Featured recipe

Dakjuk

Chicken and rice porridge

All over Korea, dakjuk is the bowl a mother makes on a cold morning or when someone is under the weather: chicken simmered with garlic and ginger, the meat pulled into shreds, and soaked rice cooked down in the broth until it turns into a soft, savoury porridge finished with sesame oil. It is eaten for breakfast or as a gentle lunch, with a little kimchi on the side. The usual mistake is boiling the chicken hard, which clouds the broth and toughens the meat; keep it at a lazy simmer. Chef's tip: fry the soaked rice in sesame oil for two minutes before the broth goes in, so the grains toast lightly and the porridge tastes nutty rather than flat.

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Del curryBreadfruit coconut curry

Breadfruit trees grow in almost every village garden in Sri Lanka, and del curry is the filling weekday and almsgiving dish that makes use of them, especially in the wet south-west. Chunks of breadfruit are simmered in coconut milk with roasted curry powder, a little mustard paste, curry leaves and pandan, until they turn soft, creamy and starchy like a good potato. Eat it with rice, pol sambol and a green mallung. The usual mistake is skipping the pre-boil; breadfruit contains a sticky latex and can stay firm, so boil the pieces first. Chef's tip: stir the mustard paste in only at the end and don't boil it hard afterwards, or it turns bitter.

45 min

Sri Lankan Curries

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GundrukFermented leafy greens

After the rice harvest in October and November, hill families from Ilam to Gorkha cut the leaves of mustard greens, radish and cauliflower, leave them to wilt in the yard, then pound them into clay pots or pits to ferment. A week later the greens come out olive-brown and sour, and they are dried on bamboo mats in the bright Dashain-Tihar sun. That dried gundruk carries families through the lean winter: soaked and simmered into gundruk ko jhol with tomato and soybeans beside dal-bhat, or tossed into gundruk sadeko with onion, chilli and mustard oil to eat with chiura. The flavour is deeply sour, earthy and a little smoky, the dried leaves chewy-crisp, softening when cooked. Common mistake: packing the leaves loosely; air left in the jar lets mould grow instead of the sour lactic ferment, so press until juice rises over the greens. It is ready to dry when it smells sharply sour like good sauerkraut and the leaves have lost all their green. Chef's tip: if your greens are from a supermarket, mix mustard greens with radish tops or kale for the closest flavour, and ferment in a big jar with a weight.

45 min

Nepali Basics

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Bajan rum punch

Every Barbadian knows the rhyme: one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak. It is how rum punch is mixed for Sunday lunch, at beach limes, at the Friday night fish fry in Oistins and through the Crop Over festival in July and August. The punch is for adults only and it is strong, so pour it over plenty of ice and drink responsibly. Made right, it tastes bright and tangy from lime, rounded by brown-sugar syrup, warm with golden Barbados rum and finished by aromatic bitters and the woody smell of fresh nutmeg on top. The usual mistake is reading 'weak' as fruit juice or adding extra rum: the four of weak is water (and melting ice), and swapping in sweet juices makes the punch cloying. Make the syrup properly, measure by volume and taste before you add the last of the water. It is ready when the sweet and sour are in balance, nothing catches your throat and the jug is beaded with cold. It also keeps 2 days in the fridge, so it can be made ahead. Chef's tip: grate the nutmeg over each glass at the table; ready-ground nutmeg has lost the smell that makes Bajan punch what it is.

15 min

Bajan Drinks

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Trini pepper sauce

Ask for doubles anywhere in Trinidad and the vendor will ask "slight or heavy?", meaning how much pepper sauce goes on. This raw, rough-blended sauce also goes on pholourie, aloo pie, bake and saltfish and Christmas pastelles, and every family swears theirs is best. Scotch bonnet or local congo peppers are blended with shado beni (culantro), plenty of garlic, prepared mustard, vinegar and lime, and many cooks stretch it with grated green papaya or green mango for body. It tastes ferociously hot, sharp, garlicky and green, with a tangy mustard finish. Abroad, swap the culantro for double the amount of coriander with its stalks. Common mistake: following the old habit of standing the bottle in the sun to "cure"; raw garlic and herbs are not safe at room temperature, so let the flavours marry in the fridge instead. Wear gloves and keep the blender lid on. It is ready after 2–3 days in the fridge, when the colour turns from bright to olive and the raw garlic edge has softened. Chef's tip: salt and squeeze the grated papaya before adding it, so it does not water the sauce down.

