Featured recipe

Gazpacho andaluz

Chilled tomato and cucumber soup

Gazpacho is the cold soup of Andalusia, drunk from a glass or eaten from a bowl through the scorching summers of Seville and Córdoba. It began as a farm workers' meal of bread, oil, garlic and vinegar pounded in a wooden bowl; tomatoes and peppers came later and turned it into the bright red, refreshing soup we know. Ripe tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, garlic, sherry vinegar and plenty of olive oil are blended until silky and chilled hard. Serve it with tiny dice of cucumber, pepper and onion and a few crunchy croutons. Chef's tip: add the olive oil last, in a thin stream with the blender running; it emulsifies the soup to a creamy, pale-orange texture instead of leaving a slick of oil on top.

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Haash bhunaSlow-cooked duck curry

As the cold season settles in and the vast wetlands of the Sylhet and Kishoreganj haor begin to drain, the ducks that have fattened on them all monsoon end up in the bhuna pot. Haash bhuna is deep, dark and rich, the meat cooked slowly with heaps of onion and garlic until it is tender and the duck's own fat glazes the masala, and it is traditionally eaten with chitoi pitha, soft rice-flour pancakes made on a clay mould, or with plain rice. Black pepper, cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg balance the gaminess. The biggest misstep is not rendering the fat, which leaves the sauce greasy and the skin flabby; let the duck fry in its own fat first. Chef's tip: grind a small piece of fresh coconut into the masala at the end if your duck is lean, a trick from Kishoreganj cooks.

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Sesame balls (jin deui)

No Hong Kong Lunar New Year feels complete without a plate of jin deui, though dim sum restaurants serve these golden globes every day of the year with morning tea. Each one is a thin, crackly shell of fried glutinous rice dough wrapped in toasted sesame seeds, hollow and chewy inside around a spoonful of red bean or lotus seed paste. They are best eaten within minutes of frying, alongside a pot of tea, when the shell still shatters and the seeds smell nutty. Dropping the balls into very hot oil is the classic error: the seeds scorch before the dough expands, and the balls can burst. Chef's tip: start them in moderately hot oil and keep gently pressing them against the side of the pan with a slotted spoon, which makes them swell and turn hollow.

60 min

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AvelookDried braided sorrel with walnuts

In Syunik, the mountainous south of Armenia around Goris, women pick wild mountain sorrel in May and braid the long leaves into ropes that hang drying in every kitchen. In winter and during Lent the braids are soaked, simmered until soft and fried with onion and walnuts, giving a dark, earthy, sour salad with a taste somewhere between spinach and olives. Braids are sold in Armenian shops. A common mistake is skipping the second boil, which leaves the leaves bitter and tough. Chef's tip: squeeze the cooked sorrel well and fry it long enough to dry and slightly crisp at the edges; that is when the flavour deepens.

60 min

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African chicken (Macanese galinha africana)

Macau restaurants have served galinha africana since the 1940s, and the story most often told is that a hotel chef in the city created it from spices that Portuguese sailors brought back from Mozambique and Angola. Today it is a signature at Macanese and Portuguese restaurants from Taipa village to Coloane, eaten at long weekend lunches with rice or crusty bread. Chicken pieces are marinated, grilled until charred, then baked under a thick, brick-coloured sauce of ground peanuts, coconut milk, chilli, paprika, garlic and onion that is rich, nutty and quietly fiery. It is often made with a pale, timid sauce; cook the onion, garlic and paprika slowly until really deep red before the coconut goes in. Chef's tip: marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge so the garlic and chilli reach the bone.

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Ginger scallion sauce

Every Hong Kong siu mei shop keeps a tub of this pale green relish beside the chopping block, spooned next to white-cut poached chicken over rice or tossed through plain lo mein at late-night dai pai dong stalls. Smoking-hot oil is poured over raw ginger and spring onion, and the sizzle softens their bite into a sweet, salty, fragrant sauce with a gentle heat from the ginger. It is just as good with steamed tofu, plain congee, poached fish or a bowl of rice on its own. Many home cooks blitz everything in a food processor, which bruises the spring onions into a watery paste; chop them by hand instead. Chef's tip: pour the oil while it is properly hot, shimmering and just starting to smoke, so you hear a loud crackle; lukewarm oil leaves the sauce raw and greasy.

10 min

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Burmese pork curry

Glistening under a layer of brick-red oil, pork curry sits at the front of every Yangon htamin zain, the rice-and-curry shops where office workers queue at lunchtime and point at pots. Chunks of pork belly and shoulder are cooked very slowly in a paste of onion, garlic and ginger until the meat is spoon-tender, the fat has melted into the sauce and the oil floats free on top. It tastes savoury and gently sweet rather than fiery, and arrives with plain rice, a sour leaf soup, boiled vegetables and a dish of fish-paste dip. People often fry the onion paste too fast; it scorches before the water has cooked out and the curry turns bitter, so keep the heat at a steady medium. Chef's tip: the curry tastes even better the next day, when the pork has soaked up the sauce; lift off a little of the oil before reheating if you prefer it leaner.

120 min

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Habshi halwaSprouted wheat and milk halwa

Few sweets demand as much patience as habshi halwa, the near-black, glossy, chewy slab that the old halwais of Lahore's Anarkali and Ichhra stir for most of a day in wide brass karahis. Full-cream milk is reduced with sprouted wheat flour (samnak) until the sugars caramelise and the mixture darkens from cream to coffee to deep mahogany, then ghee is worked in until it leaks out shining at the edges. The taste is of toffee, malt and toasted nuts, rich enough that a small square with tea is plenty, and it is a winter gift sent to relatives and given at weddings. Sprouting wheat takes two or three days, so plan ahead, or use the flour sold as samnak in South Asian shops. The mistake that spoils most batches is turning up the heat to save time, which scorches the milk on the base and makes the halwa bitter instead of deeply caramelised. Chef's tip: caramelise a third of the sugar separately to a dark amber before adding it, which gives the colour without hours of extra stirring.

