Christmas Drinks

I regularly cook for large numbers of people – 10, 20, 30, even 100 people. And it’s fine. I do a few calculations, making sure that everyone will be fed, that the food will be hot, tasty, retaining it’s crispness if that’s what is required. It’s not as simple as scrambled egg on toast for one, but it’s manageable.

And then along comes Christmas dinner, with all it’s complications, expectations, and demands, and at one point in the supermarket, even I started to worry. I’m embarrassed to say my fear stemmed from the gravy. What if I was so busy with all the trimmings that I wouldn’t have time to make the perfect gravy?

Now, bearing in mind that our 6kg turkey delivered delicious gravy all by itself, and that was after I’d made a gravy before our guests arrived, just in case I didn’t have time later, it was a worry not worth having. But there’s something about Christmas dinner that can be anxiety inducing, to the point that I bought my first ever gravy in a tube. Maybe I shouldn’t admit to it. I checked the ingredients three times over for monosodium glutamate, and anything else I don’t approve of, and threw it in the trolley. It was wholly unnecessary.

There are numerous sites that will talk you through the cooking, hold your hand while you check that the turkey is done, and plenty of articles take you through the timings from start to ta-da, so that you don’t have to militarily plan the dinner like I do.

I’d like to add to the many recipes and tricks of how to make the perfect…, a few warming drinks that can sit on your stove, and will go down a treat as people arrive, and you are still fiddling with the stuffing, gravy, sprouts, or whatever you’re anxious about.

Mulled wine

Ingredients

Peel of 1 orange

Peel of 1 lemon

Peel of 1 lime

200g caster sugar

6 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

A pinch of fresh grated nutmeg

2 star anise

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 bottles of red wine

2 clementines

A splash of Cointreau

Method

This mulled wine starts with a syrup, which concentrates the flavours and spices. Use a vegetable peeler to take big strips of zest from the fruits.

Put the sugar, orange, lemon and lime zest, juice from the orange, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg  in a large pan, and add a splash of wine to cover. On a medium heat, bring to the boil, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Turn the heat up and boil for 5 minutes, until you have a syrupy liquid.

Then add the star anise, the rest of the wine, vanilla extract, clementine segments and a splash of cointreau. Do not allow the mulled wine to boil, but heat gently and keep it warm. Taste, add sugar if necessary, and serve in big wine glasses!

Hot apple cider

Ingredients

3 litres apple juice

50g light brown sugar

4 cinnamon sticks

½ teaspoon whole all spice

8 cloves

1 apple, cut into chunks

1 small packet apple rings

Method

Put all the ingredients apart from the apple rings in a large saucepan, and heat gently until piping hot. Stir to dissolve the sugar, and add more to taste. Add the apple rings, and serve with a few floating in each glass.

For adults, this is amazingly delicious spiked with rum. Just a thought!