Featured recipe

Chicken shawarma

In Riyadh, Dubai and Kuwait City, chicken shawarma is the late-evening street food, carved from a turning spit and wrapped in thin bread with toum garlic sauce, pickles and chips tucked inside, Gulf style. At home, thighs marinated in yogurt, lemon and warm spices are roasted at a high heat until charred at the edges, then sliced thinly. Chef's tip: give the chicken a final blast under a hot grill after slicing; it recreates the crisp edges of the spit.

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KarnıyarıkStuffed aubergines with beef

Karnıyarık is a summer weekday dinner in kitchens all over Turkey, made when aubergines are glossy, cheap and piled high at the street markets. Small whole aubergines are peeled in stripes, fried until silky, then slit down the middle and packed with minced beef cooked with onion, green pepper and tomato. A short spell in the oven melts it all together. It is eaten warm with plain rice pilaf and a bowl of cacık or yogurt. Chef's tip: press the fried aubergine open with the back of a spoon to make a deep boat, so the filling sits inside rather than rolling off.

75 min

Turkish Meat

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Egg hoppersBowl-shaped rice pancakes with egg

Hoppers (appa) are the crisp-edged, bowl-shaped pancakes that street cooks in Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna make in rows of small round pans every evening; an egg hopper has an egg cracked into the soft centre so it steams to a runny yolk. The batter of rice flour, coconut milk and yeast (traditionally toddy) is left to ferment until it's light and slightly sour, which gives the lacy, golden rim and the spongy middle. They're eaten hot with pol sambol and lunu miris, and plain hoppers come with sweet jaggery for dessert. Kerala's appam is a cousin, but Sri Lankan hoppers are thinner and crisper and the egg version is their own. The common mistake is a batter that's too thick, which gives heavy, pale hoppers; it should flow like single cream. Chef's tip: swirl the pan in one quick full turn the moment the batter goes in, then cover at once.

60 min

Sri Lankan Breakfast & Brunch

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Efo riroSpinach stew

Efo riro, literally 'stirred greens', is the Yoruba vegetable stew cooked in homes from Ibadan to Lagos on any ordinary weekday, and eaten with pounded yam, eba or plain rice. Leafy greens are wilted into a rich base of blended peppers fried in palm oil with iru, the pungent fermented locust beans that give the dish its savoury backbone. Most families add assorted meats, stockfish and crayfish; some keep a little smoked fish on the side for those who want it. This version leans on mushrooms, iru and a touch of smoked paprika instead. Chef's tip: squeeze the blanched greens really dry before they go into the sauce; wet spinach thins the stew and washes out the flavour.

50 min

Nigerian Curries

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EetchBulgur in tomato and pepper

Eetch is a Western Armenian dish from the old Cilician towns, carried by families to Aleppo, Beirut and the Armenian quarters of American cities. Fine bulgur is stirred into a hot sauce of onion, red pepper, tomato and pepper paste and left to drink it up, then finished with lemon, parsley and spring onion and eaten at room temperature, often scooped up with lettuce leaves. Unlike a herb-heavy raw bulgur salad, eetch is cooked, so it is rich and tomatoey, and it is a fixture of Lenten tables, picnics and mezze spreads. It keeps for days, which makes it a favourite for lunchboxes. Chef's tip: take the pan off the heat before adding the bulgur and keep the lid on; the grains soften in the residual heat and stay separate instead of turning to porridge.

30 min

Armenian Salads

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Echorer dalnaYoung jackfruit curry

In early summer, Kolkata's bazaars sell baby green jackfruit (echor), and Bengali households cook it into a dalna rich enough to be called gachh-patha, 'mutton from the tree'. The jackfruit is boiled, fried with potato and simmered in a ginger, cumin and tomato gravy, finished with ghee and garam masala. Its chewy, meaty texture soaks up the spice. It is a Sunday lunch dish, eaten with rice or luchi. Chef's tip: buy jackfruit no longer than your forearm, with pale seeds; older fruit is fibrous and the seeds are hard.

