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Aguapanela

Hot panela and lime drink

Aguapanela is simply panela (unrefined cane sugar) dissolved in water, yet it is one of Colombia's most loved drinks: drunk hot at breakfast in Bogotá and the Andes with a slice of fresh cheese dropped in to melt, given to children with a cold, and served iced with lime in the hot lowlands. This page is the hot version; the cold, lime-heavy cousin is Venezuela's papelón con limón. Chef's tip: simmer the panela gently until it dissolves completely and the drink smells of caramel; rushing it leaves sugary lumps at the bottom.

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KurmaSweet fried dough sticks

Kurma is a crunchy Indo-Trinidadian sweet made for Divali, weddings and pujas, and sold in bags at roadside parlours in Central Trinidad. A rich dough flavoured with ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg is cut into thin sticks, fried until hard and golden, then tossed in a hot ginger sugar syrup until it dries into a frosty white coating. It keeps for weeks in a tin. Chef's tip: keep stirring the kurma in the syrup off the heat until the sugar suddenly turns opaque and sandy. That moment is the whole trick; stop too early and the coating stays sticky, and the 'frost' is what makes kurma kurma.

60 min

Trinidadian Desserts

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DoublesCurried chickpeas in fried bread

Doubles are Trinidad's favourite street food, sold from carts at dawn on corners from Curepe to San Fernando and said to have started in Princes Town in the 1930s. Two pieces of bara, a soft, puffy fried flatbread coloured with turmeric, are piled with soft curried chickpeas (channa), then spooned with sweet tamarind sauce, cool cucumber chutney, shado beni sauce and as much pepper sauce as you dare ('slight' or 'heavy'). They're messy, cheap and wonderful, eaten standing up from a square of paper. These are different from Indian chole bhature: the bara is light and yeasty, the channa is cooked very soft in Caribbean curry, and the toppings are sweet, sour and fiery all at once. Chef's tip: keep the bara dough very soft and wet, and handle it only with oiled hands. Stretch each ball thin over your fingers and slide it straight into the hot oil, so it puffs light and stays soft instead of turning into a crisp puri.

120 min

Trinidadian Fast Food

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FestivalSweet fried cornmeal dumplings

Festival is a slightly sweet fried dumpling made with flour and cornmeal, and it's the classic partner to everything sold from the beach shacks at Hellshire in St Catherine, just outside Kingston. Each one is shaped like a little tapered log, fried until golden and crackly outside and soft and fluffy inside, with a hint of vanilla. Here they're served with escovitch-style pickled vegetables, steamed callaloo or jerk tofu instead of fried fish. Chef's tip: fry at a steady medium heat, around 170°C. If the oil is too hot, festival browns in a minute and stays raw and doughy in the middle.

30 min

Jamaican Sides

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Cuscuz nordestinoSteamed flaked corn cake

Cuscuz nordestino has nothing to do with North African couscous: it's a soft, fluffy cake of steamed flaked maize (flocão), eaten every morning across the Northeast, from Pernambuco to Bahia. It's served hot in wedges with a melting slab of butter, often with fried egg, cheese or coconut milk poured over. It's traditionally steamed in a cuscuzeira, a two-tier steamer, but a steamer basket lined with a cloth works too. Chef's tip: let the corn soak up the salted water for 10 minutes, then pack it into the steamer loosely. Pressed down, it turns dense and heavy; loose, it steams into a light cake that still holds together.

24 min

Brazilian Breakfast & Brunch

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GizzadaCoconut tarts

Gizzada (also called 'pinch-me-round') is a little Jamaican tart with a crisp, crimped crust and a chewy filling of grated coconut cooked with brown sugar, nutmeg and ginger. It's sold in bakeries and roadside stalls across Jamaica; the name is thought to come from the Portuguese 'queijada', brought by Portuguese Jewish settlers. Eat it with a cup of tea or as an afternoon treat. Chef's tip: cook the coconut filling until it's sticky and almost dry, with no syrup pooling in the pan. A wet filling soaks into the pastry and the crust goes soft instead of crisp.

60 min

Jamaican Baking

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Dhalpuri rotiSplit pea filled flatbread

Dhalpuri is the pride of Trinidad's Indo-Caribbean kitchens and roti shops, from Chaguanas to San Fernando: a large, soft, thin roti with a hidden layer of finely ground, seasoned yellow split peas. It's wrapped around curry channa and aloo, curry pumpkin or curry mango to make a 'roti', or torn and eaten alongside. It came with Indian indentured workers in the 1800s and became something distinctly Trini: thinner and softer than an Indian dal paratha, cooked on a flat iron 'tawa'. Chef's tip: the split peas must be boiled only until just tender, drained, then dried and ground into a fine, dry powder. Any dampness and the roti will burst when you roll it out.

