Night’s Watch Hot Mulled Wine

In this series we are going to put together the ultimate Christmas dinner. Why? So you can dine in style of course. But before we start with some geeky recipes for food we are going to talk about what to drink. In this article specifically we want to underline the importance of a good glass of wine. It is said that wine is very popular amongst the nobility, whereas the smallfolk prefer beer or ale. At the Wall, the brothers of the Night’s Watch drink hot mulled wine, spiced with cloves and nutmeg. In our opinion, the Night’s Watch hot mulled wine is the perfect drink to serve to your guests, nobility or not. So let’s start the evening with a glass that smells like winter.

Method

• Peel large sections of peel from the 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.
• Halve the vanilla pod lengthways and add to the pan, then stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar.
• Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine, 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.
• 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 heatproof glasses and serve your Night’s Watch hot mulled wine.

Source: jamieoliver.com 

Winter is coming so you better serve that wine quickly!