75 min

Indian Curries

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Maharagwe ya naziRed beans in coconut milk

Maharagwe ya nazi, red beans in coconut, is a weekday staple along the Swahili coast from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam and on Zanzibar, eaten with chapati, rice or mandazi. The beans are cooked until creamy, then simmered in a gently spiced tomato and coconut sauce. It differs from mbaazi wa nazi (pigeon peas) in its red kidney beans and its tomato-based, curry-spiced sauce. Chef's tip: add the coconut milk at the end and keep it at a bare simmer; boiled hard, it splits and turns oily.

45 minEast African Curries

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KartoffelpufferPotato fritters

In Cologne and Düsseldorf they're called Reibekuchen, and they are the smell of the Christmas markets and autumn fairs: thin, lacy potato fritters fried in oil until golden and crunchy at the edges. At home in the Rhineland they're traditionally a Friday dish, eaten hot with apple sauce or on buttered dark rye bread. They are simple, but timing and heat matter. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated potato really hard in a tea towel and keep the starch that settles at the bottom of the liquid; it binds the mixture so you need very little flour.

35 min

German Snacks & Starters

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MahshiStuffed vegetables

Mahshi is the pride of the Egyptian home kitchen: a big pot of courgettes, small aubergines, peppers and tomatoes, hollowed out and stuffed with short-grain rice, tomato, onion and a fistful of dill, parsley and coriander, then packed tightly and simmered in tomato broth. It turns up for Friday family lunches and on feast days, and making it is often a shared afternoon job around the kitchen table. Some families add minced meat to the stuffing; this version is the everyday vegetable-and-rice one. Chef's tip: fill each vegetable only three-quarters full; the rice swells as it cooks, and overstuffed vegetables burst and leave hard, undercooked rice in the middle.

120 min

Egyptian Vegetarian

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Dwaeji gukbapPork and rice soup

Ask anyone in Busan for a bowl of something filling at any hour and they will probably send you for dwaeji gukbap. Seomyeon has a whole alley of gukbap restaurants, open from early morning to late at night, serving the soup to market workers, students and people heading home after a night out. Pork bones are boiled hard for hours until the broth turns cloudy and white, then poured over sliced pork and rice. Each diner seasons their own bowl at the table with salted shrimp, chilli paste and a pile of garlic chives, with raw onion, green chilli and kimchi on the side. Chef's tip: season the soup in the bowl, not the pot; a little saeujeot at a time gives a clean, savoury depth that salt alone doesn't.

180 min

Korean Soups

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DushbaraTiny lamb dumplings in broth

Dushbara is the test of a patient cook in Azerbaijan: dumplings so small that a dozen fit on a spoon, filled with lamb and onion and served in clear bone broth. Families in Baku and the Absheron towns make them for New Year and Novruz, everyone sitting around the table folding together. At the table each bowl gets dried mint, a little crushed garlic in vinegar, and sumac. Over-filling is the usual problem; too much meat and the edges won't seal, so the dumplings open in the pot. Chef's tip: make the broth from lamb bones the day before and chill it, so you can lift off the fat and the soup stays crystal clear.

115 min

Azerbaijani Soups

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Kasha with mushroomsBuckwheat with mushrooms

Buckwheat, hrechka, is the grain Ukrainians grow up on: cooked loose and fluffy, it turns up as a weekday side in Kharkiv kitchens, in student dorms in Lviv and on every school canteen tray. Cooked with fried mushrooms, onion and carrot it becomes a filling meal of its own, and in autumn it is made with wild mushrooms picked in the Polissia forests. It is naturally gluten free and, with no butter, vegan. Chef's tip: dry-toast the grains until they smell nutty and crackle; it gives the kasha its deep flavour and keeps each grain separate.

35 min

Ukrainian Rice & Grains

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Kashk-e bademjanAubergine and whey dip

Kashk-e bademjan is the aubergine dip that greets you at the start of a meal in Tehran restaurants and at family gatherings all over Iran, swirled on a plate and decorated with fried onions, mint oil, walnuts and white ribbons of kashk. Fried aubergine is mashed with golden onions and garlic, then enriched with kashk, a tangy, salty fermented whey. Most kashk is made from soured yogurt without rennet, but some brands use cheese whey, so check the label if you avoid animal rennet; strained Greek yogurt beaten with a little sour cream and lemon is a good substitute. Serve it with warm flatbread. Chef's tip: fry the dried mint for a few seconds only, off the heat; it should smell sweet, not scorched.

