Featured recipe

Match stick salad

Carrots, turnips, three colours of pepper, cucumber, onion and tomato cut into fine matchsticks and spiced with chilli, lemon and coriander. A sizzling dressing of hot oil with cumin, mustard and sesame seeds is poured over at the table. It is crunchy and bright, and should be eaten as soon as it's dressed.

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Davanagere benne dosaButter dosa

Davanagere, a cotton-market town in central Karnataka, is famous for one thing above all: benne dosa, small, thick dosas cooked on a huge iron griddle with a generous lump of white butter melting over each one. The batter includes puffed rice (mandakki), which makes the inside soft and spongy while the base turns crisp and deep golden. In the town's busy dosa halls they arrive two at a time with a thin coconut chutney and a spoonful of potato palya tucked inside. It is breakfast, but many people eat it as an evening snack too. Chef's tip: use proper unsalted white butter if you can find it, and add it in two goes, half when the batter goes on and half just before folding, so the edges fry in butter rather than burn.

55 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Chicha moradaPurple corn drink

Chicha morada is Peru's favourite soft drink, served by the jug in every restaurant in Lima and drunk across the country with lunch. Andean purple corn is simmered with pineapple peel, apple, cinnamon and cloves, then sweetened and sharpened with lime to make a dark ruby drink that tastes of berries, spice and gentle tannin, a little like a spiced cranberry juice. It has no alcohol, unlike the fermented chicha de jora of the Andes. Dried purple corn (maíz morado) comes from Latin shops; purple corn powder works too. Chef's tip: add the sugar and lime only once the drink has cooled; lime added to the hot liquid turns it bitter.

60 min

Peruvian Drinks

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DehroriFried rice and curd dumplings

Dehrori is the sweet Chhattisgarhi families make for Diwali, Holi and weddings, and it tastes like no other syrup sweet: soaked rice is ground coarse, left to sour gently with curd, then fried in ghee and dropped into cardamom syrup. The fermentation gives it a faint tang and a light, spongy crumb under a crisp shell, a little like a rustic cousin of rasbhari or gulab jamun. Grandmothers judge the batch by how well the dumplings hold their shape in the syrup. Chef's tip: grind the rice to the texture of fine semolina, not a smooth paste; that grain is what keeps dehrori light.

70 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Delhi chole kulcheChickpeas with kulcha bread

Walk through any Delhi office district at lunchtime and you'll find a cart with a huge brass pot of pale white peas and a stack of soft kulchas warming on a tawa. Delhiites call it chole kulche even though it's made with dried white peas (safed matar) rather than chickpeas. The vendor scoops the peas onto a leaf plate, piles on raw onion, tomato, green chilli and ginger, squeezes lime over and dusts it with a sour, smoky masala. It's tangy, fresh and filling, and very different from the rich, stuffed Amritsari kulcha. Chef's tip: mash a ladleful of the cooked peas back into the pot; it thickens the liquid so the toppings and masala cling instead of sliding off.

90 min

Indian Fast Food

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Delhi-style fruit chaatSpiced fruit chaat

Delhi's fruit chaat wallahs set up their carts in the afternoons with towers of guava, papaya, apples and bananas, plus roasted sweet potato, and chop whatever you point at into a leaf bowl. Then comes the part that makes it chaat rather than fruit salad: a big shake of tangy chaat masala, black salt and roasted cumin, a squeeze of lime, sometimes a pinch of chilli. It's a refreshing mid-afternoon snack in summer, and a regular sight on Ramzan iftar spreads too. The salt and spice make sweet fruit taste even sweeter. Chef's tip: season it just before eating; once the salt goes on, the fruit starts weeping juice and goes soft within 15 minutes.

15 min

Indian Salads

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ChorrillanaChips with beef, onions and eggs

Chorrillana was made famous by the old picadas (cheap eateries) of Valparaíso's port, where it arrived on huge platters for friends to share late at night: a mound of chips covered with strips of beef, soft fried onions and scrambled or fried eggs. The mistake is cooking the onions too fast; they should be soft, sweet and golden to bring the dish together. Chef's tip: season the beef only at the end so it browns rather than steams. Some bars add a splash of wine to the onions; this version leaves it out.

