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Kunun aya (tiger nut drink)
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Kunun aya (tiger nut drink)

Street sellers in Jos, Kaduna and Kano keep kunun aya cold in coolers, and on a hot afternoon a glass of the creamy, nutty milk is hard to beat. Tiger nuts, which are small tubers rather than nuts, are soaked until plump, blended with dates, fresh coconut and a little ginger, then strained. Dates do the sweetening, so most people add no sugar at all. Skimping on the soak is the most common mistake; dry tiger nuts give a thin, gritty drink, so soak them for at least 8 hours. Chef's tip: soak them in the fridge and keep everything cold, because the fresh milk sours quickly in the heat.

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Magic coffee

The magic is a Melbourne café insider's order, born in the city's Fitzroy and Collingwood coffee bars: a double ristretto (the short, intense first part of the espresso shot) topped with silky steamed milk in a 160 ml cup. It is stronger and sweeter-tasting than a flat white because there's less milk and only the richest part of the shot. A common mistake is scalding the milk; above about 65 °C it loses its natural sweetness. Chef's tip: stop the shot early, at about 30 ml for a double, to get that syrupy ristretto.

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MsetoRice and green grams

Mseto, meaning 'mixture', is a staple of the Swahili coast from Mombasa to Lamu and Zanzibar, often eaten at lunch or for breaking the fast in Ramadan. Rice and green grams (whole mung beans) cook together in coconut milk with onion and a little turmeric until soft, fluffy and gently creamy. It is served beside a vegetable or bean curry, a kachumbari salad and a squeeze of lime. The usual mistake is adding the rice before the green grams are tender, so the rice turns mushy while the beans stay hard. Chef's tip: once the rice is in, cover the pot tightly and leave it on the lowest heat without lifting the lid, so the rice steams evenly.

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Fish in coconut milk

Ika vakalolo is the Sunday and everyday fish dish of iTaukei Fijian homes, from the fishing villages of the Coral Coast to the outer islands of Lau. Fresh reef fish is gently simmered in lolo, fresh coconut milk, with onion, tomato, chilli and a squeeze of lemon, then served with boiled cassava, taro or rice. It is mild, creamy and ready in half an hour. A common mistake is stirring once the fish is in, which breaks the fillets; just spoon the sauce over. Chef's tip: lemon goes in at the very end so the coconut milk doesn't split.

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Lemon sevai (lemon rice noodles)

Sevai is pressed rice-flour vermicelli, and in Tamil Nadu and the Mysuru region the lemon version is a lighter alternative to lemon rice for a school lunch box. Today most homes use dried rice sevai, softened in hot water and steamed, then tossed with a turmeric tempering of mustard, dal, peanuts and green chilli and plenty of lemon. The common mistake is soaking the dry sevai too long, so it breaks into short mushy bits; it should be just pliable before it goes into the steamer. Chef's tip: toss with a fork, not a spoon, and lift rather than stir so the strands stay long.

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Jiang mu yaGinger duck hot pot

Jiang mu ya is Taiwan's winter warmer, sold from steaming restaurants and night-market stalls from the first cold snap until spring, where diners add cabbage, mushrooms and noodles to the pot at the table. Thick slices of old ginger are fried slowly in black sesame oil until shrivelled and golden, then duck is browned in the same oil and simmered for over an hour in rice wine and water with jujubes and goji. The broth is rich, warming and gingery. It cooks with a lot of rice wine; for an alcohol-free version use chicken stock with an extra 50 g ginger. The usual mistake is frying the ginger over a high heat: sesame oil turns bitter, so keep it low and patient. Chef's tip: use old, fibrous ginger with thick skin, not young ginger, for the proper heat.

