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Dulce de tamarindo
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Dulce de tamarindo

Tamarind sugar sweets

Tamarind trees shade the coast of Guerrero, and around Acapulco and the Costa Chica the sticky pulp is cooked down with sugar into tangy little balls sold in paper twists at beaches, bus stations and corner shops. Children love the sharp sweet-sour pucker; adults buy the ones rolled in chilli and salt. They are naturally vegan and keep for weeks. Chef's tip: use blocks of seedy tamarind pulp from an Asian or Mexican grocer, not the thin concentrate in jars, which will not set.

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Tamina (roasted semolina with honey)

Word of a birth in an Algiers household brings a steady flow of visitors, and each is offered a small dish of tamina with coffee: semolina roasted in a dry pan until it smells like toasted hazelnuts, then bound with melted butter and honey and dusted with cinnamon. It is soft, crumbly and sweet, a little like a spoonable halva, and is said to give strength to the new mother. Tamina is also made for Mawlid and served with tea, with the cinnamon often sifted over in a lattice pattern. Chef's tip: toast the semolina slowly over a medium-low heat and stir without stopping; burnt dark specks make the whole batch bitter and cannot be picked out.

25 minAlgerianDesserts
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Kocho (Gurage enset flatbread)

Across the green Gurage and Sidama highlands, the enset or 'false banana' plant feeds whole families, and its scraped, fermented pulp becomes kocho, the dense flatbread that is the only proper partner for kitfo. Fermentation happens over weeks or months in leaf-lined pits, so outside Ethiopia you start with ready-fermented kocho, sold frozen or chilled in Ethiopian shops; there is no real substitute. The pulp is squeezed, chopped fine, patted into a round on enset or banana leaves and baked slowly on a griddle. The bread is chewy, slightly fibrous and pleasantly sour, with a faint fermented aroma, and it is torn and used to scoop kitfo, gomen kitfo and ayib, especially at Meskel. Too much moisture is the classic mistake, giving a gummy, raw-tasting middle; wring the pulp out well. Chef's tip: cook it low and slow under a lid, so the centre dries and sets before the leaves burn.

90 minEthiopianBreads & ParathasVeganGluten free
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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 minJamaicanSoupsSpicy
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Moringa leaf stew (Konso shiferaw)

On the stone terraces of Konso, moringa trees grow beside almost every house, and their young leaves are picked daily for a simple green stew eaten with sorghum dumplings or injera. The leaves are stripped from their stems and simmered with onion, garlic, a little green chilli and oil until soft, giving a deep green, slightly peppery dish that tastes a little like spinach crossed with watercress. It is plain, nourishing and naturally vegan, so it fits any fasting day. Fresh or frozen moringa leaves are sold in many Indian and Asian grocers; if you cannot find them, use spinach with a squeeze of lemon. Leaving the stems in is the usual mistake; they stay woody, so strip the leaves off. Chef's tip: add the leaves in handfuls and stop cooking as soon as they are tender, so they keep their colour and their gentle bitterness does not deepen.

35 minEthiopianSidesVeganGluten free
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Bahamian conch salad

At the Fish Fry on Arawak Cay in Nassau, conch salad is made to order: a vendor cracks the shell, dices the conch with tomato, onion, sweet peppers and goat pepper, and drowns it in lime and sour orange in front of you. Traditionally the conch is eaten raw, "cooked" only by the citrus; that raw version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system, and this recipe gives a safer version in which the conch is poached briefly first. Buy cleaned conch from a trusted fishmonger and discard any that smells of ammonia. The common mistake is dicing unevenly; everything should be in small, matching cubes. Chef's tip: make it no more than an hour ahead, or the lime turns the vegetables limp.

28 minCaribbeanSaladsGluten freeSpicy
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Isso curryPrawn coconut curry

Fishing boats come into Mirissa, Weligama and the harbour below Galle Fort every morning, and southern cooks turn their prawns into a curry that is quick, hot and gently sour. Goraka, the dried fruit of a garcinia tree, is soaked and ground into the gravy, and it gives a fruity tang that suits seafood far better than lime. Thin coconut milk carries the spices first, then a splash of thick milk at the end makes the sauce silky and pale orange, and the prawns go in only for the last few minutes. It is served with steamed white rice, a beetroot or snake-gourd curry and a crunchy sambol. Beginners tend to add the prawns too early and let them stew, which leaves them tough and shrunken. Chef's tip: leave the tails on and cook the prawns just until they curl into a loose C; a tight O means overdone.

