Top chefs share their winter comfort food recipes

Ask someone in the food industry what they've been up to lately and you'll receive an answer along the lines of "keeping warm". Making confit duck, soup – stuff like that. But regardless of your kitchen competency, warming up from the inside out during winter is a cinch. We asked five top chefs from Sydney and Melbourne to share their best winter warmers with us, from vegan and child-friendly through to revamped classics.

Naughty but nice: Macaroni Cheese by Belle's Hot Chicken

Morgan McGlone has always made mac 'n' cheese, but it wasn't until he worked at Husk in Charleston, US, that he discovered it was an identity marker of Southern American cuisine. Depending on which region of the south you're from dictates whether you serve it baked in the oven or wet. I prefer wet, he says. Ask for it as an off-menu treat at Belle's Hot Chicken in Melbourne (sorry, Sydney), or cook it at home.

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter

100g plain flour

1L whole milk

250ml thickened cream

500g large macaroni shells

300g grated mixed cheese (smoked cheddar, american sliced cheese, manchego)

Salt and white pepper to taste

Smoked paprika to garnish

Method

1. Melt butter and then add flour, cooking over a medium heat until mixture turns blond in colour. This is called a roux.

2. Heat milk and cream together and slowly whisk it into the roux until smooth. Simmer on a low heat to cook out the flour, then season well and set aside.

3. In a pot of boiling water, add your pasta and cook to packet instructions, but drain a minute early as the pasta will continue to cook in the roux sauce.

4. Add hot pasta and cheese to sauce, check seasoning and adjust if necessary, then add a splash of milk if needed.

5. Dust the top of the mac 'n' cheese with smoked paprika and serve hot. Serves 10.

Light & healthy: Honcho Noodle's Seaweed Soba Noodles

Soba noodles, Adam Liston points out, are both nourishing and moreish. This is one of my favourite dishes at Honcho, he says. Even though it is room temperature, the smoke and garlic oil bring amazing warmth to the dish, and there's a natural umami to the noodles. The versatility here is another bonus; the dish can be shared, served as a starter or main and caters to both vegetarians and vegans.

Ingredients

400g organic buckwheat soba noodles

1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced

1 bunch chives, finely sliced

50ml dark soy sauce

20ml light soy sauce

10ml virgin sesame oil

5ml smoke water (from good Asian grocers)

20ml chinese black vinegar

5ml garlic oil

5ml yuzu juice

15g toasted sesame seeds

2 sheets nori

Method

1. Blanch the soba noodles in boiling, salted water until al dente, then quickly refresh in iced water. Drain once cooled.

2. To order, reheat the noodles in boiling water for 30 seconds, strain and place in mixing bowl.

3. Dress with soy sauces, sesame oil, smoke water, vinegar, yuzu juice and garlic oil. Add chives and spring onions and place in serving bowls. Garnish with toasted sesame.

4. Grill nori last minute over an open flame or charcoal, then break over the top of each serving of noodles. Serves four.

Kid-approved: The Paddington's Roast Lamb and Sweet Pumpkin

What you serve kids during childhood will be remembered either with disgust (brussels sprouts) or delight (family-style roasts from The Paddington's Ben Greeno). This recipe is one of Jacob's favourites, says Greeno of his three-year-old. The tastes are familiar; it has natural sweetness and the chef's son likes to be in the kitchen as it is being prepared. You can also swap the lamb leg for cutlets, chops or rump and reduce the cooking time.

Ingredients

1 leg lamb

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 head garlic, roughly chopped

olive oil

1 kabocha pumpkin

2 mandarins

50g butter

50g muscovado sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C.

2. In a pan, brown off the lamb and then add carrot, onion and garlic.

3. Cook for a few minutes then add enough cold water to reach halfway up the vegetables. Bring to a boil.

4. Cover with foil, then place in oven for about 3 hours, until tender.

5. Cut the pumpkin in half and place on a separate baking tray to the lamb.

6. Add 25g butter to each half and sprinkle with muscovado sugar.

7. Chop unpeeled mandarins into 8 and place in the middle of the pumpkin halves.

8. Bake in the oven with the lamb until soft and caramelised.

9. When cooked, gently squash the mandarin segments in the cavity of the pumpkin to extract all the juice, then take the rinds out and mash the pumpkin, juice, butter and sugar together in the shell.