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Tudou si bing (shredded potato pancakes)

In Shandong, Hebei and the northeast, these thin, lacy potato pancakes are a cheap street breakfast and a favourite filler for children's lunch boxes, crisp at the edges and soft in the middle. The potato is cut into very fine matchsticks, seasoned with spring onion, salt and a little white pepper, and bound with just enough flour to hold. The mistake is rinsing away all the starch and squeezing too hard: the shreds then won't stick together. Rinse once, drain, and squeeze lightly. Chef's tip: press the pancake thin with the back of a spatula as soon as it hits the pan; thin pancakes crisp right through and stay crisp longer in a box.

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Jiggs dinnerBoiled salt beef and vegetables

Jiggs dinner is the Sunday dinner of Newfoundland, cooked in one big pot after church in St John's and every outport around the coast. Salt beef, soaked overnight, simmers with turnip, carrot, potato and cabbage, while yellow split peas cook in a cloth bag in the same pot to make pease pudding. It is served with mustard pickles and often with figgy duff. A common mistake is skipping the overnight soak, which leaves the beef far too salty. Chef's tip: add the vegetables in stages, cabbage last, so each is just tender at the end.

210 minCanadianMeatGluten free
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Pineapple fritters

Every Queensland fish-and-chip shop from the Gold Coast to Cairns has a tray of pineapple fritters by the fryer, rings of local pineapple in light batter, fried and dusted with cinnamon sugar. They are the dessert you order with your fish and chips on a hot evening. Fresh pineapple is best; well-drained tinned rings work too. A common mistake is wet fruit, which makes the batter slide off; pat it really dry. Chef's tip: dust the rings in a little flour before dipping so the batter clings.

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Wattleseed ice cream

Roasted wattleseed, from a few edible acacias of the Australian inland, has been ground into flour by Aboriginal people for millennia, and today chefs in Sydney and Melbourne use it for its flavour of coffee, chocolate and hazelnut. Steeped in a rich custard and churned, it makes a lovely ice cream to serve with pavlova or a slice of passionfruit sponge. Buy roasted, ground wattleseed from a native food supplier; many acacias are not edible. A common mistake is overheating the custard so it scrambles; take it off at 82 °C. Chef's tip: steep the wattleseed in the hot milk for 20 minutes before making the custard.

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Akkha masoorWhole brown lentil curry

Akkha masoor is the dish that made the dhabas on the Kolhapur–Pune highway famous: whole brown lentils cooked into a rich, fiery onion, tomato and Kolhapuri-masala gravy, finished with a big knob of butter and eaten with jowar bhakri, tandoori roti or jeera rice. At home it is a weeknight dinner and a favourite on cold evenings. The lentils keep their shape while the roasted dry coconut and red chilli give a deep, nutty heat. The usual mistake is undercooking the onions; they must turn deep brown before the tomatoes go in, or the gravy tastes thin. Slow-cooker: cook everything except the butter on low for 6 hours, then stir the butter in at the end. Chef's tip: toast the dry coconut until it is the colour of a biscuit; it is the secret of the dhaba flavour.

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Jolpai acharIndian olive pickle

Jolpai, the small, hard, sour Indian olive, appears in Bengal and Bangladesh markets from October to December, and no winter afternoon is complete without a jar of jolpai achar warming in the sun. It is no relation to the Mediterranean olive: it is tart and astringent, almost like a green plum. The olives are boiled, lightly crushed so the flesh splits from the stone, then cooked in mustard oil with panch phoron, dried chilli and plenty of jaggery. The pickle is sticky, sweet-sour and slightly tannic, with soft flesh to nibble off the stones. Eat it with khichuri on a cold evening, with dal-bhaat, or straight from the jar as a snack. The common mistake is under-boiling: the olives must be soft enough to press flat, or the syrup cannot get in and they stay bitter. It is done when the syrup is thick and shiny and clings to the olives. Very sweet and acidic, it keeps a month in a cool cupboard in winter and 3 months in the fridge. Abroad, look for frozen jolpai in Bangladeshi grocers; firm, sour green plums are the closest substitute. Chef's tip: keep a few olives whole and only scored; they give a nicer bite.

