Video guide to mulled wine
Male: What's a good recipe for mulled wine on a cold day?
Jean-Christophe Novelli’s recipe
Jean-Christophe Novelli: Again, there are various recipes but one thing I insist not to do is to boil the wine. What you need to do before is to put the wine into a pot, like so. I'm using some Merlot and the first reaction, bringing to simmer, and what happens is there is always some impurity in the wine. What will happen is you will see some kind of a foam so we're going to clarify that separately, take a little bit of time.
Then, on the other side, we're going to use another big pan and we're going to introduce the spice. Vanilla, perfect, slice in half, then we have the star anise, wonderful star anise, then we've got some cinnamon. Then we've got the usual cardamom, some cloves and what you have to do is introduce that now, without any liquid to a very hot pan.
What we're trying to do is push the spice. Can you smell this? Wonderful. OK, and that's why we've got to push them each separately to the limit of getting them open. We are about to introduce everything together so before, make sure they are nicely dynamic and getting a way of conversing.
I've more or less removed most of the froth, you can see. Then what we're going to do is to introduce some honey. Then we introduce ginger, oranges. Make sure you clean your oranges, limes. Then we've got the bay leaves, a great powerful herb. Some lemongrass, once again pretty unusual, so delicate.
What is interesting is this, it's like you're making a little caramel. Then what we have here is the wine, which has been completely clarified from its impurities. I can guarantee you this is a major, major step.
And then, finally, the pomegranate. It doesn't matter if you slice or chop, at the end of the day, this is going to be mixing slowly, you're going to see what's happening.
The introduction of the wine can only be that way, are you ready for that? Can you hear this? Look at that? I can't believe that. This is what it's all about.
Female: Why do you ladle it instead of pour it?
Jean-Christophe Novelli: The first one or two is to make sure there's not too much juice. I want the juice, the liquid to be mixed with the thickness, which is there to infuse. Cover without boiling. Come over, my friend.
Male: That is really, really good. You can taste all the spices in there, you can taste it before you put it in your mouth, the smell really hits you.
Jean-Christophe Novelli: Everybody's watching us, cheers, ladies. That can only be better if it was cooked entirely. What do you think? This is good?
Female: Let me try.