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Ma'amoul

Date and walnut butter pastries

Ma'amoul are delicate shortbread-like pastries made for Eid and Easter across the Middle East. A soft, rose-scented butter dough is wrapped around a filling of dates, walnuts, almonds and pistachios cooked with cinnamon, marked with a fork, baked pale and dusted with icing sugar. Makes 35; they keep well in a tin.

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Chagem pombaMustard greens and fermented soybean

Chagem pomba is a thick Meitei stew of mustard leaves and seasonal vegetables, bound with rice flour and flavoured with hawaijar, Manipur's sticky fermented soybean; it is cooked especially for Ningol Chakouba and family gatherings, and eaten with rice. To make hawaijar, keep boiled, drained soybeans wrapped in leaves at 30–40 °C for 3 days until stringy and pungent; discard if black, green or pink mould appears or it smells rotten. The mistake is adding dry rice flour straight to the pot, which forms lumps: whisk it into water first. Chef's tip: bought natto or kinema replaces hawaijar well.

45 min

Indian Curries

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ThechwaniCrushed radish curry

Thechwani is a winter dish from the hill villages of Garhwal, Uttarakhand, cooked when the radishes are fat and sweet. Instead of chopping, the radish (or potato) is bashed with a stone or pestle so it cracks into rough pieces with lots of surface, then simmered in an iron kadhai with mustard oil, jakhya seeds and a little tomato. The broken pieces soak up the spices, and the iron pot darkens the gravy. It is eaten with rice or mandua (finger-millet) roti. Jakhya, a crunchy wild seed, is sold in hill stores; cumin is the swap. The usual mistake is slicing the radish neatly with a knife, which keeps the spices on the outside. Chef's tip: add the radish greens, finely chopped, in the last 5 minutes for colour and a peppery bite.

40 min

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Králík na smetaněRabbit in cream sauce

Králík na smetaně is a Sunday lunch in the Czech countryside, especially in Moravia and South Bohemia, where many families once kept rabbits in the yard. Rabbit pieces are braised with carrot, celeriac, parsley root and onion, then the vegetables are blended into a velvety cream sauce brightened with lemon and a pinch of sugar, much like the famous svíčková. It is served with sliced bread dumplings (houskové knedlíky) and a spoon of cranberry sauce. The usual mistake is boiling the sauce after the cream goes in, which can split it; keep it at a bare simmer. Rabbit is lean, so cook it gently and check that the meat comes easily off the bone. Chef's tip: blend the vegetables until completely smooth and pass them through a sieve for the silky sauce Czech cooks are proud of.

120 min

Czech Meat

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PhaanuGround mixed lentil stew

Phaanu is everyday food in Garhwal's hill villages, from Pauri to Tehri, made on cold days and in large pots for family gatherings. Mixed lentils are soaked overnight, ground to a coarse paste and simmered slowly in an iron pot until the paste turns into a thick, earthy stew, with spinach or other greens and a mustard-oil and jakhya tempering. It is eaten with steamed rice and a little ghee. The usual mistake is adding the paste to the pot and walking away; for the first 10 minutes it must be stirred constantly or it forms lumps and sticks to the bottom. Chef's tip: whisk the lentil paste into cold water before it goes on the heat; it thickens smoothly and never catches.

70 min

Indian Curries

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Chamorro red riceAchiote rice

Red rice, hineksa' agaga', is on the table at every Chamorro fiesta, christening and Sunday barbecue in Guam and the Northern Marianas, its sunset colour coming from achiote (annatto) seeds soaked in water. The rice is cooked with onion and garlic and sometimes peas; it is soft, savoury and mild, the perfect side for grilled chicken, kelaguen and finadene. A common mistake is leaving the seeds in the rice; they're tough and bitter, so soak and strain them. Chef's tip: rub the soaking seeds between your fingers to release more colour.