60 min

Chilean Fast Food

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Chhena podaBaked cheese cake

Chhena poda means 'burnt cheese', and it is Odisha's most famous sweet. It was first made in Nayagarh district, where a sweet maker is said to have left chhena and sugar overnight in a cooling wood oven. Fresh chhena is kneaded with sugar, a spoon of rice flour or semolina, and cardamom, then baked slowly until the outside caramelises into a dark, sticky crust and the inside stays moist and fudgy. It is offered to Lord Jagannath and sold in slabs at every Odia sweet shop. Chef's tip: line the tin with ghee-brushed banana leaf if you can; it adds the smoky note of the original.

105 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Chhena gajaFried cheese blocks in syrup

Chhena gaja is the sweet pilgrims carry home from Puri in boxes from the stalls along the Bada Danda, the grand road to the Jagannath temple. Fresh chhena is kneaded with semolina, cut into rectangles, fried until golden and crisp, then soaked briefly in sugar syrup so the outside turns glassy and crunchy while the inside stays soft and grainy. It travels well and keeps for days. Chef's tip: dry the fried blocks for an hour after syruping; the sugar sets into a thin crust.

80 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Chhattisgarhi chilaRice flour pancakes

Chhattisgarh calls itself the rice bowl of India, and its everyday breakfast proves it: chila made from nothing more than rice batter, salt and a few aromatics, poured paper-thin onto a hot tawa. Village kitchens grind soaked rice on a stone; rice flour makes it quick enough for a weekday. The pancakes are soft in the middle with crisp, lacy edges and come with a rough chutney of fire-roasted tomato, garlic and green chilli. This is different from the thick gram-flour chila common elsewhere in India. Chef's tip: stir the batter before every ladle, because rice flour sinks fast and the last chilas otherwise turn thick and gummy.

30 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Chhanar dalnaFresh cheese and potato curry

Chhanar dalna is how Bengal uses its fresh chhena, the same curd cheese that goes into rasgulla and sandesh, for a savoury lunch. Freshly split milk is kneaded with a little flour, pressed, cut into squares and fried, then simmered with potato in a thin, gingery tomato gravy scented with bay leaf and cardamom. It is lighter than a North Indian paneer curry and is a favourite on Thursdays and niramish days in Kolkata homes. Chef's tip: knead the chhena with your palm until it feels smooth and slightly greasy; that is what holds the cubes together in the gravy.

60 min

Indian Curries

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Dharwad pedaCaramelised milk sweets

Dharwad peda has been made in this north Karnataka town for well over a century, first by families who came from Uttar Pradesh, and it now carries a geographical indication tag. Unlike pale, smooth pedas elsewhere, it is cooked slowly until the milk solids caramelise to a deep brown and a grainy, almost crumbly texture, then rolled in powdered sugar. Pilgrims and travellers carry boxes home from Dharwad and Hubballi, and families buy it for weddings and exam results. Chef's tip: let the cooked mixture cool for ten minutes before you add the sugar for rolling; added while too hot, the sugar melts and the pedas go sticky.

70 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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NokedliSoft egg dumplings

Nokedli, also called galuska, are the small, soft, irregular egg dumplings that sit under almost every paprikás in Hungary, from Budapest lunch canteens to Sunday tables in the villages of the Great Plain. Unlike German Käsespätzle, they are not baked with cheese: they are a plain, buttery side whose job is to soak up a red, sour-cream sauce. Grandmothers scrape the batter off a wet board with a knife, but a nokedli grater (nokedliszaggató) or a colander with large holes is quicker at home. Serve them with gombapaprikás or lecsó, or toss them with fried egg for a quick supper. Chef's tip: let the batter rest for 10 minutes before cooking; the flour hydrates and the dumplings hold together instead of dissolving into the water.

25 min

Hungarian Pasta & Noodles

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Maraq digaagChicken and vegetable stew

Maraq digaag is the gentle chicken stew Somali mothers make on ordinary weekdays, and the one people ask for when they are unwell: chicken simmered with potato, carrot, tomato and green pepper in a light broth fragrant with xawaash and garlic. It is served with rice, canjeero or bread for dipping. The mistake is boiling it hard, which makes the chicken stringy; keep it at a lazy simmer. Chef's tip: stir in chopped coriander and a little lemon at the end to lift the broth.

