Most of the time I find myself either drinking beer or sipping whiskey. But for me the holiday season is not complete without at least one mug of spiced wine. Preferably outdoors, in the freezing cold, with friends around a fire.
In my family there are a number of good recipes, but I wanted to try something different:
I ended up doing this one: http://www.innatthecrossroads.com/the-old-bears-hot-spiced-wine/
Specifically the Medieval Mulled WIne Recipe.
I selected a bottle of wine which had been lying in the wine rack in my living room for over half a year (spiced wine is a great way of getting rid of a bottle you don't entirely trust anymore).
The recipe said to pour it into a cooking pot, and add half a cup of honey while It's warming up.
keep it warming up untill it's:
Simmering:
Than stop the heating
Than add the spices: One tablespoon each of: cloves, ginger, nutmeg, cardemom and cinnamon.
(The original recipe also calls for cinnamon sticks, but I couldn't find them.)
Also: Add a handful of raisins, and a handful of almond flakes. (The recipe also called for a handful of dried cherries, but again, couldn't find these.)
Than give it a good stir, and serve
Now ofcourse comes the most important part: the tasting.
I was somewhat worried, about it being completely ofbalance, and was very pleasantly surprised.
This wine is very spicy, and it adds to the warmth of the warm wine. It will go down and warm up your entire body, without burning, without being unpleasant.
The different spices, are very well balanced. At no time is one spice excessively present. The cinnamon is present in the beginning, the nutmeg is present in the warm aftertaste, and at the back of your throat. The cloves provide a warm undertone throughout the entire experience.
And if only these 3 spices would have been present, it would not have been a good drink. ALmost all recipes of spiced wine you will come across will contain citrus. This one doesn't. But for that's where ginger and cardemom come in. Especially the cardemom provides a fresh, acidic counterbalance for the heavier, sweeter spiciness provided by the three previous spices.
Drawbacks. The recipe in itself already mentioned that it would be a good idea to use a tea strainer for the cloves. I believ it would be best to use them for the cardemom (I used whole cardemoms rather than powder) and also use only cinnamon sticks.
This would effectively remove these three spices completely, whereas now, the cloves and the cardemoms are floating around, meaning that you have to drink thtough your teeth to keep them out of your mouth.
The powdered spices sink to the bottom, and create a thick paste. The recipe seemed to call for leaving that in the cooking pot, but the problem was that also the raisins and almond flakes fell to the bottom. SO In attemtping to scoop these out, I got the paste as well.
FInal idea: The taste is great, but the presentation still somewhat sucks. If I where to make this one again, I'd use a tea strainer for the whole spices, and leave the almonds and raisins out at first stage. Than I would pour the entire thing through a coffee filter to remove the ground spices, than reheat it with the raisins and almond flakes prior to serving.