Mulled wine

Ingredients

• 1 bottle red wine (Sainsburys 'house' did the trick).
• 200g or so castor sugar
• couple cinnamon sticks
• 4 cardamom pods
• tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 5-6 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• An orange, sliced
• Juice of another orange
• 2 star aneese

Method

In a large pan add the sugar, orange juice, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, bay leaves and cloves. Then cover with enough of the red wine to just cover the sugar. Add the sliced orange.

Bring to a simmer on a medium heat and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Then raise the heat to a rolling boil for 5 minutes or so until you have a nice thick syrup.

Reduce the heat to low, add the star aneese and the rest of the wine. Heat slowly until warm.

Optionally add a good glug of cherry brandy at this point.

Serve.