Skip to content
Olive salsa dip
Featured recipe

Olive salsa dip

A chunky Mediterranean salsa of chopped black olives, tomato, pepper and spring onions with chives, basil, garlic, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Serve it cold or at room temperature with corn chips or toasted bread.

Read more 1 views

What to eat today?

Around the world

Today's trip: Persian

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

Persian

Persian halva

Saffron rose flour halva 40 minMore from Persian (181) →

This week's collection

Kid-friendly dinners
772 recipes · a new collection every Monday

Coming up

All occasions →

Latest recipes

Moksi alesiMixed rice with salted meat

Moksi alesi, "mixed rice" in Sranan Tongo, is a weekday one-pot from Paramaribo's Creole kitchens: rice cooked with salted meat or salt fish, black-eyed beans, coconut milk, onion, celery and hot pepper, until the grains are soft and full of flavour. It is cooked when there's little time but a full pot is needed. This version uses salted pork; it contains pork. The mistake is not soaking the salted meat, which makes the rice far too salty; soak it, then boil it first. Chef's tip: smoked turkey or salt beef works in place of pork.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mole poblano with chickenChicken in chocolate chilli sauce

In the city of Puebla, mole poblano is the dish for weddings, baptisms and saints' days, and families often make it together over a whole afternoon. Three dried chillies (mulato, ancho and pasilla) are fried and ground with almonds, peanuts, sesame, raisins, spices, toasted tortilla and a little chocolate into a sauce that is deep, glossy and only gently sweet. It is spooned over poached chicken and scattered with sesame, with Mexican rice and warm tortillas to mop it up. Making it a day ahead lets the flavours settle. Chef's tip: fry the blended sauce in hot fat before adding stock; that sizzling stage is what turns it from a purée into mole.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mole verde with vegetablesGreen mole with vegetables

Mole verde is the brightest of Oaxaca's seven moles: instead of dried chillies and chocolate it is built from tomatillos, fresh green chillies and a fistful of herbs (hoja santa, epazote, parsley) and thickened with masa or pumpkin seeds. In Oaxaca it is often cooked with white beans and vegetables, which is how we make it here, with potatoes, courgette, green beans and chayote. The sauce is tangy, herbal and silky, and goes with white rice or warm corn tortillas. It is vegan as long as you use vegetable stock. Chef's tip: blend the raw herbs in at the very end, off the heat; cooked any longer they turn grey and lose their fresh perfume.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

SinangagGarlic fried rice

Sinangag is what a Filipino kitchen does with last night's rice: fried in garlicky oil first thing in the morning and heaped on the breakfast plate. It is the 'si' in silog, the breakfast plates served at every silugan (all-day breakfast stall) in Manila, where garlic rice comes with a fried egg and a choice of cured meat. At home it goes with anything, from tortang talong to a fried egg and tomatoes, and a small dish of spiced vinegar for dipping. Each grain should be separate and lightly toasted, with plenty of crunchy, golden garlic on top. Chef's tip: fry the garlic slowly from cold oil; it browns evenly and the oil takes on a deep, sweet garlic flavour.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

SabichAubergine and egg pita

Sabich came to Israel with Iraqi Jews, who ate fried aubergine and hard-boiled eggs on Saturday mornings when no cooking was allowed. In Ramat Gan in the 1950s someone stuffed it all into a pita, and today it is street food all over Tel Aviv: crisp-edged aubergine, sliced egg, hummus, tahini, chopped salad and a spoonful of tangy amba mango pickle, with zhug for heat. It is messy, rich and best eaten standing up with a paper napkin. Chef's tip: salt the aubergine and dry it well before frying; it soaks up far less oil and comes out creamy instead of greasy.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MolletesOpen bean and cheese rolls

