Featured recipe

Pumpkin samsa

Pumpkin pastries

In autumn, when piles of orange pumpkins appear in the Chorsu bazaar in Tashkent, bakers switch some of their samsa from meat to oshqovoq somsa: crisp, flaky triangles filled with diced pumpkin, onion, cumin and a little sugar, baked against the tandoor wall. They are a street snack eaten hot from paper with green tea, and a fasting-friendly favourite at home. The pastry here is the quick laminated dough Uzbek home cooks use, rolled thin, buttered and coiled. Chef's tip: dice the pumpkin small (1 cm) and don't pre-cook it; raw pumpkin steams inside the pastry and stays in tender, distinct pieces instead of turning into purée.

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Nước sấu (sấu fruit drink)

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MocochinchiDried peach and cinnamon drink

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60 minAndean Drinks

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DashmiMilk and jaggery flatbread

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40 min

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Gobi matar (cauliflower and peas)

In Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, winter means cauliflower and fresh peas, and gobi matar is what fills countless school and office dabbas between November and February. It is cooked dry, so the florets brown a little at the edges, sweetened by the peas and sharpened by plenty of ginger. The mistake is cooking the cauliflower covered with water until it is soft and smells of cabbage; steam it briefly in its own moisture, then fry it uncovered. Chef's tip: cut the florets so they have one flat side; that face sits on the pan and browns while the rest steams tender.

30 min

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Berezovy sok (birch sap)

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65 min

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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.

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40 minEast African Curries

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40 minEast African Snacks & Starters

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Paloma

Ask for a drink in a Guadalajara cantina or a family patio in the town of Tequila and you are more likely to get a paloma than a margarita. It is the easy Sunday drink of Jalisco, poured alongside birria, tortas ahogadas and plates of peanuts with chilli, and like every cocktail here it is for adults only. A paloma is tall, cold and fizzy: bitter-sweet grapefruit, a sharp hit of lime, the earthy agave of the tequila and a pinch of salt that makes the citrus pop. The common mistake is pouring the soda in hard and stirring like mad, which knocks out the bubbles and leaves a flat, sweet drink. Build it over plenty of ice, pour the soda down the side of the glass and lift once with a spoon. It is ready when the glass is beaded with cold, the salt rim is still crisp and the drink is still fizzing loudly. Keep a glass of water alongside and drink responsibly. If you cannot find Mexican grapefruit soda, use fresh pink grapefruit juice topped up with soda water and a little sugar syrup. Chef's tip: add a tiny pinch of salt to the drink itself, not just the rim; it softens the bitterness of the grapefruit.

5 min

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Bajre ki raabdiFermented pearl millet buttermilk porridge

In the villages of Haryana and the Rajasthan border, raabdi is drunk at midday in May and June to keep cool in the fields. Pearl-millet flour is stirred into buttermilk and left to ferment for a few hours, then cooked slowly until thick, cooled in a clay pot and thinned with more buttermilk and salt. It tastes tangy and earthy, a little like a savoury porridge you can drink. Ferment at warm room temperature (25–32 °C) for 4–6 hours: it should smell pleasantly sour with a few bubbles. Throw it away if you see pink, black or furry mould or it smells rotten or of nail varnish. The common mistake is cooking on high heat, which scorches the millet and leaves raw lumps. Chef's tip: keep the cooked raabdi in the fridge and drink it within 2 days, thinning each glass to taste.

35 min

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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

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BortsAir-dried beef strips

Borts is the winter-dried meat of Mongolian herding families: in the cold, dry air of late autumn, strips of beef are hung inside the ger until they shrink to hard, dark sticks, then pounded and stored in a bag to last until spring. A handful of borts dropped into hot water makes an instant soup, and nomads carry it on long journeys. In Mongolia it is also made from horse or camel meat; this recipe uses beef. Home kitchens don't have the steppe's freezing dry air, so here the meat is heated to a safe temperature first and dried in a low oven. A common mistake is leaving fat on the strips; fat turns rancid, so trim it all. Chef's tip: slice the meat while half-frozen to get thin, even strips.

