Featured recipe

Jegar

Lamb liver skewers in bread

On winter evenings in Tehran, the smell of jegaraki stalls, small grill shops selling skewers of lamb liver, heart and kidney, drifts across the streets, and people queue for a few skewers wrapped in warm lavash with raw onion and basil. This home version uses lamb liver cut into cubes and grilled fast over very hot coals so it stays soft and juicy, then seasoned only with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon at the end. A common mistake is salting the liver before grilling; it draws out moisture and makes it tough, so salt it as it comes off the heat. Chef's tip: ask the butcher for very fresh liver and peel off the thin outer membrane before cutting; it makes the cubes tender.

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Tacos de guisado (picadillo and rajas con crema)

From about nine in the morning, guisado stalls set up on corners near offices and markets all over Mexico City, from the famous counters on Calle Ámsterdam in the Condesa to the stands outside the Mercado de Medellín. Clay pots line the counter, each with a different home-style stew: chicharrón in salsa verde, potato with chorizo, mole and many more. You point, and they spoon it into two warm tortillas. This home version makes two of the favourites, a tomatoey beef picadillo with potato and carrot, and smoky poblano strips with corn in cream. Chef's tip: always double the tortillas, as the stalls do; one tortilla tears under a juicy stew.

90 min

Mexican Meat

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Curried egg sandwich

A school canteen and church-fete favourite across Australia, the curried egg sandwich is soft white or wholemeal bread filled with hard-boiled egg mashed with mayonnaise and a little mild curry powder, often with lettuce or cress. It goes into lunch boxes cut into fingers. The common mistake is mashing the eggs while warm, which turns the mayonnaise oily and the filling runny; let them cool completely. Chef's tip: warm the curry powder in a dry pan for 20 seconds first, and the raw, dusty taste turns sweet and toasty.

20 min

Australian Snacks & Starters

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Aussie salad sandwich

The salad sandwich is the backbone of the Australian lunchbox and the school tuckshop order: soft bread built up with tinned beetroot, grated carrot, tasty cheese, tomato and crisp lettuce, cut into triangles and wrapped in paper. Beetroot is what makes it unmistakably Aussie. The common mistake is laying wet beetroot and tomato straight on bare bread, so by lunchtime it is pink and soggy. Many Cheddar-style "tasty" cheeses use animal rennet; choose one labelled vegetarian. Chef's tip: butter both slices to the edge and put the cheese and lettuce next to the bread, with the wet fillings sealed in the middle.

10 min

Australian Snacks & Starters

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Jicaletas (jícama lollipops with chamoy)

At home time outside primary schools in Mexico City's Coyoacán and Narvarte, carts sell jicaletas, thick rounds of jícama pushed onto a stick like a giant lollipop and painted bright red with sweet-sour chamoy. They are crunchy, juicy and cold, with salty, sour and spicy layers on the outside, and make a light afternoon snack on a hot day. Chef's tip: cut the slices at least 1.5 cm thick, otherwise they snap off the stick at the first bite.

10 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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Bolo de pote (cake in a jar)

On Sundays, when Avenida Paulista closes to cars, sellers line the pavement with cool boxes of bolo de pote, and the same jars turn up at São Paulo's weekly street fairs and outside metro stations: soft sponge cake layered with creamy fillings and eaten with a spoon. Brigadeiro cream (condensed milk cooked with cocoa) and a sweet, milky cream made with milk powder are the two everyone wants. They are rich and very sweet, so the jars are small. They contain egg, wheat and milk. Chef's tip: take both creams off the heat while they are still a little runny; they thicken as they cool and must stay soft enough to spread.

90 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Cháo cá hồi bí đỏ (salmon and pumpkin congee)

Cháo cá hồi bí đỏ, salmon and pumpkin congee, is one of the most-shared ăn dặm (weaning) recipes among young parents in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, a sunny orange bowl full of omega-3 fats. Rice simmers soft with diced pumpkin, then fresh salmon is poached in the pot at the end, so it stays moist. There is no fish sauce, salt or sugar, just the natural sweetness of the pumpkin. It contains fish and is free of milk, egg, gluten, nuts, soya and sesame. Chef's tip: run your fingers along the salmon fillet before cooking and pull out the pin bones with tweezers; they are much easier to find raw.

