So today, I'm going to talk about the mulled wine. You certainly can't go wrong with 3 buck Chuck. I chose a Cabernet Sauvignon for this. It was either that or Shiraz, and I enjoy drinking Shiraz more than I enjoy Cab Sav*, so I saved the Shiraz for later.
Just look at how the spices coat the glistening dried fruit and warm nuts of the mulling mixture. Sweet mother of pearl, that's beautiful! It was hard not to munch on that as a medieval trail mix.
Heating the wine to a slow simmer and adding the spices, however, somewhat less appealing to the eye...Sometimes you just have to protect your dinner guests from being put off by a dish prior to it being ready to serve:
"Yeah, it smells good but you do NOT want to look in there. Just... just trust me, ok?"
After warm steeping the mixture for about 20 minutes, I strained the wine into a carafe for the dinner table. The result? An intriguing decocted concoction. Not overly spicy and perfectly cockle-warming. I've had some mulled wines that suffered from an abundance of clove and star anise, and the strength of the spice can be a turn off. This was very pleasant by comparison.
I couldn't bring myself to toss the leftover seasoned fruit/nut mixture, so I'm saving it. I suspect it may prove a stellar hot topping to vanilla ice cream, or even chilled and served with Greek honey yogurt. Hooray, byproducts!
Side note: my holiday dinner guests let me know on no uncertain terms that they would be there for me in my time of need, especially if I need people to be here when I'm cooking. Which naturally, I do!
Merry everything, everybody!
* Any Port in a storm, though. Any Pinot, Scotch, or Brandy for that matter. Baby it's cold outside...
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