240 min

Pakistani Indian Sweets

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AushNoodle soup with beans and yogurt

Aush is the bowl Afghan mothers make when someone in the house has a cold or the first snow falls on Kabul, a thick, tangy soup of hand-cut noodles, kidney beans and chickpeas, enriched with garlicky yogurt and finished with a spoonful of spiced minced meat and a heavy dusting of dried mint. The broth is slightly sour, creamy and warming with chilli, and the noodles are soft and a little slippery. It is a meal in itself, eaten with nothing more than naan and pickles. For a vegetarian version, leave out the meat sauce and add a handful of cooked mung beans. Noodles dropped into a soup that has gone off the boil stick together into a clump, so keep it bubbling as you add them a few at a time. Chef's tip: stir the yogurt in only after the pan is off the heat, so it turns the broth creamy without splitting.

90 min

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Tainan beef soup

Before dawn in Tainan, workers and night owls fill steamy shops near the slaughterhouse districts for bowls of fresh local beef sliced paper-thin and blanched by a ladle of boiling broth, eaten with rice and a saucer of soy and ginger as a sunrise breakfast. The meat is tender and rosy, the broth clean, sweet and beefy. Traditionally the slices are barely cooked; this recipe gives a safer 30-second dip in simmering broth and a fully cooked option. The pink version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. People often cut the beef too thick, so it toughens before it cooks through; firm it in the freezer and slice it as thin as you can. Chef's tip: bring the broth to a hard, rolling boil right before every ladle; a broth that has dropped off the boil never cooks the beef evenly.

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Water chestnut cake

Dim sum halls across Hong Kong lay out amber squares of water chestnut cake on small plates, and every Lunar New Year home kitchens steam a tray to give away to visitors. Set from water chestnut starch and brown slab sugar, the cake is translucent and gently chewy, flecked with pieces of fresh water chestnut that stay crisp and juicy. It is eaten cold and wobbly in summer, or sliced and pan-fried until the outside forms a caramel crust with a soft centre, with a cup of jasmine or oolong tea. A frequent problem is a lumpy, cloudy cake, which comes from pouring the hot syrup into the starch all at once without stirring. Chef's tip: let the cake set completely, ideally overnight in the fridge, before slicing with a knife dipped in water.

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Siu yuk (Cantonese crispy roast pork belly)

Hanging in the window of every Hong Kong siu mei shop beside the char siu and roast goose, siu yuk is a slab of pork belly whose skin has been roasted into a glassy, bubbled crackling that crunches loudly over juicy, five-spice-seasoned layers of meat and fat. Shops chop it into cubes for rice boxes at lunch, and whole slabs are carried to temples and family altars at Ching Ming and on festival days. Serve it with English-style mustard and a dish of sugar for dipping, plus rice and greens. The usual error is a damp skin: any moisture left on it steams instead of crackles, so the belly must dry uncovered in the fridge overnight. Chef's tip: prick the skin all over with a sharp skewer until it looks like sandpaper; those tiny holes are where the blisters start.

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AthirasaFried rice flour jaggery cakes

Athirasa, a dark, flat disc with a shiny, slightly crinkled surface, is one of the keeping sweets of the Avurudu season: families fry stacks of them in early April, store them in tins and offer them to every visitor for weeks. The dough is simply rice flour stirred into jaggery syrup cooked to the soft-ball stage, flavoured with cardamom and left to rest, then patted into rounds and fried until deep brown. The cook presses each one firmly between two flat spoons or saucers to squeeze out excess oil, which gives athirasa its chewy, toffee-like centre and lacy, crisp edges. The typical slip is undercooking the syrup, which makes the dough too soft to shape and causes the rounds to fall apart in the oil. Chef's tip: shape the discs on a piece of oiled banana leaf or baking paper and slide them straight into the oil from it, so they keep a neat round shape.

60 min

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Okpa (Bambara nut pudding)

Early in the morning in Nsukka and Enugu, sellers set out wheelbarrows piled with steaming okpa wrapped in leaves or cooked in small tins, and students and workers eat it standing up with a bottle of cold drink or a cup of pap. It is made from Bambara nut flour beaten with palm oil, warm water, pepper and salt into a bright orange batter and steamed until it sets into a firm, dense pudding with a nutty, earthy taste. It is filling and naturally high in protein. Bambara nut flour is sold in African shops as okpa flour. Undercooked okpa tastes raw and bitter and is hard to digest, so steam until a knife comes out clean. A common mistake is a batter that is too thick, which steams into a hard, dry block instead of a soft-set pudding. Chef's tip: mix the oil into the dry flour before adding any water; it keeps the batter smooth and gives okpa its even colour.

95 min

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Atjar tjampoerSweet-sour mixed vegetable pickle

Atjar tjampoer is the bright yellow pickle in every Dutch-Indonesian toko and on every rijsttafel: crisp cucumber, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower and shallot pickled in a sweet-sour vinegar brine coloured with turmeric, with a little chilli and ginger. It cuts through rich satay and rendang. A common mistake is cooking the vegetables, which makes them soft; they should only be blanched or simply covered with hot brine. Chef's tip: salt the cucumber first and squeeze it, so it stays crunchy for days.

30 min

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Steamed custard buns (lau sa bao)

Tear one open at a Hong Kong yum cha table and a stream of golden, buttery custard runs out, which is exactly why the name means 'flowing sand'. The filling is sweet and salty at once, grainy with mashed salted duck egg yolk and rich with butter and milk powder, wrapped in a snow-white, cotton-soft bun. Teahouses from Central to Mong Kok bring them out in bamboo baskets of three, usually near the end of the meal with a pot of pu'er or chrysanthemum tea. Most failures happen when the filling goes into the dough soft: it smears, leaks through the seams and never turns runny inside. Chef's tip: freeze the filling balls until rock hard before wrapping, then serve the buns within a few minutes of steaming, while the butter is still liquid.