45 minPacific Islander Rice & Grains

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Chalta acharElephant apple pickle

Chalta, the elephant apple, is a big green fruit of tightly wrapped, fleshy petals, and in Bengal it arrives in the markets in autumn, around Durga Puja, staying through early winter. Raw it is so sour and fibrous that it is almost impossible to eat, but cooked with jaggery and mustard it becomes one of the best-loved sweet-sour pickles of the region. The petals soften into chewy, slightly crunchy pieces in a thick, amber syrup, sour and sweet with a sharp kick of ground mustard and chilli. Serve it with dal and rice at the end of a meal, or with khichuri on a rainy day. The common mistake is skipping the pounding: after boiling, the pieces need a few firm knocks with a pestle to break the fibres, or they stay tough and never absorb the syrup. It is ready when the syrup coats a spoon and the chalta pieces look glossy and translucent. Keep it in a clean jar in the fridge for up to a month. Outside India, frozen chalta is sold in Bangladeshi grocers; hard, sour cooking apples with a squeeze of lime are a passable stand-in. Chef's tip: a pinch of ground mustard added at the very end gives the classic nose-tingling bite.

65 min

Indian Chutneys & Dips

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Bunelos agaBanana fritters

Bunelos aga are the banana fritters of Guam, sold at fiesta food tables and church fundraisers in Hagåtña and made at home whenever the bananas over-ripen. Mashed sweet bananas are mixed into a soft batter, fried in spoonfuls and rolled in sugar, so they're crisp outside and custardy within. A common mistake is frying at too low a temperature, which makes them greasy. Chef's tip: use the small, sweet local bananas or the ripest regular ones you can find.

30 minPacific Islander Desserts

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Chamba chukhChilli and lemon paste

Chukh is the fiery condiment of Chamba in western Himachal, made at the end of summer when red and green chillies are abundant, and kept for months to brighten dal, rice and rajma through the winter. Chillies are lightly cooked in mustard oil, pounded with lemon juice and salt, and stored in glass jars under a film of oil. Just a dab is used at a time. The common mistake is leaving moisture in the jar, which lets mould grow; use a bone-dry, sterilised jar and a dry spoon. Chef's tip: wear gloves when handling this many chillies, and do not touch your eyes for hours afterwards.

90 min

Indian Chutneys & Dips

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ApigigiGrilled coconut and tapioca parcels

Apigigi are an old Chamorro sweet from Guam and Saipan, made for fiestas and family gatherings: soft young coconut is grated and mixed with tapioca starch and sugar, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over coals until chewy and lightly charred. They are sticky, mildly sweet and smoky. Grated frozen young coconut and tapioca starch from Asian shops make them easy at home. A common mistake is grilling over a fierce flame; the leaves burn before the centre sets. Chef's tip: steam them first for 15 minutes, then finish on the grill for flavour.

60 minPacific Islander Desserts

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Lagmi (fresh palm sap)

In the oases of the Tunisian south, in Gabès, Tozeur, Nefta, Kebili and on Djerba, palm climbers cut a small wound at the crown of an ageing date palm and hang a clay pot under it overnight. By sunrise it holds lagmi: cloudy, ivory-white sap, cool and sweet, with notes of coconut water and fresh dates. It is sold in recycled bottles at the roadside and drunk the same morning, because the wild yeasts in it begin to ferment almost at once. By afternoon it is fizzy and sour, and by the next day it has become an alcoholic palm wine, also called lagmi, which is a different drink altogether. The common mistake is buying more than you can drink by lunchtime or leaving it in the sun: keep it on ice from the moment you get it. Fresh lagmi is ready to drink when it is sweet, smells clean and milky, and only a few tiny bubbles rise; once it tastes sour or prickles on the tongue, it has started to turn. It is raw and unpasteurised, so pregnant people, babies, older people and anyone unwell should skip it. Outside the oases, fresh coconut water is the closest stand-in. Chef's tip: chill the glasses too; lagmi is at its best ice-cold.