Molletes are a favourite cheap breakfast and after-school snack across Mexico, especially in Mexico City cafés: a bolillo (a crusty, oval white roll) split, buttered and toasted, spread with refried beans, covered with cheese and grilled until bubbling, then topped with fresh pico de gallo. They are crunchy, creamy and gooey, and children love them. Use crusty white rolls or short pieces of baguette if you can't get bolillos, and a mild melting cheese made with vegetarian rennet, such as mild cheddar, mozzarella or Oaxaca cheese. Chef's tip: toast the buttered rolls before adding the beans, so the bread stays crisp underneath instead of going soggy.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MolokhiaJute leaf soup

Molokhia is one of the oldest dishes on the Egyptian table, eaten across the country from Alexandria to Upper Egypt, usually at a family lunch with white rice and torn baladi bread. The finely minced leaves of the jute plant cook in stock in minutes into a bright green, gently slippery soup; at the end a ta'leya of garlic and ground coriander fried in oil is poured in with a loud hiss. Most families cook it with chicken or rabbit broth, but a well-flavoured vegetable stock makes a lovely, light vegan version. Frozen minced molokhia from Middle Eastern grocers is what most Cairo cooks use too. Chef's tip: some cooks take a sharp breath (the shahqa) as the ta'leya goes in; joke or not, the point is to pour it in while the garlic is still sizzling hot.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Momiji manjuMaple leaf sponge cakes

Momiji manju are the souvenir of Miyajima, the sacred island off Hiroshima famous for its floating red torii gate and its maple trees, which turn scarlet each November. A confectioner there first baked them around 1906, and today shops along the island's main street still turn them out of iron moulds while visitors watch. The cake is a soft, honey-scented sponge, the filling smooth red bean paste. Tokyo's Asakusa sells a near twin, ningyo-yaki, baked in the shapes of dolls and temple lanterns; this recipe makes both, depending on your mould. Serve with green tea. Chef's tip: rest the batter for 30 minutes before baking. The flour hydrates, the bubbles settle and the cakes come out smooth and evenly brown.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MonjayakiGriddled cabbage and batter

Monjayaki comes from Tsukishima, a small island district in Tokyo Bay, where one street holds more than seventy monja restaurants. It began as a cheap after-school snack at sweet shops, with children writing letters in thin batter on a griddle. Today friends gather round a teppan table, build a ring of chopped cabbage, pour the runny batter into the middle and eat it with tiny spatulas while it is still molten. It never sets into a pancake like okonomiyaki: the texture is gooey, with crisp, toasty bits where it sticks to the plate. Our version leaves out the usual dried shrimp and uses mochi and cheese, a favourite Tsukishima combination. Chef's tip: press a little monja against the hot griddle with your spatula and wait until it crackles. That crisp layer, called the okoge, is the best bite.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Monji haakKohlrabi and greens in mustard oil

Kohlrabi, monji in Kashmiri, grows in almost every kitchen garden in the Kashmir Valley, and families cook the round bulb and its leaves together in one pot. Like its cousin haak, it is a dish of very few ingredients: mustard oil, dried chilli, a pinch of asafoetida and salt, simmered with a splash of water until the bulb turns sweet and tender. It is eaten through the cold months with plain rice and a bowl of yogurt, and Kashmiris will tell you it tastes best in autumn when the bulbs are young. Chef's tip: buy kohlrabi with fresh, perky leaves attached; if the leaves are tired, add a handful of spinach instead.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cashew chicken

Crunchy, mild and gently sweet, this stir-fry is what central Thai families order for the table when children or chilli-shy guests are eating too. Strips of chicken are dusted in cornflour and fried golden, then tossed with roasted cashews, onion, spring onion and whole dried chillies that are crisped in the oil for smoky colour rather than fierce heat. Restaurants from Bangkok to Hua Hin serve it as one dish of a shared meal, with steamed rice and a sour soup such as tom yum. The sauce is glossy and savoury from oyster sauce, with a spoonful of roasted chilli paste for depth. Chef's tip: toast the cashews slowly in the oil before anything else goes into the wok; they stay crunchy far longer than nuts thrown in raw.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cantonese mooncakes with lotus or red bean pasteFilled pastry mooncakes

