Despite having been in Glasgow for a few months now, I left it until today to begin the quest for a decent Chinese supermarket. I think the final straw came the other night when I grabbed a few things for my first batch of Glögi (a Scandinavian mulled wine), and found myself buying tiny amounts of cloves, cinnamon sticks, almonds etc (if anyone wants to knock up a batch, the recipe is below) from a nearby – large – supermarket.
I was directed to the Chung Ying near Glasgow’s Caledonian University (which happens to be just far enough from the main shopping area to be largely tourist-free) – an excellent find. Stocking up on spices turned out to be much cheaper than attempting the same thing in any of the larger chains; not to mention the fact that the quantities of each item had increased enormously.
It still seems as though the more I eat, the better and cheaper the food becomes. Perfect.
Now, a recipe for Glögi:
1.5 cups water
1.5 cups sugar
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
.5 cup raisins
1 bottle red wine
2 lemons, juiced
1 orange, juiced
.25 cup sliced almonds
In a large pot, mix water, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and raisins. Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients. Gradually heat through (but don’t bring it back to the boil). Ladel into cups (avoiding the larger items) and add a few of the boiled raisins and the almonds. Enjoy.
NB : This was first suggested by a Finnish friend of mine, who was mildly surprised that I’d boiled the raisins. If any Finns out there (not mentioning any names) have an opinion on boiling/not boiling the raisins, I’d love to hear it. Either way, it’s great on these slightly cool winter evenings.