45 min

Persian Chutneys & Dips

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Kashmiri chaiPink salted milk tea

Kashmiri chai, called pink tea or gulabi chai across Pakistan, came down from Kashmir to become the winter drink of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad: it is ladled out at weddings, sold from steaming pots at tea stalls on cold nights and served with nankhatai biscuits at family gatherings. The colour is real chemistry, not food colouring: green tea leaves are boiled hard with a pinch of baking soda until the brew turns deep red, then whisked and splashed to get air into it, and finally cooked with milk until it blushes pink. It is lightly salted in the old Kashmiri way and sweetened in the city way; add as much sugar as you like. The mistake people make is using black tea; only green tea leaves turn pink. Chef's tip: pour in ice-cold water as soon as the brew is reduced, and beat it hard; the shock and the air are what lock in the bright colour.

40 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Kashmiri girdaKashmiri round bread

Every neighbourhood in Srinagar has a kandur, a baker working at a pit oven, and before sunrise people queue there for girda: round breads about the size of a side plate, pressed all over with fingertips so the crust sets in ridges and hollows. The outside is lightly crisp, the crumb soft and slightly chewy, and the bread is torn and dunked into salty pink noon chai or spread with butter. A home oven with a heavy tray heated until very hot gets close to the kandur. Chef's tip: wrap the breads in a clean cloth as they come out; the trapped steam keeps the crust tender rather than hard.

142 min

Indian Baking

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Kashmiri modur pulavSweet saffron rice with dry fruit

Modur means sweet in Kashmiri, and this ghee-rich saffron rice is served at Kashmiri weddings and on Navreh, the Pandit new year, glowing orange and studded with almonds, cashews and raisins. In the hills of Himachal Pradesh the dham feast ends with a near-identical sweet rice called mittha, so this one page covers both: Himachal cooks often add a little more raisin and a pinch of fennel, which you can do too. It is sweet but not dessert-sweet, perfumed with cinnamon and cardamom, and is eaten alongside savoury curries as well as on its own. Chef's tip: soak the saffron in warm milk for at least 15 minutes before you start; it gives the rice its colour far more evenly than strands scattered dry.

70 min

Indian Rice & Grains

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Durian candyDurian milk fudge

Davao City on Mindanao is the Philippines' durian capital, and its roadside stalls sell the fruit by the kilo next to boxes of durian candy for travellers who can't carry a whole one home. Ripe durian pulp is cooked slowly with condensed milk, sugar and butter until it becomes a dense, chewy fudge that tastes of caramel, custard and that famously strong fruit. Chef's tip: frozen durian pulp works perfectly; thaw it fully and pick out any seeds and fibrous bits before you start.

65 min

Filipino Desserts

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Mahua ladduMahua flower balls

Mahua trees flower across Jharkhand in March and April, and before dawn whole families gather the fallen, creamy, honey-scented flowers from the forest floor and dry them in the sun. In Santhal, Munda and Oraon homes, the dried flowers are roasted and pounded with sesame and peanuts into laddus that need almost no added sugar, a store-cupboard sweet for the lean months and for festivals like Sarhul. They taste of raisins, caramel and toasted nuts. Chef's tip: roast the flowers until they puff slightly and smell like caramel; underroasted mahua tastes raw and slightly bitter.

35 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Dulce de lecheMilk caramel

Dulce de leche is Argentina's national sweet, spread on toast at breakfast, sandwiched in alfajores, rolled into panqueques and spooned onto flan. Argentine families traditionally make it by slowly cooking milk and sugar with a vanilla pod and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, which helps it turn deep brown, until it becomes a thick, glossy caramel cream. It takes about three hours of gentle cooking and regular stirring. Chef's tip: use a wide, heavy pan and keep the heat low; the wider the surface, the faster the milk reduces, and the less it catches on the bottom.