10. Serve pumpkin halves with a spoon and the lamb leg whole – let everyone dig in! Serves six.

Vegan comfort: Smith & Daughters' Famous Family Paella

Most people are used to prawns and chorizo in their paella, but this vegan version is as hearty and rich as the original. The fifth-generation recipe has been passed down to Smith & Daughters co-owner and head chef Shannon Martinez and is set to appear in Smith & Daughters: A Cookbook That Happens to be Vegan, due to be released in November. The best part, says co-owner Mo Wyse, is seconds, thirds, fourths and leftovers for the week.

Ingredients

1.25L (5 cups) chicken or vegetable stock

large pinch saffron threads

60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 red and 1/2 green capsicum, diced

1 tsp fine salt

2 tomatoes, tinned or fresh, diced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp smoked paprika

400g bomba or medium-grain rice

185g podded broad beans (can substitute peas)

cooked seasonal vegetables, such as asparagus in spring or pumpkin and olives in winter

To garnish: wedges of lemon, extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt flakes and chopped flat-leaf parsley

Method

1. Place the stock in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and drop in saffron. Set aside to infuse for at least 5 minutes. Stock will turn bright yellow.

2. Heat the oil in a 30cm paella pan or ovenproof casserole dish over low heat. Add the onion, capsicum and salt and cook, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes, until the vegetables are very soft and almost jammy. Add the tomato and garlic and cook for a further 15 minutes or until the sauce becomes thick.

3. Add the paprikas and stir to combine, then add the rice and broad beans and coat with the sauce. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the rice begins to turn translucent.

4. Preheat the oven to 150C.

5. Pour the stock over the rice and turn the heat up to high. Make sure the rice is evenly spread across the pan, then simmer for exactly 5 minutes. Do not stir.

6. Transfer the paella to the oven and cook for 12 to 15 minutes until the liquid is absorbed.

7. Remove from oven and stir through the cooked seasonal veg. Cover the pan with a clean tea towel and set aside for 5 minutes.

8. Place lemon wedges sporadically but evenly throughout the paella, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt flakes and chopped parsley. Note: meat eaters can add anything to this paella – prawns, sausage, squid – just cook separately and add at the end. Serves four to six.

Decadent dessert: Bread and Butter pudding by Black Star Pastry

Black Star Pastry owner and baker Chris Thé was born and bread for comfort food. He appreciates the homely and frugal nature of this pudding, made from unsold croissants that would otherwise go to waste. Eating a bread and butter pudding can really channel your inner child. Although I was well into my apprenticeship before I ate my first one, I now make it for my kids, he says.

Ingredients

50g dried raisins

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp rum

300g of croissants or bread

100g marmalade

For the custard

100g unsalted butter

1 cup single cream

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

3 extra egg yolks

100g caster sugar

Method

1. Soak raisins in water and rum for at least an hour (the longer the fruit is soaked the better the flavour).

2. Preheat oven to 200C.

3. Combine butter, cream, milk and vanilla in a pot and bring to the boil.

4. Combine the eggs and yolks and whisk in sugar until smooth.

5. Pour one third of the hot liquid into the eggs and whisk well. Add remaining liquid and strain into a large jug.

6. Cut the croissants or bread into chunks and stuff into a ceramic chafing dish, arranging them to make an attractive top with edgy angles.

7. Strain the raisins into the dish but keep the liquid. Combine it with the custard and pour slowly onto the croissants, making sure none are left dry. Cover the dish with foil.

8. Make a water bath to stop the pudding getting too hot and curdling in the oven: place the chafing dish into another deep dish and half fill it with boiling water. Make sure you place a cloth inside the deep dish to stop it shifting.

9. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove foil and continue to bake for 10 minutes or until the top is a toasty colour. Your pudding is ready when all the custard has set and the top has attractive, dark edges.

10. Heat the marmalade in a pot with a little water. When it is liquid, brush over pudding. Serve warm with vanilla bean anglaise.

Vanilla Bean Anglaise

600ml single cream

1 tsp vanilla bean extract

3 egg yolks

75g caster sugar

Method

1. Pour cream into a pot. Add vanilla extract and bring to boil. Remove from heat.

2. Prepare an ice bath by placing a bowl large enough to hold your finished anglaise inside a larger bowl, filled with ice.

3. Combine yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl. Reboil the cream and add a third onto the yolks, whisking until smooth.

4. Add remaining cream and cook over a gentle heat. Continuously stir the anglaise with a wooden spoon until thick. When it coats the back of the spoon and reads 86C on a digital thermometer, strain into your ice bath and stir until anglaise cools slightly, about 2 minutes. Serves six.