60 min

Somali Chicken

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Dhokar dalnaLentil cakes in gravy

Dhokar dalna comes from the Bengali niramish (vegetarian) kitchen of widows and temple cooks, and it is still cooked in Kolkata homes for festive lunches and Saraswati Puja. Soaked chana dal is ground, cooked with ginger and asafoetida into a thick paste, set in a tray and cut into diamonds, which are fried and then dropped into a thin, fragrant gravy just before serving. The dhoka soak up the sauce like a sponge. Chef's tip: cook the dal paste until it leaves the sides of the pan in one mass; if it is too soft, the diamonds break in the gravy.

65 min

Indian Curries

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DhuskaFried rice and dal bread

Dhuska is the breakfast of Ranchi and the whole of Jharkhand, fried fresh at roadside stalls from early morning. Rice and chana dal are soaked, ground to a thick, slightly coarse batter with green chilli and ginger, and ladled into hot oil, where each round puffs up crisp outside and soft and spongy inside. It is eaten with aloo-chana ghugni or a thin potato curry and a sharp coriander chutney, and it is a must at Jharkhandi weddings and Karma festival. Chef's tip: beat the batter hard for a couple of minutes before frying; the trapped air makes it puff without any soda.

45 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Di san xianPotato, aubergine and pepper stir-fry

Di san xian means 'three fresh things from the earth', and it is the best-known home dish of Dongbei, China's cold north-east, where potatoes, aubergines and peppers are the summer harvest. Each vegetable is fried until golden, then tossed in a sticky, garlicky soy glaze. It's rich and filling, and goes with rice or steamed buns. Chef's tip: fry the potato first and longest; it needs to be golden and fully tender before it meets the sauce, because it won't soften further in the wok.

30 min

Chinese Vegetarian

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Vegetable cheung funSteamed rice noodle rolls

Cheung fun are the slippery rice-noodle rolls of Guangdong. In Guangzhou you see them steamed to order on cloth-lined trays at breakfast stalls, and at dim sum they arrive in a pool of sweet soy. This home version uses a flat tray in a wok, and fills the rolls with shiitake, Chinese chives and beansprouts. Chef's tip: stir the batter every time before you pour; the starch sinks in seconds, and an unstirred batter gives a thin, torn sheet.

40 min

Chinese Snacks & Starters

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DibiGrilled lamb with mustard onions

In Dakar a dibiterie is a smoky little shop where lamb is grilled over charcoal and sold by weight, wrapped in paper with raw onion, mustard and a pinch of spice salt; people eat it late in the evening, often after prayers or a football match. At home you get close with lamb chops or shoulder steaks, a quick marinade and a very hot grill. The mistake is moving the meat too much: leave it until it chars and releases on its own. Chef's tip: toss the sliced onions with salt and vinegar while the lamb marinates; they soften and lose their harsh bite in 20 minutes.

40 min

Senegalese Meat

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Nom banh chok with green curry brothRice noodles in green curry broth

Before seven in the morning, women carrying baskets on shoulder poles sell nom banh chok across Cambodia; around Siem Reap there is even a lane of stalls near the temples known for it. Soft, slippery rice noodles are piled into a bowl, ladled with a pale green broth of kroeung and coconut milk, then buried under shredded banana blossom, cucumber, beansprouts, long beans and handfuls of herbs. The market version thickens the broth with pounded fish; here pumpkin and creamy white beans give it the same body. Chef's tip: be generous with the raw vegetables and herbs; the dish is meant to be more garden than noodle, and the cool crunch is what balances the warm broth.

60 min

Cambodian Pasta & Noodles

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DimlamaSteamed lamb and vegetables

Dimlama is what Uzbek families cook at the end of summer, when the markets of the Fergana Valley are piled with cabbage, aubergine, peppers and tomatoes. Everything goes into one heavy pot in layers, lamb at the bottom, and the lid stays on for nearly two hours while the vegetables slowly give up their juice and become the sauce. There is no added water, so the flavour is deep and sweet. People eat it straight from shallow bowls with non bread. The biggest error is lifting the lid to check; the steam escapes, the vegetables stew dry and the bottom can catch. Chef's tip: seal the lid with a damp tea towel or a strip of foil so no steam gets out.