25 min

Trinidadian Chutneys & Dips

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HacheeBeef and onion stew

Hachee is the Dutch stoofpotje that grandmothers in Friesland, Groningen and Brabant leave murmuring on the back of the stove on cold Sundays: beef braised with almost as much onion as meat, plus bay leaves, cloves and a splash of vinegar, until it falls apart into a dark, sweet-sour gravy. It goes on boiled potatoes with red cabbage, or with stamppot, and leftovers are eaten on toast. The usual mistake is rushing the onions: they need a good 15 minutes to turn deep golden, or the gravy stays pale and sharp. Slow-cooker option: after browning, cook on low for 8 hours. Chef's tip: stir in a spoon of dark syrup or apple butter at the end only if the vinegar tastes too sharp; taste first, as good onions often make it unnecessary.

190 min

Dutch Meat

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Piña colada

Two bars in 1950s San Juan claim to have created the piña colada, and Puerto Rico made it the island's official drink in 1978. It is the drink of hot afternoons on the beaches of Condado and Isla Verde, of hotel pools and of family parties where the blender runs all day. The rum version is for adults only, and because it tastes like a dessert it is easy to drink too fast, so keep to one or two and drink responsibly. A good piña colada is thick, frosty and smooth, coconut-sweet but kept fresh by the sharp acidity of pineapple, with the rum warming the finish. The common mistake is using coconut milk or unsweetened coconut cream instead of cream of coconut, the thick sweetened coconut syrup sold in tins and squeeze bottles: the drink comes out bland and splits into icy water and fat. If you only have coconut cream, blend in 2 tbsp sugar. It is ready when the drink is thick enough to hold a straw upright for a moment, has no crunchy ice and has turned a pale, creamy yellow. Chef's tip: freeze half of the pineapple juice into ice cubes the day before; you will need less ice and the colada stays thick to the last sip.

5 min

Puerto Rican Drinks

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Misa mach pooraPrawns grilled in banana leaf

Misa mach poora is a simple Mizo way with river prawns: rubbed with ginger, garlic, chilli and salt, wrapped in banana leaf and cooked over embers until the leaf chars and the prawns steam in their own juices. It is made at riverside picnics and family cookouts and eaten with rice and a chilli relish. The common mistake is overcooking, which makes prawns tough; they are done the moment they turn opaque and pink all through. Chef's tip: keep the marinated parcels in the fridge until the grill is hot.

27 min

Indian Fish

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Scotch bonnet pepper sauce

On a Jamaican Sunday dinner table the bottle of pepper sauce sits next to the salt, shaken over rice and peas, brown stew chicken, escovitch fish and the beef patty from the corner shop. Home versions differ from yard to yard, but most cook scotch bonnets briefly in vinegar with onion, carrot, garlic and the island's own pimento (allspice) berries, then blend them smooth. The result is a pourable, bright orange sauce: fruity, floral heat first, then the sweetness of carrot and the warm clove note of pimento, with a clean vinegar finish. A few drops are plenty. Wear gloves, open a window and never lean over the pot or blender; the fumes sting. Common mistake: blending raw peppers with too little vinegar and leaving the bottle on the counter; keep the full amount of vinegar (at least 5% acidity) and store it in the fridge. It is ready when the carrot is soft and the sauce is smooth and pourable; the flavour mellows and rounds after two days. Chef's tip: for a milder sauce, cut out the seeds and white ribs from half the peppers before cooking.

35 min

Jamaican Chutneys & Dips

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Caesar

The Caesar was created in Calgary in 1969, when a hotel bartender was asked to invent a drink for a new Italian restaurant and thought of spaghetti alle vongole: clams, tomato, garlic, a squeeze of lemon. It has become Canada's own cocktail, ordered at weekend brunch, poured at the cottage on long weekends and raised on Canada Day, often with a celery stick or a spicy green bean standing in the glass. It is for adults only. Note that it is not vegetarian: the clam-tomato juice is made with clam broth, and Worcestershire sauce contains anchovy. A Caesar tastes savoury before anything else, briny and tomatoey, with heat from the hot sauce, tang from lime and a salty, herbal crunch from the celery-salt rim. The common mistake is shaking it hard like a sour: the tomato juice turns frothy, pale and watery. Roll it instead, pouring it back and forth between two glasses a few times. It is ready when the drink is evenly red, ice-cold and the rim is still neatly coated. Drink responsibly; it goes down easily. No clam-tomato juice? Mix 120 ml tomato juice with 30 ml bottled clam broth. Chef's tip: add a little grated horseradish for a sharper, more peppery Caesar.

