TRADITIONAL ENGLISH MULLED WINE

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH MULLED WINE image

Yield 12 glasses

Number Of Ingredients 10

Ingredients
2 bottles of cheap red wine '(plonk')
2 lemons
1 orange
100g demerara sugar
4 cloves
Pinch1 of cinnamon
Pinch of powdered ginger
1 dried torn bayleaf2
2 tablespoons of Cointreau or brandy.

Steps:

Procedure Pre-heat the slow cooker on high as you prepare the ingredients. Pour the wine into the cooker. Cut thin slivers of rind from one lemon and squeeze the juice directly into the wine. Also add the rind. Cut the orange in half, stud one half with cloves and float it on the wine. Retain the other half of the orange for later. Add the herbs and spices and continue to heat on high for an hour. Add the sugar with stirring until it has dissolved, then turn to low. To serve, remove the lemon rind and orange half and stir in the Cointreau or brandy. Slice the remaining lemon and orange and float on top of the mulled wine. If using a slow cooker, this may now be left switched on, or switched off and taken to the table. In this instance leave the removable pot in the outer casing as this will act as a layer of insulation to keep the wine as hot as possible for as long as possible. Mulled wine should be served in napkin-wrapped glasses (goblets or tumblers). Jonnie Craddock, in his book Wine For Today,3 says, "...and pray remember to insert a silver spoon in each before pouring, lest you crack the glasses and thereby lose the contents..." Finally, add a spiral of lemon zest to each glass.