15 DECEMBER 2013 | LIFESTYLE

Who ever said staying in meant you had to scrimp on your cocktails? Here are some favourite holiday recipes that we rely on ever winter to get us into that party spirit.

Classic Eggnog

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon

1 pint whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

3 ounces bourbon

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

4 egg whites

Directions:

1. Beat egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the 1/3 cup of sugar and keep beating until sugar is dissolved

2. Add milk, cream, bourbon, nutmeg and stir until combined

3. Beat egg whites until they make soft peaks. Gradually add 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until they make stiff peaks

4. Add egg white mixture to rest of batch and stir with a whisk.

5. Chill and serve.

Martha Stewart’s Cranberry Cocktails

This cranberry cocktail is a swirl of favorite flavors: maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, and red wine. Serve it with a stirrer beaded with poached cranberries.

Ingredients

 2 cups fresh or thawed frozen cranberries

1 cup pure maple syrup

2 cups dry red wine, such as Pinot Noir

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped

Thin strips of zest from 1/2 lemon

2 teaspoons pink peppercorns, crushed

Pinch of coarse salt

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 cups seltzer

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put cranberries into a large, high-sided skillet; set aside. Bring syrup, wine, brown sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, lemon zest, peppercorns, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan, whisking occasionally.

Pour over cranberries. Cover tightly with foil, and bake until cranberries are soft but have not burst, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer cranberries to a bowl; cover with 1 cup cooking liquid. Let cool completely.

Bring 1/2 cup cooking liquid and the granulated sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, whisking until sugar has dissolved. Reduce heat to low; simmer until liquid has reduced and barely coats the back of a spoon, about 6 minutes. Pour through a fine sieve into a medium bowl; let cool completely. Syrup can be refrigerated in an airtight container until ready to use, up to 3 days.

Reserve 40 cranberries. Puree remaining cranberries and liquid in a blender.

To serve, place 10 reserved cranberries on each of 4 decorative skewers. Pour 1/4 cup puree and 1/4 cup syrup into each of four 12-ounce glasses; stir to combine. Add skewers, and fill glasses with ice. Top with seltzer, and serve.

Jamie Oliver’s Mulled Wine

  1. Ingredients

    2 clementines

    1 lemon

    1 lime

    200 g caster sugar

    6 whole cloves

    1 stick cinnamon

    3 fresh bay leaves

    1 whole nutmeg, for grating

    1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways

    2 star anise

    2 bottles Chianti or other Italian red wine

    Directions

    Peel large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime using a speed peeler. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod and 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. The reason I’m doing this first is to create a wonderful flavour 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 both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn off the alcohol.

    When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and 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.

    Classic Champagne Cocktail

    Ingredients

    1 white sugar cube

    2 dashes Bitters

    20ml / ¾fl oz Cognac

    Enough champagne to fill the glass

    Directions

    Place the sugar cube onto a spoon and add the bitters.

    Drop the soaked sugar cube into a champagne flute and add the cognac.

    Top up the glass with champagne and serve.

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