450 min

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Bunelos agaBanana fritters

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Despite the alarming name, there are no monkeys in it, and the story most often told is that chefs at a grand Johannesburg hotel in the 1930s cooked it up from bottles in the kitchen for guests who complained about the food. Today it turns up at every steakhouse, roadhouse and braai in the country, poured over burgers, chips and grilled mushrooms. Soft onion and garlic are simmered with tomato, fruit chutney, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce into a glossy, mahogany sauce that is sweet, tangy and gently peppery, ideal with a halloumi steak, a bean burger or a portobello off the braai. Ordinary Worcestershire sauce is made with anchovies, so use vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, and check that the chutney contains no honey to keep it vegan. Boiling it hard is the mistake that catches the sugar and turns it bitter. Chef's tip: a little cracked black pepper at the end gives the steakhouse kick.

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Moong thalMoong dal flour fudge

Moong thal is a Diwali tray sweet of Bikaner and Marwari homes, made by roasting coarsely ground moong dal in a generous amount of ghee, then setting it with sugar syrup and mawa and topping with nuts. It is richer and grainier than besan barfi, with a deep, toasty flavour. Marwari families in Kolkata and Mumbai still make it for Diwali boxes. The common mistake is under-roasting the moong, which leaves a raw, beany taste. Chef's tip: roast until the mixture turns light and frothy and the ghee releases from it; that is your sign it is cooked through.

60 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Dan hong gaoGriddle egg cakes

On Chengdu's back streets, dan hong gao vendors work a row of tiny copper pans, pouring in a sweet egg batter, adding a spoon of filling and folding each cake in half like a soft taco. Breakfast-goers order a few with brown sugar and sesame, and a few with savoury fillings like pickled mustard greens. The mistake is a lid-less pan: the cakes must be covered so the top steams through while the base turns golden. A small 10–12 cm frying pan works at home. Chef's tip: let the batter rest 10 minutes after adding the raising agent so tiny bubbles form; the cakes come out spongy rather than flat.

30 min

Chinese Breakfast & Brunch

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Mote pilloHominy with egg and spring onion

In Cuenca's old cafés mote pillo arrives at breakfast or with the late-afternoon coffee, a plate of fat white hominy kernels fried in achiote butter and folded through with just-set egg and crumbled fresh cheese. The kernels stay chewy and nutty, the egg soft and glossy, and a big cup of black coffee or a slice of grilled cheese bread is all it wants beside it. The usual mistake is leaving the eggs on the heat until they dry into rubbery crumbs; pull the pan off while they still shine. Traditional queso fresco is often set with animal rennet; choose a cheese labelled vegetarian if that matters to you. Chef's tip: dry the drained mote on a tea towel first, so it fries and colours in the butter instead of steaming.

25 minAndean Breakfast & Brunch

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DhebraPearl millet flatbreads

Gujarati families pack a stack of dhebra for every train journey, picnic and tiffin box, because the yogurt and oil in the dough keep these spicy millet and fenugreek flatbreads soft for two or three days. They are thicker than a thepla and earthy from the bajra, and they are eaten with pickle, chhundo or a cup of tea. The common mistake is adding too much water at once: the yogurt and fenugreek release moisture as you knead, and a slack dough sticks and tears. Chef's tip: pat them out on a damp cloth or between two sheets of plastic rather than rolling, the way Gujarati kitchens do, so the delicate millet dough does not crack.

40 min

Indian Breads & Parathas

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Caril de caranguejoCoconut crab curry

Mud crabs from the mangrove creeks around Inhambane and Maputo Bay end up in this curry at Sunday lunch and on beach-shack menus, and eating it is a happy, messy job with fingers and crackers. The sauce is a gentle Mozambican caril rather than an Indian one: onion, tomato, garlic and a mild curry powder cooked down and finished with coconut milk, so it turns rich, orange and slightly sweet, with crab juices running through it. Serve it with plenty of white rice or xima to mop up the sauce, and lemon wedges on the side. Ask the fishmonger for freshly cooked crabs, cleaned and cracked, or crabs already killed and prepared by them, so there is no live crab to handle at home. Chef's tip: the common mistake is boiling the crab in the sauce for ages, which makes the meat stringy; warm cooked crab through for just a few minutes.

