’Tis the season for wintery days out with a glass of mulled wine in hand. To introduce some depth into his mulled wine, Head Chef Mickael Weiss uses blackberry purée, which creates a lovely berry sweet flavour. He also adds chilli to give the recipe a little kick and lots of mild spices to produce more fragrance. Enjoy!
Ingredients
300ml water
50g demerara sugar
50g caster sugar
½ vanilla pod, split and deseeded
1 tbsp clear honey
1 small cinnamon stick
1 bottle red wine
2 star anise
4 juniper berries, crushed
1 all spice berry
¼ red chilli
¼ tsp ginger powder
4 cloves
1 piece of mace
150ml blackberry purée
juice and skin of 1 orange
juice and skin of 1 lemon
1 shot vodka
1 shot brandy
1 shot rum
Method
Bring a pan with the water, sugar, vanilla, honey and cinnamon stick to the boil. Then, add the wine and the rest of the spices, blackberry purée, and the orange and lemon juice plus the skins. Bring to a rapid simmer then remove from the heat. Stir in the vodka, brandy and rum, remove the skins of lemon and orange and leave it to rest overnight. Sieve and heat up as needed.