140 min

Uzbek Meat

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Chelow with tahdigSaffron rice with crispy base

Chelow is the plain, fluffy steamed rice at the centre of almost every Iranian lunch table, and tahdig ('bottom of the pot') is the crisp golden crust that forms underneath it. In homes from Tehran to Isfahan the pot is turned out at the table and the shards of tahdig are fought over before anyone touches the stew. The method is the master one for all Persian polo dishes: long-grain rice is soaked, boiled briefly, then steamed slowly under a cloth-wrapped lid so every grain stays separate and long. This page gives a yogurt-and-saffron tahdig, with potato and flatbread versions in the steps. Serve it with ghormeh sabzi, a yogurt dip and fresh herbs. Chef's tip: turn the heat up for the first 10 minutes until you hear a steady sizzle, then right down; that early burst is what sets the crust.

90 min

Persian Rice & Grains

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Nom krokCoconut rice cakes

Nom krok are a street snack you hear before you see: the hiss of batter hitting a charcoal-heated cast-iron pan full of small round hollows, outside markets and schools across Phnom Penh in the late afternoon. Each little cake has a lacy, crunchy rice-flour shell and a molten top of salted coconut cream with spring onion, and two halves are pressed together to eat hot from a banana leaf. A Danish aebleskiver or Japanese takoyaki pan works perfectly at home. Chef's tip: let the pan get properly hot before the first batter goes in, about 4 minutes on a medium-high heat; a cool pan makes pale, sticky cakes that won't come out cleanly.

40 min

Cambodian Snacks & Starters

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Diri djon djonBlack mushroom rice

Diri djon djon comes from northern Haiti, around Cap-Haïtien, where the tiny black djon djon mushrooms are gathered and dried. Soaked in hot water, they give an inky liquid that turns rice a striking grey-black and makes it taste deeply earthy and savoury. It's the rice for weddings, baptisms and big Sunday lunches, cooked with epis, cloves and green peas or butter beans, a whole scotch bonnet laid on top for perfume. Dried djon djon is sold in Haitian and Caribbean shops and online. Chef's tip: avoid djon djon stock cubes, which are often made with chicken fat and add little real flavour; use the dried mushrooms, and add a few dried shiitake for even more depth.

70 min

Haitian Rice & Grains

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Diri kole ak pwaRice and red beans

Diri kole ak pwa, rice 'stuck together' with beans, is the plate Haitians call their national dish, cooked in homes from Jacmel to Gonaïves and served most days of the week. Unlike rice and peas from elsewhere in the Caribbean, there's usually no coconut milk: red beans are simmered first, then their dark, savoury cooking liquid goes into the rice with fried epis, thyme and cloves, so the grains turn a rich reddish-brown and taste of beans all the way through. A whole scotch bonnet adds fruity heat without fire. Chef's tip: fry the drained beans in the epis until their skins blister and catch slightly; that browning gives the rice its deep, almost smoky taste.

60 min

Haitian Rice & Grains

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Dobos tortaLayered chocolate caramel cake

Dobos torta was created in Budapest in 1885 by the confectioner József C. Dobos, and it is still the cake Hungarians order in old coffee houses on Andrássy Avenue and bake for name days and big birthdays. Six thin sponge layers are stacked with a rich chocolate buttercream, and the top layer is glazed with hard amber caramel, cut into wedges and set at an angle like a fan. It is a project cake, but each stage is simple and the finished torte keeps for days. Chef's tip: mark the caramel into wedges with an oiled knife within the first minute; once it sets, it shatters instead of cutting.

150 min

Hungarian Baking

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ChebakiaSesame honey flower cookies

Chebakia are the dark, sticky, flower-shaped cookies that every Moroccan family associates with Ramadan; women in Fez, Meknes and Casablanca spend a whole day in the weeks before the holy month folding hundreds of them, and they are served at iftar with harira and dates. The dough is scented with anise, cinnamon, saffron and toasted sesame, cut into rectangles, folded into a rose, fried and dropped straight into hot, perfumed honey. They are crisp, chewy and very sweet. Chef's tip: work in small batches and keep the honey hot but not boiling; hot honey soaks in properly, while cool honey just coats the outside.

120 min

Moroccan Desserts

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Osmania biscuitsSweet and salty butter biscuits

Osmania biscuits are named after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, and they have been baked in the city's Irani bakeries for generations: round, crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth butter biscuits that are gently sweet with a distinct salty edge and a hint of cardamom. In old-city cafés, men linger over a plate of them and a cup of Irani chai in the early morning or after the evening prayers, dunking each one until it is just about to collapse. Chef's tip: chill the dough before cutting and baking; it keeps the biscuits round and thick instead of spreading thin.

47 min

Indian Baking

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