Mooncakes are exchanged and eaten all over China at the Mid-Autumn Festival, when families gather under the full moon with tea and fruit. The Cantonese style, from Guangdong and Hong Kong, has a thin, shiny brown crust around a dense, sweet filling of lotus seed paste or red bean paste; this vegetarian version leaves out the salted duck egg yolks. You need a mooncake press (50–75 g size). Chef's tip: rest the baked mooncakes in an airtight tin for 2 days; the crust softens and turns glossy, a change bakers call 'returning oil'.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moong dal kachoriSpiced moong dal pastries

In Jaipur, Rajasthan, moong dal kachori is the street snack people queue for: a round, golden pastry that shatters into flaky layers around a dry, crumbly filling of coarsely ground yellow lentils roasted with fennel, coriander seed and chilli. Because the filling is dry and the crust is fried slowly, they stay crisp for days, which is why families make a big batch before a journey or festival. Serve them warm or at room temperature with tamarind chutney and green chutney, or break them into a bowl of kadhi. Chef's tip: grind the soaked dal coarse and without water, then roast it until it smells like toasted nuts and feels sandy; a wet or under-roasted filling is the reason kachoris go soft.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moqueca baianaFish stew with coconut milk

Salvador's moqueca baiana is the richer, sunnier cousin of the capixaba one, and the contrast is worth knowing: where Espírito Santo uses only tomato, annatto and olive oil, Bahia adds coconut milk, sweet peppers and dendê, the orange-red palm oil that came to Bahia with enslaved West Africans and runs through its Afro-Brazilian cooking. The result is creamy, golden and fragrant with coriander. In Salvador it is a weekend lunch at the seafront restaurants and at home, served with white rice, a yellow farofa fried in dendê and pirão. Look for dendê (red palm oil) in Brazilian, African or Caribbean shops. Chef's tip: add the dendê near the end; its flavour is strong and fades with long cooking, so a little stirred in late goes much further.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moqueca capixabaFish stew with tomato and annatto

In Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo, people like to say that moqueca is capixaba and everything else is just fish stew. Their version contains no coconut milk and no palm oil: firm white fish is layered with onion, tomato and plenty of fresh coriander, coloured red with annatto (urucum) and olive oil, and cooked in its own juices. It is always made and served in a black clay pot, the panela de barro handmade by the potters (paneleiras) of the Goiabeiras district, whose craft is protected as Brazilian heritage. Families eat it at weekend lunches with white rice and pirão, a porridge made from the fish broth and manioc flour. Chef's tip: no clay pot? Use a heavy cast-iron casserole with a lid; a thin pan heats unevenly and the bottom layer scorches.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moravské koláčeFilled yeast buns

In the villages of South Moravia and Wallachia, nobody gets married without a mountain of koláče: small round yeast buns with a deep hollow filled with sweetened poppy seed, vanilla quark or povidla (thick plum butter), each crowned with buttery posypka crumble. Relatives bake hundreds for the wedding and send guests home with boxes of them, and they turn up again at village fairs (pouť) and Sunday coffee. Chef's tip: press the hollow deep and wide just before filling; the dough rises again in the oven, and a shallow dip pushes the filling over the edge.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sabzi poloGreen herb rice

Sabzi polo is the rice of Nowruz, the Persian New Year on the spring equinox, when families across Iran sit down on the first evening to a mound of rice speckled green with dill, parsley, coriander and chives. Fresh green herbs stand for renewal, and the dish is traditionally paired with fish on the New Year table; a vegetarian house serves it with kuku sabzi, the herb omelette, fried eggs or a bowl of yogurt. The rice tastes bright and grassy, with a gentle garlic note and a golden lavash crust underneath. Chef's tip: chop the herbs the day before and spread them on a tray to dry slightly; damp herbs make the rice heavy and clumpy.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sabzi qovurmaLamb with fresh herbs

