How to make chunky winter soups

British seaside chowder with saffron

Whenever I visit the seaside I’m a sucker for cockles and whelks, but the idea of turning them into a chowder is from farther afield. This is such a quick and simple soup when you have the seafood to hand. Use whatever local shellfish you can get your hands on as long as you stick to the same amounts, but this is a good traditional version.

Serves 4

2 tomatoes
300ml white wine
1kg mixed shellfish: cockles, clams, mussels, winkles, soaked in cold water
50g unsalted butter
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 fennel bulb, finely chopped
½ leek, white part only, finely chopped
250g potatoes, peeled and cut into 5mm pieces
2 pinches of saffron strands
1 star anise
500ml chicken stock
175ml double cream
75g samphire, trimmed
12 shelled cooked whelks
2 tbsp finely chopped chives
handful of celery leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

First, skin and deseed the tomatoes: bring a saucepan of water to the boil, take out the stalk of the tomatoes and make crosses on the bases. Drop the tomatoes into the water and simmer for 10–15 seconds until the skin starts to peel away. Lift straight out into a bowl of iced water and peel off the skin. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove the seeds, then finely chop the flesh.

Heat a sauté pan until hot, add the wine and the shellfish, cover and cook for three to five minutes until just cooked through. Strain into a colander over a bowl, reserving the cooking liquor, and allow to cool slightly before picking the meat out of the shells. Wipe out the sauté pan, then add the butter, shallot and garlic and sweat for a couple of minutes, then add the fennel, leek, potatoes, saffron and star anise and cook for another minute.

Add the reserved cooking liquor and chicken stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for three to four minutes until the potatoes are just tender. Add the cream and samphire then simmer for another couple of minutes until just thickened. Reduce the heat then add the tomatoes and all the shellfish, including the whelks, and gently warm through. Add the chives and celery leaves and season to taste (you probably won’t need much salt). Serve straight away.

Chicken and winter vegetable broth

This hearty broth is ideal for a quick weekday supper or sustaining lunch. I often make it in the depths of winter, but it is easily transformed into a spring or summer soup with lighter seasonal vegetables, such as courgette, peas and beans in place of leeks and celeriac. The hint of ginger gives a lovely warm, fresh fragrance.

Serves 4

olive oil for cooking
2 carrots, peeled and diced
½ celeriac, peeled and chopped
2 leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped root ginger
2 free-range boneless chicken breasts, about 170g each, skinned and diced
750ml chicken stock
1 bouquet garni
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
50g medium egg noodles
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 spring onions, trimmed and sliced

Heat a large heavy-based saucepan over a medium-low heat and add 1–2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the carrots and celeriac and sweat gently for 2–3 minutes, then add the leeks, fennel, garlic and ginger and sweat for a further 2–3 minutes. Now add the diced chicken and stir to combine with the vegetables. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add the bouquet garni and some salt and pepper. Simmer the broth gently for 12 minutes. Drop the egg noodles into the stock and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the noodles are cooked through. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Scatter the chopped parsley and sliced spring onions over the broth to serve. If you’ve had roast chicken for Sunday lunch and have some meat left over, this is an ideal recipe to prepare for lunch early on in the week. Strip the meat from the carcass, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate until ready to prepare the soup. Use the carcass to make chicken stock. When you make the soup, dice the leftover chicken and add it with the noodles, just to heat through.

Great British Chefs Serve Up The Best Mulled-wine Recipes

Mulled cider

Mulled wine is pretty much a staple drink over winter in our house, but this year I thought I would shake things up a bit and branch out into mulled cider, just to see what all the fuss was about. I’ve sampled various sickly sweet mulled ciders at pubs over the years but they had all paled into insignificance next to mulled wine due to the cheap cider and high sugar content. So I mulled it over, tried a few combinations and this was my favourite. The most important thing is not to let it boil as this will burn off the alcohol.

1l scrumpy cider, medium-dry
60g of Demerara sugar
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
5 cloves
1 star anise
fresh ginger, 3cm piece
1 clementine, zest and juice

Add the sugar, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, star anise and clementine zest to a pan with 100ml of the cider. Bring to the boil and cook to a syrup. Turn the heat down and add the rest of the cider and the clementine juice. Bring to a very gentle simmer. After 10 minutes pass the cider through a fine sieve and divide between warmed mugs or glasses.

This fabulous mulled wine Bellini recipe,served at The Gilbert Scott, distills the essence of the warming Christmas beverage to produce a sophisticated cocktail. The mulled wine reduction will keep for up to a month and will make 40-50 of these cocktails, so whip up a batch early on and use it throughout the festive period.

For the mulled wine reduction

3 cinnamon sticks
2 2/3 handfuls of cloves
15 black peppercorns
20 star anise
1 pinch of mace nutmeg, grated
1 orange, juiced and peeled in strips
2l red wine
500g of caster sugar

To build the cocktail

100ml of sparkling wine, preferably Nyetimber Classic Cuvee
lemon juice to taste, 5-10ml

To prepare the mulled wine reduction, add all of the ingredients to a saucepan, apart from the sugar. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the sugar, stir to combine and continue to simmer until the liquid has reduced by half. Set aside and allow to cool. Strain and allow the mixture to cool before transferring to a clean, sterilised bottle. This reduction will keep for up to 1 month. To assemble the cocktail, add the sparkling wine to a champagne flute. Pour in 25ml of the mulled wine reduction, then stir in the lemon juice to taste and serve.

Mulled wine

Essential for bonfires, Guy Fawkes, Halloween and Christmas, mulled wine is a great way to brighten the dark evenings of autumn and winter. Adam Gray's recipe includes the expected festive spices and orange zest, but cleverly adds a dash of sweet peach schnapps.

750ml of red wine
250ml of orange juice
100ml of water
50ml of peach schnapps
1/2 orange, pare the zest
5g of star anise
3g of cloves
1g of juniper berries
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of fresh thyme
1 cinnamon stick
1 cardamom pod

For the mulled wine, combine the red wine, orange juice, peach schnapps and water in a saucepan. Add the bay leaf, cardamom pod, cinnamon stick, cloves, orange zest, juniper berries, thyme and star anise and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 15-20 minutes. Carefully pass the mulled wine through a fine sieve and into a jug. It is now ready to serve.