120 min

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Mango pudding

Wobbling out of fish-shaped moulds at the end of a Hong Kong dim sum lunch, mango pudding is just as popular in small cups from dessert chains, which sell it through the sticky summer months when Philippine and Thai mangoes flood the markets. It's smooth, creamy and full of fruit, with pieces of fresh mango through it and a drizzle of cold evaporated milk on top. Restaurants usually set it with gelatine; this version uses agar, which keeps it vegetarian and sets slightly firmer and cleaner. The problem with agar is impatience: it begins to set below about 40 °C, so cold purée added too slowly turns into lumpy strands. Chef's tip: warm the mango purée before you mix it in, then whisk briskly and pour into the moulds right away.

30 min

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Trey aing (grilled fish with lemongrass)

Around Siem Reap and the floating villages of the Tonlé Sap, weekend outings mean a bamboo picnic hut by the water and a whole fish grilled over charcoal in a wire basket. The fish is stuffed and rubbed with lemongrass, garlic and salt, so the skin blisters and smokes while the white flesh stays moist; diners pull off flakes and wrap them in lettuce with mint, basil, sliced cucumber and sour green mango, then dunk the parcel in a garlicky lime dip with crushed peanuts. Snakehead or tilapia are the usual fish, but sea bass or bream are excellent. Turning the fish too soon is the classic misstep; the skin tears and sticks to the grill. Chef's tip: oil the fish and the basket well, then leave it alone until the underside releases by itself, about 10 minutes.

45 min

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Asopao de polloSoupy chicken and rice

Somewhere between a soup and a risotto, asopao is the pot Puerto Rican mothers put on for a rainy Sunday, a cold, or a hangover after a long party night, and it is spooned straight from deep bowls with tostones on the side. Bone-in chicken is seasoned with garlic, oregano and lime, simmered in a sofrito broth, then rice goes in until the whole pot turns thick and brothy, finished with olives, capers, peas and strips of roasted pepper. The common mistake is making it ahead: the rice keeps drinking the broth and turns stodgy, so cook it just before eating, or keep extra stock to loosen leftovers. Chef's tip: take the pot off the heat while the rice is still a touch firm; it carries on cooking in the bowl.

75 min

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Steamed egg with minced pork

Hong Kong grandmothers make this on busy weeknights, and it is one of the first dishes children there learn to love: a trembling, glass-smooth egg custard with a layer of soy-seasoned minced pork underneath, served in its dish with a drizzle of soy and sesame oil and a bowl of white rice. It costs little, cooks in minutes and tastes of comfort. Getting the texture right is all about gentle heat. The pitfall nearly everyone hits is steaming on full blast with no lid on the dish, which gives a pitted, spongy surface; cover the bowl and steam on a medium heat instead. Chef's tip: use warm stock or water at 1½ times the volume of the beaten eggs, and strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the bubbles.

25 min

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Asun peppered goatPeppered grilled goat

Asun started in Ekiti, where goat was roasted whole over an open fire, and it has become the star of Lagos owambe parties and Friday evenings at the bar. Skin-on goat is boiled with seasoning until just tender, grilled until smoky and charred at the edges, chopped into bite-size pieces, then tossed in a hot sauce of scotch bonnet, onion and a little oil. It is chewy in a good way, smoky and very spicy, eaten on its own, with jollof rice or with cold drinks. Cook the goat until tender and no pink remains. Chef's tip: dry the boiled goat well before grilling; wet meat steams and never takes on the charred, smoky flavour that makes asun.

95 min

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Ginger milk curd

Born in the Pearl River Delta town of Shawan in Panyu, Guangdong, ginger milk curd crossed the border to become a favourite of Hong Kong dessert parlours in Jordan and Causeway Bay, ordered hot on a winter night. There's no setting agent: an enzyme in fresh ginger juice curdles hot milk within minutes into a trembling, spoonable custard that's sweet, creamy and warming, with a peppery ginger kick. It is eaten straight from the bowl while still warm, with nothing alongside. Long-life UHT milk is the classic mistake, since its proteins have been changed by the high heat and it simply won't set; use fresh pasteurised whole cow's milk. Chef's tip: use mature, fibrous ginger rather than young pink-tipped ginger, and heat the milk to 70–75 °C, measured with a thermometer.

15 min

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Milkfish belly congee

Tainan breakfast stalls open before six for this, ladling it into bowls beside plates of fried dough sticks and braised fish skin. It is not the thick Cantonese kind: cooked rice is simmered briefly in a light, ginger-scented broth, so the grains stay separate, and slices of rich, boneless milkfish belly are poached in it until just set, then showered with celery, fried shallots and white pepper. Milkfish is farmed in the ponds around Tainan; look for boneless frozen belly in Asian supermarkets, or use sea bass belly. The error most cooks make is boiling the belly hard, which breaks the soft fat and clouds the broth. Chef's tip: lower the slices into the pot skin-side down and keep the liquid just shivering; the belly firms gently and keeps its sweet, silky layer of fat.

40 min

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Singapore curry puff

Spiral curry puffs are a tea-time thing in Singapore, picked up warm in paper bags from Malay kueh stalls at Geylang Serai, from heritage bakeries in Tiong Bahru, or eaten at the 4 pm break with teh tarik. The pastry is the point: two doughs rolled together into a log, sliced, and rolled out so that the cut edge shows tight spirals that shatter into crisp layers when fried. Inside is a soft, peppery filling of potato and onion cooked with curry powder and curry leaves. Shops also sell versions with chicken and a wedge of hard-boiled egg; this one keeps to potato and uses vegetable shortening so the pastry stays dairy-free. The usual mistake is frying in oil that is too hot, which browns the outside while the inner layers stay doughy; a steady medium heat lets the spirals open. Chef's tip: let the filling cool completely and keep it fairly dry, or steam from the potato will burst the seams in the oil.