Sabzi qovurma is a home dish across Azerbaijan, made especially in spring when the markets of Ganja and Baku are full of bundles of green herbs. Pieces of lamb are fried until golden, then cooked with masses of chopped coriander, dill, spinach, spring onion and leek, sharpened by dried black lime or sour plums. It is served with plain plov rice or bread and a bowl of yogurt. The trap is adding wet herbs straight to the pan; they stew rather than fry and the dish goes flat and grassy. Chef's tip: dry the herbs well and fry them on their own until they darken before they join the meat.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Shatkora beefBeef curry with wild citrus

Shatkora is a large, thick-skinned citrus that grows in the hills of Sylhet in north-east Bangladesh, and its bitter, perfumed rind is what Sylhetis put in beef curry instead of lemon. The rind and pith are cut into chunks and simmered with the meat, so the sauce turns gently sour and smells like lime leaves and grapefruit at once. It is a home dish for Fridays and Eid, eaten with rice; the many Sylheti families in Britain made it famous in UK curry houses. Shatkora is sold frozen or in brine at South Asian grocers; if you can't get it, use the peel of half a grapefruit and a lime. The common mistake is adding too much shatkora early, which makes the curry bitter. Chef's tip: boil the shatkora pieces in water for 2 minutes and drain before adding them; it removes the harshest bitterness and keeps the fragrance.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moroccan carrot salad (shlada khizzou)Warm spiced carrot salad

Shlada khizzou is the bright orange dish on the salad spread of every Moroccan restaurant and home lunch, from Marrakech riads to roadside grills on the way to the coast. Carrots are blanched until just tender, then dressed while warm with garlic, cumin, a little sugar and lemon, so they drink in the flavour. Some families add a few drops of orange blossom water, which makes it taste of a Moroccan garden. Serve it with tagines, couscous or simply with bread. Chef's tip: dress the carrots while they are still warm; cold carrots stay bland on the outside.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moroccan mint tea (atay)Green tea with mint

Atay is Morocco's gesture of welcome, poured for guests in homes from Tangier to the Sahara, in shops while you bargain and after every meal. Chinese gunpowder green tea is rinsed, brewed with a big bunch of fresh spearmint and sweetened in the pot, then poured from high above the glasses so it froths. The host often pours a glass and returns it to the pot several times to mix the sugar through. The result is sweet, fresh and pleasantly bitter. Chef's tip: rinse the tea leaves with a splash of boiling water and throw that water away first; it removes the dust and the harshest bitterness.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Vegetable tagine (khodra)Steamed vegetable tagine

Across Morocco, from village kitchens in the Atlas to family tables in Marrakech, a tagine of khodra (vegetables) is the everyday midweek pot, cooked on a low flame while bread bakes and set in the middle of the table for everyone to scoop up with khobz. The vegetables are stacked like a tent over a bed of onion and tomato, so they steam in their own juices rather than boil; the sauce left at the bottom is short, golden with saffron and turmeric and sharpened with preserved lemon and green olives. Serve it straight from the pot with warm bread and a bowl of carrot or tomato salad on the side. Chef's tip: lay the hardest vegetables (carrots, potatoes) closest to the heat at the bottom and the soft courgettes on top, or the courgettes collapse before the carrots are tender.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sadza with beef stewMaize porridge with beef stew

Sadza ne nyama, sadza with meat, is the meal most Zimbabweans would call home: a stiff, smooth porridge of white maize meal shaped into rounds with a wooden spoon, served with a beef stew and a side of greens such as covo or rape. Families in Harare and Bulawayo eat it at lunch or supper, rolling a little sadza into a ball in the right hand and dipping it in the gravy. The mistake is adding all the maize meal at once, which makes lumps; stir in a paste first, then add the rest gradually. Chef's tip: let the porridge "rest and cook" under a lid for a few minutes between additions so the meal tastes cooked, not raw.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Morok metpaRoasted chilli and onion mash