5 min

Tunisian Drinks

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Agua de tuna (prickly pear drink)

Late summer is tuna season across the central highlands, from Hidalgo and the Estado de México down to Puebla's Teotihuacán valley, and that is when the big vitroleros in markets and taquerías turn shocking pink. Agua de tuna is just the cactus fruit blended with water, lime and a little sugar, strained, and poured over ice with lunch. Red tunas give a vivid colour and a taste between watermelon and pear; green ones make a paler, more herbal drink. It should be light and thirst-quenching, never syrupy. The commonest mistake is blending too long: the hard seeds crack and the agua turns gritty and slightly bitter. Pulse briefly, just enough to free the pulp, then strain well. It is ready when the liquid runs smooth through the sieve and tastes clearly of fruit with only a lift of lime. Handle unpeeled tunas with tongs or gloves: even 'cleaned' ones keep tiny glochids. Chef's tip: chill the peeled fruit before blending; cold pulp keeps its colour bright and needs less ice to dilute it.

15 min

Mexican Drinks

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Chanachur makhaSpicy snack mix

In Dhaka, chanachur makha is made in seconds by vendors with a tin box and a lid: a scoop of the crunchy, spicy fried mix of lentils, gram flour sticks and peanuts is shaken with chopped onion, tomato, chilli and coriander, splashed with raw mustard oil and lime, and poured into a cone of newspaper. It is the snack of the launch terminal at Sadarghat, of Ramna Park and of evening chats outside every university hall. Shop chanachur usually contains peanuts and may contain wheat. Chef's tip: deseed the tomato; its juice is the fastest way to turn the crunch soft.

10 min

Bangladeshi Snacks & Starters

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Chana methi nu athanuChickpea and fenugreek pickle

This is the thrifty, protein-rich pickle of Kathiawad and the Gujarati countryside, made in the May pickle season alongside methia keri. Brown chickpeas and fenugreek seeds are soaked until plump, then mixed with salted raw mango, split mustard, chilli and hing and sealed under oil. Over a few days the chana and methi drink up the sour mango juice and soften to a pleasant bite; the methi seeds lose most of their bitterness and turn nutty. The pickle is sour, hot and pungent, with plenty of crunch. A spoonful brightens khichdi-kadhi, bajra rotla or a plain dal-bhaat-shaak lunch. The common mistake is mixing in chickpeas that are still wet after soaking: dry them on a cloth for a few hours or the pickle will turn mouldy. It is ready in 4–5 days, when the chickpeas can be bitten through easily and taste sour all the way in. Because soaked pulses are low in acid, keep this one in the fridge once it is mixed, where it lasts up to 3 months, with the oil always covering the top. Chef's tip: use kala chana (small brown chickpeas); they stay firmer than large white ones.

50 min

Indian Chutneys & Dips

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Chancho en piedraCrushed tomato, garlic and chilli salsa

Despite the name, 'pig in stone' has no pork in it. It is a rough salsa of ripe tomato, garlic and chilli crushed in a stone mortar (piedra), and it is on the table at every September fonda during the Fiestas Patrias, with hot sopaipillas, bread straight from the oven or choripán. Blending it smooth in a machine is the classic mistake: it should be rustic and juicy, with small pieces. Chef's tip: pound the garlic, chilli and salt to a paste first, then add the tomatoes; the salt acts as grit and the flavour gets into every bit.

15 min

Chilean Chutneys & Dips

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ChandrakalaSyrup-soaked milk pastries

Chandrakala is the round, moon-shaped sweet of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, made for Holi, Diwali and Chhath and sold by sweet shops in Patna and Varanasi. Two circles of flaky pastry enclose a filling of mawa, nuts and cardamom; the edge is pleated into a rope, then the pastry is fried slowly and dipped in sugar syrup. Its sister suryakala is the same sweet shaped like a sun. The common mistake is syrup that is too thin, which makes the crust soggy within hours; it should reach one-string consistency. Chef's tip: pleat the edge firmly with damp fingertips, because a loose seal is where the filling leaks out in the hot ghee.

