Mulled Wine being terrible doesn’t have to be a Holiday tradition

Start with great wine, and tamarind of course

Mulled wine is one of those things that as soon as you make it, the countdown to pouring the leftovers down the drain begins. I blame it’s origin. The roots of mulled wine are Greek and Roman. Old leftover wine at an ancient party is not about to be wasted, (love this part), so spices and flavoring agents were added to continue the shelf life of said old wine. Wine itself didn’t taste great in the beginning of it’s invention and was imperfect. Because of the heat, and early fermentation techniques, the wine would be extremely fortified; viscous even. So another solution would be to mix with water and of course spices and sweeteners to help the flavor. 

This continued into the Middle Ages and began it’s modernization as a holiday drink, which of course, makes sense as it’s a warm alcoholic drink. 

But what if your mulled wine this year didn’t have to be something you grit through? What if you could have a perfect mulled wine day 1, a great cocktail day 2 & 3, and a great flavoring agent for your weekend cooking? This newsletter has many themes;  this week is about not drinking terrible things. 

And we start by changing the premise of the drink itself. Every mulled wine recipe starts off with cheap bottles of wine. Here’s the rule about cooking with wine, you want to buy a bottle that you would drink. This rule should be enacted when you have to drink the thing too.

Few tips before we start this recipe: 

1. Start with bottles you enjoy for this mulled wine recipe, not only will you like the end product, your lack of hangover will thank you. Don’t worry about pissing off some imaginary winemaker who’s too precious about how you drink the bottle. They aren’t here, their journey ended with the product as soon as they wholesale sold it to the store. It’s your bottle now. You’re Emperor Bottle Drinker. 

2. We’re switching out the oranges for limes. Limes when heated, seared, roasted tend to caramelize and sweeten without getting saccharine while maintaining that refreshing sour. We are also adding tamarind to this recipe to compliment the limes. 

3. Tamarind water is part of this recipe. And as a card carrying tamarind-water-expert aka South Indian, I implore you to start this process early today, more tamarind flavor is always a good thing. 

Let’s begin. 

South Indian Mulled Wine 

Ingredients: 

2 bottles of wine - a Pinot Noir + something Beaujolais-esque. I love the Pinot Noir- EZY TGR made by Ovum Wines, it’s soft and toasty in the best ways. 

1.5 inch fresh ginger in pieces, skin can be on

1 tablespoon of whole peppercorns, toasted

1 cup of tamarind water strained (directions below) or 1 hefty tablespoon of tamarind paste

3.5 tablespoons of jaggery or a coconut sugar works too 

2 cinnamon sticks, 

2 limes cut in circular slices (save the ends of the limes for garnish) 

Optional- Mezcal instead of Brandy 

Tamarind water- I implore you to buy a block of tamarind, though it is a fruit, one of the best ways to find tamarind in the States is at your local Desi store, (you can also find your jaggery there). You will find a block of tamarind, dried together, ready to be pulled apart for your many tamarind needs, (and I assure you, once you incorporate the flavor it’s very hard to go back to your non-tamarind days).

Heat 1.5 cups of water, bring to a boil. In a bowl add about 40 grams or about ⅓ cup of the dried tamarind and pour the water on top. Let it sit for a couple hours. Squeeze as much of the tamarind pulp as you can for the most flavor, and strain. 

Once you have all of your ingredients prepped, add to a pot and let it simmer on low for just about 30 minutes, the peppercorns will soften and add a spicy heat, the limes will take on the wine and heat to a slight sweetness and everything should make your kitchen incredibly fragrant. Turn off the heat, serve in a mug, with an optional shot of Mezcal poured on top and a squeeze of those end pieces of lime. 

Save the leftover wine, strained, in the fridge and ready to pour on top of Mezcal cocktails with a big square ice cube and more lime. Should be good for a couple days. 

After that, it is perfect to add to a pot of weekend turkey Bolognese. A mulled wine that is good to the last drop. Make a double batch next time. 

No podcast this week but returning next Wednesday, and a Monday newsletter to follow for paid subscribers. I hope however you celebrate this week, it’s filled with good eats, good drink , good rest (overlooked this week) and good times.