185 min

Argentinian Basics

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Duba watSpicy pumpkin stew

Duba wat is a fasting-season stew from the Ethiopian highlands, made when pumpkins are plentiful after the rains around Meskel in late September. Chunks of pumpkin are cooked in a classic red wat base of slow-cooked onion, garlic and berbere, so the sweetness of the squash plays against the heat of the spices. It is softer and sweeter than most wats and goes well with gomen and injera. Chef's tip: add the pumpkin only once the onion and berbere base is fully cooked and glossy; raw-tasting berbere spoils the dish.

40 min

Ethiopian Curries

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Kathal ki sabziYoung jackfruit curry

In Uttar Pradesh, people joke that kathal is the vegetarian's mutton, and the comparison makes sense once you taste it. Young, unripe jackfruit has a firm, fibrous texture that absorbs a slow-cooked onion masala and the smoky warmth of black cardamom. Lucknow and Kanpur homes cook it in summer when the green fruit is plentiful, and it is a common choice for Sunday lunches and family gatherings, served with paratha or rice. The mistake to avoid is undercooking the jackfruit before adding it to the masala; it will remain rubbery no matter how long it simmers afterward. Chef's tip: frying the boiled pieces until golden before they go into the gravy gives them a meaty crust that holds up in the sauce.

75 min

Indian Curries

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Majjiga pulusuButtermilk curry with ash gourd

Majjiga pulusu is the cooling yogurt curry of Andhra Pradesh, cooked in summer when the buttermilk at home turns a little sour. Unlike Gujarati kadhi, it isn't thickened with gram flour: soaked chana dal is ground with coconut, ginger, green chillies and cumin, stirred into the curd, and simmered gently with soft pieces of ash gourd (or okra, or chayote). It's mild, tangy and creamy, and eaten mixed into rice with a fried vegetable or fritter on the side, especially at Telugu wedding meals. Chef's tip: whisk the yogurt until completely smooth before it goes near the heat; lumpy yogurt splits much more easily.

30 min

Indian Curries

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StollenFruit Christmas bread

Dresden has baked Christstollen for more than 500 years, and every December the city holds a Stollen festival with a giant loaf paraded through the old town to the Striezelmarkt. The loaf's shape, folded over and dusted white, is said to show the Christ child wrapped in swaddling cloth. It's a rich, dense yeast bread, heavy with butter, raisins, candied peel and almonds, brushed with melted butter straight from the oven and buried in sugar. It's baked weeks before Christmas and sliced thinly through Advent. Chef's tip: wrap it tightly and let it rest for at least a week before cutting; the flavours ripen and the crumb turns moist.

120 min

German Baking

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KatsudonPork cutlet and egg rice bowl

Japanese students often eat a bowl of katsudon the night before a big exam, because 'katsu' sounds the same as the verb 'to win'. Soba restaurants, set-meal shops and train-station stands all over Japan serve it, and it is a favourite takeaway lunch too. A panko-crusted pork loin cutlet is fried until golden, sliced, then simmered for a minute with onion and egg in sweet soy dashi. The top of the crust stays crunchy while the underside soaks up the sauce. Chef's tip: snip the fat along the edge of each cutlet in three or four places before breading, so the meat stays flat in the oil and cooks evenly.

40 min

Japanese Meat

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Katsuo no tatakiSeared bonito

Kochi, on the Pacific coast of Shikoku, is Japan's bonito town. At Hirome Market in the city centre, cooks sear whole loins over roaring straw fires and slice them to order, served thick with garlic slices, onion and ponzu or just a pinch of salt. Bonito has two seasons there: the leaner first catch of spring and the fattier fish returning south in autumn. At home a very hot dry pan, or a blowtorch, gives the same charred skin around a cool red centre. Use very fresh, sushi-grade fish from a trusted fishmonger; not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: slice it thick, about 1 cm, as they do in Kochi; thin slices lose the contrast between the smoky crust and the soft middle.

25 min

Japanese Fish

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DovgaHerb and yogurt soup

Dovğa is green, tangy and cooling, the soup Azerbaijanis drink cold from glasses on hot Baku afternoons and eat hot in bowls when the Absheron wind turns chilly. Yogurt is thinned, thickened with rice and egg, then packed with chopped spinach, dill, coriander, mint and sorrel, until the soup is more herbs than dairy. It is served at weddings and at Novruz to settle the stomach after rich food, and many cooks add chickpeas. Unlike Armenian spas, there is no fried onion or wheat; the flavour is all fresh herbs and sour yogurt. Chef's tip: add the herbs only once the yogurt is boiling steadily and stable; they wilt in seconds, and the colour stays bright green.