40 min

Vietnamese Rice & Grains

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Dragon's beard candy

Dragon's beard candy is one of the old street crafts of Hong Kong, still demonstrated by a few hawkers in Tsim Sha Tsui and at Kowloon City snack shops, where children watch a hard disc of sugar stretched and folded in starch until it becomes a skein of hair-fine threads. Each cocoon is wrapped around a crunchy filling of peanuts, sesame and coconut and must be eaten within minutes, before it melts in the humidity. It takes practice; your first batch may be thicker threads, and that is fine. Contains peanuts and sesame; not for children under five, who can choke on the filling. Chef's tip: toast the cornflour first, as raw starch tastes chalky and is not safe to eat uncooked.

60 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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Pâté en croûtePork and veal pie in pastry

Lyon's charcuteries display pâté en croûte like jewellery: a tall loaf of crisp, golden pastry wrapped around a coarse terrine of pork and veal. A slice wrapped in paper is a picnic and lunchbox luxury, and the whole loaf is a Sunday project eaten over several days. The common mistake is undercooking it for fear of drying it out: as it is made with minced pork, the centre must reach 71 °C, so use a probe thermometer. The classic farce has a splash of cognac; it's optional here, and apple juice or extra stock is the alcohol-free swap. Chef's tip: chill the filled, unbaked loaf for 30 minutes before baking so the pastry keeps its shape and pattern.

150 min

French Meat

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Batata nu rasawalu shaakPotato curry in thin gravy

Batata nu rasawalu shaak is the potato curry that arrives with hot puris at Gujarati wedding breakfasts, Sunday brunches and festival thalis, and it is one of the first curries children in Gujarat love. Soft potato chunks float in a thin, red, sweet-and-sour gravy with mustard seed, curry leaves and hing, lightly spicy and very comforting. Serve with puri, rotli or plain rice. The usual mistake is cutting the potatoes in uneven pieces, so some fall apart while others stay hard; cut them all the same size. Chef's tip: once the potatoes are cooked, mash a few against the side of the pan; the starch gives the rasa (gravy) body without any flour.

30 min

Indian Vegetarian

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Jing gao (Xi'an steamed sticky rice and date cake)

Before the shops of Xi'an's Muslim Quarter open, vendors on Beiyuanmen and Sajinqiao lift the lids of huge iron zeng pots and carve out jing gao, a dense breakfast of glutinous rice, red dates and kidney beans steamed so long that the dates melt into a jammy layer. It is scooped onto paper plates with a flat spade and eaten hot, often with a sprinkle of sugar, by workers on their way in. The home version steams in a heatproof bowl and needs time rather than skill. The rice turns glossy and chewy, the dates taste of toffee and the beans give a soft, earthy bite. Chef's tip: lay the dates as the bottom and top layers, because their sugar is what colours and flavours the rice as it steams.

240 min

Chinese Breakfast & Brunch

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Mâncare de dovleceiStewed courgettes

In Romanian homes, from Moldova to Oltenia, mâncare de dovlecei is the summer stew made when the garden is full of courgettes, and it fills a pot on fasting days when Orthodox families eat no animal products. Courgettes are cooked down slowly with onion, peppers and tomato until soft and sweet, then finished with a fistful of dill and garlic. Eat it warm or at room temperature with bread or a slice of mămăligă. The usual mistake is adding too much liquid: courgettes release their own water, and a watery pot loses its flavour. Chef's tip: let the onion and pepper soften properly before the courgettes go in; that sweetness is what seasons the whole stew.

40 min

Romanian Vegetarian

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Aate ka halwaWholewheat flour halwa

Across Marwar, this simple halwa is the one cooked for temple prasad, for Satyanarayan katha and for women in the weeks after giving birth, when ghee and jaggery are thought to build strength. Wholewheat flour is roasted slowly in plenty of ghee until it turns a deep nutty brown, then cooked with hot water and sugar or jaggery until soft and glossy. The whole thing takes 30 minutes. The common mistake is rushing the roast on high heat, which leaves the flour raw-tasting inside and scorched outside. Chef's tip: roast on low heat until the colour is like milky tea and the ghee starts to separate and bubble around the flour.