100 min

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Beef brisket noodles

Queues form outside the brisket shops of Central and Sham Shui Po at lunchtime for a bowl of ngau naam min: wobbly chunks of beef brisket, braised for hours with chu hou paste, star anise, cinnamon and dried tangerine peel until the fat and sinew melt, set over springy egg noodles in a separate, clear, peppery broth with daikon. The braise is dark, sticky and aromatic, the broth light and clean, and you dip between them. A slosh of Shaoxing rice wine goes in the braise; an alcohol-free swap is in the ingredient list. Many home cooks cut the brisket before cooking into small cubes, which then shrink and dry out; braise it in big pieces and cut it afterwards. Chef's tip: the braise is better the next day, so make it ahead, chill it and lift off the fat before reheating.

180 min

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Maqaw chicken soupMountain pepper chicken soup

High in the mountains of northern Taiwan, in Atayal villages around Wulai and Fuxing, maqaw berries are picked from the mountain litsea tree in summer and dried to flavour soups, grilled meat and tea. In this clear chicken soup, served at home suppers and in Indigenous restaurants with millet or rice and wild greens, the crushed berries give a fresh lemongrass-and-ginger perfume with a gentle peppery tingle. Bone-in chicken simmered slowly makes a light, golden broth. People spoil it by adding the maqaw at the start and boiling it for an hour, which turns it bitter; add it for the last 15 minutes instead. If you can't find maqaw, use black peppercorns, a stalk of lemongrass and a strip of lemon zest. Chef's tip: lightly crush the berries just before they go in; whole ones barely flavour the broth, while powder makes it cloudy.

60 min

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Black sesame soup

Steaming bowls of inky ji ma wu are a staple of Hong Kong dessert shops on cool evenings, eaten after dinner or as a late-night snack on the way home. The soup is thick enough to coat a spoon, nutty and roasted with a faint bitterness that balances the rock sugar, and so smooth it feels like warm velvet. It's often paired half-and-half in one bowl with almond tea or walnut soup, or served with sweet glutinous rice balls. Over-toasting the sesame is the mistake to avoid; once the seeds scorch, the whole pot tastes acrid. Chef's tip: blend the toasted seeds with water for a full two minutes, until no grit is left between your fingers, before it goes into the pan.

30 min

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Atama soupPalm nut and atama leaf soup

From Abak and the Ibibio heartland of Akwa Ibom comes this palm-nut soup with a perfume all its own: atama leaves, which smell somewhere between mint, anise and fresh hay. The palm cream is cooked with assorted meat, stockfish, dried fish and periwinkles until the oil glistens on top, then the atama goes in near the end. It is weekend and visitors' food, eaten with pounded yam, fufu or eba. Dried atama is sold in African shops; dried tarragon is the closest substitute. Periwinkles should be bought cleaned, and any with cracked shells thrown away. Avoid adding the atama leaves too early: long boiling dulls their perfume. Chef's tip: go easy on the atama, as too much turns the soup bitter, so start with the amount below and taste before adding more.

90 min

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Nyambeh nyebbeh (cassava and beans in palm oil)

Bright with red palm oil, nyambeh nyebbeh, cassava (nyambeh) and beans (nyebbeh), is a favourite Gambian lunch from Banjul compounds to roadside food stalls. Chunks of cassava and black-eyed beans are boiled until tender, then dressed with a hot sauce of red palm oil, onion and Scotch bonnet. Cassava gives starchy, slightly sweet bites, the beans turn creamy, and the palm oil adds its earthy, peppery depth. Dried fish is often crumbled in; this is the meat-free version. Chef's tip: always cook cassava fully and pull out the woody core string, since undercooked or raw cassava is unsafe to eat; it is ready when a knife slides through with no resistance.

70 minAfrican Vegetarian

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GushtabaMutton balls in yogurt gravy

No Kashmiri wedding feast ends without gushtaba. After hours of wazwan courses, the waza (master cook) brings out these large, pale balls of mutton pounded with fat until silky, swimming in a creamy yogurt gravy scented with fennel, dry ginger and cardamom, and its arrival tells guests the meal is over. Families of Kashmiri descent in Muzaffarabad, Mirpur and Rawalpindi still serve it at weddings and on special Fridays, with plain steamed rice. Good gushtaba is so smooth that it barely holds together on the spoon. Using lean meat is what lets people down: without about a quarter fat the balls turn grainy and hard. Chef's tip: traditionally the meat is pounded on a stone for an hour; at home, process it in short bursts with chilled fat and ice-cold water, stopping to scrape down, until it looks like a sticky, shiny paste.

120 min

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Mombar (rice-stuffed beef casings)

Mombar is festival food: in the days after Eid al-Adha, when the butchers have plenty of cleaned casings, families across Cairo and the Delta settle down to stuff them together, and street cooks in popular neighbourhoods sell crisp coils of it by weight. The filling is Egyptian short-grain rice with tomato, onion, dill, parsley and coriander, which swells inside the casing as it simmers, so each bite is soft, herby rice wrapped in a thin, crackling skin. It is eaten hot as a main dish or a side to roast meat, with lemon and a plate of pickles. Buy the casings ready-cleaned from a butcher; this recipe assumes they have been. The commonest mistake is overfilling the casings; packed full, the rice swells and they burst in the pot. Chef's tip: fill each length only two-thirds full; the rice doubles in size and an overstuffed casing bursts in the pot.

145 min

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Bula (enset starch porridge with spiced butter and ayib)

Bula is the finest part of the enset plant, a white starch that settles out when the pulp is squeezed, and in Sidama and Gurage homes it is cooked into a smooth, wobbly porridge for honoured guests, new mothers and anyone feeling weak. Whisked into water and stirred until glossy and translucent, it is very mild and slightly elastic, then topped with melted niter kibbeh, crumbled ayib and a pinch of mitmita for warmth. It is eaten for breakfast or as a light supper, often with coffee. Dried bula is sold in Ethiopian shops; tapioca starch is the closest stand-in. Lumps are the common mistake, so always slake the starch in cold water first and whisk as it heats. Chef's tip: keep stirring right to the end; bula thickens suddenly and catches on the base of the pan in seconds.

