Skip to content
Hong Kong borscht
Featured recipe

Hong Kong borscht

Tomato beef and cabbage soup

Order a set lunch at a Hong Kong cha chaan teng and the waiter will ask "red or white?": red is lo sung tong, the diner's tomato version of borscht, brought to the city by Russians who arrived from Shanghai in the 1940s. It has no beetroot at all; instead, beef shin, cabbage, potato, carrot, onion and celery simmer with fresh tomatoes and a spoonful of ketchup into a thick, sweet-sour, brick-red soup. It comes with buttered toast or a bun before a plate of baked rice or spaghetti, and makes a filling meal by itself on a rainy day. A typical slip is adding all the vegetables at once, so the cabbage turns to mush before the beef is tender; add them in stages. Chef's tip: fry the tomato paste and ketchup until they darken before adding water, which gives the soup its deep red colour.

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

Shir berenj

Rose water rice pudding 70 minMore from Persian (181) →

This week's collection

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

Coming up

All occasions →

Latest recipes

Pudding and souse

Saturday in Barbados means pudding and souse: rum shops and roadside cooks sell it from late morning, and families buy it by the container for lunch. Souse is boiled pork, traditionally from the head and trotters, served cold in a sharp, cucumber-studded pickle of lime, onion and hot pepper; the pudding is grated sweet potato seasoned with herbs and steamed. This is a pork dish. This home version uses trotters for the jelly-rich texture plus shoulder for meat, and steams the pudding in a basin instead of a casing; blood is left out (that darker version is black pudding). A common mistake is serving the souse as soon as it meets the pickle; it needs at least 2 hours in the fridge to turn sharp and cold. Chef's tip: grate the sweet potato on the fine side of the grater; coarse shreds make a crumbly pudding.

190 minBajanMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 1 views

Chiles en nogadaStuffed poblanos in walnut sauce

Chiles en nogada belong to Puebla and to September, when fresh walnuts, peaches, pears and pomegranates are all in season and Mexico celebrates its independence: the green chilli, white walnut sauce and red pomegranate are the colours of the flag. Roasted poblano peppers are stuffed with picadillo, a sweet-savoury hash of fruit, nuts and spices, then cloaked in nogada, a cool sauce of fresh walnuts, milk and fresh cheese. Our vegetarian picadillo uses mushrooms for the savoury depth that minced meat usually gives. It is served at room temperature, never hot, as a centrepiece for a celebration lunch. Chef's tip: soak the walnuts in milk overnight and rub off as much of the papery skin as you can; the skins make the nogada bitter and grey. Use a fresh cheese made with vegetarian rennet.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chiles rellenosCheese-stuffed poblano peppers

Chiles rellenos de queso are a Puebla classic and a fixture of Mexican home cooking: roasted poblano peppers filled with melting cheese, coated in an airy egg batter called capeado, fried until golden and served swimming in a thin, mildly spiced tomato broth (caldillo). The batter is like a soufflé omelette that hugs the chilli, and the cheese inside stretches in long strings. Serve with arroz rojo and warm tortillas. Choose an Oaxaca cheese or mozzarella made with vegetarian rennet. Chef's tip: the chillies must be completely dry and dusted with rice flour before they go into the batter; any moisture makes the egg slide off in the pan.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

BalaleetSweet vermicelli with omelette

Sweet noodles for breakfast surprise visitors, but in the UAE and Qatar balaleet is the dish of Eid mornings and lazy weekend brunches. Fine vermicelli is toasted in butter, then steamed with sugar, saffron, cardamom and rose water until soft and glossy, and finally capped with a thin, salty-edged omelette. The contrast of sweet, fragrant noodles and savoury egg is the whole point, so serve them together in one wedge. Chef's tip: toast the vermicelli until it is the colour of a biscuit; pale noodles taste flat and floury.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chilka rotiRice and chana dal pancakes

Chilka roti is an everyday breakfast and evening snack in Jharkhand's villages, and a favourite offering at Sarhul, the spring festival of the sal trees. Rice and chana dal are soaked and ground into a batter that is poured onto a hot tawa and cooked with a lid, so the roti comes out thick, soft and spongy with a lightly crisp base, much heartier than a thin rice-flour chila. It is eaten hot with a tomato or coriander chutney or with ghugni. Chef's tip: grease the tawa with a cut onion dipped in oil; it keeps the roti from sticking and adds a little flavour.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sichuan chilli oil wontonsTofu and mushroom wontons in chilli oil

In Chengdu these are called hong you chao shou, 'red oil folded hands', after the way the wrappers are crossed over like arms. Little noodle shops serve them morning to night, slick with chilli oil, black vinegar and garlic. Our filling is firm tofu, shiitake and Chinese chives, so it's juicy without meat. Make a double batch: they freeze well uncooked. Chef's tip: squeeze the tofu hard in a cloth before mixing; dry filling seals better and the wontons won't burst in the water.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bolón de verde con quesoPlantain and cheese balls

On Ecuador's coast, in Guayaquil and Manabí, breakfast is often a bolón: green plantain fried, pounded while hot with butter and salty cheese, shaped into a fist-sized ball and fried again until crusty. It comes with a cup of strong black coffee and a fried egg, and a little ají on the side; the other classic version uses pork crackling, but cheese bolón is just as common. Chef's tip: shape them while the plantain is still hot; once cold the starch sets and won't stick together.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Casado vegetarianoRice, beans and plantain plate

Walk into any soda (small family diner) in San José at lunchtime and the board will offer a casado: one plate where rice and beans are 'married' to salad, sweet plantain and a main. The meatless version is just as common, with a fried egg and a slice of fresh white cheese, plus a little picadillo of chopped vegetables. It's a full, balanced lunch, and every element is simple. Chef's tip: cook the plantain only when it's deeply black-skinned and soft; ripe plantain caramelises to sticky dark edges, green plantain just goes dry.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Seco de polloChicken stewed with coriander and beer

Seco de pollo is the weekday stew of Ecuadorian homes, from Quito to Cuenca, and the dish most lunch places serve on Mondays: chicken simmered in a green-gold sauce of onion, peppers, garlic, cumin and lots of coriander, soured with naranjilla (lulo) juice and often cooked with a little beer. It is served with yellow rice, fried ripe plantain and avocado. This recipe uses beer; for an alcohol-free version replace it with the same amount of chicken stock plus a teaspoon of sugar. The mistake is using too little coriander: the sauce should be fragrant and green. Chef's tip: if you can't find naranjilla, use half orange juice and half lime juice.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Showing 9 of 10,569 recipes

Show more recipes

Page 1,024 of 1,175