5 min

Canadian Drinks

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Hachis parmentier for toddlersBeef and mash bake for toddlers

Hachis parmentier, France's answer to cottage pie, is a fixture of school canteens and Wednesday family lunches from Lyon to Paris, named after Antoine Parmentier, who championed the potato. This toddler version for children from 12 months uses lean minced beef cooked soft with plenty of carrot and onion, topped with a buttery milk mash and baked until just golden, then cut into soft squares. It is cooked without stock cubes and with no added salt. It contains milk; there is no gluten, egg, nuts or soya. Chef's tip: simmer the meat with a splash of water until it's tender and saucy before topping; dry mince makes a crumbly pie that toddlers struggle with.

60 min

French Meat

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Ahmedabad chocolate sandwich

Manek Chowk is a jewellery market by day; at night its square fills with stalls, and among the pav bhaji and sandwich carts the chocolate sandwich is the one children beg for. Buttered white bread is packed with grated chocolate, sometimes with a layer of grated cheese for a salty edge, then toasted in a long-handled iron until crisp and dripping. Contains wheat and dairy, and the chocolate may contain soya and traces of nuts. If you add cheese, many cheeses are made with animal rennet; pick one labelled vegetarian. Chef's tip: toast it slowly over a medium-low heat, so the chocolate melts before the bread browns.

11 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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Halifax donairSpiced beef pita with garlic sauce

The donair is Halifax's official food, born in the 1970s when a Greek-Canadian cook adapted the gyro for local tastes, and it is still the late-night food of Spring Garden Road. A dense, spiced beef loaf is baked, sliced thin and crisped in a pan, then wrapped in a warm pita with raw onion, tomato and a sweet sauce of condensed milk, vinegar and garlic. Messy, sweet, salty and loved. A common mistake is a crumbly meat loaf; the mince must be kneaded until it is sticky and smooth. Chef's tip: chill the baked loaf before slicing so you can cut it really thin.

100 min

Canadian Fast Food

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HalvasanMilk and cracked wheat sweet

Khambhat, the old port town at the head of the Gulf, is where halvasan comes from, and its sweet shops still sell the chewy, nutmeg-heavy rounds wrapped in paper to visitors from Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Milk is split so it turns grainy, then cooked down with soaked cracked wheat, ghee, sugar and a little puffed edible gum until it is dark gold and chewy, rather like a cross between a halwa and a barfi. The mistake to avoid is undercooking: if it is taken off while still soft and sticky, the rounds never set and turn greasy. Chef's tip: keep cooking until the mass rolls around the pan as one lump and a drop pressed between two fingers feels tacky but not wet.

95 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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HariharizukeDried daikon pickle

Hariharizuke takes its name from the sound it makes, 'hari-hari', as you chew. It starts with kiriboshi daikon, the radish strips dried in the cold winter sun across Miyazaki and much of rural Japan, which are rehydrated and steeped in a sharp, slightly sweet soy-vinegar with ribbons of kombu and a little chilli. It is a year-round side dish, but home cooks lean on it in late winter and early spring when fresh vegetables are fewer, packing it into bento boxes or setting it beside grilled fish and rice. The taste is sweet-sour and savoury, with a concentrated, almost caramel daikon flavour, and the texture is springy and crunchy. The common mistake is soaking the dried daikon too long: after 10–15 minutes it is pliable, and beyond that it turns soft and loses its crunch. It is ready when the strips are glossy, tan and taste seasoned right through, about an hour after mixing, and even better the next day. Look for dried daikon in Japanese or Korean shops (Korean mumallaengi is the same thing). Chef's tip: add the carrot in very fine matchsticks and a few drops of sesame oil just before serving for colour and aroma.

