How to cook hot alcoholic cocktails?

The instructions of Vika Boyarskaya

Hot alcoholic drinks like mulled wine are ideal for the New Year holidays. Firstly, it is delicious. Secondly, warms. Thirdly, you can take yourself both yourself and others with cooking. In addition, hot winter drinks are very comfortable. We asked the gastronomic journalist Vika Boyarskaya to draw up instructions on how to cook them.

1. Remember: hot cocktails are not only about wine

The most obvious and familiar to everyone is a hot alcoholic drink - mulled wine, warmed with spices wine. But there are still a huge number of hot cocktails, which include a variety of alcoholic drinks. Most often strong enough - whiskey, bourbon, brandy, rum; But sometimes very light, like a cider. Choose what you like better.

Short. Mulledwine is very good. But there are other options.

2. Do not boil alcohol

If the preparation of the drink implies heating, as in the case of mulled wine, it is not necessary to bring it to a boil in any case. Heating helps to open up the aroma of spices, but at too high temperatures, alcohol will begin to evaporate from the liquid, so the best option will heat wine to 80-85 ° C and let the drink brew for a while.

The ideal feed temperature for all drinks presented in this review is 60-70 ° C: so the liquid will be warm, but not burning. It is important to choose dishes with thick walls, especially when it comes to glass glasses or cups. The latter is more convenient to hold a cocktail in your hands.

Short. Are you still boiling?

3. Prepare unusual mulled wine

The classic mulled wine recipe involves red wine heated to 80 ° C with spices: cinnamon, cloves, citrus zest. We propose to expand this composition: add several anise stars, grated nutmeg, fragrant or pink pepper, a pair of “boxes” of Cardamon, a small piece of peeled ginger or galangal root. Also, the finished drink can be flavored with a few drops of bitter - a strong alcoholic liquor or tincture on herbs (as well as roots, leaves and berries) of various plants.

Both red and white wine are equally well suited for mulled wine. In any case, it is better that the wine is dry. If your taste requires sugar or honey, add it directly to a cup of the finished drink.

By the way, in addition to the wine, you can use cider: heating up to 80 ° C will deprive it of perlage (in other words, gas bubbles will “exhale” during heating), but the light dumping will still remain, and the entire set of spices for mulled wine will be perfectly combined with the apple tree. You can increase the degree of such a hot drink by adding a little calvados or brandy to it.

Short. You can and should add more different spices to mulled wine. And try to cook it from the cider!

4. Make a “hot Toddy” based on whiskey or brandy

The hot cocktail of British (as well as Irish and Scottish) origin is made of tea with the addition of herbs, spices, sugar and strong alcohol. Most often these are whiskey or brandy. Toddy traditionally was a drink of sailors: a hot sweet base with spices helped to raise a degree, without consuming too much alcohol, the supply of which was limited. The armor -piercing composition allows you to prepare this drink based on almost any strong alcohol, but we propose to choose the classic version with whiskey.

To get started, brew strong tea - black or herbal. You can add thyme, chamomile, leaves of currants, mint or rosehip fruits to it. There, in the teapot, add spices: 1-2 cinnamon sticks, ginger root, 1-2 clove inflorescences. Ready tea through a sieve. For 50 milliliters of whiskey, use 150 milliliters of tea with spices, one tablespoon of honey or sugar and lemon juice to taste.

To prepare a completely different version of Toddy, use green tea and flavoring it with a coniferous spirit: rosemary and juniper berries. Instead of honey, you can sweeten this drink from cones.

Short. To turn sweet tea with lemon into “hot Toddy”, add whiskey or brandy to it.

5. Make a sweet egg-hole instead of dessert

A cocktail based on milk, cream, egg yolks and brands are traditionally prepared in the UK and Western Europe for Christmas and around New Year's holidays. From other hot alcoholic beverages, it is distinguished by an intermediate status: EGG-NOG is a cross between a diet and dessert. Knowing this, you will not be surprised that the cooking technology is somewhat more difficult than simply “warm up and mix”: the cocktail is boiled in a large pan, so it makes sense to serve it from four or more people. By the way, since alcohol is added to the drink at the very end, you can easily leave a non -alcoholic portion for children.

The first thing to cook is a custard creamy-icon base. Combine 600 milliliters of milk and 300 milliliters of fat (at least 22% fat) cream. Cut the natural vanilla along the pod and scrape the seeds from it with the flat side of the knife, and then add them and the pod itself to the milk with cream. Put the cinnamon stick there and rub the full teaspoon of nutmeg. Bring the milk to a boil and cook with spices for another 2-3 minutes, stirring so that it does not run away. Remove from heat and leave. Separate five egg yolks from proteins, preserving the latter. Combine the yolks with 120 grams of sugar and beat well with a mixer with a bacon nozzle to a state of smooth white creamy mass. Continuing to beat, pour hot milk into the egg mass with a thin stream. It is most convenient to use a planetary mixer for this - so both hands will be free and you can shed milk through a sieve to remove a vanilla pod and a cinnamon stick. If the milk is hot enough, the egg yolks are slightly hung up and the mass will acquire the consistency of kefir. If it remained absolutely liquid, return it to the stove and warm it on the minimum heat, constantly stirring with a whisk, until the base begins to thicken slightly. At this moment, immediately remove it from the fire.

Beat egg whites into a soft foam, add to the brewed mixture and mix it with a spoon. Pour 100 milliliters of brandy and 80 milliliters of rum (or just 180 milliliters of brandy) into the finished basis, mix. Pour the cocktail cocktail and sprinkle with grated nutmeg on top.

Short. The EGG-NOG is prepared from milk, cream, eggs, sugar and strong alcohol. And you can simply not add alcohol to the children's version!

6. In any incomprehensible situation, make a hot cream rum!

If you are not sure that you can cope with the custard EGG-KhoM, we offer another win-win option: dense, creamy and sweet drink-but not due to sugar and cream, but due to oil, sealing and sweet rum. Hot creamy rum is a classic winter cocktail that is pleasant to be “treated” from a cold or just warm after long walks. It also contains a festive bouquet of spices, but nothing will have to be brewed. The basis for him needs to be frozen in advance.

As often happens with classic dishes and drinks, the recipe for cream rum exists in many variations. We offer one of the simplest.

Melt 100 grams of butter in a deep saucepan over low heat. Add 250 grams of sealing, 100 grams of reed sugar and ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix the mass thoroughly and whisk it with a mixer with a bunger (or just a manual whisk). Remove in the freezer for at least an hour. You can add this frozen oil foam directly to the cups with a hot drink.

For the base of the drink, you can use hot water or heated apple juice. Bring it to a boil and remove it from the heat. Pour 150 milliliters of juice (or water) into each cup and add 30 grams of rum as well as one tablespoon of oil-plot foam. Before drinking, the cocktail must be slightly beat with a spoon directly in the cup.

Short. Creaming rum is a very good option: not the most banal, tasty and easy to cook.

Vika Boyarskaya