Featured recipe

Pan di Spagna (Italian sponge)

Almost every Italian birthday cake, from a child's party in Naples to a name-day torta in Turin, starts with pan di Spagna: a golden, springy sponge made only of eggs, sugar and flour, beaten until it holds its own air. It is split into layers, moistened with a little syrup and filled with crema pasticcera, whipped cream or chocolate. Without butter or milk it is dairy free. It contains egg and gluten. Chef's tip: soak the layers with orange-juice syrup rather than plain sugar syrup, and children will love it even more.

What to eat today?

Around the world

Today's trip: Persian

A new country every day, from every cuisine on the site.

Persian

Shirini danmarki

Cinnamon cardamom pastry swirls 70 minMore from Persian (181) →

This week's collection

Kid-friendly dinners756 recipes · a new collection every Monday

New this week

See all new →

Coming up

All occasions →

Latest recipes

Lasary voatabiaTomato and spring onion relish

Lasary voatabia is the fresh tomato relish served beside the rice at almost every Malagasy meal, from Antananarivo's highland homes to the coast. Tomatoes and spring onion are chopped very small, sharpened with lime or vinegar and a little sakay (chilli), and spooned onto the rice to wake up broths like romazava. It is juicier and finer than a salad. Chef's tip: chop the tomatoes very small, almost to a pulp at the edges; the juice is meant to soak into the rice.

10 min

Malagasy Chutneys & Dips

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Longjing shrimp

Spring in Hangzhou means new-season Longjing tea from the hills west of the city, and restaurants celebrate it by tossing tiny, pearly river shrimp with the tender tea leaves and a splash of their brew. The result is very delicate: sweet, springy shrimp, a faint grassy and chestnut aroma from the tea, and no heavy sauce at all. It is usually one dish among several at a family meal, eaten with rice. Small raw prawns are the easiest home swap for river shrimp. Chef's tip: brew the tea with water at about 80 °C, never straight from the boil, which makes the leaves bitter.

20 min

Chinese Fish

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Persian love cake

Persian love cake is not an old Iranian recipe but a modern one from the Iranian diaspora, popular in cafés in London and Melbourne, built on the flavours of Persian sweets: almond, cardamom, nutmeg, rosewater and pistachio. The name comes from a story about a woman who baked a spell-binding cake for a prince. It has a crunchy almond base and a soft, moist, yogurt-rich top, finished with rose-scented cream, green pistachios and pink petals, and it is lovely for birthdays and Nowruz tea. Made with ground almonds and no wheat flour, it is naturally gluten free. Chef's tip: press the base layer firmly into the tin; that crunchy bottom is the signature of this cake.

60 min

Persian Baking

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Golbheda ko acharRoasted tomato relish

No momo is served in Nepal without a small bowl of golbheda ko achar, and no dal bhat feels complete without a dab of it on the side. Tomatoes (golbheda) are charred over a flame or on a dry griddle until black-blistered and soft, then pounded with garlic, green chilli and timur, the citrusy Nepali pepper that leaves a buzz on the tongue. Grandmothers grind it on the flat stone silauto; a blender or mortar does the job at home. It is smoky, sour and hot, and is made fresh in most kitchens every day or two. A spoonful of toasted sesame or soybean powder thickens the version served with momos in Kathmandu. Don't purée it smooth: the skins and seeds give it its rustic body. Chef's tip: char the garlic and chillies beside the tomatoes; their sharp edge softens and the achar tastes sweeter and deeper.

20 min

Nepali Chutneys & Dips

by KrazyBadal 0 views

GolfeadosSticky panela and cheese spiral buns

Golfeados are the sticky sweet buns of Caracas bakeries and especially of the old roadside panaderías on the road to El Junquito, eaten warm with a slice of salty white cheese and a coffee. The soft yeast dough is rolled up with grated papelón (panela), anise seeds and crumbled cheese, baked in a tight tray and soaked with a dark panela syrup so they glisten. They are sweet, salty and fragrant. Chef's tip: roll them tightly and pack them close together in the tin; they rise up instead of out and stay soft and moist.

75 min

Venezuelan Baking

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goli bajeYogurt and flour fritters

Goli baje is the tea-time snack of coastal Karnataka: round, golden fritters that are crisp outside and soft and spongy inside, sold by the plateful in Udupi hotels and Mangaluru tea shops around four in the afternoon. The batter is made from plain flour and sour yogurt, with green chilli, ginger, curry leaves and coconut bits, and left to rest so it turns slightly tangy and airy. Serve them piping hot with coconut chutney and a strong cup of coffee. Chef's tip: beat the batter hard for a few minutes before resting it; a well-beaten batter is stretchy, traps air, and gives fritters with an open, bread-like crumb.