28 min

Japanese Chutneys & Dips

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Carato de maízChilled corn drink

Out on the hot plains of the Llanos, a jug of carato is kept cold for the afternoon: white corn cooked until soft, blended with its water, strained and sweetened with panela, cinnamon and clove. It is thick, creamy and filling enough to be a snack in a glass. Keep it in the fridge, because left out it starts to ferment. The common mistake is skipping the straining, which leaves it gritty. Chef's tip: strain through a fine sieve and then once more through a clean cloth for the silkiest drink.

70 min

Venezuelan Drinks

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Dalvada (Ahmedabad moong dal fritters)

The first monsoon shower in Ahmedabad sends people straight to the dalvada counters by Raipur Darwaja, where fritters of split green moong come out of the karahi by the basketful and are sold by weight with sliced raw onion and salted fried chillies. They are rough and craggy outside, light and steamy inside, warm with ginger and cracked pepper. Eat them hot with masala chai while the rain falls. Chef's tip: grind the dal coarse with almost no water, then whisk the batter by hand for a few minutes; the air you beat in is what keeps them light.

45 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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Polvorosa de polloChicken pie

Polvorosa is the pie that comes out for family birthdays and Sunday gatherings in Caracas: a melt-in-the-mouth, slightly sweet shortcrust (polvorosa means 'crumbly') around chicken stewed with leek, peppers, olives, capers and raisins, so each bite is salty, sweet and savoury at once. Serve it warm with a green salad. The common mistake is filling the pastry with hot stew, which melts the butter and makes a soggy, torn crust. Chef's tip: make the filling the day before and fill the pie straight from the fridge.

120 min

Venezuelan Chicken

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Hawaiian poi for babiesTaro paste for babies

Poi, cooked taro (kalo) pounded with water, is the oldest staple of Hawaiʻi, and it was traditionally among the first foods given to babies across the islands; you can still buy it fresh by the bag at markets in Honolulu and on Kauaʻi. Fresh poi is mild, smooth and gently sweet, with a lilac-grey colour; left a few days it ferments and turns sour, which adults love but a baby is better without. Taro must be cooked right through, because raw taro contains crystals that irritate the mouth. Nothing else is added: no salt, sugar or honey. It is free of the major allergens. Chef's tip: wear gloves to peel raw taro, and cook a test piece; if it tingles on your tongue, it needs longer.

90 minPacific Islander Sides

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Feijoa jam

Feijoa bushes grow in almost every garden along Georgia's Black Sea coast, in Batumi, Kobuleti and the hills of Guria, and in late October and November the egg-shaped green fruit drop faster than anyone can eat them. The local answer is a raw jam: the whole fruit, skin and all, minced with sugar and kept cold, so it keeps the fresh, heady taste of pineapple, guava and mint. It is spooned into small glass dishes beside a cup of black tea, spread on bread for breakfast, stirred into yoghurt and eaten by the teaspoon through the winter cold season. The texture is a loose, pale-green pulp with a little grit from the seeds and skin; the flavour is sweet, tart and very aromatic. Common mistake: leaving the cut fruit to stand before mixing with sugar; it browns within minutes, so mince straight into the sugar and stir. The jam is ready when the sugar has fully dissolved and the colour is an even jade green. Because it is never cooked it must live in the fridge or freezer. Chef's tip: use fruit that gives slightly when pressed and smells strongly; hard feijoas taste of skin, overripe ones have brown jelly inside and turn the jam muddy.

20 min

Georgian Chutneys & Dips

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Pineapple soybean paste

Hakka households in Miaoli, Hsinchu and Pingtung are frugal and patient, and pineapple soybean paste (ong lai dau jiong) shows both. In early summer, when Taiwan's pineapples are plentiful, the fruit is cut into wedges and layered in jars with salted soybean koji and sugar, then left in a cool corner for months. The pineapple softens and goes golden-brown, the beans melt into a thick sauce, and the whole jar turns sweet, salty and tangy with a soft funk like miso. Spooned over steamed fish with ginger and scallion, stirred into braised bitter melon or tossed through stir-fried greens and wood ear, it is a back-pocket seasoning for everyday Hakka meals and bento. Common mistake: using very ripe, juicy pineapple; the fruit breaks into mush and the extra water dilutes the salt. Choose firm, just-ripe fruit and dry it after cutting. It is ready when the pineapple has turned amber and translucent and the beans are soft, after 1–3 months. Chef's tip: read the koji label — many brands are dusted with wheat flour, so it is not reliably gluten free.

