Mulled Wine

There is nothing like the smell of mulled wine about the house to really get me into a Christmas mood. It just fills the house with every scent that sums up that time of year. When the weather outside is frightful, then a glass of this will warm the cockles of your heart. There is no point in boiling the life out of your wine and boiling off the alcohol, so that's why it is best to make a syrup at the start, then add the rest of the wine to it and just heat it up to drinking temperature.

Ingredients

3–4 clementines

1 lemon

1 lime

275g caster sugar

2 bottles of good red wine

6 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

3 cardamom pods

3 bay leaves

2 star anise

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 nutmeg

Method

• With a vegetable peeler, peel large sections off the skin of the clementines, lemon and lime. Put these in a large pot. Squeeze the juice of the clementines, lemon and lime into the pot. Add the sugar and a glass of the red wine and turn up the heat.

• Add the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom pods, bay leaves, one of the star anise, the vanilla essence and grate in the nutmeg.

• Stir well and bring to the boil, then boil rapidly for about 5 minutes, or until thickened. Turn the heat down to half and add in the rest of the wine along with the second star anise.

• When heated fully, keep it warm and ladle out into glasses to serve. (If topping up with more wine, remember to add more sugar to taste.)