20 min

Ethiopian Breakfast & Brunch

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Cantonese roast goose

Drive out along the coast road to Sham Tseng in the New Territories and the restaurants there have been roasting geese for generations; Hong Kongers make the trip for a plate of it with lai fun noodles, or order a half goose for a family dinner. The skin is thin, crisp and deep mahogany, the meat dark, rich and juicy, scented from the inside with five-spice, bean paste and garlic. Sour plum sauce cuts through the fat. This home version uses an oven-ready goose (head already removed, as it is sold), dried overnight and roasted in a domestic oven. A frequent slip is roasting a goose straight from the wrapper: without its overnight drying and a glaze, the skin stays leathery. Chef's tip: pour off the rendered fat as it collects; it is superb for roasting potatoes or frying rice.

180 min

Hong Kong Meat

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Nnam ngon with mushrooms

Steamed parcels of nnam ngon turn up at Beti weddings, funerals and big Sunday tables in the Centre, unwrapped to reveal a firm, pale cake of ground pumpkin seeds that slices like a terrine. The seeds are ground with onion, garlic, ginger and hot pepper, then bound with water and steamed slowly in leaves until rich, savoury and almost meaty. Smoked fish is the classic addition; here browned mushrooms take its place, so the parcels are vegan and still very filling. Serve with bobolo, boiled plantain or sweet ripe plantain. Chef's tip: brown the mushrooms in a dry pan first; added raw, they release water inside the parcel and leave the mixture loose.

120 min

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Kaware' (cow's trotter soup with fatta)

Old Cairo eateries that specialise in it open early, and kaware' has a loyal following on cold winter mornings and as a restorative after Ramadan nights; at home it is usually made after Eid al-Adha. Cow's feet are cleaned, blanched and then simmered for hours with onion, garlic and whole spices until the meat and skin turn soft and sticky and the broth sets like jelly when cold. It is served over fatta: layers of toasted flatbread and rice drenched with broth and a sharp garlic-and-vinegar sauce, with the tender trotter pieces on top. Ask the butcher to clean the feet and saw them into pieces. Chef's tip: a pressure cooker cuts the simmering to about 1 hour 30 minutes with no loss of flavour.

260 min

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Kep crab with green Kampot pepper

This is the dish people travel to the seaside town of Kep for: at the crab market, women haul baskets of blue swimmer crabs out of the water, and the wooden restaurants behind them stir-fry the catch for lunch with whole sprigs of green peppercorns picked that week in the Kampot hills. Fresh green pepper is juicy and aromatic rather than fiery, popping between the teeth with a bright, almost citrusy heat, and it clings to the sweet crab meat along with garlic and a light, salty-sweet sauce. Eat it with your hands, with rice and a saucer of salt, pepper and lime. Overcooking is the usual failure: crab left in the wok too long turns dry and stringy. Chef's tip: buy crabs already killed and cleaned by the fishmonger, or frozen cut crab, and throw out any piece that smells off; cook just until the shells turn bright orange and the meat is opaque right through.

30 min

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Svanetian salt

In the stone-towered villages of upper Svaneti, salt was precious and families stretched it by grinding it with garlic and the spices that grow on their slopes: blue fenugreek, coriander seed, dried dill seed, marigold and hot pepper. The result is a fragrant, damp, greenish salt that every Svan kitchen keeps in a jar, rubbed on potatoes, stirred into soups or sprinkled on tomatoes and cucumbers. A common mistake is using fine table salt, which turns to paste; coarse salt grinds the garlic and dries it at the same time. Chef's tip: spread the finished salt on a tray and let it dry for a day before jarring, so it keeps for months.

20 min

Georgian Basics

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AmiwoRed tomato cornmeal

Fon cooks in southern Benin make amiwo for weddings, christenings and big Sunday tables, and you will find it at celebrations across the border in Lomé too. Maize meal is cooked straight into a well-fried tomato, onion and pepper base until it becomes a thick, brick-red paste that is savoury, slightly sweet and full of tomato. Most often it arrives with fried chicken; this meat-free version uses vegetable stock and comes with fried ripe plantain and an extra spoonful of tomato sauce. Chef's tip: hold back a ladle of the tomato base before adding the cornmeal and spoon it over each portion to serve.

55 minAfrican Rice & Grains

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HasipLamb and rice sausage

Hasip is the sausage of Bukhara, made after Kurban Hayit, the feast of the sacrifice: lamb casings stuffed with rice mixed with chopped lamb, liver and heart, onion and cumin, boiled until firm and then sliced and fried until crisp. Bukharan families serve it hot as a first course for guests. A common mistake is overfilling the casings; the rice swells and bursts them in the pot. Chef's tip: fill them only two-thirds full and prick well before simmering, then fry the slices in a dry pan so they crisp in their own fat. The filling must reach 71 °C.

180 min

Uzbek Meat

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Hadžijski ćevapBeef and onion stew with vinegar

Named for the hadžije, pilgrims returning from Mecca who were welcomed home with a feast, this Bosnian stew is nothing like grilled ćevapi: cubes of beef are slowly braised with an almost equal weight of onions, garlic, paprika, black pepper and a good splash of vinegar until the onions melt into a sweet-sour gravy. In Sarajevo it is served in a clay pot with mashed potato or rice, and it tastes even better the next day. The usual slip is skimping on onions; they are the sauce. Chef's tip: add the vinegar in two stages, half at the start to tenderise and half at the end for brightness.