35 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

West Lake vinegar fish

Hangzhou restaurants by West Lake have served this for generations, traditionally with grass carp kept in clean water for a day or two before cooking. The fish is not fried at all: it is butterflied, poached for a few minutes, and coated with a shiny, dark sauce of black vinegar and sugar that tastes sharp first and sweet after. The flesh should be tender enough to fall from the bone at a touch. Carp, sea bass or a thick white fish fillet all work at home. Eat it with rice and a simple stir-fried green vegetable. Chef's tip: thicken the sauce at the last moment and pour it straight over; left to sit, it turns gluey.

40 min

Chinese Fish

by KrazyBadal 0 views

GombapaprikásMushroom paprika stew

Gombapaprikás is the meatless cousin of chicken paprikás, cooked in Hungarian homes on Fridays and through Lent, and a regular on the vegetarian line of Budapest's self-service étkezde lunch rooms. Mushrooms simmer in onion, paprika and a little pepper and tomato, then the sauce is finished with sour cream until it turns a soft brick-pink. It is quick, rich and comforting, and nokedli are its natural partner, though rice or boiled potatoes work too. Chef's tip: brown the mushrooms in a hot pan in two batches before they meet the onions, so they fry instead of stewing in their own water and the sauce tastes deep rather than watery.

30 min

Hungarian Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

GomenBraised collard greens

Gomen is the everyday green on Ethiopian tables, cooked in homes across the highlands and always part of a fasting platter in Addis Ababa restaurants on Wednesdays and Fridays. Collard greens (or kale) are chopped fine and braised gently with onion, garlic, ginger and green chilli until they turn soft, dark and silky, without any berbere, so they cool the palate next to the red stews. On non-fasting days many cooks add a little niter kibbeh at the end; this oil version keeps it vegan. Chef's tip: cut out the thick central stalks before chopping; left in, they stay stringy long after the leaves are tender.

35 min

Ethiopian Sides

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Lion's head meatballs

Cooks in Yangzhou say the shaggy meatball looks like a lion's head and the cabbage leaves around it like a mane. The Jiangsu way is the clear braise: no frying, just a slow simmer in stock until the meatballs are so tender that you eat them with a spoon, while the cabbage drinks up the pork juices. They appear at family reunions and at Chinese New Year, where the round shape stands for togetherness. Everything cooks in one pot; serve the meatballs in their broth with rice. Chef's tip: chop some of the pork belly by hand if you can, or ask for coarse mince; a fine, lean mince gives a dense, bouncy ball rather than a soft one.

75 min

Chinese Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Gongura pachadiSorrel leaf chutney

Gongura, the sour leaf of the roselle plant, is so central to Andhra cooking that it's called the state's own vegetable, and gongura pachadi is its best-known form. The leaves are fried in oil until they melt, then pounded with roasted red chillies, garlic, coriander seeds and fenugreek, and finished with a mustard tempering. It's intensely tangy, hot and garlicky, and in Guntur and Vijayawada homes a spoonful is mixed into hot rice with ghee or eaten with jowar rotte. It keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Chef's tip: fry the leaves until all their water cooks off and they turn dark olive; any moisture left shortens how long the pachadi keeps.

35 min

Indian Chutneys & Dips

by KrazyBadal 0 views

GorditasStuffed masa pockets

Gorditas, 'little fat ones', are thick corn masa cakes cooked on a comal until they puff, then split open like a pitta and stuffed. They are eaten from the north of Mexico down to the central states, at street stalls and at home, with fillings that change from town to town. This vegetarian version is filled with rajas con crema: strips of roasted poblano pepper, onion and sweetcorn in a creamy sauce with melting cheese, smoky and mild. Use masa harina for tortillas, made from nixtamalised corn, not cornmeal or polenta. Poblanos can be hard to find: green bell peppers with a jalapeño give a similar effect. Choose a cheese made with vegetarian rennet. Chef's tip: shape the gorditas no thicker than 1 cm; any thicker and the outside burns before the inside cooks and puffs.

50 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MatapaCassava leaves with peanut and coconut

Matapa is the great dish of southern Mozambique, from Maputo to Inhambane: young cassava leaves pounded and cooked for a long time with ground peanuts, coconut milk and garlic until soft, creamy and deep green. It is eaten with rice or xima (maize porridge), and on the coast it often has crab or prawns stirred in; this version keeps to the leaves. Frozen ground cassava leaves are sold in African grocers. Chef's tip: cook the cassava leaves for at least an hour; undercooked they taste bitter and are not safe to eat.