30 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Acar buahFruit pickle

In Penang, Nyonya households start filling big glass jars with acar buah a week before Chinese New Year, so there is always a dish to set out for visitors with tea, and to eat beside nasi lemak or curry through the fifteen days. Penang is nutmeg country, and candied strips of nutmeg fruit (buah pala) from the Balik Pulau orchards go in with green papaya, dried apricots and raisins, all coated in a rempah of chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal and candlenuts fried until the oil splits, then cooked with vinegar and sugar. A shower of toasted sesame and crushed peanuts finishes it. It is sticky, jammy, sweet-hot and tangy, with crunchy papaya against chewy fruit. Many cooks add a little toasted belacan to the rempah; it is left out here to keep it vegan. Common mistake: frying the rempah too briefly, which leaves it harsh and makes the pickle spoil faster; cook it slowly until dark red and the oil separates. It tastes best after two days in the fridge. Chef's tip: squeeze the salted papaya as hard as you can, or the pickle turns watery.

70 min

Malaysian Chutneys & Dips

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Andaman mud crab curry

The mangrove creeks around Port Blair give the Andaman Islands their famous mud crabs, and families of Bengali, Tamil and Malayali descent there cook them in a rich red curry of coconut, tamarind and roasted chilli for Sunday lunch and celebrations. It is messy, hands-on eating with plain rice, cracking the claws to reach the sweet meat. Buy live or very fresh crabs from a trusted fishmonger and have them dispatched and cleaned there. The common mistake is undercooking the crab: cook until every shell is bright orange-red and the meat inside is white and opaque. Chef's tip: crack the claws lightly with the back of a knife before they go in, so the gravy seasons the meat.

65 min

Indian Fish

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BooCowpea leaves in peanut paste

Ask someone from Lira or Kitgum what home tastes like and many will say boo, the leaves of the cowpea plant, picked young from the same fields that give the beans. Slow-cooked until they are dark and silky, then thickened with groundnut paste, they turn into a mellow, slightly bitter, deeply savoury green sauce with none of the tartness of malakwang. It is everyday food, eaten with kalo, posho or sweet potatoes. Fresh, frozen or dried cowpea leaves are sold at African grocers; kale or spring greens stand in well. Chef's tip: a pinch of bicarbonate of soda in the first boil softens tough leaves quickly and keeps their colour; any more than a pinch makes them soapy.

40 minEast African Sides

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Jambon-beurreHam and butter baguette

France sells millions of jambon-beurre every working day: half a crusty baguette, split, spread with good salted butter and filled with thin slices of jambon de Paris, the delicate cooked pork ham. Parisians eat it at the office, on a park bench or on the train. The common mistake is a stingy smear of hard butter; the butter is a filling, not a glue, so spread it soft and generous. Some add cornichons, which purists call a different sandwich. Chef's tip: fold each slice of ham loosely in half rather than laying it flat, so the sandwich is airy and every bite has ham.

5 min

French Fast Food

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Ka'i ladrilloPeanut molasses bricks

Ka'i ladrillo — 'monkey brick' in Guaraní — is the sweet sold by vendors on Asunción buses and at country fiestas: roasted peanuts bound in boiled cane molasses and set in brick-shaped blocks, crunchy and dark with a slightly smoky toffee taste. It contains peanuts, so keep it away from anyone with a peanut allergy. The common mistake is taking the syrup off too soon, so the bricks stay sticky and never set. Chef's tip: test the syrup by dropping a little into cold water; it is ready when it sets into a brittle thread that snaps.

40 min

Paraguayan Desserts

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Cremolada (Lima passion fruit slush)

From January to March, when Lima's coast swelters, queues form at the cremolada counters of Barranco and along the Jirón de la Unión downtown for cups of this thick fruit ice. It sits between a granita and a sorbet: frozen fruit pulp scraped again and again until it is slushy and spoonable, with real bits of fruit through it. Passion fruit (maracuyá) gives a sharp, bright flavour; creamy lúcuma, with its maple and sweet potato taste, is the other favourite. Chef's tip: use a shallow metal tray; it freezes faster and evenly, so you get fine crystals rather than chunks.