120 minBalkan Meat

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Haleeb zanjabeelGinger and cardamom milk

When the short Gulf winter brings chilly evenings to Riyadh, Kuwait and the desert camps, families pour cups of haleeb zanjabeel, hot milk steeped with fresh ginger, cardamom and a few threads of saffron. It is offered to guests in the majlis, given to anyone with a cold, and sipped at breakfast or late at night. It tastes warming and gently spicy, creamy and pale gold. The commonly made mistake is boiling the ginger hard in the milk for too long, which can curdle it and makes it harsh; steep it gently instead. Sweeten with sugar or honey to taste. Chef's tip: simmer the ginger and cardamom in a splash of water first, then add the milk; you get more flavour and less risk of splitting.

15 minGulf Arabian Drinks

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Smoked kutumHot-smoked white fish

Kutum, the Caspian white fish, is the favourite catch of the Azerbaijani coast from Lankaran to Baku, and in spring fishermen's families salt it and hang it in smoke so it keeps for weeks. The traditional cold-smoked fish is not cooked by the smoke; this home version is hot-smoked instead, so the fish is cooked right through, which is safer. Use kutum, mullet, sea bass or trout. A common mistake is putting wet fish into the smoker; the smoke cannot stick and it tastes steamed. Chef's tip: let the salted fish dry, uncovered, in the fridge for a few hours until the surface feels tacky, which gives a glossy golden skin. Eat it with greens, fresh herbs and bread.

120 min

Azerbaijani Fish

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Kartoshka cakeCocoa and cake crumb truffles

Soviet cafés and school canteens sold these knobbly brown 'potatoes' for a few kopecks, and they began as a thrifty way to use up sponge and biscuit trimmings at the bakery. Crumbs are bound with butter and sweetened condensed milk, flavoured with cocoa and vanilla, shaped into little potatoes, rolled in cocoa and finished with two dabs of pale butter cream for the sprouts. They are fudgy and dense like a brownie truffle, need no oven, and children love making them. Traditional bakers added a spoonful of rum, an optional extra for adult batches only; this version is alcohol-free with vanilla. The usual slip is coarse crumbs, which make the potatoes crack, so blitz them as fine as sand. Chef's tip: chill the shaped potatoes for at least 20 minutes so they hold their shape and slice cleanly.

30 min

Russian Desserts

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Trini curry shrimp

Sold from food stalls in San Fernando and eaten at south Trinidad family lunches, curry shrimp is the fast curry of the island: the sauce is built in minutes, and the shrimp go in only at the very end. Plenty of garlic, roasted geera and hot pepper give a bright, punchy curry that you wipe up with dhalpuri or spoon over rice. The mistake nearly everyone makes the first time is stewing the shrimp, which turns them rubbery; they need three or four minutes, no more. Chef's tip: save the shells, simmer them in the water for 10 minutes and use that stock in the curry for a much deeper seafood flavour.

25 min

Trinidadian Fish

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GulpiSpiced cauliflower

Gulpi is what an Afghan family cooks on an ordinary weeknight in Kabul or Jalalabad when cauliflower is cheap in the bazaar, and it is set on the dastarkhan, the cloth spread on the floor for meals, alongside rice or naan and a bowl of yogurt. The florets are fried until they catch a little colour, then simmered in a thick, turmeric-yellow sauce of onion, tomato, ginger and garlic until soft enough to break with the side of a spoon, with just a gentle heat from chilli. Many cooks stir in a few potatoes or peas, and some add a small piece of meat, but it is often fully vegetarian. Adding too much water is what spoils it: the cauliflower should steam in the tomato, not boil, so the sauce clings to every floret. Chef's tip: let the florets brown properly in the oil before anything else goes in, which gives the dish its nutty, slightly sweet depth.

40 min

Afghan Vegetarian

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Bermuda fish chowder

Bermudians call fish chowder their national dish, and every Sunday brunch and Cup Match picnic has a pot of it: a dark, thick soup made from a long-simmered fish-head stock with tomatoes, vegetables and white fish, seasoned at the table with a splash of black rum and sherry peppers sauce (hot peppers steeped in sherry). This recipe contains alcohol in those optional table seasonings; for an alcohol-free bowl, use a few drops of hot pepper sauce and a little molasses instead. The mistake to avoid is a thin, watery stock; the bones must simmer long enough to give body. Ask your fishmonger for heads and frames from white fish, gills removed. Chef's tip: let the finished chowder rest for 30 minutes before serving; it thickens and the flavours deepen.

120 minCaribbean Soups

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Fetira (Harari layered egg flatbread with honey)

Morning in the old walled city of Harar and in Dire Dawa often starts with fetira, especially in Muslim homes during Ramadan's pre-dawn meal and on Eid mornings. A soft wheat dough is stretched until it is almost see-through, spread with beaten egg, folded into a parcel and fried in a little oil and butter until crisp and flaky outside, soft and eggy inside. It is cut into squares and eaten warm, drizzled with honey, with a cup of spiced tea or coffee. A common mistake is stretching the dough without a proper rest, so it tears; give it 30 minutes covered with oil and it stretches easily. Chef's tip: oil the worktop and your hands rather than flouring them, so the dough slides and stretches thin without sticking.

45 min

Ethiopian Breakfast & Brunch

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GummaFried pies with lamb liver

Gumma are the hot, puffy fried pies sold from big pans on Tashkent street corners and in bazaars like Chorsu, wrapped in paper and eaten in the morning with tea. The classic filling is cheap and hearty: lamb or beef offal, usually liver, heart and lung, minced with plenty of onion and black pepper; potato gumma is the vegetarian sister. This version uses lamb's liver and heart. A common mistake is frying in oil that is not hot enough, which makes the dough greasy and heavy. Chef's tip: cook the filling fully before shaping, then fry the pies at 175 °C until puffed and golden; the dough cooks in minutes while the filling only needs warming. Offal should be cooked until no pink remains, 71 °C.