105 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Chanka de polloChicken soup with broad beans

Every Cochabamba market has a corner where chanka de pollo bubbles in huge pots: a clear, herby chicken broth full of broad beans, potatoes and spring onion, with a whole joint of chicken in each bowl and chuño or a boiled potato on the side. It is fresh and grassy rather than rich, sharpened with a little locoto. Many people let it boil hard, which clouds the broth. Chef's tip: add the herbs and spring onion right at the end so they stay bright green.

75 minAndean Soups

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Cháo sườnRice porridge with pork ribs

On Hanoi street corners, cháo sườn sellers ladle out this porridge from first light, and children eat it before school with a heap of crisp quẩy (fried dough) and fluffy pork floss on top. Unlike whole-grain congee, the rice is ground first, so it cooks into a pale, silky cream flavoured by a long-simmered pork rib broth. The usual mistake is adding the ground rice to boiling broth all at once, which makes stubborn lumps; whisk it into a slurry first. Chef's tip: toast the rice in a dry pan until it smells like popcorn before you grind it, which gives the porridge its gentle nutty depth.

120 min

Vietnamese Rice & Grains

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ChauselaRice flour puris

Chausela is the puri of the Chhattisgarh plains, where rice rather than wheat fills the granary, and it turns up at Hareli, Pola and any Sunday breakfast with a sharp tomato chutney or a potato curry. The dough is scalded with boiling water so the rice flour holds together, and the puris fry up pale, soft and lightly crisp at the edges. The usual mistake is mixing the flour with cold water; it cracks as you roll and the puris split in the oil. Chef's tip: knead the dough while it is still warm, using the heel of an oiled palm, and keep it under a damp cloth so the rounds stay supple.

30 min

Indian Breads & Parathas

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Hongzao guiyuan cha (red date and longan tea)

Across southern China, from Fujian to Guangdong, a pot of red dates and dried longan is what mothers and grandmothers put on the stove when the weather turns cold, and it is the classic drink brought to new mothers during zuo yuezi, the month of rest after childbirth. It is also sipped through the winter in the afternoon, or offered to visitors at Lunar New Year because the red dates promise sweetness ahead. The tea is amber-brown, naturally sweet and fruity, with a caramel, smoky depth from the longan and a gentle warmth if you add ginger. The common mistake is simmering whole dates: their skins stay tight and the tea tastes thin. Slit or tear each date so the flesh can give up its sweetness, then simmer slowly. It is ready when the dates are puffed and soft, the longan has swollen and the liquid is the colour of weak tea and tastes of toffee. It is traditionally drunk for comfort and warmth, not as a medicine; it is high in natural sugar, so go easy if you watch your blood sugar, and goji can interact with blood-thinning medicines, so check with a doctor if you take them. Chef's tip: eat the softened fruit from the bottom of the cup with a spoon; nothing is wasted.

40 min

Chinese Drinks

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NyembaCowpeas with peanut butter

Nyemba are cowpeas, grown on almost every rural plot in Zimbabwe, and the stewed beans are an everyday relish eaten at lunch or supper with a mound of sadza (white maize meal). Dried cowpeas are boiled until soft, then cooked down with onion, tomato and a generous spoon of peanut butter (dovi), which makes the sauce thick, nutty and rich. The usual mistake is adding salt and tomato too soon, which can keep the beans from softening; season once they are tender. Pressure cooker option: cook the soaked cowpeas for 12 minutes at pressure. Chef's tip: stir the peanut butter in off the boil and let it melt slowly; boiling it hard can make it gritty.

85 minSouthern African Curries

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NyponsoppaRosehip soup

Nyponsoppa, rosehip soup, is one of Sweden's oldest breakfast and school-dinner soups, bright orange-red, gently sweet-sour and full of vitamin C. Families buy dried rosehip shells or powder, simmer them into a smooth soup and serve it warm in deep plates, traditionally with little almond biscuits or a spoon of cream on top. The mistake is not straining well enough: rosehips have tiny irritating hairs around the seeds, so use seedless dried shells and strain through a fine sieve. Chef's tip: finish with lemon juice off the heat, which brightens the colour and stops the soup tasting flat.