180 min

Peruvian Desserts

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Peameal bacon sandwich

The peameal bacon sandwich is Toronto's signature breakfast, served from the stalls of St Lawrence Market since the early 1900s. Peameal bacon is cured but unsmoked pork loin rolled in yellow cornmeal (once ground dried peas, hence the name). Thick slices are griddled until golden and piled into a soft kaiser roll with yellow mustard. It is a Saturday market ritual. A common mistake is slicing too thin, which dries it out; aim for 5 mm. Chef's tip: cook it over a medium heat, not high, so the cornmeal crisps without burning before the pork is cooked.

17 min

Canadian Fast Food

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Zeng gao (Xi'an steamed rice cakes with jujube)

Walk the lanes of Huimin Jie in Xi'an in the late afternoon and you will see small round cakes steaming in stacked cups, then flipped out and speared onto bamboo sticks for children heading home from school. They are made from glutinous rice flour rubbed to a damp crumb, layered with sweet jujube paste and steamed until the crumb fuses into a soft, springy cake with a dark red stripe through the middle. They are lightly sweet, chewy and best eaten warm. Chef's tip: rub the flour with water until it just clumps when squeezed, then sieve it, because a light, airy crumb is what makes the cake tender.

60 min

Chinese Desserts

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Bibim dangmyeonSpicy glass noodles

At the crossing of Gukje Market and BIFF Square, near Nampo-dong, women sit behind low tables mixing bibim dangmyeon to order for shoppers perched on plastic stools. Chewy sweet-potato noodles are piled with seasoned spinach, carrot, yellow pickled radish and strips of Busan fish cake, then drenched in a sweet, tangy chilli sauce that you mix with chopsticks. It is a quick, cheap bowl, eaten year round, cold in summer. Chef's tip: rinse the noodles in cold water straight after cooking; it stops them clumping and keeps them bouncy.

25 min

Korean Pasta & Noodles

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DakgangjeongSticky glazed fried chicken

Dakgangjeong is the boxed fried chicken of Sokcho's Jungang market on Korea's east coast, carried home by the tub and packed into lunchboxes the next day, because the double-fried pieces in their sticky glaze stay crunchy even when cold. The common mistake is frying only once; the second fry drives out moisture so the crust holds up to the sauce. Chef's tip: coat with potato starch rather than flour, and let the coated chicken sit for 5 minutes so the starch hydrates into a craggy crust.

55 min

Korean Chicken

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Agua de chilacayoteFig-leaf squash drink

When the big, mottled chilacayote squashes ripen at the end of the rains, cooks in Oaxaca's valleys and the Mixteca of Puebla turn them into a drink you eat with a spoon. The flesh is cooked with dark piloncillo and cinnamon until it falls into translucent threads, then cooled and loosened with water; in Oaxaca it is ladled out of clay jars at fairs, weddings and the Day of the Dead, often with a little pineapple. It tastes like cinnamon-scented panela, with soft, slightly crunchy strands that slide up the straw. The usual mistake is boiling it to mush; overcooked flesh goes cloudy and the strands disappear. Simmer gently and stop when the threads separate easily with a fork but still have a little bite. It is ready when the syrup is amber and the strands look glassy. Chilacayote is hard to find outside Mexico; spaghetti squash is the best substitute and gives the same threads. Keeps 3 days in the fridge. Chef's tip: grate a little orange zest into the pot in the last minute to brighten the piloncillo.

60 min

Mexican Drinks

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Caipirinha

Brazil's national drink lives on every boteco counter in São Paulo, but it tastes best on a hot Saturday beside a pot of feijoada, or handed over from a beach vendor's cart. It is a short, rough-cut drink for adults only: a whole lime chopped into wedges, crushed with sugar right in the glass, packed with crushed ice and drowned in cachaça, the sugarcane spirit with a grassy, faintly funky edge that rum does not have. Each sip moves from sharp lime oil to cold sweetness to a warm cane finish, with a little crunchy sugar at the bottom to stir back up. The usual mistake is pounding the lime to a pulp: the white pith and the core turn bitter within minutes. Cut out the central white strip, press each wedge only until the juice runs and the skin smells of lime oil, then stop. It is ready when the sugar has mostly melted into a cloudy syrup and the glass frosts on the outside. Cachaça is strong, so sip slowly and drink responsibly. Chef's tip: roll the lime hard on the board before cutting and choose thin-skinned, heavy limes; a thick-skinned lime makes a bitter caipirinha however gently you muddle.