60 minSouthern African Fish

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Chhena kheeriFresh cheese in sweet milk

Chhena kheeri is one of the dishes of the Jagannath temple's chhappan bhog in Puri, and Odia households make it for festivals, birthdays and the evening Rath Yatra meal. Soft, freshly made chhena is crumbled into milk that has been simmered down until creamy and sweet, then scented with cardamom and a little camphor in temple style, or simply nutmeg at home. The common mistake is adding the chhena too early and boiling it hard, which makes it rubbery; it should go in at the end and simmer only briefly. Chef's tip: crumble the chhena by hand into pieces the size of rice grains, so every spoonful has some.

75 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Chura sabjiFermented cheese curry

High in Tawang, Monpa families make chura sabji from chhurpi, a cheese of yak or cow's milk left to ferment until it is pungent and soft, cooked down with green chillies and onion into a creamy, fiery curry. It is everyday food in the cold months, eaten with rice or buckwheat bread. The usual mistake is cooking on high heat once the cheese goes in, which splits it into oily curds; melt it gently. Chef's tip: if you cannot get fermented chura, use a strong, crumbly blue or feta mixed with a spoon of curd to imitate the tang.

23 min

Indian Vegetarian

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Escabeche de pescadoFried fish in sweet-sour onion sauce

In Lima, escabeche de pescado belongs to the criollo kitchen of the old city: it turns up on Friday lunch menus, on buffet tables, and above all in Lent and Holy Week, when families eat fish and this dish can be made the day before. Fish is fried until golden, then covered in a warm sauce of thick-cut red onion softened in oil with garlic, ají amarillo, ají panca, cumin and vinegar, and left to cool so the flavours soak in. It is served cold or at room temperature with boiled sweet potato, hard-boiled egg and purple botija olives. It tastes tangy, sweet and gently fruity-hot, with crunchy onion over tender fish. The fish here is fully cooked, but because it is a cold seafood dish, pregnant people, babies, older people and anyone with weak immunity should eat it well chilled and within 2 days. Common mistake: stewing the onions until limp; they should only lose their raw bite. It is ready when the sauce has soaked a little into the fish and smells of vinegar and toasted chilli. Chef's tip: use thick fillets of corvina or bonito; thin fillets break under the sauce.

50 min

Peruvian Fish

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MucapataCoconut rice and cowpeas

Quelimane cooks have a gift for making rice taste rich without a scrap of meat, and mucapata proves it: rice and boiled cowpeas are cooked down in coconut milk until the grains swell, burst at the edges and bind into a soft, spoonable mass. It sits somewhere between a pilaf and a porridge, mild and faintly sweet from the coconut, with the beans giving it body and an earthy note. Families along the Zambezi delta serve it at lunch beside a tomato and onion sauce, greens cooked with peanuts, or a fiery dab of piri-piri. The usual mistake is adding the rice before the beans are properly soft; they never catch up once the coconut milk goes in. Chef's tip: stir it only now and then once the rice is in and keep the heat very low, so the bottom turns lightly golden rather than scorched.

60 minSouthern African Rice & Grains

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PudohSteamed rice cakes with pork

Pudoh is a Khasi steamed snack from the hills around Shillong in Meghalaya: soft rice-flour dough wrapped around minced pork seasoned with ginger, onion and black sesame, steamed in leaves and eaten at breakfast or teatime. This recipe uses pork, so cook the filling until the mince reaches 71 °C and no pink remains. The common mistake is a wet filling, which soaks the dough; fry the mince until dry before wrapping. Chef's tip: work the dough while warm, as rice dough cracks when it cools.

75 min

Indian Meat

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