The boy and his poison: Ezra's Mulled Gin

Its quite possible that new London restaurant Mishkin's saved my entire Christmas with a drink. In a desperate attempt to divine what on earth to get my family last Saturday I decided to drag myself into town. For the record, shuffling around central London with man-flu is an ill-advised move at the best of times, doing it at Christmas time is insane, which was why after three hours I threw in my festive towel and headed for Mishkin's (a lovely deli/cocktail place with its own dedicated gin list) where I was introduced to this amazing drink that de-Grinched me in one sip.

The drink was created by the head bartender Alex and whilst it has all the characteristic rich depth of flavour you get from a mulled wine or cider, it can be put together in less than five minutes. So not only is it gin based, theatrical to make and soothingly sweet from the greengage and orange, its also a really good cheat when you need a Christmas fix but don't want to wait two weeks for your glögg to mature. If you're able to visit the restaurant, its a delicious accompaniment to an enormous salt beef sandwich, but if you can't get to London they were kind enough to share the recipe with me.

You'll need:

• 50ml of gin
• 25ml of orange juice
• 5ml Absinthe
• 1 bar spoon of greengage conserve (most supermarkets should have this)

Then to make it:

• Fill a heat proof glass with ice
• Pour in the absinthe, swirl and leave to rest
• Pour the orange juice, gin and greengage conserve into an ice filled shaker and shake thoroughly till mixed
• Strain this into another heat proof glass or jug and heat. The method Mishkin’s use is by using a milk steamer from a coffee machine as by steam heating it you can bring it up to the right temperature without diluting the alcohol. If you’re not lucky enough to have one of those lying around I found microwaving at 80% power for 25 seconds was sufficient, but keep an eye on it when its in there. 
• Discard your ice from the first glass leaving the absinthe rinse, and pour into it the hot liquid. 

You’ll get a lovely plume of steam as the hot mixture hits the cold glass so it makes for a great drink to assemble in front of people.