Beautiful broth recipes for cold winter nights Broth. The word summons up a vision of steam rising from a bowl, exchanging heat for the cold in your fingers and toes. Who does not like something in brodo? A fat dumpling or pasta parcel, tender vegetables or silky greens. A bowl of broth is modestly beautiful, like a cup of china tea with tiny slicks of natural emulsion. Kitchen economics teach us that broth is as close as a wild mushroom to free food, yet much easier to obtain. Not everyone knows that many butchers are happy to give away bones to make broth (they have to pay to have waste collected), or that it is easy and relatively quick to make. The fabled hours of simmering are not necessary if you know a few tricks. One is that if the bones are seasoned and roasted first, it adds rounded flavour and colour. A chef showed me that you can enhance this by sprinkling a little skimmed-milk powder over the bones before roasting, a tip that is especially transformational for chicken broth. In the case of vegetable-based stock, experiments have shown me that mushroom peelings or slices dramatically intensify it. Having perfected the stock, it becomes a matter of what you can't, rather than what you can, add. My ideas on this are adaptable, just adjust cooking times. Welcome to an inner winter fuel allowance.