This recent cold snap has prompted us to put our housemade Hot Mulled Wine back on our menu and we thought it a good time to share the recipe with you!

Makes around 1.5 litres

2 Oranges or Tangelos

Peel of 1 Lemon

Peel of 1 Lime

200g Caster Sugar

6 whole cloves

1 cinnamon sticks

3 fresh bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 whole Vanilla pod, halved

2 Star Anise

2 bottles of Red Wine (1.5l)

Method:

Peel large sections of peel from your Tangelo/Orange, Lemon and Lime using a speed peeler.

Put sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add pieces of peel and squeeze in the Tangelo/Orange Juice.

Add Cloves, Cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and approx. 10-12 gratings of nutmeg.

Throw in halved Vanilla Pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar. Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4-5 mins, or until you've got a beautiful thick syrup. This is done first to create a wonderful flavour base, by infusing and blending the sugar and spices well with the wine.

I is important to make a syrup base first because it needs to be hot and if you do this with all the wine you will burn off the alcohol!

When your syrup is ready turn the heat down to low and add your Star Anise and the remaining wine