5 min

Brazilian Drinks

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Capeletis a la CarusoStuffed pasta in cream sauce

Capeletis a la Caruso were created in a Montevideo restaurant in the 1950s and named after the great tenor, and they are still a Sunday lunch favourite in Uruguayan homes: little stuffed pasta hats in a rich sauce of cream, cooked ham (pork), mushrooms and onion, finished with grated cheese. Buy good fresh capeletis or tortellini; the sauce is what you make. The usual mistake is boiling the cream sauce hard, which makes it oily and grainy. Chef's tip: cook the mushrooms in a dry hot pan first until they squeak and brown, before any butter goes in, for a deeper taste.

35 min

Paraguayan Pasta & Noodles

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Ginataang puso ng sagingBanana blossom in coconut milk

Every banana tree in the Philippine countryside gives a heavy purple flower, and in Bicol, Batangas and the Visayas it is shredded and stewed in coconut milk as an everyday ulam for lunch with rice. The banana blossom has a tender, slightly flaky texture and soaks up the ginger, garlic and chilli. The traditional version includes shrimp or fish; this one is vegan. The usual mistake is skipping the salt rub: unrubbed banana blossom stays bitter and turns the sauce grey, so squeeze out its dark sap first. Chef's tip: keep the shredded blossom in water with a spoon of vinegar while you work, so it stays pale.

35 min

Filipino Vegetarian

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Mula ko tarkariRadish curry

In the hills around Kathmandu and Pokhara, long white winter radishes are pulled with their leaves still on, and both go into this simple tarkari served beside dal-bhat. The radish is cut into thin batons and cooked down in mustard oil with a sizzle of fenugreek seed, turmeric and tingly timur pepper until it turns sweet and translucent, while the greens wilt in at the end. The usual mistake is adding too much water: radish releases plenty of its own juice, and extra water turns it into a bland soup. Chef's tip: let the fenugreek seeds turn dark brown, almost black, before the radish goes in; that toasty bitterness is what makes Nepali radish taste right.

30 min

Nepali Vegetarian

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Fermented bean curd

Fu ru is made all over China, from Guilin's chilli-red cubes to Shaoxing's pale ones, and is usually prepared in the cool months between late autumn and early spring, when the moulds grow slowly and cleanly. Firm tofu cubes sit on rice straw or a rack until a soft white fuzz covers them; they are then rolled in salt and chilli and aged in brine until the centre turns custard-soft and the flavour becomes deep, cheesy and savoury. A quarter of a cube is mashed over plain rice congee for breakfast, or stirred into a sauce for stir-fried water spinach. Common mistake: making it in a warm kitchen; above about 20 °C the wrong moulds and bacteria take over. The bloom must be white or greyish-white and fluffy, smelling mildly of mushrooms; throw away any cube with green, black, pink, orange or yellow spots, sliminess or an ammonia or rotten smell, and if many are affected discard the whole batch. Do not reduce the salt: it is what keeps this low-acid soy ferment safe, and the whole ageing happens in the fridge. It is ready after 6–8 weeks, when a cube is soft right through. Chef's tip: press the tofu overnight first, drier cubes grow a cleaner bloom.

70 min

Chinese Chutneys & Dips

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Alle belleCoconut-filled pancake rolls

Alle belle are the tea-time sweet of Goan Catholic homes: soft, lacy pancakes, sometimes tinted with a little green from pandan or turmeric leaf, rolled up around a sticky filling of fresh coconut and dark palm jaggery (godd). They appear at feast-day teas, at village fairs and in school tiffin boxes, and they contain egg in the batter. The common mistake is a thick batter, which gives heavy pancakes that crack when rolled; it should pour like single cream and spread thinly with a swirl of the pan. Chef's tip: cook the filling until it is sticky but still soft, then add a pinch of salt, because the salt makes the palm jaggery taste richer.