90 minSouthern African Curries

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Dongpo pork

Named after the Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo, who governed Hangzhou, these neat squares of pork belly are a fixture of the city's restaurants around West Lake and of New Year banquet tables across Zhejiang. Cooked for hours in Shaoxing wine with soy and rock sugar, the fat turns soft and wobbly, the lean melts apart, and the skin goes glossy and mahogany. Each guest usually gets one square, eaten with plain rice and a green vegetable to cut the richness. The traditional braise uses only wine and no water; if you avoid alcohol, use the stock-and-vinegar version in the ingredient note, which is just as tender, though less fragrant. Chef's tip: tie each square with kitchen string before braising so it keeps its shape for serving.

150 min

Chinese Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Gotu kola sambolPennywort and coconut salad

Gotu kola (Asiatic pennywort) grows wild along the paddy edges in the south and centre of Sri Lanka, and a raw sambol of its leaves is the green, slightly bitter bite that balances a rice-and-curry lunch. Families in Galle and Matara will tell you it is good for the memory, and it is often served at the start of a meal or with kola kenda, the herbal porridge. The leaves are shredded as finely as possible, then tossed with shallot, tomato, green chilli, a little fresh coconut and plenty of lime, so it's crunchy, peppery and bright. Look for pennywort bunches in Sri Lankan, Thai and Vietnamese shops. The mistake to avoid is dressing it too early: the salt and lime wilt the leaves within half an hour. Chef's tip: roll a stack of leaves into a tight cigar and slice it hair-thin with a sharp knife; the finer the shreds, the better it tastes.

15 min

Sri Lankan Salads

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Göyərti qutabıHerb-filled flatbreads

Qutab are the thin half-moon flatbreads that Baku eats at any hour, folded around a filling and cooked in seconds on a domed iron saj, then stacked and brushed with butter. Göyərti qutabı, the green version, is the spring favourite: a handful of chopped spinach, sorrel, dill, coriander and spring onion sealed inside dough rolled so thin the greens show through. They are eaten hot, three or four at a time, sprinkled with sumac and dipped in garlicky yogurt, and appear on every table at Novruz in March. In autumn the same dough wraps pumpkin; that variation is in the steps. Chef's tip: season the greens only just before filling; salt draws out water, and wet greens tear the paper-thin dough.

65 min

Azerbaijani Breads & Parathas

by KrazyBadal 0 views

LaugenbrezelSoft pretzels

The Brezel is the emblem of German bakeries in Bavaria and Swabia: deep chestnut-brown and shiny outside, soft and chewy inside, with a fat 'belly' and thin crisp arms, studded with coarse salt. In Munich it's eaten with sweet mustard and Obatzda in beer gardens; in Stuttgart it's split and buttered for breakfast. Bakeries dip them in a lye solution, which is too caustic for most home kitchens; a bath of baked baking soda gets close in colour and flavour and is safe to handle. Chef's tip: chill the shaped pretzels uncovered for 30 minutes before the bath; a slightly dry skin holds its shape and turns darker and shinier.

120 min

German Baking

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Beetroot curry

Beetroot grows well in the cool hills around Nuwara Eliya and Welimada, and its curry is a jewel-pink regular on lunch packets and home rice-and-curry tables across the island. The beetroot is cut into thin matchsticks and cooked with onion, green chilli, curry leaves and a light, unroasted curry powder, then finished with coconut milk, so it's sweet, mildly spiced and brilliantly coloured. It's a good way to win over people who think they don't like beetroot. One frequent mistake is grating the beetroot, which turns the curry into a wet purée; matchsticks keep a pleasing bite. Chef's tip: add a squeeze of lime at the very end; it brightens the colour and cuts the earthy sweetness.

30 min

Sri Lankan Curries

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Granita al limoneLemon ice

On summer mornings in Sicily, especially around Catania and Messina, breakfast is granita: a cup of soft, spoonable lemon ice with a warm brioche on the side for dipping. Sicilian granita is finer and creamier than a slushy, because it is stirred as it freezes. All you need is lemons, sugar and water, plus a fork and a freezer. It takes about four hours of occasional scraping. Chef's tip: steep the zest in the warm syrup for 20 minutes; the oils in the peel give a much fuller lemon flavour than juice alone.

240 min

Italian Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Gratin dauphinoisPotato and cream gratin

Gratin dauphinois comes from the Dauphiné, the mountain region around Grenoble, where it has been made since at least the 1700s. Thinly sliced potatoes are simmered in milk and cream with garlic and nutmeg, then baked slowly until the top is golden and blistered and the inside is soft and creamy enough to cut with a spoon. Purists in the Dauphiné insist there is no cheese; the crust comes from the cream itself. It is a side for Sunday lunch and festive meals, especially good with a green salad or roasted mushrooms. Chef's tip: don't rinse the potato slices; washing off the starch is the common mistake that leaves the cream thin and watery.