90 min

Trinidadian Breads & Parathas

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Ital stewPumpkin and sweet potato stew

Ital food is the cooking of the Rastafari, found from the hills of St Andrew to roadside Ital shops in Westmoreland and St Thomas. It is plant-based, close to the earth and traditionally made without added salt, built on fresh 'food' (ground provisions) and greens. This stew is golden and gently sweet, thickened by melting pumpkin and silky okra, with coconut milk, thyme and pimento giving warmth and a whole scotch bonnet giving fruity heat. Serve with rice and peas or boiled green bananas. Chef's tip: cut half the pumpkin very small and the other half in big chunks. The small pieces collapse into the coconut milk and thicken it naturally, while the big ones hold their shape.

45 min

Jamaican Curries

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Heart of palm coxinhaHeart of palm croquettes

Coxinha is the king of Brazilian salgados, sold in every padaria and served at every birthday party, especially in São Paulo. The teardrop shape copies a chicken thigh, but coxinha de palmito, filled with soft heart of palm, tomato and creamy cheese, is a much-loved meat-free version. The dough is a cooked, savoury choux-like paste, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried until shatteringly crisp. Chef's tip: cook the dough until it comes away from the pan in one smooth ball, then knead it while still warm with oiled hands. Lumpy or under-cooked dough cracks in the fryer and lets the filling leak.

120 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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Curry mangoGreen mango curry

Curry mango is a Trinidadian favourite on the 'seven-curry' plate at Hindu weddings, pujas and Divali, served on a sohari (water-lily) leaf beside dhal, rice, pumpkin and channa. Hard green or half-ripe mangoes are chopped, skin, seed and all, then cooked in curry with garlic, roasted geera and a little sugar until tender and glossy. It's sour, sweet, salty and hot at once, and a spoonful brightens any rice and curry or a roti. Chef's tip: leave the skin on and add the sugar a little at a time. The skin keeps the pieces whole, and the right balance is when you taste sour first, then sweet, then the heat comes through.

40 min

Trinidadian Chutneys & Dips

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Curry channa and alooChickpea and potato curry

Curry channa and aloo is a staple of Trinidad's Indo-Caribbean home cooking: chickpeas and potatoes simmered in a turmeric-gold Caribbean curry until the potatoes start to break down and thicken the sauce. It's what fills a dhalpuri or buss-up-shut roti in roti shops from Chaguanas to Penal, and it's at every Hindu wedding and Divali feast. It isn't an Indian chana masala: there's no tomato or garam masala, the curry powder is the Caribbean kind, heavy with turmeric, coriander and fenugreek, and it's finished with shado beni (culantro) and green seasoning. Chef's tip: 'chunkay' the curry. Fry the curry paste in hot oil until it darkens, turns grainy and the oil separates before you add the chickpeas. Raw curry tastes dusty and flat; fried curry tastes rich and round.

45 min

Trinidadian Curries

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BeijinhoCoconut condensed milk sweets

Beijinho ('little kiss') is the white twin of brigadeiro, and the two always appear side by side at Brazilian birthday parties all over the country. Condensed milk is cooked with butter and coconut until thick, then rolled into small balls, coated in sugar or coconut and topped with a single clove. Chef's tip: don't skip the clove. It's the signature of a proper beijinho, giving a little warm, spicy perfume that balances all that sweetness (it's for decoration and aroma; take it out before eating).

32 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Açaí bowl

Açaí is a deep purple palm berry from Pará, in the Amazon, where people in Belém eat it as a thick, unsweetened purée with manioc meal alongside savoury food. The sweet, frozen açaí na tigela ('açaí in a bowl') was born on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro and became a Brazilian breakfast and post-surf favourite: thick as soft-serve ice cream, topped with crunchy granola, banana and strawberries. Chef's tip: use as little liquid as possible and blend in short pulses, scraping down the sides. Real açaí na tigela is spooned, not drunk; too much juice turns it into a smoothie.

10 min

Brazilian Breakfast & Brunch

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Rice and peas

No Sunday dinner anywhere in Jamaica is complete without rice and peas, and 'peas' here means red kidney beans. The beans tint the rice a soft pinkish brown, the coconut milk makes it rich and creamy, and a whole scotch bonnet sitting on top perfumes the pot with fruity heat without burning anyone. Serve with jerk tofu, Ital stew, steamed cabbage and fried ripe plantain. This version uses tinned beans and their liquid for an everyday cook; with dried beans, soak 250 g overnight and simmer them for about an hour first, then use their cooking water. Chef's tip: once the rice goes in, don't stir it. Cover the pot tightly (a sheet of foil under the lid helps) and let the steam do the work, so the grains come out separate and fluffy instead of mushy.

