Mulled Wine
So good on cold evenings! Since the cold weather started, I make myself a cup every evening - I use red wine because it's good for those with low blood pressure. But you can also use white wine. It doesn't matter whether the wine is dry or sweet, nor does the quality matter much - you can use a cheap bulk wine. Theoretically, a fruity wine like Merlot would work well, but I haven't really noticed the difference with whatever wine I've used 😊
The spices that go into the wine can also be found in stores. I've included a photo of what I've used: on the left is a spice mix from Demmers Teehaus tea shop (13 lei for 100g packet) and on the right one from Fuchs, available in any store in the spice aisle, it's not expensive (about 2-3 lei per packet for 1.5 l of wine).
Ingredients
1 bottle (750 ml) red or white wine
3 tablespoons sugar
3 small apples
1 orange
Mulled wine spices
10 cloves
10 black peppercorns
2 nutmeg seeds
3 cardamom pods
1 star anise
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 cinnamon stick (10 cm)
Servings: 3 cups
How to prepare mulled wine
- Prepare the spice mix for the wine or use a store-bought blend.
- I removed the apple cores to slice them more easily, using the special tool for this purpose. Slice the apples and orange.
- Put the wine with sugar in a thick-bottomed pot and heat over medium heat.
- Put the spices in a pan and heat them over medium heat until you smell their aroma. They shouldn't be fried! As soon as you smell them releasing their aroma, add them to the wine.
- Let the spiced wine heat until you see small bubbles forming on the edge of the pot, about 5 minutes.
* the wine should not boil during preparation, or the alcohol will evaporate - Add the fruit slices, cover with a lid and leave for another 5 minutes on the heat, but with the lid on this time so not all the alcohol evaporates.
- Pour into cups through a strainer. Place some of the cooked fruit slices in the cups. Decorate with fresh orange slices and cinnamon sticks. Serve hot!
* you can add sugar to the cups if it's not sweet enough; it's better this way - everyone sweetens the wine to their own taste!
** eat the remaining fruits cooked in wine at the end, they're really good, don't throw them away.
Preparing the spices
Or use store-bought mulled wine spices
Slicing the fruits
Heating the spices
Adding fruits and simmering for 5 more minutes
Mulled Wine