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Lajiao chao jidan (green chilli and egg)

Hunan home cooks in Changsha make this in ten minutes when there is nothing but eggs and long green chillies in the kitchen, and it is a standard dish at lunchbox shops: the chillies are dry-fried until blistered and smoky, then tossed with big soft curds of egg and a splash of soy. It is hot, so choose mild long chillies or green peppers if you prefer. The mistake is cooking the eggs with the chillies from the start, which makes them tough and grey; scramble them separately and combine at the end. Chef's tip: press the chillies against the hot dry wok with a spatula until they wrinkle and char in spots before any oil goes in. Contains egg and soya.

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Feijoa crumble

Every autumn, from March to June, New Zealand back gardens drop more feijoas than anyone can eat, and bags of the green, perfumed fruit get passed over fences and left on office desks. Baking them into a crumble is the classic way to use them: their fragrant, pineapple-guava flavour softens under a buttery oat and brown-sugar topping. Serve with custard or vanilla ice cream. A common mistake is leaving the gritty skin on; scoop out the flesh. Chef's tip: add a couple of apples to stretch the feijoas and give the filling body.

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Su shi jin (mixed vegetable stir-fry)

Su shi jin means "vegetarian assortment", and it comes from the Buddhist kitchens of eastern China; today it is a staple of office lunchbox shops in Shanghai and Hangzhou. Crunchy wood ear mushrooms, strips of tofu skin, chewy wheat gluten (kao fu or mian jin), carrot, snow peas and bamboo shoot are stir-fried quickly and glossed with a light soy and ginger sauce. The mistake is adding everything at once, so the firm vegetables are raw and the snow peas overcooked; cook in order of hardness. Chef's tip: soak dried wood ear in cold water rather than hot; it plumps up crunchier.

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Jugo surtidoMixed fruit juice

Step up to any juguería in Lima's Mercado de Surquillo or a barrio market at breakfast time and order a surtido: the juicer drops papaya, banana, pineapple and freshly squeezed orange into a tall blender, sometimes a slice of cooked beetroot for colour or a splash of milk, and pours you a big glass with the rest left in the jug for your 'yapa', the free refill. It is thick but still pourable, sweet from ripe fruit with a sharp orange edge, the kind of drink that stands in for breakfast before a long day. The common mistake is adding lots of ice and water, which makes it thin and frothy rather than velvety. Use cold fruit and freshly squeezed orange juice as the liquid. It is ready when it coats the glass and no lumps of banana are left. This version is fruit only; stalls also make it with milk if you prefer. Drink it straight away: papaya and banana go brown and bitter within half an hour. Chef's tip: use very ripe papaya with orange flesh; under-ripe papaya tastes of nothing and gives a faintly bitter aftertaste.

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Sri Lankan rice and curry lunch packet

Across Colombo at midday, office workers unfold a lunch packet: rice wrapped in a banana leaf or waxed paper with a little of everything around it. This vegan version is the one the rice-and-curry shops call "veg packet": coconut-milk parippu (red lentil dhal), a dry potato curry, a crisp mallung of chopped greens and fiery pol sambol. Chicken or fish curry is often added, but the vegetables alone make a full meal. The mistake is packing the dhal runny, which soaks the whole parcel; cook it thick enough to hold on a spoon. Chef's tip: wilt the banana leaf over a flame for a few seconds so it folds without splitting and gives the rice its scent.

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Mince and cheese pie

Mince and cheese is New Zealand's best-selling bakery pie, the go-to lunch for tradies, students and rugby crowds from Auckland to Dunedin, with a rich, peppery beef mince gravy under a thick layer of melted cheese and a flaky puff lid. It is eaten from the paper bag with tomato sauce. Cheddar is often made with animal rennet. A common mistake is filling the pastry with hot mince, which makes the base soggy; cool it fully. Chef's tip: put the cheese on top of the mince, right under the lid, so it melts into a gooey layer.