45 min

Taiwanese Basics

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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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Heukimja-jukBlack sesame rice porridge

This charcoal-grey porridge of roasted black sesame and rice is one of Korea's gentlest breakfasts, often made for elders, for people getting over a cold, or simply on a slow weekend morning. It is nutty, lightly sweet and smooth as cream. The mistake is burning the sesame: the seeds are already black, so you cannot judge by colour; toast them only until they crackle and smell nutty, or the porridge turns bitter. Chef's tip: grind the toasted seeds with a little of the soaked rice and water rather than on their own, which turns them into a smooth paste instead of an oily clump.

40 min

Korean Rice & Grains

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BozaFermented millet drink

In Bulgaria boza is a breakfast habit: a plastic bottle of it from the corner pastry shop and a slice of hot, flaky banitsa, bought on the way to work or school, especially from autumn through to spring. Towns such as Radomir, Plovdiv and Sofia argue over whose is best. It is the colour of milky coffee, thick enough to coat the glass, sweet up front with a sour, bready finish and a faint prickle. Like every fermented grain drink it makes a trace of alcohol, well under 1% when drunk young. The base is millet flour, toasted for flavour, cooked into a thin porridge, then fermented for about a day before being strained and sweetened. The common mistake is adding the yeast while the porridge is still hot, which kills it and leaves you with sweet gruel; wait until it feels only just warm on your wrist. It is ready when the surface is covered in small bubbles, it smells like fresh bread with a sour edge and tastes pleasantly tangy. Chef's tip: keep back a glass of each batch in the fridge and use it instead of yeast next time; boza made from an old starter is rounder and more sour.

70 min

Bulgarian Drinks

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Hinger kochuriUrad dal stuffed puffed bread

In Kolkata's sweetshops, Sunday breakfast often means hinger kochuri: soft, white-flour puris stuffed with a smear of urad dal paste perfumed strongly with hing, fried puffy and served with aloo dum or a sweet-sour pumpkin chhokka. They are smaller and softer than North Indian kachoris, closer to a stuffed luchi. The hing must be generous; it is the point of the dish. The common mistake is a wet filling, which steams the dough from inside and stops it puffing; cook the dal paste until it leaves the pan dry. Chef's tip: roll gently from the centre outwards so the thin filling layer stays even and the kochuri puffs all over.

60 min

Indian Breads & Parathas

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Beijing douzhiFermented mung bean drink

Douzhi is the most famous acquired taste in Beijing: a hot, grey-green, sour drink made from the liquid left when mung beans are ground for starch, then fermented. Old Beijingers sip it at breakfast with crisp jiaoquan rings and shredded salted mustard pickles, and visitors either love it or never try it twice. At home you make a small batch by blending mung beans, settling out the starch and fermenting the cloudy water for a day. The mistake is letting it boil hard: it separates into watery and thick layers, so keep it at a gentle bubble. It must smell cleanly sour like yogurt; throw it away if it smells rotten, has mould, or turns pink or slimy. Chef's tip: stir it continuously as it heats and add a splash of the thinner liquid at the end, which keeps the classic smooth, slightly thick texture.

1440 min

Chinese Drinks

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Hiyashi tomatoChilled tomato

Hiyashi tomato is the simplest thing on any Japanese izakaya menu in July and August: ripe tomatoes, chilled until icy, cut into wedges and served on a small plate, sometimes on crushed ice, to cool down a hot evening in Tokyo or Osaka. Many bars sprinkle salt; this home version leaves it out and offers a few drops of rice vinegar and toasted sesame oil instead, so the tomato's own sweetness and acidity do the work. About 0.0 g added salt; roughly 0.03 g per portion occurs naturally in the tomato. The usual mistake is using hard, pale supermarket tomatoes: this dish is only as good as the fruit, so buy deep red ones that smell of tomato at the stalk. Chef's tip: chill the plate as well as the tomatoes, so the wedges stay cold to the last bite.

