Trad Treats

One of the features of the Christmas kitchen is that you cook things that never appear the rest of the year. Once upon a time we only had tangerines for a short season in December and only saw hot cross buns on Good Friday. Now we have everything all year round, it is especially enjoyable to cook and eat particular favourites which are part of the family tradition for this occassion.

Two of these in our house are Cheese Straws and a drink - Mulled Wine - only made on Christmas Eve and given to all callers. Just thinking about checking we have the ingredients for this puts me in Christmassy mood - which you need to have as many stimuli for as possible when it is all mad shopping and house prep.

The Guardian did a feature on the best recipe for this but it looked very oddly complicated to me. The recipe I use comes from a farmhouse cookbook of venerable age and has never failed to please.

Mulled Wine

1/4 pint water
4 oz sugar
1 lemon sliced thinly
4 cloves
1 stick cinammon

1. Heat this mixture, below boiling but hot enough to melt the sugar. Let it stand for 10 minutes.
2. Add 1& 1/2 bottles of a soft red wine, not an expensive one or a very dark rich one.
3. Heat it gently.
4. The recipe says to then strain the mixture into a fresh pan. But I don't bother as we usually drink this fairly quickly after it is ready and you can easily make sure that you don't give anyone a whole spice. It also means that you can keep adding extra wine if the party is going well and you need it - at least the other half bottle can go in. Do taste it though as you may need to add more sugar.
5. Add at least one half lemon slice to each serving.