Mulled wine

With Christmas fast approaching things are getting pretty busy around here, the food still needs to be bought, the presents wrapped and the house decorated, add to that two days of overtime at work and there is very little time to spend cooking!

I did however find time to whip up a pan of mulled wine, a Christmas essential and one of my favourite drinks. Made from red wine, spices and fruits simmered and served hot, this warming drink is perfect for winter.There are endless variations to this, the recipe below is the basic version to which you could add apples, pears, berries or even fruit liqueur, to give it a bit of a kick try adding a good glug of brandy.

Mulled wine recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 75cl bottle of red wine.
• 1 orange, half sliced half studded with 4 or 5 cloves.
• 1 lemon sliced.
  
• 1 cinnamon stick snapped in two.
• 1 tsp ground/powdered ginger.
• A wine glass of water.
• 3 tbsp white sugar or honey.
• As much brandy as you like (optional).

Method:

• Place all the ingredients into a large pan with a lid.
• Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
• Place the lid on the pan and leave on a very low light to simmer (don't boil) for at least 20 minutes.
• Serve.

Classic French Coq au vin

Last night I cooked the classic French dish, Coq au vin. When I was making this I was reminded of the Blackadder episode where Baldrick offers Blackadder Rat au vin, when asked what exactly that entails Baldrick replies it's rat that's been run over by a van!!
Luckily I didn't have to resort to anything scraped off the road! For my Coq au vin I used chicken legs although to be truly authentic I should have used a cockerel rather than chicken. Traditionally it was the old, and therefore tough birds that were used, hence the need for long slow cooking.Coq au vin is delicious and simple to make, unfortunately it seems to have gone out of fashion, I say it's time for a comeback! Very few ingredients are required for this, it can vary a bit but it always contains onions/shallots, bacon, mushrooms, chicken, red wine and a bouquet garni. These are cooked together for a good few hours until the chicken is meltingly tender and the wine has reduced to an intense and delicious sauce.
I was really pleased with how this came out, it was packed with flavour and really tasty. I served mine with French bread but it would be great with mashed potatoes too.

While I didn't use a recipe but this recipe by James martin is almost identical.