45 min

Indian Desserts

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Bokkeum kimchiStir-fried kimchi with pork belly

When a jar of kimchi turns very sour in Korean homes, it gets stir-fried with a little sugar and sesame oil, and often with pork belly, into bokkeum kimchi, a deep, mellow side dish that keeps for days and is a favourite in school and office dosirak. For a vegan version, use kimchi made without fish sauce or salted shrimp and leave out the pork. The usual mistake is using fresh, crisp kimchi, which tastes harsh when fried; it needs to be properly sour. Chef's tip: fry the kimchi until the edges just begin to catch and caramelise, which is where the flavour is.

17 min

Korean Sides

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Aloo pitikaMashed potato with mustard oil

Aloo pitika is the first thing on many Assamese lunch plates, a rough mash of boiled potato sharpened with raw mustard oil, onion, green chilli and coriander, eaten with the first mouthfuls of rice and dal. Guwahati families make it daily, and in winter it may be mixed with roasted aubergine or a boiled egg. The usual mistake is making it smooth like a Western purée; it should be coarse and hand-mashed so the onion and chilli stay crunchy. Chef's tip: use pungent kachi ghani mustard oil and rub it in last, so its heat hits the nose.

25 min

Indian Sides

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Pasta e cavolfiorePasta with cauliflower

Pasta e cavolfiore belongs to the family of thick Neapolitan 'pasta e…' dishes eaten at home on Fridays and cold weekdays, when a single cauliflower and a handful of mixed pasta ends have to feed the family. The cauliflower is softened with garlic, a little tomato and chilli, then the pasta is cooked right in it with small additions of hot water until the whole pot is creamy and the cauliflower has partly melted into the sauce. Finish with pecorino and black pepper. The usual mistake is cooking the cauliflower in big florets, which never break down; cut it small so some of it becomes the sauce. Chef's tip: let it rest for two minutes off the heat after the cheese goes in; it thickens into the proper 'azzeccata' texture that holds a fork upright.

40 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Kari gros poisButter bean curry

In Mauritius, gros pois (butter beans) are a pantry staple, and kari gros pois is cooked in Creole and Indo-Mauritian homes alike for weekday lunches and Friday meat-free meals. The beans simmer in a curry of onion, tomato, garlic and ginger, flavoured with curry powder, fresh thyme and curry leaves, so it tastes of both India and the island's French side. It is served with rice, farata flatbreads and a tomato or chilli chutney. The usual mistake is frying the curry powder on high heat; it scorches in seconds and turns bitter. Pressure cooker option: cook the soaked beans for 15 minutes at pressure. Chef's tip: crush a few beans into the sauce at the end, which thickens it without any flour.

85 min

Mauritian Curries

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Bhel puri

On Girgaum and Juhu Chowpatty the bhelwalas set up as the sun drops into the Arabian Sea, and bhel puri is what Mumbai eats while it walks along the sand. Puffed rice, crushed flat puris and boiled potato are tossed in a steel bowl with sweet tamarind and fiery green chutneys, then buried under fine sev and handed over in a folded paper cone with a puri for a spoon. It is crunchy, sweet, sour and hot all at once, and it has to be eaten within minutes. Chef's tip: lay out every component before you start, because the mixing takes thirty seconds and the crunch only lasts about five minutes.

20 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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AmbalSweet and sour pumpkin

Ambal belongs to the Dogra dham of Jammu, the feast cooked by the hereditary siyan cooks for weddings and festivals and served on leaf plates in a fixed order. Yellow pumpkin is softened with fenugreek seeds and fennel, then simmered in a dark tamarind and jaggery sauce until it is sticky, sour and sweet at once, which is what the name, from 'amla' for sour, promises. It is eaten with rice alongside the dham's dals and madra. The common mistake is stirring hard once the pumpkin is soft, which turns it to mush; shake the pan instead. Chef's tip: let it rest an hour before serving, as the tamarind settles and the flavour deepens.

40 min

Indian Curries

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Huanggui shizi bing (Xi'an persimmon cakes)

Every autumn, when Lintong's soft persimmons ripen outside Xi'an, griddles across the Muslim Quarter fill with these orange cakes. The dough is little more than ripe persimmon pulp and flour, so it fries crisp and caramelised outside while staying chewy and sticky inside, and the filling of brown sugar, walnuts, sesame and dried osmanthus melts into a fragrant syrup. They are bought hot in a paper sleeve as an afternoon snack. They contain wheat and walnuts. Chef's tip: use persimmons so ripe they feel like a water balloon; firm ones make the dough taste furry and astringent.

