Glühwein von Sara Schultz

I was thinking about what made Christmas feel like Christmas. It's quiet this year, three of us and the dog holding down the house in Iowa. Ice packed snow hides the grass and street.
We slip around town and back home again.

Two years in Germany imprinted Glühwein (Glow-wine) into my idea of holiday tradition, so I scoured the internet for a suitable recipe. They were not overly specific, and so I modified one hoping it would not taste horrid.

Surprisingly I think it may have turned out better than any I have tasted. This is a heavily modified recipe from Jamie Oliver.

Glühwein von Sara Schultz

·       2 clementines

·       100g  (½ cup) brown sugar

·       3 whole cloves

·       1 stick cinnamon

·       3 whole allspice

·       Grated nutmeg- about 5-6 shakes- whatever you feel like (can grate fresh also) - I like nutmeg, so I used more

·       1 bottle Merlot  (I used Left Coast Merlot- you don't need a fancy wine)

Peel clementines into large sections. Pour sugar into large saucepan over medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze the clementine juice over top. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, allspice and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar.

Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you've got a beautiful thick syrup. This will create a wonderful flavor base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It's important to do make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with the whole bottle of wine in there you'll burn off the alcohol.

When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low and add the rest of the wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it's warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.

Try not to get too hammered! It's hard to stop at one cup!