80 min

Uzbek Fast Food

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Kuti (Harari coffee-leaf tea)

Harar sits in old coffee country, and its households drink not only the beans but the leaves: kuti is made by toasting dried coffee leaves and brewing them into a light, amber tea. It tastes soft and grassy with a hint of roasted coffee and far less caffeine than a cup of buna, so it is sipped through the afternoon, during long chats and after the fast is broken in Ramadan. Many Harari homes add milk and sugar; leave the milk out or use a plant milk to keep it vegan. Dried coffee leaves are sold as coffee leaf tea by some coffee and tea merchants. Do not swap in cascara, which is the dried coffee cherry husk and makes a different, fruitier drink. Chef's tip: toast the leaves only until they darken a shade and smell like toasted hay; overdone, they taste of ash.

14 min

Ethiopian Drinks

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Trini curry duck

Curry duck is the dish of the riverside lime in south and central Trinidad, cooked in a big iron pot over a wood fire while friends cool off in the water. The duck is chopped small, marinated in green seasoning, then "burnt" into a curry paste fried until almost black, which gives the sauce its dark colour and deep, slightly bitter edge. It's served with rice, dhal and sada or paratha roti. A common mistake is serving it before the duck has fully broken down: duck is chewy and needs long, slow cooking. Chef's tip: spoon off the yellow duck fat that rises during cooking and keep it for roasting potatoes.

130 min

Trinidadian Curries

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Taiwanese sesame oil chicken soup

When the first cold fronts reach Taipei, steam rises from clay pots of this at street-corner stalls, and families make it at home for new mothers and anyone run down by winter. Bone-in chicken is browned in dark, toasty black sesame oil with a mound of ginger fried until curled and crisp, then simmered in rice wine for a deeply warming, slightly bitter-sweet broth that is eaten with rice or thin wheat noodles. This soup is traditionally made with plenty of rice wine, and simmering does not cook all the alcohol off; for an alcohol-free pot, use the stock option given with the wine. A common error is heating black sesame oil on a high flame: it scorches quickly and makes the whole soup bitter. Chef's tip: fry the ginger slowly in the oil before the chicken goes in, until the slices curl at the edges and look dry; that is where the soup's warmth comes from.

60 min

Taiwanese Soups

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SulguniStretched cheese

Sulguni is the famous cheese of Samegrelo, made in Zugdidi homes by taking fresh, slightly soured curd, cutting it up and working it in hot water until it can be pulled into a glossy, layered, salty ball. It is eaten in thick slices, melted into elarji and khachapuri, and smoked over embers for a darker version. The curd has to be acidic enough to stretch, so you make the cheese one day and stretch it the next, or buy fresh Imeretian cheese and start from there. Traditionally animal rennet is used; vegetarian rennet works too. A common mistake is trying to stretch fresh, sweet curd; it melts into a puddle instead of pulling. Chef's tip: test a small piece in hot water first; if it stretches 30 cm without breaking, the curd is ready.

70 min

Georgian Basics

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Jamaican jerk pork

Boston Bay in Portland is where jerk pork was born, and the jerk pits there still slow-smoke pork shoulder over green pimento wood under sheets of zinc until the outside is dark and crusted and the meat is smoky and juicy. This home version uses boneless pork shoulder rubbed with a wet paste of scotch bonnet, pimento, scallion, thyme and ginger, then cooked slowly in a covered barbecue or oven and finished over high heat. The biggest mistake is rushing the marinade; it needs at least 12 hours in the fridge to get into the pork. Cook until the thickest part reaches at least 63 °C, then rest; for tender, chopped jerk like the stalls, keep going to about 85 °C. Chef's tip: throw a handful of soaked allspice berries and bay leaves onto the coals for the smoky pimento flavour of the real pits.

240 min

Jamaican Meat

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Fish singari (Alexandrian baked fish)

Alexandrian fish restaurants list singari next to grilled and fried fish, and families along the coast bake it at home for Friday lunch, usually with sea bream, sea bass or a large bolti. The fishmonger splits the fish down the back and opens it flat, then it is smothered in a garlicky cumin and lemon paste and laid over sliced tomatoes, green peppers, onion and chilli. In the oven the vegetables soften into a juicy sauce underneath while the fish roasts on top, so you get tender flesh, a slightly charred skin and plenty of sauce for spooning over rice. Serve with white rice, tahini and bread. Chef's tip: give the vegetables 10 minutes in the oven on their own first; it drives off water so the fish roasts instead of steaming.

65 min

Egyptian Fish

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Jamaican conch soup

From Montego Bay's craft market cookshops to roadside pots around Falmouth, conch soup is sold by the cup on Fridays and Saturdays: tender pieces of conch in a thick, peppery broth with potatoes, pumpkin, carrot and chewy flour spinners. Conch is famously tough, so it is pounded and simmered slowly before the vegetables go in. Buy cleaned frozen conch meat from a fishmonger; thaw it in the fridge and throw away any that smells off. The most common mistake is not tenderising the conch, leaving rubbery chunks; pound it well and simmer until a knife slides in. Chef's tip: a little lime rubbed into the conch before pounding removes its slippery film and freshens the flavour.

120 min

Jamaican Soups

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GuilinggaoBittersweet herbal jelly

Herbal tea shops along Hong Kong's busy streets sell black, glossy bowls of guilinggao as a cooling tonic in the humid months, and families keep a few cups in the fridge to eat as an afternoon snack. The jelly is firm yet smooth, deep and woody, and properly bitter, so it's eaten with a generous pour of syrup, or honey for those who aren't vegan, and sometimes a splash of coconut milk. The original is made by boiling turtle plastron with herbs for hours; the commercially sold herbal jelly powder used here is plant-based, so this is the vegetarian version. Lumps are the usual setback, which happen when the powder is added straight to hot water. Chef's tip: whisk the powder into cold water first, then pour it into the boiling water and keep stirring until it turns glossy.