25 minScandinavian Soups

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Bobo chickenCold chicken skewers in chilli oil

Bobo chicken came to Chengdu from Leshan and is now sold in snack shops off Chunxi Road and down Jinli, where dozens of bamboo skewers stand in a big clay bowl of chilli oil and you pay by the stick you pull out. It is summer evening food, eaten cold: tender poached chicken, lotus root, potato, mushroom and kelp, all soaked in a sweet, savoury, tongue-tingling red broth. Stalls also skewer chicken gizzards and hearts; this version keeps to chicken thigh and vegetables. It contains sesame and soya. Chef's tip: plunge the poached chicken into iced water; it keeps the meat juicy and the skin pleasantly springy.

60 min

Chinese Chicken

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'O pere e 'o mussoCold boiled pork trotters

"The foot and the snout" is one of Naples' oldest street foods: pork trotters and veal muzzle, boiled for hours, cooled and sliced, then sold from marble-topped carts in Porta Nolana, the Pignasecca and around Piazza Garibaldi. The vendor dresses each paper plate with coarse salt from a hollowed ox horn and a squeeze of lemon. It is eaten cold, at any hour, often as a snack with a beer or a glass of wine, though lemonade works just as well. The texture is soft and gelatinous with a little chew from the skin. Buy the snout already cleaned and scalded from a butcher. Chef's tip: slice everything while it is fridge-cold and firm; at room temperature the gelatin turns slippery and the slices tear.

210 min

Italian Meat

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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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Chech bhajiJute leaf curry

Chech bhaji is a monsoon green in Chhattisgarh, picked from the jute plants that come up in field edges and village gardens, and cooked almost every week during Sawan. The leaves turn slippery as they soften, a bit like okra, and the cook reins that in with tomato and a little rice water left from washing the rice. It is eaten with plain rice and dal or bore baasi. The mistake to avoid is stirring it endlessly; the leaves go stringy and gluey, so stir only now and then. Chef's tip: frozen or dried molokhia leaves from an Arab grocery are the same plant and work well outside India.

25 min

Indian Vegetarian

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Bellini

Venice invented the Bellini in the late 1940s, when a bar owner near San Marco mixed puréed white peaches with Prosecco and named the pale pink result after the Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini. It is still a seasonal pleasure, best from July to September when white peaches are ripe and scented, and drunk late in the morning, at weddings or before lunch on the lagoon. This is a drink for adults only, though a gentle one. It should taste of fresh peach first, soft and perfumed, with the Prosecco adding light fizz and dryness, and the texture should be smooth and lightly velvety, never pulpy. The usual mistake is pouring the Prosecco fast onto the purée: it foams over and the peach stays sunk at the bottom. Tilt the glass, pour slowly in two goes and give a single gentle stir. It is ready when the drink is an even blush pink from top to bottom with a fine, slow bead. Enjoy it with food and drink responsibly. Out of season, use frozen white peach purée or ripe yellow peaches with a little more lemon. Chef's tip: a single raspberry blended into the purée gives the classic pink colour without changing the taste.

12 min

Italian Drinks

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UmfinoMaize meal with greens

Imifino is the word rural cooks in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal use for the leafy greens gathered after the rains, and umfino is the comforting dish they become when folded into maize meal. This version uses shop-bought spinach and Swiss chard, with pumpkin or beetroot leaves from a greengrocer if you can find them; please don't forage wild plants. The result is soft, green-flecked pap, savoury with fried onion and earthy from the greens, eaten on its own at a weekday supper or alongside beans, amasi or a tomato and onion gravy. Watch the water: too much and it turns to porridge, too little and the maize stays raw and gritty. Chef's tip: wilt the greens in the pot first and keep their liquid, because that green water is what flavours the pap.

35 min

South African Sides

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