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Cheese pimiento sandwich

Cheese pimiento is the orange spread every Filipino child knows from school baon, birthday party trays and afternoon merienda in Manila: grated cheese mashed with mayonnaise, chopped pimiento and a little sugar, spread thick on soft white bread with the crusts cut off. The mistake is grating the cheese too coarsely, which gives a lumpy spread that tears the soft bread; grate it finely and let it soften for a few minutes in the mayonnaise. Many processed and cheddar cheeses are made with animal rennet, so choose one labelled vegetarian. Chef's tip: a spoon of evaporated milk makes the spread silkier and easier to spread on soft bread. Contains milk, egg (mayonnaise) and gluten.

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Mongolian salty milk tea

Süütei tsai is the first thing offered to anyone who steps into a ger on the Mongolian steppe, from Arkhangai to the Gobi, and families drink it all day long from wide bowls. Green brick tea is boiled in water, then milk and a pinch of salt go in, and the tea is ladled high and poured back again and again to aerate it. Some households add a knob of butter or a spoon of toasted millet for a richer, more filling bowl. It is savoury, not sweet, which surprises first-time visitors. A common mistake is using black tea leaves, which go bitter; use green brick tea or a mild green tea. Chef's tip: the ladling is not just ritual, it gives the tea a smooth, rounded taste.

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Ensaladang talbos ng kamote (sweet potato leaf salad)

In Filipino provinces from Pampanga to Leyte, the tender tips of sweet potato vines grow by every house, and this quick salad of blanched leaves, ripe tomato and red onion in sukang Iloko vinegar sits beside fried fish or rice in baon and family lunches. The leaves turn silky and mild, and the vinegar keeps it fresh in a closed tub. The mistake is boiling the leaves for minutes until they turn dark and slimy; thirty seconds is enough. Chef's tip: plunge the leaves into iced water straight from the pot, so they stay bright green until lunchtime.

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Barbecued garlic prawns

Prawns on the barbie are the true Australian Christmas and summer meal, cooked on the backyard barbecue from Perth to the Gold Coast with a cold drink in hand. Big raw king or tiger prawns are marinated in garlic, chilli, lemon and olive oil, then grilled quickly in their shells, which keeps them juicy. A common mistake is leaving them in the marinade too long; the lemon starts to cook them. Chef's tip: cut down the back of the shell and remove the vein but leave the shell on, so the marinade gets in and the prawns don't dry out.

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A-geiTofu pockets filled with glass noodles

A-gei is the breakfast that people ride the MRT to Tamsui for. On Zhenli Street, below Aletheia University, small shops have been making it since the 1960s: a big square of fried tofu is cut open, stuffed with glass noodles simmered in soy and a light broth, sealed with a cap of fish paste, steamed until set, and served in a pool of sweet chilli sauce, often with a bowl of fish-ball soup. The name comes from the Japanese aburaage, fried tofu. It is soft, savoury and slurpy. Contains soy, fish and wheat. Chef's tip: pack the noodles in firmly; loose filling soaks up the sauce and the pocket collapses.

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Kadle manoliBlack chickpea and coconut curry

Kadle manoli is a Konkani dish from Mangaluru and Udupi, cooked for festive meals, Saturday temple days and family gatherings, where it sits beside rice, dalitoy and papad. Black chickpeas and quartered ivy gourd are cooked together, then tossed in a coarse, roasted masala of coconut, byadgi chillies and coriander, a little tamarind and a coconut-oil tempering. It is dry-ish, coating each piece rather than swimming in gravy. The usual mistake is cutting the ivy gourd into rounds; slice it lengthwise into quarters so it stays crunchy-tender. Slow-cooker: cook the soaked chana and gourd with 500 ml water on low for 7 hours, then stir in the masala and heat through. Chef's tip: grind the masala coarse, with very little water, so it clings to the chickpeas and stays fragrant.