50 min

Azerbaijani Soups

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KavarmaClay-pot pork with peppers

Up in Bulgaria's Rhodope mountains, around Smolyan and Chepelare, kavarma is cooked in individual glazed clay pots and brought to the table still bubbling, often with an egg baked on top. This one is made with pork shoulder (chicken thighs work too), browned and then stewed slowly with a mountain of onion, peppers, mushrooms, paprika and savory. It traditionally includes a splash of dry white wine; the ingredient list gives an alcohol-free swap. Eat it with crusty bread and a shopska-style tomato and cucumber salad. A common slip is cutting the pork too small, so it dries out before the sauce is ready; keep the pieces bite-size but chunky. Chef's tip: let the onions cook down with the meat until almost jammy before the peppers go in; that is where kavarma gets its sweetness.

120 min

Bulgarian Meat

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Doro watSpicy chicken and egg stew

Ethiopian families make doro wat for the biggest days of the year, especially Genna (Christmas) and Fasika (Easter), when it breaks weeks of meatless fasting. Its secret is patience: a mountain of red onions is cooked down slowly with no fat at all until jammy and dark, then enriched with spiced butter and fiery berbere. Chicken pieces and whole hard-boiled eggs simmer in the sauce until it is thick, glossy and brick red, with a deep, smoky heat. Ladle it onto injera, with ayib (fresh cheese) alongside to cool things down. Chef's tip: score the boiled eggs lightly all over before adding them, so the sauce seeps right into the whites.

150 min

Ethiopian Chicken

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Alicha wat (chicken)Mild turmeric chicken stew

Not every Ethiopian stew is fiery: alicha wat is the gentle, golden one, coloured with turmeric instead of berbere and seasoned with ginger, garlic and a few green chillies. Families across the country cook doro alicha when someone wants something soothing, when children are at the table, or as the mild partner to a spicy wat on a festive spread. The chicken simmers in a soft onion and spiced-butter sauce until tender, with a fragrant, buttery and slightly peppery flavour. Serve with injera or rice and a fresh tomato salad. Chef's tip: add the green chillies whole and fish them out before serving if you want flavour without heat.

60 min

Ethiopian Chicken

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KayaPandan coconut jam

Kaya is the coconut and egg jam spread thickly on toast in every kopitiam in Singapore, from heritage chains to the coffee shop under a housing block. This is the green Nyonya-style kaya, gently cooked with pandan leaves until it turns thick, glossy and custardy; the Hainanese version adds caramel for a brown colour. It keeps for a week in the fridge and is the essential part of kaya toast. Chef's tip: cook it slowly over a pan of barely simmering water and keep stirring; rushed kaya scrambles and turns grainy.

60 min

Singaporean Basics

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Kaya toastToast with coconut jam

The kaya toast set is Singapore's breakfast ritual: thin, crisp toast sandwiched with kaya and a cold slab of butter, served with two runny soft-boiled eggs seasoned at the table with dark soy and white pepper, and a cup of kopi. Office workers eat it at kopitiams in Tiong Bahru and Tanjong Pagar before work; children love dunking the toast in the eggs. Chef's tip: put the eggs in water that's just off the boil for exactly 6–7 minutes; the whites should be barely set and wobbly, the yolks completely runny.

15 min

Singaporean Breakfast & Brunch

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Suan cai pork stew

Across north-east China, autumn means packing crocks with salted napa cabbage to ferment through the long winter, and this hearty stew is the reward. Thin slices of boiled pork belly lie in a pale broth with shreds of sour cabbage and slippery glass noodles; the tang cuts the richness, and the broth tastes both clean and deeply savoury. It is everyday winter family food in Harbin and Shenyang, often served in a clay pot at the centre of the table with rice and a garlic-soy dip for the pork. Chef's tip: let the boiled pork cool for 15 minutes before slicing; warm belly crumbles, slightly cooled belly cuts into neat, thin slices.