50 min

Jamaican Rice & Grains

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Jerk tofu and vegetables

Jerk was born in the hills of Portland parish, where Maroon communities slow-cooked spiced meat over pimento wood, and Boston Bay is still its home today. The heart of it is the wet marinade: spring onion, thyme, scotch bonnet and plenty of pimento (allspice), blitzed into a coarse green-brown paste. Here it clings to slabs of pressed tofu and chunky vegetables that are charred until sticky at the edges, smoky, hot and fragrant. Serve with rice and peas, fried ripe plantain or festival and a squeeze of lime. Chef's tip: toast whole pimento berries in a dry pan and grind them yourself; ready-ground allspice tastes flat, and the warm clove-pepper perfume of fresh pimento is what makes jerk taste like jerk.

50 min

Jamaican Vegetarian

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Fried ripe plantain

Fried ripe plantain is on almost every Jamaican plate, from breakfast with ackee and callaloo to Sunday dinner beside rice and peas. When plantains are fully ripe their starch turns to sugar, so the slices fry up soft and custardy inside with dark, sticky, caramelised edges, sweet with a little salt. Chef's tip: wait until the skin is mostly black. A yellow plantain fries up firm and starchy; a black one gives that melting, toffee-sweet result, and medium heat lets the sugars caramelise without burning.

15 min

Jamaican Sides

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Cornmeal porridge

Cornmeal porridge is the breakfast many Jamaicans grew up on, cooked in homes across the island before school and work. Fine cornmeal is simmered slowly with milk and water until thick and velvety, then spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla and sweetened with condensed milk. It's warm, filling and gently sweet. Chef's tip: whisk the cornmeal into cold water first to make a smooth slurry before it meets any heat. Adding dry cornmeal to hot liquid is how porridge goes lumpy.

20 min

Jamaican Breakfast & Brunch

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Jamaican carrot juice

Jamaican carrot juice isn't a thin health drink but a creamy, sweet treat, blended fresh in homes and sold cold in bottles at markets and juice stands across the island, especially on Sundays and at Christmas. Grated carrots are blended with water and strained, then sweetened with condensed milk and spiced with nutmeg, vanilla and a squeeze of lime. Chef's tip: add a squeeze of lime and a little fresh ginger. The sharpness cuts through the sweetness and stops the drink tasting flat, the way Jamaican cooks make it.

10 min

Jamaican Drinks

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BammyCassava flatbread

Bammy is one of Jamaica's oldest foods, a flatbread of grated cassava handed down from the Taíno people and still made by family producers in St Elizabeth, especially around Treasure Beach and the south coast. The cassava is grated, squeezed dry and pressed into firm rounds that keep for days. Before eating, they're soaked in coconut milk and fried, so they turn crisp outside and soft and chewy within, with a gentle nutty flavour. Serve with steamed callaloo, Ital stew or escovitch vegetables. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated cassava really, truly dry in a cloth, wringing it hard. Wet cassava steams into a gummy cake instead of setting into a firm bammy.

50 min

Jamaican Breads & Parathas

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Steamed cabbage

Steamed cabbage is the everyday side dish of Jamaican home cooking, served at breakfast with fried dumplings and at dinner beside rice and peas or stew peas. Shredded cabbage and carrot are cooked with very little water, so they steam in their own juices and turn sweet, peppery and glossy rather than soggy. Chef's tip: use only a splash of water and keep the lid on. The cabbage should be tender-crisp and still pale green, never boiled limp, so take it off the heat while it still has a little bite.

15 min

Jamaican Sides

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SaheenaDasheen leaf fritters

Saheena is an old Indo-Trinidadian snack sold by street vendors and doubles men, especially in Central and South Trinidad. Young dasheen (taro) leaves are spread with a spiced batter of ground split peas, garlic, turmeric and pepper, rolled up like a Swiss roll, steamed, then sliced into rounds and fried until crisp. Each slice shows green spirals of leaf and gold batter, and tastes earthy, savoury and garlicky. Serve with tamarind sauce or mango chutney. If you can't get dasheen leaves, large spinach or Swiss chard leaves work. Chef's tip: always cook dasheen leaves thoroughly. They contain crystals that make your throat itch if undercooked, which is why the rolls are steamed right through before frying.

