Marché De Noël Vin Chaud French Spiced Mulled Wine Food

VIN CHAUD (FRENCH MULLED WINE)

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Cut or peel a strip of skin from the orange with a sharp paring knife or a vegetable peeler, approximately 1 x 5 inches in size. Save orange for another use.
• Carefully remove as much of the white pith from the piece of zest as possible, since it will add bitterness to the wine.
• Combine wine, sugar, cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, and peeled orange zest in a large saucepan over very low heat.
• Heat mixture until it nearly reaches a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar. Do not allow wine to come to a boil, or alcohol will evaporate and the flavor of the vin chaud will be affected.
• The wine will be at its optimal temperature when the sugar has dissolved and steam rises when mixing spoon is lifted from wine.
• Maintain this temperature to keep wine warm and let wine steep with spices to develop flavor. The longer it steeps, the stronger the flavor.
• Strain wine through a fine-mesh sieve or a cheesecloth-lined colander into a clean saucepan. Discard spices.
• Cover pan and let vin chaud stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
• Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of cognac to 4 individual warmed mugs or heatproof glasses before ladling in the mulled wine.

VIN CHAUD: HOT MULLED WINE

Steps:

• Pour the wine into a nonreactive saucepan. Add the spices and honey, and bring to simmer. Turn off heat, and let stand 15 minutes.
• Reheat the wine until it's warm and steamy, turn off the heat, and add the eau-de-vie or brandy, if using. Pour the wine into heat-resistant glasses to serve.

MULLED SPICED WINE

Steps:

• Bring the wine, port, water, vanilla, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, orange peel or whole orange cut in half, lemon peel or whole lemon cut in half, hibiscus flowers and sugar to a simmer in a nonreactive saucepan.
• Or place in a slow cooker on low for 1-2 hours.
• Simmer the mixture slowly for 15 minutes.
• Strain and place into Heat resistant punch bowl or keep in crock pot and keep on low.
• Place 1 blanched almond and several raisins or fresh cranberries in the bottom of each punch glass.
• Pour the warm wine mixture over and serve.

MULLED WINE

Steps:

• In a large stainless steel stockpot, combine all ingredients.
• Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
• Reduce heat to very low and keep warm for about 30 minutes to let the flavours blend.
• Strain out the cloves and the cinnamon before serving.
• Ladle in to heatproof cups.