Winter 2009: Season of the Hot Mulled Wine

I keep mentioning that we've been drinking hot mulled wine in the evenings the last few weeks and people keep asking for the recipe. Not a great harvester of recipes, but with a deep love of research, I simply trolled the internet looking for different recipes. Found a brown sugar mulled wine, a lovely looking cardomon one, and a recipe for mulled wine with brandy. Now a fortified mulled wine? That I can get on board with. All courtesy of WineIntro.com.

My approach was to combine a few things I had skulking around the kitchen , taking up space.  Keep in mind this is not an exact science. In a deep stock pot I throw in a couple cups of water, bring to a boil.

Added some brown sugar, more than a thimble full, less than a latte. (Quarter cup or so, maybe.) I also added a liberal sprinkling of some ground spices I keep in the cupboard; ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon.

After the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has come to a boil, I squeezed in the juice from an orange, but I think any citrus fruit will do fine. I have a very prolific lemon tree in my yard, and I might molest that for fruit next time, as the oranges are gone. (Yes, lemons on my tree in December, Southern California is a land with only two seasons.) Allow liquid to cool lower than the boiling point, but still nice and hot. For the wine, I used some half and quarter bottles that had been opened over the past couple weeks and not finished. Sometimes we have a lot of these lame duck bottles laying around, sometimes we have none. The night in photos, I had .75 of a chianti and .25 of a delicious Italian white.

To add backbone to the sauce, I poured in some cheap ass cooking port and some rather expensive brandy. Heat through without boiling, you don't want all the alcohol to evaporate.

 

Enfin. Pour into thick ceramic mugs and drink while cooking, talking, watching TV, or supervising German Shepherds. Enjoy!

GSD #1.

GSD #2.