60 min

Trinidadian Snacks & Starters

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Baião de doisRice and beans with cheese

Baião de dois ('a dance for two') is the pride of Ceará and the Northeast sertão: rice cooked in the broth of feijão-de-corda (a small cowpea; black-eyed peas are the closest match), then folded with cubes of squeaky queijo coalho until they just start to melt. It's usually made with dried beef and bacon; this version keeps the smoky note with paprika and finishes with nutty clarified butter (manteiga de garrafa). It's a one-pot meal on its own, or great with vinagrete. Chef's tip: cook the rice in the bean cooking water, not fresh water. That's what gives baião its brownish colour and deep bean flavour.

50 min

Brazilian Rice & Grains

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Aloo pieFried potato pastry pockets

Aloo pie is a Trinidadian street snack: a soft, chewy fried dough shaped like a big half-moon, filled with mashed potato seasoned with roasted geera, garlic, pepper and shado beni. It's sold at doubles stands, roti shops and school canteens all over the island, and the classic way to eat it is split open and loaded with curry channa, tamarind sauce and pepper. It's softer and breadier than an Indian samosa. Chef's tip: roast the geera seeds yourself until they're dark brown and fragrant, then grind them. That deep, smoky cumin flavour is what makes Trini aloo pie taste the way it should.

60 min

Trinidadian Snacks & Starters

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Acarajé with vegan vatapáBlack-eyed pea fritters with coconut paste

Acarajé is the street food of Salvador da Bahia, fried to order by the baianas de acarajé in their white lace dresses; the craft is protected as part of Brazil's cultural heritage. Peeled black-eyed peas are ground with onion, whipped until light and fried in dendê into crisp, airy fritters, then split and filled with vatapá, a rich paste of coconut, peanuts, cashews and ginger. Street versions add dried shrimp; this one leaves it out and leans on dendê and toasted nuts for depth. Add vinagrete and pepper sauce as they do in Salvador. Chef's tip: beat the bean paste until it's pale and fluffy, and test a little in a glass of water: when it floats, it's ready. That trapped air is what makes acarajé light inside.

120 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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Arroz e feijãoRice and beans

Arroz e feijão is the heart of the Brazilian table, eaten at lunch nearly every day from Porto Alegre to Manaus. Each half is simple but made with care: the rice is fried with garlic before simmering so the grains stay loose (soltinho), and the beans are finished with a refogado of onion and garlic that thickens their broth. In the South and Rio black beans are the norm; elsewhere it's the beige carioca bean. Chef's tip: when the beans are tender, fry the garlic and onion, add a ladle of beans and mash them in the pan, then stir it all back into the pot. This tempero is the step that makes Brazilian beans taste like home.

90 min

Brazilian Rice & Grains

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Jamaican callalooSteamed callaloo greens

In Jamaica, callaloo means the leaves and tender stems of a type of amaranth, sold in big bundles in every market from Coronation Market in Kingston to Santa Cruz in St Elizabeth. It's steamed down with onion, tomato, garlic and thyme into soft, savoury greens with a mild mineral sweetness, and eaten at breakfast with fried dumplings, boiled green bananas or hard dough bread, or as a side at dinner. Spinach or Swiss chard can stand in if you can't find callaloo. Chef's tip: peel the fibrous skin from the thicker stems with a small knife and slice the stems and leaves finely across, about 1 cm wide. That's how Jamaican cooks get callaloo that's tender all the way through rather than stringy.

20 min

Jamaican Sides

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BrigadeiroChocolate condensed milk truffles

Brigadeiro is Brazil's favourite sweet: no birthday party anywhere in the country is complete without trays of them in little paper cases. Condensed milk, cocoa and butter are stirred in a pan until thick, then rolled into soft, fudgy balls and coated in chocolate sprinkles. It's said to be named after Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes, an air force officer who ran for president in 1945. Chef's tip: learn the ponto (the doneness point). Tilt the pan and drag your spatula through the mixture: when it slides as one mass and you can see the pan base for 2–3 seconds before it closes up, it's ready. Undercooked brigadeiros won't hold a shape; overcooked ones turn chewy.

32 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Buss-up-shutTorn paratha roti

Buss-up-shut is the paratha roti of Trinidad, so called because the torn, flaky pieces look like a 'burst-up shirt'. A soft dough is spread with butter and oil, rolled into a coil to build layers, cooked on a hot tawa, then clapped and beaten with wooden paddles until it breaks into soft, buttery, flaky shreds. It's served in roti shops across Trinidad for scooping up curries, and is always at Hindu weddings and Divali feasts. Chef's tip: beat the roti while it's still scalding hot. The steam inside is what separates the layers, so the moment it leaves the tawa, clap it between your hands (in clean oven gloves) or bash it with two wooden spatulas until it shreds.

60 min

Trinidadian Breads & Parathas

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