90 min

Chinese Meat

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MakguksuCold buckwheat noodles

Chuncheon, the lake city in Gangwon, is famous for two things: spicy grilled chicken and makguksu (막국수), coarse buckwheat noodles served icy cold. The name roughly means 'roughly made noodles', and the dish started as simple farm food in a region where buckwheat grew better than rice. In summer, makguksu houses serve it in a sweet, sour and spicy dressing with crunchy cucumber, sweet pear and sesame, often with a jug of chilled broth on the side to pour in halfway. This one is dressed with gochujang, vinegar and pear, and a cold kelp broth. Chef's tip: rinse the cooked noodles under cold running water and rub them between your hands until the water runs clear, then chill them in iced water; that washes off the starch and gives them their springy bite.

25 min

Korean Pasta & Noodles

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Kazakh milk teaBlack tea with hot milk

Kazakhs drink more tea per person than almost anyone, and at home it is always sut shai: strong black tea, often brewed from Kenyan or Indian leaves, poured into a wide cup (kese) with hot milk or a spoon of cream. The host keeps the cups barely half full and refills them again and again, and a guest turns the cup upside down when they've had enough. In winter in Astana a pinch of salt or a knob of butter may go in. It accompanies baursak, shelpek and every meal. Chef's tip: heat the milk until it just steams and add it to the cup first; scalded, boiled milk gives the tea a cooked taste.

10 min

Kazakh Drinks

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DooghSalted yogurt drink

Doogh is the salty, fizzy yogurt drink served in tall glasses with lunch across Iran, and above all with kebab and rice at the chelow-kababi restaurants of Tehran. Bottled sparkling doogh from the mineral springs of Abali, in the mountains east of the capital, is the famous one; at home it is mixed from yogurt, cold water and soda water with crumbled dried mint, and sometimes wild pennyroyal (kakuti) or rose petals. Its bubbles and mint set it apart from plainer, still yogurt drinks. It is cooling and good with rich, herby food. Chef's tip: add the sparkling water last and stir gently, or the fizz disappears before it reaches the glass.

5 min

Persian Drinks

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Fungee and pepperpotCornmeal and okra with beef stew

Antiguans eat fungee and pepperpot on Saturdays and on holidays like Independence Day in November, and grandmothers still turn the fungee with a flat wooden 'fungee stick'. Pepperpot is a thick stew of beef, spinach, aubergine, okra and squash cooked down until the vegetables melt together; many cooks also add salted pig tail, which is left out here. The fungee is a smooth cornmeal and okra mash, shaped into balls with a buttered bowl and served beside the stew. The mistake people make is tipping the cornmeal in all at once, which makes lumpy fungee; add it in a slow stream while stirring hard. Chef's tip: pour off half the okra water before adding the cornmeal and keep it hot; you can work it back in if the fungee gets too stiff.

150 minCaribbean Meat

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Tianjin pork baozi

Tianjin people queue on winter mornings for these small steamed buns, famous since the 1850s for their many fine pleats and for the burst of savoury juice inside. The filling is minced pork beaten with ginger and spring onion water until it holds a surprising amount of liquid, so the first bite is soupy and the soft, slightly springy wrapper soaks up the rest. Bakers aim for 18 pleats arranged like a chrysanthemum. Eat them hot for breakfast with a dish of vinegar, crushed garlic and a bowl of millet porridge or soy milk. Chef's tip: use pork with about 30 per cent fat; lean mince gives dry, crumbly filling however much water you add.

120 min

Chinese Snacks & Starters

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KedjenouPot-steamed chicken

Kedjenou comes from the Baoulé people of central Côte d'Ivoire, who cooked it in a sealed clay canari set in the embers and shook the pot instead of stirring it; today it is a weekend favourite in Abidjan's maquis, served with attiéké or rice. Chicken, tomato, onion, aubergine, ginger and chilli go into the pot with no water at all, and the vegetables release enough juice to make a light, intense sauce. The mistake is lifting the lid to stir: the steam escapes and the pot can burn, so seal it well and shake it instead. Chef's tip: a heavy casserole with a sheet of foil pressed under the lid works just like the clay pot.

