It is getting colder here in Ottawa and we are getting cozier here at Victoire. Linky and I are attending our pals Christmas bash later tonight and they are making mulled-wine. We are pretty excited about it and in anticipation we have decided to share a mulled wine recipe with you and our new favorite mug that you could transport your delicious wine in! Or as Linky says.."a vessle" for your drinks.



Handmade in Montreal, each mug is $34. Available at Wellington now and Dalhousie next week. We are really into the idea of bringing your own mug places. It is also eco-friendly to do so (no wasting plastic cups!) and good for hot OR cold drinks. So although we have mulled wine on the brain, transporting your smoothie would totally work too. Okay and now for mulled wine. My only personal advice is buy cheap wine. Other than that, I say follow Jamie Oliver's recipe:
      what you'll need..

  • 2 clementines
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 lime
  • 200 g caster sugar
  • 6 whole cloves
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • 3 fresh bay leaves
  • 1 whole nutmeg, for grating
  • 1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways
  • 2 star anise
  • 2 bottles of red wine
     
    method...
      Christmas in a glass! A celebration of those traditional festive spices like cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. If you've got your own favourite spices, then feel free to add those to the pot too. Let everything cook away and warm up gently so the flavours have time to mingle with the win.

    Peel large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime using a speed peeler. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod 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 to 5 minutes, or until you've got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I'm doing this first is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It's important to do make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there 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.




December 14, 2013 — emily rose (noreply@blogger.com)