Morok metpa is the chilli relish on every Manipuri table, from Imphal homes to roadside eateries: fresh chillies roasted over the fire until blistered, then crushed with salt, raw onion and herbs. Many versions add ngari (fermented fish); the vegetarian one here gets its depth from charring the chillies and a little roasted garlic. A teaspoon of it lifts plain rice, kangshoi or boiled vegetables. Chef's tip: roast the chillies directly over a flame until the skins are black in patches; charred skin is where the flavour is.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moros y cristianosBlack beans and white rice

In Cuba, moros y cristianos is the rice that turns up beside almost every Sunday lunch and every Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) table, from Havana kitchens to family parties in Santiago. Unlike rice simply served with beans, here the grains simmer in the dark bean broth with a sofrito of onion, green pepper, garlic, cumin and oregano, so every grain comes out grey-violet, savoury and fluffy. Serve it with tostones, yuca con mojo and an avocado salad for a full Cuban plate. Chef's tip: measure the bean cooking liquid rather than guessing, because it is the liquid, not the beans, that decides whether the rice is fluffy or mushy.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mosdeng sermaRoasted tomato and chilli relish

Mosdeng serma is the fresh relish Tripuri families in Agartala put on the table almost every day: tomatoes and green chillies roasted until blackened, then crushed with raw onion, coriander and salt. Some versions mash in dried fish; this one doesn't, and leans on a squeeze of lime and plenty of coriander. It is lighter and more salsa-like than Naga raja mircha chutney: chunky, juicy and smoky, more vegetable than chilli. Chef's tip: crush, don't blend; a few whole bits of tomato make it.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Xinjiang lamb skewers

Clouds of cumin-scented smoke rise from long charcoal troughs at night markets from Ürümqi to Kashgar, where Uyghur grill men fan the coals and turn dozens of skewers at a time. Small cubes of lamb, often with a piece of fat between them, are seasoned with salt, cumin and chilli right on the grill, so the outside is crusty and spicy while the inside stays pink and juicy. Street vendors across China copy them, but the best are simple. Eat them hot off the skewer with flatbread, sliced onion and a cold drink. Chef's tip: thread a small cube of lamb fat after every three pieces of meat; it melts over the lean as it grills and keeps it moist.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Lanzhou beef noodle soup

In Lanzhou, capital of Gansu, the day starts at a noodle shop where cooks stretch dough into strands before your eyes and drop them into bowls of clear, fragrant beef broth. Locals describe the ideal bowl in five colours: clear broth, white radish, red chilli oil, green coriander and garlic shoots, and yellow noodles. The broth is light yet deeply beefy and gently spiced, the radish sweet, the chilli oil toasty rather than fierce. This version uses good bought noodles, with an optional route for pulling your own if you fancy the challenge. Chef's tip: simmer the broth, never boil it; a hard boil turns it cloudy and the clear, golden look is the whole point.

180 minChineseSoups
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Safed maasMutton in white gravy

Safed maas is the quiet sibling of fiery laal maas, created in the palace kitchens of Rajasthan's princely states such as Jaipur and Udaipur, where cooks prized dishes that looked as refined as they tasted. There is no turmeric, no red chilli and no browning: the mutton is cooked white with yogurt, a paste of cashews and almonds, cream and white pepper, scented with cardamom and kewra. Its heat is gentle and comes from white pepper and a few green chillies. It's served at weddings and festive dinners with soft rotis or saffron pulao. Chef's tip: keep the heat low from start to finish; the moment the meat or the spices brown, the gravy turns beige and loses that ivory look.