95 min

Ivorian Chicken

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Keerai masiyalMashed greens

Keerai masiyal is the plain, green, buttery-soft mash Tamil mothers make with whatever keerai the market has that morning: arai keerai, siru keerai, amaranth or plain spinach. The leaves are cooked with shallots, garlic and green chilli and then mashed, traditionally with a wooden mathu, until smooth but still a little textured, then finished with a cumin tempering. It's eaten mixed into hot rice with a spoon of ghee or sesame oil, next to sambar or rasam, and it's a favourite first food for toddlers. Chef's tip: cook the greens uncovered; covering them traps the gases that turn the leaves dull olive instead of bright green.

22 min

Indian Sides

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Kek lapis SarawakLayer cake

In Kuching, kek lapis Sarawak is baked for Hari Raya, Christmas and Gawai, and every family gives boxes of it away. Unlike Indonesia's spiced lapis legit, Sarawak cakes are sweet, dense and buttery, often made with condensed milk, and famous for their bright geometric patterns. Many layers are grilled one by one, then the cake is cut into strips and glued back together with jam to make the design. This is the beginner's chequerboard in plain and pandan green. Chef's tip: spread each layer thin and even with the back of a spoon; uneven layers make the pattern crooked.

195 min

Malaysian Baking

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KeleweleSpiced fried plantain

Kelewele is what Accra smells like after dark: ripe plantain cubes tossed in a paste of ginger, onion, chilli and spice, then fried at roadside stalls lit by lamps and sold in paper cones. It is eaten as an evening snack, often with a handful of roasted peanuts, or as a side with red red. The outside caramelises while the spices turn toasty, so every piece is sweet, hot and spicy at once. Chef's tip: use plantains that are yellow with lots of black spots; fully black ones collapse in the oil and green ones never turn sweet.

25 min

Ghanaian Snacks & Starters

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DomodaBeef and peanut stew

Domoda is the stew that most families in the Gambia, from Banjul to the riverside villages upcountry, cook several times a week. Beef is browned and simmered with tomato and onion, then smooth peanut butter is stirred in until the sauce turns thick, glossy and rich, with pumpkin and sweet potato melting into it. It is spooned over white rice with a squeeze of lime, and a scotch bonnet floats in the pot for whoever likes it hot. The mistake to avoid is adding the peanut butter too early and leaving it unstirred, as it catches and burns on the bottom; add it once the beef is nearly tender and stir often. Chef's tip: whisk the peanut butter with a ladle of hot broth before it goes in, so it melts smoothly instead of forming lumps.

125 min

Senegalese Meat

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Mongolian lamb hot pot

When the first cold winds blow through Beijing, old restaurants around Dongcheng light their chimney-shaped copper pots and diners start swishing paper-thin lamb through plain, gently bubbling water. Unlike fiery Sichuan hot pot, this one is all about the meat: the broth stays clear and mild, and the flavour comes from a creamy dip of sesame paste, fermented tofu and chive flower sauce. Everyone cooks their own slices for a few seconds, then adds cabbage, tofu and glass noodles to the pot as the evening goes on. It is a slow, sociable meal for winter weekends, with sesame flatbreads on the side. Chef's tip: half-freeze the lamb for 1–2 hours and it slices thin as paper with a sharp knife; or buy ready-rolled hot-pot lamb from an Asian grocer.

45 min

Chinese Meat

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MakowiecPoppy seed roll

Makowiec is the poppy seed roll that sits on almost every Polish Christmas Eve and Easter table; in Silesia and Lesser Poland poppy seeds stand for plenty in the year ahead. A soft, buttery yeast dough is rolled around a thick, black, honey-sweet filling of ground poppy seeds with raisins, walnuts and candied orange peel, then baked and glazed so each slice shows a tight spiral. It takes time, but the process is calm and the roll keeps for days. Chef's tip: grind the soaked poppy seeds two or three times, until they look grey and pasty; whole or once-ground seeds give a gritty filling that falls out of the slices.