60 min

Chinese Desserts

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Angakar rotiThick rice flour roti

Angakar roti takes its name from angaar, the glowing coals of a village chulha in Chhattisgarh, where a thick round of rice dough is sandwiched between palash or banana leaves and buried in the embers until smoky and crusted. Farmers carry it to the fields with chutney and a green chilli, and it is still a winter breakfast across Bilaspur and Raipur. At home a heavy tawa and a lid do the job. The common slip is making the dough too wet; it should be soft but hold a fingerprint, or the roti stays gummy in the middle. Chef's tip: mix in a spoon of leftover cooked rice for a softer crumb, just as Chhattisgarhi grandmothers do.

35 min

Indian Breads & Parathas

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Agi bulgogi (toddler bulgogi)

Agi bulgogi, 'baby bulgogi', is the dish Korean parents in Seoul's apartment blocks make once the iyusik stage ends and children start yuaosik, eating soft versions of family food at around 12 months. Grated Korean pear and onion tenderise the beef and sweeten it, so it needs only a drop of soy sauce rather than the sugary grown-up marinade. It is soft, juicy and easy to chew, served with soft rice and courgette. It contains soya and wheat (in soy sauce), and sesame if you use the oil; there is no milk, egg or nuts. Chef's tip: grate the pear finely and squeeze nothing out; the juice is what keeps the meat tender.

30 min

Korean Meat

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Feijão de óleo de palmaPalm oil beans

No Saturday table in Luanda feels complete without a pot of these beans next to the funge, and the deep orange colour of the dende oil tells you they are ready. Soft, creamy beans are simmered with onion, garlic, tomato and a generous pour of red palm oil until the broth thickens and every bean is coated, earthy, faintly smoky and rich. Serve them with funge de bombó (cassava) or funge de milho, with fried plantain, or with rice and greens. Buy unrefined red palm oil from an African grocer, ideally certified sustainable; it is not the same as the pale refined kind. Chef's tip: hold back the salt and tomato until the beans are truly soft, because both firm up the skins and are the usual reason a bean pot never gets creamy.

90 minSouthern African Curries

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Kawal

Kawal is one of the most distinctive pantry foods of western Sudan, made in Darfur and Kordofan at the height of the rains in August and September, when wild senna (Senna obtusifolia, called kawal or fedo) springs up thickly around villages. Women strip the young leaves, pound them to a dark green pulp and pack it into a clay pot sealed with sorghum leaves, then leave it in a cool, shaded spot for about two weeks, remixing it every few days. The fermented paste is rolled into small balls and dried in the sun, and these keep through the dry months. Crumbled into mullah stews with okra, onions and dried meat and eaten with kisra or aseeda, kawal gives a deep, meaty, pungent savour much like West African dawadawa; the smell straight from the pot is strong and ammonia-like but mellows completely in cooking. The usual mistake is leaving the pot somewhere warm and forgetting to remix it, so the paste rots instead of fermenting. It is ready when the paste is dark, sticky and strongly savoury but not putrid. Chef's tip: if you cannot be certain of the plant, buy dried kawal from a Sudanese grocer.

90 min

Sudanese Basics

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Keema naan (Lahore style)

Along Lahore's Fort Road food street, in sight of the Badshahi Mosque, tandoors work late into the night baking naan with a thin layer of spiced mince pressed inside. The bread puffs and chars in the oven and comes out glossy with butter, with juicy, peppery meat in every bite. At home a very hot oven and a preheated tray stand in for the tandoor. Contains wheat and dairy. Chef's tip: cook the mince first and let it cool fully; warm filling softens the dough and it tears when you roll it.

90 min

Pakistani Breads & Parathas

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Hot jam doughnuts

Hot jam doughnuts have been sold from a van at Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne since the 1950s, and the queue on a cold Saturday morning is part of the ritual. The small round yeast doughnuts are fried, injected with hot raspberry jam and rolled in sugar, then eaten straight from the paper bag; careful, the jam is scorching. A common mistake is frying at too high a heat, which browns the outside before the inside cooks. Chef's tip: let the shaped dough rise until it springs back slowly when poked, or the doughnuts will be heavy.

