Serves 4-6

This is a sophisticated clear broth with sliced fresh vegetables added at the end. You can also use shreds of cold meat picked from the bones. For extra flavour and colour, first roast the bones and roughly chopped soup vegetables in a hot oven. Then simmer the broth very gently, with some egg whites to clarify the soup. You will need a stock or preserving pan for this.

1 turkey or goose carcass
2 large onions
3 carrots
2 leeks
3 sticks celery
1 head garlic, halved
Olive oil, for roasting
Any leftover mushrooms or tomatoes, halved
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Half-bottle dry white wine
2 tsp rock salt
1/3 tsp black peppercorns
4 egg whites
1 stock cube or 2 tsp stock powder
To serve, choose a selection from: shredded turkey or goose meat
About 250g mixed fresh vegetables, eg: asparagus tips, mangetouts, carrot sticks, green beans
Strips of cooked bacon or ham
Leaves fresh coriander or flat-leaf parsley

1 Heat the oven to 200C, Gas 6. Strip the carcass of any white breast meat. Leave leg or wing meat still attached. Break up the backbone, legs, etc. Discard any large pads of fat. Roast the carcass for about 20 minutes until nicely brown, but not burnt, turning once or twice.
2 In the meantime, roughly chop all the onions, carrots, leeks and celery into chunks and toss with some olive oil until well coated. Scatter these in another roasting pan along with the garlic (or wait until the pan with the bones is free). Roast the vegetables also for about 20 minutes, stirring two or three times. They should be a dark caramel colour but not burnt.
3 Put the bones and vegetables into a stock pot or preserving pan. Add the mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs, wine, stock cube (crumbled) or stock powder and seasoning. Roughly whisk the egg whites until they are frothy, then gradually beat in about 1 litre cold water. Add this to the pan along with three more litres of water.
4 Bring slowly to the boil, stirring occasionally, then when boiling, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Leave this for about four hours, by which time the liquid should have reduced to a litre of clear stock. Remove from the heat and stand the broth for about 15 minutes.
5 Place a colander over a large bowl and lay in a large wet piece of muslin or a clean J-cloth. Very slowly pour the stock through the cloth, taking care not to disturb the contents too much or you will cloud the liquid. It should come out a clear dark amber colour and have a lovely flavour. Discard the solids. Cool and set aside in the fridge.
6 When ready to serve, cut the vegetables into bite-size pieces. If you have the time, you may also like to chargrill some of them, such as the asparagus tips. Bring the soup back to the boil, add the vegetables and meat shreds to the pot and simmer for about 5 minutes.

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