135 min

Polish Baking

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Domatesli bulgur pilavıTomato bulgur pilaf

Across Turkey, from Anatolian village kitchens to Istanbul lunch counters (esnaf lokantası), a pot of bulgur pilaf sits beside beans, stuffed vegetables and yogurt as reliably as bread does. Coarse bulgur (pilavlık bulgur) is cooked with onion, sweet pepper paste, grated tomato and a green pepper until every grain is separate, tender and lightly reddish. It is nuttier and chewier than rice pilaf and ready in half an hour, which is why so many families make it on weeknights. Spoon it next to kuru fasulye, cacık or a simple salad, or eat a bowl on its own with a dollop of yogurt. Chef's tip: once the water is absorbed, lay a clean tea towel under the lid and let the pilaf rest off the heat for 10 minutes; the towel catches the steam so the grains turn fluffy instead of wet.

30 min

Turkish Rice & Grains

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Dolma batataStuffed potatoes in chickpea sauce

Dolma batata belongs to the Algiers home kitchen, where it is a Ramadan favourite and a Friday dish: hollowed potatoes filled with beef mince, onion, parsley and cinnamon, fried until golden, then simmered in a pale sauce (marqa beida) of onion, chickpeas, black pepper and cinnamon. The sauce stays white because no tomato goes in. The mistake is hollowing the potatoes too thinly, so they split in the pot; leave walls about 1 cm thick. Chef's tip: fry the scooped-out potato flesh and add it to the sauce to thicken it.

95 min

Algerian Meat

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DohneiiongPork in black sesame gravy

The name says it plainly in Khasi: 'doh' is meat and 'neiiong' is black sesame. In the Khasi Hills around Shillong this near-black pork curry is cooked for family feasts and Sunday meals, and its roasted, nutty flavour is unlike any other curry in India. The sesame is toasted and ground into a paste that thickens the gravy and coats the pork. Serve with plain rice or jadoh. Chef's tip: pork belly gives the silkiest result; mix it half and half with shoulder if you prefer it less rich.

90 min

Indian Meat

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Doh khliehBoiled pork salad

Doh khlieh is the cool, sharp side dish that sits next to jadoh on almost every Khasi table in Meghalaya. Tender boiled pork is chopped small and tossed with raw onion, ginger, green chilli and lime, so it is fresh and fiery rather than rich. In Shillong it is eaten at lunch and at gatherings, and some families add boiled pork brain, which this version leaves out. Chef's tip: chop the pork while it is still slightly warm; it takes up the lime and ginger much better.

60 min

Indian Salads

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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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Ker sangriDesert berries and beans

Ker sangri is a true desert dish from the Thar in Rajasthan: ker are small, sour wild caper berries and sangri are the thin, chewy bean pods of the khejri tree, both picked in summer and sun-dried to last the year. Soaked, boiled and fried in plenty of mustard oil with chilli, mango powder and coriander, they become tangy, earthy and almost pickle-like. It keeps for days, which is why it travelled with camel herders. Serve with bajra roti or puri, or as a side to dal baati. Chef's tip: taste a ker berry after boiling; if it is still very bitter, boil it again in fresh water before frying.

40 min

Indian Sides

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Kerak telorSticky rice and egg omelette

Kerak telor is the Betawi snack of Jakarta, cooked over charcoal by vendors at the Jakarta Fair and around Monas: a little soaked sticky rice is cooked in a tiny wok, an egg cracked on top, then the wok is turned upside down over the coals so the bottom forms a crust. It is finished with serundeng, a spiced toasted coconut, and fried shallots. Vendors usually add dried shrimp to the coconut; this version doesn't. Chef's tip: soak the sticky rice overnight; half-soaked grains stay hard in the middle.

45 min

Indonesian Snacks & Starters

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Kerala meen currySour red fish curry

Down the southern backwater districts of Travancore, around Kottayam and Alappuzha, the everyday fish curry has no coconut at all: just a brick-red gravy of chilli, shallots and coconut oil, made sour and smoky with kudampuli (Malabar tamarind). It is traditionally made in a clay pot (manchatti) and left to sit, because it tastes better hours later or the next morning, when the fish has soaked up the sourness. Kingfish, sardines and mackerel are the usual choices; eat it with boiled red Kerala rice or tapioca. Chef's tip: once the fish is in, never use a spoon — hold the pot with a cloth and swirl it so the sauce coats the pieces without breaking them.

45 min

Indian Fish

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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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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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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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