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Ellu sadam (sesame rice)

In Tamil homes ellu sadam is cooked on Saturdays and temple days, and it is one of the variety rices that keeps best in a school lunch box, because the dry sesame powder soaks up the oil and does not spoil the way coconut rice can. The powder is roasted from black sesame, urad dal and dried red chillies, ground coarse and tossed through plain rice with a nutty gingelly oil tempering. The usual mistake is roasting the sesame too hard: it turns bitter within seconds, so take it off as soon as it starts to pop and smell toasty. Chef's tip: pound the powder rather than blitzing it to dust, so you keep a little crunch from the dal.

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Glazed Christmas ham

A whole glazed leg ham is the centrepiece of the Australian Christmas table, served cold with salads and mustard on a hot December day and eaten in sandwiches for a week after Boxing Day. It is a cured, smoked leg of pork, already cooked, that is scored, studded with cloves and baked with a sticky orange and honey glaze. A common mistake is cutting the rind off too roughly; ease it away with your fingers so the fat stays smooth. Chef's tip: store the leftover ham in a cotton ham bag soaked in water and vinegar in the fridge to keep it moist.

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Kothamalli sadam (coriander rice)

Chennai mothers turn a big bunch of coriander into this bright green rice when they want a lunch box that looks fresh and smells of the market. The leaves and stems are ground with green chilli, coconut, ginger and a little tamarind, then fried in oil until the raw grassy smell goes and the paste turns a deeper green. The mistake is adding the paste and the rice together: the paste stays raw and the rice goes dull and sour. Cook the paste first until it leaves the sides of the pan. Chef's tip: keep the coriander stems; they carry more flavour than the leaves and grind into a smoother paste.

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Kala vatana amtiBlack pea curry

On the Konkan coast around Malvan and Sindhudurg, kala vatana amti is cooked for Sunday lunch and festive meals, and it is the vegetarian partner to fluffy fried vade made from rice and pulse flour. Small dried black peas simmer until creamy in a dark, aromatic gravy of onion and dried coconut roasted until brown, ground with Malvani masala, then soured with kokum. Serve with vade, rice or jowar bhakri. The usual mistake is not soaking the peas long enough, so they stay hard however long they cook; soak them for at least 8 hours. Slow-cooker option: cook the soaked peas with the water on low for 7 hours, then stir in the masala and simmer 15 minutes. Chef's tip: roast the coconut and onion slowly on a medium heat until deep brown but never black, as that colour gives the gravy its depth.

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RosinbollerCardamom raisin buns

In Norway, rosinboller are what a parent bakes on Sunday so the week's lunch boxes have something sweet, and what fills the tables at every school dugnad and bake sale. The dough is enriched with milk and butter and scented with freshly ground cardamom, and the buns are pulled apart soft and golden. The common mistake is using hot milk: anything above blood heat kills the yeast and the buns stay flat. Chef's tip: crush the cardamom seeds yourself just before mixing; the pre-ground powder loses most of its perfume.

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BabakauFried dough balls

Babakau are the fluffy fried dough balls sold at Fijian market stalls and village canteens at breakfast time, eaten with a mug of milky tea or hot koko before school or work in Suva and Nadi. The dough is lightly sweet and the balls puff up as they fry, golden outside and soft as a bun inside. A common mistake is oil that's too hot, which leaves raw centres; 170 °C is right. Chef's tip: wet your fingers to drop spoonfuls of dough into the oil so it slips off cleanly.

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Vagem refogadaSauteed green beans

In São Paulo and Rio, the marmita (lunch tin) that workers carry from home almost always has arroz, feijão, a protein and a simple legume refogado, and green beans cooked with garlic, onion and tomato are one of the most common. Refogar means to sauté gently in oil before the vegetables cook in their own steam. The common mistake is boiling the beans until army-green and floppy; they should stay bright and keep a little snap. Chef's tip: blanch for just 3 minutes, then finish in the pan, so they still taste fresh when reheated at work.