5 min

Japanese Salads

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Sinamak

Iloilo is the home of La Paz batchoy and chicken inasal, and on every table there sits a tall bottle of sinamak, cane or coconut vinegar crowded with chillies, garlic and ginger. Visayan families keep a bottle going all year, and the dip turns up with grilled pork belly, crisp lechon kawali, fried fish and longganisa at breakfast. After a few days of steeping it is clean and sour, hot from siling labuyo, warm with ginger and peppery, with a faint sweetness from the cane vinegar. Common mistake: making a huge bottle and leaving it in a warm kitchen for months; fresh garlic and ginger are low-acid, so use full-strength vinegar, keep it in the fridge and make a fresh batch every couple of months. Toasting the garlic is not traditional and is not needed. It is ready when the vinegar has turned faintly golden and smells strongly of chilli and garlic, usually after 3 days. Chef's tip: bruise the chillies with the flat of a knife instead of slicing them; the heat comes out slowly and the vinegar stays clear. Cider vinegar can stand in for cane or coconut vinegar.

15 min

Filipino Basics

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Chinese plum sauce

In Hong Kong and Guangzhou roast-meat shops, a small saucer of plum sauce comes with crisp roast goose and siu mei, and at home it is the dip for spring rolls at New Year and the glaze for vegetarian fried tofu or cha siu-style mushrooms. Cantonese suan mei jiang is fruitier and more sour than the gloopy bottled kind: ripe plums are simmered with sugar, rice vinegar, ginger and a little chilli until thick and glossy. Make it in late summer when dark plums are cheap. Common mistake: boiling it too thick; it sets further as it cools, so stop when it coats the back of a spoon and a drip on a cold plate wrinkles only slightly. Readiness cues: the plum skins have melted into the sauce, the colour is deep ruby and the taste balances sweet and sharp. This is a high-acid preserve: in the fridge it keeps 2 months, or water-bath process sealed jars for 20 minutes to keep them in a cupboard for a year (refrigerate once opened). Discard if you see mould, it fizzes, the lid bulges or leaks, or it smells fermented. Chef's tip: add 2 Chinese salted preserved plums, mashed, for the authentic salty-sour depth.

55 min

Chinese Chutneys & Dips

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HojichaRoasted green tea

Hojicha was born in Kyoto in the 1920s, when tea merchants started roasting the coarse late-season bancha leaves and stems over charcoal to sell what would not keep. Today the smell of tea roasting in a shop doorway is part of walking down Teramachi or past the Nishiki market. Roasting drives off much of the caffeine and all the grassy bitterness, so hojicha is the pot that comes out after an evening meal, with rice crackers, or for children and older relatives who avoid stronger tea. The cup is reddish brown, smells of caramel and roasted nuts, and tastes soft and slightly sweet with almost no astringency. Unlike sencha, it likes really hot water and a very short steep. The common mistake is treating it like black tea and leaving the leaves in for several minutes, which makes it flat and woody; 30 seconds is enough for the first pour, and the leaves give a good second pot. It is ready when the liquor is clear russet and the steam smells of toasted sugar. Chef's tip: if your packet has lost its perfume, warm the leaves in a dry pan for 30 seconds until they smoke very faintly before brewing.

5 min

Japanese Drinks

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Homemade doenjangFermented soybean paste

Doenjang starts in late autumn, after the soybean harvest, when Korean households used to boil beans in a cauldron, pound them into bricks and hang the meju from the rafters on straw ropes to grow a white, sweet-smelling bloom over the winter. In early spring, on a clear dry day, the bricks are dropped into salt brine in an onggi jar with dried chillies, jujubes and a red-hot piece of charcoal. Some six to eight weeks later the dark liquid is drawn off and boiled into soup soy sauce (guk-ganjang), and the softened bricks are mashed into doenjang, which ripens through the summer. It is chunkier, saltier and funkier than miso, with a nutty, almost smoky depth: the backbone of doenjang-jjigae, ssamjang and spinach namul. Common mistake: making the brick too thick or drying it in a warm, still room, so the centre rots before it dries; keep it about 6 cm thick and hang it where air moves. The paste is ready when it is mid-brown, smells of toasted nuts and soy, and tastes salty-sweet rather than sharp. Chef's tip: you can buy dried meju blocks from Korean grocers and start at the brining step.