95 min

French Sides

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Soya seekh kebabs

Vegetarian seekh kebabs of soya chunks, potato and paneer, spiced with garlic, ginger, green chilli, chaat masala and white pepper, pressed onto skewers and cooked over charcoal until browned. They're meaty in texture and very moreish. Serve with spring onion and yogurt dip or any chutney; they can also be deep fried.

45 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Green borschtSorrel soup with egg

When the first sorrel comes up in village gardens around Chernihiv and Sumy in May, Ukrainian grandmothers stop making red borshch and switch to green: a light, lemony soup of sorrel, potato and herbs, served with halved boiled eggs. It is the soup of early summer and of Trinity Sunday, eaten hot with sour cream or chilled on a warm day. Sorrel gives it a clean sourness, so no vinegar is needed. This version uses vegetable stock instead of the chicken or pork stock some families use. Chef's tip: add the sorrel only in the last two minutes; it turns olive green the moment it hits the heat, but if it boils longer it collapses into stringy khaki threads.

40 min

Ukrainian Soups

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Green fig and saltfishGreen bananas with salt cod

In St Lucia green bananas are called figs, and green fig and saltfish is the national dish: a Saturday lunch in Castries homes and the plate served everywhere on Jounen Kwéyòl, the island's Creole Day in October. The bananas are boiled until tender and mild, a little like potato, and served with salt cod sautéed with onion, sweet pepper, tomato, thyme and hot pepper. Add sliced avocado or cucumber on the side. The most common mistake is not soaking the saltfish long enough, which leaves the whole plate far too salty; taste a flake before you cook it. Chef's tip: rub oil on your hands (or wear gloves) before peeling the green bananas; the sap stains skin black.

60 minCaribbean Fish

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Wenchang chicken

Hainan islanders count Wenchang chicken, from the coastal county of the same name, as the first of their four famous dishes, and no wedding, New Year or welcome-home meal there is complete without it. The small free-range birds are gently poached until the skin is pale gold and slightly jellied and the meat is firm, sweet and full of flavour. The real stars on the island are the dips, not rice: a hot-oil ginger and garlic relish, and a sharp calamansi and chilli sauce. This is the original that Hainanese emigrants turned into chicken rice in Singapore and Malaysia, but in Hainan it is eaten chopped on the bone with a bowl of the poaching broth and plain rice or greens on the side. Chef's tip: choose a small free-range chicken; its firmer meat and thin skin are closest to the Wenchang breed.

60 min

Chinese Chicken

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Buddha jumps over the wall

Legend in Fuzhou says the smell of this soup was so tempting that a monk climbed the monastery wall to taste it, and it is still the grandest dish at Fujian wedding banquets and Lunar New Year. Restaurant versions pack in a dozen expensive dried seafoods; this home version keeps the spirit with chicken, pork ribs, dried scallops, shiitake, taro and quail eggs, and leaves out shark fin and any endangered ingredient entirely. Everything simmers sealed for hours until the broth is golden, rich and lightly sticky, tasting of the sea, mushrooms and rice wine. Serve it in small bowls as the centrepiece of a celebration meal, with plain rice. Chef's tip: seal the pot with foil under the lid and resist peeking; the steam that stays inside is what makes the broth so intense.

240 min

Chinese Soups

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MotsunabeBeef offal hot pot

In Hakata, the old merchant half of Fukuoka, motsunabe is the winter dish of izakayas and back-street restaurants. Soft pieces of beef small intestine simmer in a garlicky soy broth under a tall heap of cabbage and garlic chives, with slices of chilli on top. When the pot is nearly empty, champon noodles go into the rich broth to finish the meal. Many butchers and Asian grocers sell the intestine already cleaned and boiled, which saves time. Chef's tip: keep the white fat on the intestine; as it melts into the broth it makes the soup rich and sweet, which is the point of the dish.

45 min

Japanese Soups

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Korean corn dog

In Korea a 'hot dog' means this: a sausage, often with a stick of mozzarella above it, dipped in a sweet yeasted batter and rolled in breadcrumbs or tiny potato cubes before frying. They are sold from stalls in Myeongdong in Seoul, outside schools and at every busy station, and the cheese pull is half the fun. A roll in sugar straight from the oil, then a zigzag of ketchup and mustard, is the classic finish. Chef's tip: freeze the skewered sausages and cheese for 15 minutes before dipping; the cold cheese holds its shape and the batter grips better.

50 min

Korean Fast Food

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Showing 27 of 10,495 recipes

Show more recipes

Page 1,013 of 1,167