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KamandeBrown lentil stew

Kamande is a weekday staple in Nairobi homes and small hotelis (cafés), served at lunch or supper with chapati, rice or ugali and a side of sukuma wiki greens. Brown lentils are simmered until tender, then cooked into a thick, savoury stew of onion, tomato, garlic, ginger and a touch of curry powder, finished with fresh coriander. Suitable as part of a balanced diet. About 300 kcal and 38 g carbohydrate per portion; brown rice or extra greens on the side suit a lighter plate. The usual mistake is boiling the lentils to mush before adding the tomato base; they should still hold their shape. Chef's tip: cook the onions low and slow until soft and golden before the tomatoes go in, which gives the stew its natural sweetness.

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Tōge no kamameshiChicken and mushroom pot rice

At Yokokawa Station in Gunma, at the foot of the Usui Pass, travellers have bought tōge no kamameshi since 1958: a little clay pot of rice cooked in soy-seasoned dashi and crowded with chicken, shiitake, bamboo shoot, burdock, a sweet chestnut, a dried apricot and a quail egg. It tastes just as good at room temperature on a train. The seasoning includes mirin, a sweet rice wine that bubbles away as it cooks; for alcohol-free, use 1 tbsp sugar instead. The common mistake is lifting the lid while the rice cooks, which lets the steam out and leaves the grains hard. Chef's tip: simmer the chicken and mushrooms first and use that liquid to cook the rice, so every grain tastes of them.

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Beef wet fry

Order 'beef wet fry' at any Nairobi hoteli, from a River Road lunch counter to a Westlands nyama joint, and a sizzling dish of browned beef cubes arrives in a thick, tomato-red sauce glossy with fat. It sits halfway between a dry fry and a stew: the meat is chewy-tender and well seared, and the sauce is reduced so far it clings rather than pools. Ugali is the classic partner, with kachumbari and a tangle of sukuma wiki, though chapati or rice are just as common. The mistake most home cooks make is crowding the pan, so the beef steams grey in its own juices instead of browning. Chef's tip: give the beef a short covered simmer in a splash of water before frying; it tenderises the cheaper cuts Kenyan butchers sell and the water cooks off in time for the browning.

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Verkadalai sadam (peanut rice)

Peanut rice is the filling variety rice that Tamil and Kannada parents send when the school day ends with games: roasted peanuts, dry coconut, sesame and red chillies are ground into a coarse powder and tossed through rice in a curry leaf tempering. It tastes a little like a savoury peanut brittle, and it stays good at room temperature for hours. The mistake is grinding the peanuts too long; they turn into peanut butter and the rice clumps. Pulse in short bursts and stop while it is still sandy. Chef's tip: keep a few whole roasted peanuts aside and add them at the end for crunch.

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Uuts-style roast lamb saddle

Uuts, the whole back and fat tail of a sheep, is the grandest dish of Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year: boiled, then set in the centre of the table in every Ulaanbaatar and countryside home and carved for each visitor during the days of family visits. The real thing weighs many kilos and needs a huge pot, so this home version uses a bone-in saddle of lamb with its fat, simmered first and then roasted until the fat is crisp, keeping the uuts idea of a whole, impressive cut to carve at the table. A common mistake is trimming away all the fat; in Mongolia it is the most prized part. Chef's tip: score the fat in a criss-cross so it renders and crisps evenly.

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RullepølseRolled spiced pork belly

Rullepølse is the classic Danish pålæg (sandwich topping): pork belly spread with onion, herbs and allspice, rolled tightly, cured overnight, simmered and then pressed into a neat block that slices paper-thin. On rugbrød with raw onion rings, cress and a cube of meat jelly, it is the pride of a Copenhagen madpakke and the Christmas lunch table. The common mistake is skipping the press: unpressed, the roll stays loose and crumbles when sliced. As the roll has seasoned surfaces inside it, cook it like mince to 71 °C in the centre. Chef's tip: wrap the roll in a clean cloth before tying, so it keeps a perfect round shape while it simmers.

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