300 min

Korean Basics

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Braaied gem squashGem squash with sweetcorn and cheese

Small, round and dark green, gem squash is the vegetable South African children grow up scooping from the shell with a teaspoon, and at a weekend braai it goes into the coals wrapped in foil alongside the potatoes. The halves steam in their own juice until the orange flesh is tender and sweet, with a pool of melted butter, golden corn and cheese in the hollow. Serve them as a side for anything from the grid, or make a plate of them with pap tert and a tomato salad for a meat-free braai. Indoors, an oven gives the same result. Putting them straight onto flaming wood is the mistake: they char outside and stay hard inside, so wait for grey, glowing coals. Choose a vegetarian cheddar, since many are made with animal rennet. Chef's tip: trim a thin slice off the round base of each half so it sits flat and holds its filling.

40 min

South African Sides

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Nutmeg jelly

Grenada, the Spice Isle, grows nutmeg all over the green hills of St Andrew and St John, and the pale yellow, apricot-sized fruit that wraps the seed and its red lace of mace was long thrown away at the processing stations. Grenadian cooks turned that tart, slightly astringent flesh into nutmeg jelly, a clear amber spread that is eaten on hops bread or coconut bake at breakfast, sold in small jars in the St George's market and carried home by visitors at Christmas. The fruit is loaded with pectin, so it sets easily, and it tastes sweet-sharp and fragrant, faintly of apple, with a soft warm hint of the spice itself. Outside the Caribbean the fresh fruit is hard to get; tart cooking apples or quinces with a little freshly grated nutmeg make a close copy (see the notes). The common slip is boiling on long after the set point, which turns the jelly dark, gummy and dull, so start testing early. It is ready when a drop wrinkles on a cold saucer or the thermometer reads 104–105 °C. Chef's tip: drop a strand of the red mace into each jar for colour and a little extra perfume.

90 minCaribbean Chutneys & Dips

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Hong shao dongguaBraised winter melon

Across China, red-braised winter melon is a cheap summer supper dish, cooked when melons the size of a child are sold by the slice at every market from Shanghai to Chengdu. Thick pieces of pale melon are seared, then braised in soy sauce, a touch of sugar and ginger until they turn amber, glossy and almost jelly-soft, soaking up the sauce like a sponge. Eat it with steamed rice and a green vegetable. The usual mistake is cutting the melon too thin, so it dissolves before it colours; keep the pieces about 2 cm thick. Chef's tip: score the flesh in a criss-cross pattern so the sauce soaks in and the pieces look like braised pork belly.

25 min

Chinese Vegetarian

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Hong suan tangFermented tomato sour soup base

In the Miao and Dong villages of Qiandongnan, south-east Guizhou, small wild 'hairy' tomatoes and red chillies ripen together in late summer, and every household fills tall jars with them to ferment into hong suan tang, the red sour base of the region's famous sour-soup fish and sour-soup beef hot pots. The fermented paste is bright scarlet, sharply sour, fruity and fiery, with a funk from the ferment that ordinary tomato never has. People say three days without sour and you walk unsteadily, and it goes into soups year round. Outside Guizhou, use cherry tomatoes, which have a similar high acidity. Common mistake: fermenting with too little salt or with wet produce, which goes mushy and off; dry everything first and weigh the salt. Normal signs: bubbles, a sour, wine-like fruity smell and liquid rising. Bad signs: fuzzy coloured mould, pink or black patches, or a rotten smell; discard. It is ready after 2–3 weeks, when it tastes clearly sour and the raw tomato taste has gone. Then keep it in the fridge for 3 months or freeze it. Chef's tip: fry a few spoonfuls in oil with ginger before adding stock; it turns a deeper red and smells richer.

60 min

Chinese Basics

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Pucuk paku goreng belacanStir-fried fern shoots with shrimp paste

In Sabah, Sarawak and the kampungs of the Malay Peninsula, curly young pucuk paku (vegetable fern) are picked from riverbanks and sold in bundles at every tamu and pasar, and this fiery stir-fry with belacan appears at lunch with rice and fish almost every day. The fronds stay crunchy and green, coated in a punchy paste of shallots, garlic, chilli and toasted shrimp paste. Suitable as part of a balanced diet: leafy greens with no starch. About 110 kcal and 8 g carbohydrate per portion. The usual mistake is undercooking: fern shoots should always be blanched or cooked through, never eaten raw. Fiddlehead ferns or water spinach can stand in. Chef's tip: toast the belacan in a dry pan until it crumbles and smells strongly, then open a window; this is what gives the dish its depth.

18 min

Malaysian Sides

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