50 min

Australian Desserts

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AppelstroopApple syrup

In Dutch and Belgian Limburg, appelstroop is spread on brown bread at breakfast, often under a slice of Gouda, and it goes into the Limburg sour stew zoervleis. It is nothing but apples (with a few pears) cooked to a pulp, pressed and boiled down for hours into a glossy, almost black syrup that tastes sweet, sharp and faintly of caramel. The common mistake is stopping too early: until it coats a cold plate and holds a line, it is apple juice, not stroop. Chef's tip: in the last half hour stir constantly and lower the heat, because the thick syrup catches and burns in seconds.

260 min

Dutch Basics

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Arroz con queso cruceñoCreamy baked cheese rice

Lunch tables in Santa Cruz and Beni regularly carry a dish of arroz con queso next to the grilled meat: rice cooked soft and stirred with milk, butter and plenty of crumbled lowland cheese, then baked until the top turns golden. Cruceño cooks serve it with fried plantain and a tomato salad. Local cheese is usually made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian mild Cheddar or a feta-style cheese if you need one. The most common mistake is draining the rice; it needs its starch to turn creamy. Chef's tip: hold back a third of the cheese and scatter it on top just before baking, so you get a melted core and a browned crust.

50 minAndean Rice & Grains

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Ají de arvejasPeas and potatoes in chilli sauce

Ají de arvejas is a homely Bolivian stew from La Paz and Cochabamba, cooked for weekday lunch or on Fridays and in Lent, when many families eat no meat. Green peas and potatoes simmer in a golden sauce of onion, tomato and ají amarillo (yellow chilli), and cubes of fresh white cheese are stirred in at the end so they soften without melting away. It is served with plain white rice and sometimes a boiled egg. Bolivian queso fresco is often made with animal rennet; for vegetarians, use a paneer or a fresh cheese labelled vegetarian. The usual mistake is boiling the cheese, which turns it rubbery. Chef's tip: cook the ají paste with the onion until it darkens slightly, which takes the raw edge off the chilli.

40 minAndean Vegetarian

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Thabdi pendaCaramelised milk pendas

Rajkot's sweet shops are famous across Gujarat for thabdi, a crumbly, toffee-brown penda that starts as plain milk and sugar and ends, two hours later, as something close to caramel fudge. The milk is boiled down in a wide iron kadai, a spoon of curd splits it slightly to give the trademark grainy texture, and the sugar browns slowly with it until the whole mass is the colour of milky tea. The usual mistake is rushing on high heat: the milk catches and tastes burnt rather than caramelised. Chef's tip: use a wide, heavy pan and a flat wooden spatula, and keep scraping the bottom and sides every minute once the milk is half reduced.

145 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Dongbei luan dunMixed vegetable stew

Luan dun, the 'chaotic stew', is everyday harvest cooking from Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, made in autumn when the garden gives everything at once and a big pot feeds the whole household through the cold evenings. Potato, aubergine, green beans, corn on the cob, peppers and tomato are cooked together in a soy-scented broth until soft and saucy, with the potato thickening it naturally. Serve it with steamed rice or mantou buns. The usual mistake is putting everything in together, so the beans stay squeaky while the aubergine turns to mush; add the vegetables in order of how long they take. A pressure cooker works too: 4 minutes on high after the beans and potato go in. Chef's tip: crush the potato pieces lightly against the pot near the end to give the stew body.

50 min

Chinese Vegetarian

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Bubur kacang hijauSweet mung bean porridge

In Java, the bubur kacang ijo seller pushes a cart through the neighbourhood from early morning, ladling warm mung bean porridge sweetened with palm sugar and topped with thick coconut milk. Many people eat it with a slice of white bread dunked in, and late-night stalls in Jakarta sell it alongside instant noodles. The common mistake is adding the sugar too early, which keeps the beans firm; cook them soft first. Chef's tip: cook the coconut milk separately with a pinch of salt and a pandan leaf and pour it on top, so the bowl has a sweet layer and a slightly salty, creamy one.

60 min

Indonesian Breakfast & Brunch

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