125 minIndianMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mote con huesilloPeach and wheat drink

Mote con huesillo is Chile's summer refresher, sold in tall glasses from street carts on Santiago's Cerro San Cristóbal and at beaches up and down the coast. Huesillos are whole sun-dried peaches, soaked and simmered in a cinnamon caramel syrup; mote is husked wheat cooked until chewy. You drink the cold amber nectar and eat the wheat and peach with a long spoon. Chef's tip: soak the peaches overnight and cook them in their soaking water; that water carries much of the peach flavour.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MouhalabiehOrange blossom milk pudding

Mouhalabieh is the pudding a Lebanese grandmother makes when guests drop by unannounced: milk set softly with cornflour and a little rice flour, perfumed with orange-blossom water and topped with chopped pistachios. It appears after Ramadan iftar meals, at Christmas in Beirut and on ordinary weeknights in Damascus, always cold and wobbling in small glasses or a shallow dish. No gelatine is used; the starch alone gives a spoonable, silky set. Chef's tip: mix the cornflour into cold milk before it meets the heat; added to hot milk it forms lumps that no amount of whisking removes.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moules marinièresMussels in white wine

Along the coast of Normandy and Brittany, from Le Mont-Saint-Michel to Saint-Malo, summer means big black pots of moules marinières and a cone of frites, eaten at a seaside table with fingers and an empty shell as tongs. Fresh mussels steam open in minutes with shallot, garlic, thyme and white wine. The wine boils only briefly, so some alcohol stays; for an alcohol-free version use 150 ml fish or vegetable stock with 1 tbsp lemon juice. Chef's tip: buy mussels the day you cook them and keep them in the fridge in an open bowl covered with a damp cloth, never in water or a sealed bag.

25 minFrenchFish
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mousse au chocolatChocolate mousse

Mousse au chocolat is the dessert French children learn to make with their grandmothers and the one every bistro keeps in a big bowl in the fridge. The classic recipe is only dark chocolate, eggs, a little butter and sugar: the yolks make it rich, the whisked whites make it light and airy. It's made a few hours ahead and served in small glasses or scooped from a shared bowl. This version contains raw eggs, so use very fresh ones and avoid serving it to pregnant women, small babies or anyone unwell. For an egg-free version, see our eggless chocolate mousse. Chef's tip: let the melted chocolate cool until just warm before adding the yolks; adding them to hot chocolate is the common mistake and they scramble.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Big plate chicken

Born in roadside restaurants along the highways of northern Xinjiang in the 1980s, when truck drivers wanted something big enough to share, this dish arrives on a platter the size of a steering wheel. Chunks of bone-in chicken and potato braise in a spicy, star anise-scented sauce with green peppers, and the leftover gravy is spooned over wide, chewy belt noodles at the end. It is warming, a little numbing and very generous. Serve it for a crowd on a cold evening, with a bowl of sliced cucumber and garlic to cool things down. Chef's tip: cook the noodles first in the same pot and toss them in a little oil; they wait happily while the stew cooks and you only have one pot to wash.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MsemenFlaky square pancakes

Msemen are the square, layered flatbreads sold hot from griddles in every Moroccan medina at breakfast time and again for afternoon tea, when they are drizzled with honey or dipped in olive oil. The dough is stretched paper-thin on an oiled surface, sprinkled with fine semolina, folded into a square and cooked until crisp outside and flaky in the middle. This version uses oil throughout so it is vegan; many homes use butter or smen. Chef's tip: oil your hands and work surface generously; the dough should be stretched, not rolled, and it tears if it sticks.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MshikakiGrilled beef skewers

Mshikaki are the beef skewers grilled at night markets in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar's Forodhani Gardens and every Tanzanian roadside barbecue, sold hot with chips, pili pili sauce and a wedge of lime. Small chunks of beef are marinated in lime, ginger, garlic, chilli and curry powder, which tenderises them, then grilled quickly over charcoal. The mistake is marinating with raw papaya or too much lime for too long, which turns the meat mushy; 2–6 hours is plenty. Chef's tip: soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes so they don't burn.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Showing 36 of 10,569 recipes

Show more recipes

Page 1,024 of 1,175