20 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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Sweet potato ginger soup

Cheap, warming and ready in under an hour, this is the tong sui Hong Kong families make at home on cold, damp winter nights, ladled out after dinner or before bed rather than ordered in a shop. Chunks of orange, yellow or purple sweet potato turn tender and fudgy in a clear amber syrup made with brown slab sugar and plenty of smashed ginger, so each spoonful is sweet first and then pleasantly hot. Some cooks add a few pitted red dates or a piece of dried tangerine peel. Boiling the sweet potatoes from the start is the usual slip; by the time the ginger has given up its heat, they've collapsed and clouded the syrup. Chef's tip: soak the cut sweet potato in cold water for 10 minutes to rinse off surface starch, and add it only once the ginger broth has simmered for a good 10 minutes.

40 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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Buna qalaa (Oromo butter-roasted coffee beans)

Among the Oromo, buna qalaa is less a snack than a ritual: coffee beans are roasted in butter and shared at weddings, after a birth, at Irreecha and when elders bless a new undertaking, each guest taking a small spoonful. The beans turn glossy and dark, crunchy outside and slightly chewy within, with a bitter-sweet roast flavour, a rich buttery coating and a touch of salt. Some families use green beans and roast them right through in the butter, which is what this recipe does. Buy raw (green) coffee beans from a coffee roaster or Ethiopian shop. They are very high in caffeine, so serve a tablespoon each and keep them away from children. A common slip is frying the beans on high heat, which burns the butter before the beans are roasted. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and patient; on a high flame the butter burns black long before the beans are roasted inside.

17 min

Ethiopian Snacks & Starters

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Aseedat bobarPumpkin pudding with ghee

In Doha and Kuwait City, aseedat bobar arrives on winter evenings and at Ramadan iftar in a shallow dish, smooth and orange, with a little pool of melted ghee in the centre. Bobar is the Gulf word for red pumpkin, cooked down and thickened with toasted flour, sugar and cardamom into a soft, spoonable sweet that tastes a bit like a spiced pumpkin pie filling. Scoop it warm with a spoon or with pieces of bread, alongside Arabic coffee. Stopping the stirring too soon is the usual mistake: the pudding must cook until it pulls away from the sides, or it tastes of raw flour. Chef's tip: toast the flour in a dry pan until it smells like biscuits before it goes in; that nutty note is what makes it.

45 minGulf Arabian Desserts

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Ayib be gomen (fresh cheese with spiced collards)

Gurage cooks bring ayib be gomen to the table beside kitfo, and it is just as welcome on its own with kocho or injera on an ordinary non-fasting day. Soft, mild ayib is mixed with collards that have been boiled and chopped fine, then dressed with warm niter kibbeh, garlic and mitmita, so the creamy cheese cools the chilli and the greens add an earthy bite. Ayib is an acid-set cheese made by gently heating soured milk or buttermilk (or milk with lemon juice) until curds form, so it needs no rennet and suits vegetarians. Ricotta or well-drained cottage cheese are close substitutes; if you use a bought cottage cheese, check the label for vegetarian rennet. Do not heat the cheese in the pan, or it turns rubbery and weeps; fold it in off the heat. Chef's tip: squeeze the cooked greens until they are almost dry so the dish stays fluffy rather than watery.

25 min

Ethiopian Sides

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Lao bamboo shoot soup

When the rains arrive in June, Vientiane's morning markets fill with pale, freshly dug bamboo shoots, and pots of kaeng nor mai start simmering in kitchens across the city for the family lunch. The broth is a deep olive green, tinted by the juice squeezed from yanang leaves, and thickened with a spoonful of pounded soaked sticky rice so it coats the spoon. Earthy bamboo, sweet pumpkin and slippery mushrooms float in it with lemon basil on top, and a basket of sticky rice and a dish of jeow sit alongside. Skipping the pre-boil of the bamboo is where most cooks go wrong: raw shoots taste bitter and need cooking through to be safe, so always blanch fresh ones and drain. This version leaves out the fermented fish of village kitchens and seasons with salt and tamari. Chef's tip: squeeze the yanang leaves in cold water, never hot, or the broth turns brown and loses its grassy freshness.

60 min

Lao Soups

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Guineítos en escabechePickled green bananas

Every Puerto Rican Christmas table and roadside lechonera on the Ruta del Lechón in Guavate seems to have a bowl of these: green bananas boiled, sliced into thick coins and left to steep in a garlicky olive-oil and vinegar marinade with soft onions, bay and green olives. They are sharp, silky and filling, and taste even better on the second day, so they are made in big batches for parties. The common mistake is boiling the bananas until mushy; they should be tender but still hold their coin shape. Peel them with oiled hands or gloves, because the sap stains. Chef's tip: pour the marinade over the bananas while both are still warm, so the starch soaks up the flavour.

40 min

Puerto Rican Salads

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Mbesses (Kabyle semolina cake)

Somewhere between shortbread and cornbread, mbesses is the plain cake of Kabyle kitchens, a shallow tray of semolina rich with melted butter, lightly sweetened and baked until golden on top. The texture is sandy and tender, breaking into crumbs that taste of toasted grain and butter, with a hint of orange blossom. It is cut into diamonds and served with milky coffee in the afternoon, or offered to guests who drop by during Ramadan evenings. Some households scatter sesame or nigella seeds over the top before baking. Chef's tip: spread the mixture into the tray with a light hand; pressing it down hard is the most common mistake and gives a dense, heavy cake.

50 min

Algerian Baking

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Taiwanese radish omelette

Ask a Taiwanese grandmother what to cook when there's nothing in the fridge and the answer is often this: a few eggs and a handful of preserved radish turned into a thick, golden omelette, cut into wedges and passed round. It's a staple of the rice-and-small-dishes spread at Taipei breakfast shops and late-night congee counters, and it reappears on the stir-fry restaurant table and in home lunchboxes. The chopped radish fries up crunchy and caramel-sweet inside soft, puffy egg, with crisp brown lacy edges. Skipping the rinse is where most go wrong: unrinsed radish makes the omelette far too salty. Chef's tip: dry-fry the radish first until it smells toasty, then use plenty of oil and a hot pan so the egg puffs and the edges frill.

15 min

Taiwanese Breakfast & Brunch

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