I don’t usually write about my other blog, Travelday, on here: I know that travels and food tend to cross a lot, but I try to keep my posts on the two as separate as possible, otherwise I start to feel repetitive. But I need to draw attention to one post over there where I wrote about my first experience trying mulled wine.
So much of a food experience is where you try it. Drinking mulled wine in the freezing cold in Janvry is one experience. Drinking mulled wine in the warmth of my home is another. This recipe for mulled wine had all of the taste and spice of the mulled wine that I tried in Janvry, but it just wasn’t the same drinking it at home.
If you make this wine, try to make it on a day when the air smells like snow. Try to make it on a day where you just can’t get warm, no matter how hard you try. Make it and let it wait for you while you go about your day outside, and when you get home, fresh from the cold, make yourself a fire and a hot cup of this. Maybe then it will taste for you how it did for me on that cold night in Janvry.
Mulled Wine (adapted from Gourmet)
8 whole cloves
4 whole black peppercorns
4 (3- by 1/2-inch) strips fresh lemon zest
4 (4- by 1/2-inch) strips fresh orange zest
1.5 liters dry red wine (two bottles)
1/2 cup kirsch
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise< br/> 1 orange, cut into slices
Place all ingredients except orange slices in a large stock pot and heat over low heat for fifteen minutes until infused. Add oranges. Ladle into mugs and serve.