.



 

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