35 minSri LankanFishGluten freeSpicy
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Kancha gollaFresh cheese balls with cardamom

Natore, a quiet district town north of the Padma, is known throughout Bangladesh for one sweet, and a visit there is incomplete without a clay pot of kanchagolla to carry home. Kancha means raw, and the name is a joke at the sweet's expense: unlike rasgulla or chomchom, it is never boiled in syrup but simply kneaded fresh chhana with sugar, warmed in a pan for a few minutes and rolled into soft balls scented with cardamom. The texture is moist and faintly grainy, the taste milky and gently sweet, best eaten within a day or two. Cooking the mixture too long is what most home cooks get wrong; it turns dry and crumbly, more like sandesh. Chef's tip: make the chhana from full-fat milk and squeeze it only lightly, so plenty of moisture stays in for that melting Natore texture.

60 minBangladeshiIndian SweetsGluten free
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Buticha (whipped chickpea flour dip)

Ethiopian Orthodox kitchens make buticha on fasting days as a plant-based stand-in for scrambled egg or fresh cheese, and it often sits as a pale, fluffy mound on the vegan platters of Addis Ababa's restaurants. Chickpea flour is cooked with water into a thick paste, cooled, then beaten with oil and plenty of lemon juice and mixed with raw red onion and green chilli. The texture is soft, crumbly and light, the flavour tangy and fresh against the rich, red wats. Serve it cool with injera, or as a dip with kita. A common mistake is beating it while still hot, which makes it gluey instead of fluffy; let it cool completely first. Chef's tip: cook the paste a full eight minutes after it thickens, so no raw, beany taste is left.

20 minEthiopianChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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Bahamian chicken souseChicken in lime broth

In the Bahamas, souse is the Saturday-morning cure after a late Friday: chicken (or sheep tongue or pig's feet, for the old-timers) simmered in a clear, sharp broth of lime juice, allspice, onion, potatoes and hot pepper, eaten with johnnycake. It is light, sour, peppery and very reviving. The common mistake is adding the lime too early and boiling it, which makes the broth bitter; most goes in at the end. Use bone-in pieces for flavour. Chef's tip: let the bowl sit for a few minutes after serving so the lime mellows into the broth.

65 minCaribbeanSoupsGluten freeSpicy
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Sinig karia (stuffed green chillies)

Long, pale green karia chillies are piled high in the markets of Addis Ababa, and on fasting days cooks slit them, scrape out the seeds and fill them with a sharp little salad of onion and tomato soaked in lemon. The result is crunchy, fresh and juicy, with a mild chilli warmth, and the chillies are eaten with the fingers between mouthfuls of injera and spicy wat, or set out as a starter. Choose mild long peppers such as Anaheim, Hungarian wax or long sweet green peppers. A common mistake is leaving the white ribs in, which keeps the heat high and can make them bitter; scrape them out with a teaspoon. Chef's tip: dip the chillies in boiling water for one minute and cool them in cold water first if you want them a little softer and easier to stuff.

20 minEthiopianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Senafich (Ethiopian mustard seed paste)

On Ethiopian fasting platters there is often one little dab of yellow among the reds and greens: senafich, a punchy mustard paste that clears the nose and cuts through the oil of the wats. Brown or yellow mustard seed is ground, mixed with warm water and left to rest, which takes the bitterness away, then beaten with lemon, oil, ginger and garlic until it is smooth and creamy. It is served with injera, shimbra asa and boiled vegetables, and some cooks thin it into a sauce for raw chillies. A common mistake is serving it straight after mixing, when it is harsh and bitter; let it stand for at least an hour (it is even better the next day). Chef's tip: use warm water rather than boiling for the soak; very hot water kills the mustard's heat and leaves it flat.

15 minEthiopianChutneys & DipsVeganGluten freeSpicy
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Kita (quick Ethiopian flatbread)

When there is no fermented injera batter ready, households across Ethiopia make kita: a plain unleavened flatbread of flour, water and salt, spread thin and cooked on the mitad or a heavy pan in minutes. It is soft and slightly chewy with toasty brown spots, and is eaten hot with tea, with shiro or buticha on fasting days, or torn up for kita firfir. Children often eat it warm with a sprinkle of berbere and oil. A wheat dough is easiest at home; mixing in a portion of teff flour adds an earthy flavour. Too thick a layer is the common mistake, as the middle stays raw; spread it thin and cook it covered. Chef's tip: wet your fingertips or the back of a spoon to press the batter-like dough out evenly in the hot pan.

25 minEthiopianBreads & ParathasVegan
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Zoom-koomGinger tamarind millet drink

Zoom-koom means flour water in Mooré, and in Ouagadougou it is the drink that breaks the fast at iftar during Ramadan and cools people down in the scorching weeks before the rains. Millet gives it body and a soft cereal sweetness, while fresh ginger brings heat and tamarind a sour edge; some sellers add lime or mint. It is cloudy, thick and refreshing, served very cold in small bags or glasses. Raw flour is not safe to drink as it is, so this version toasts the millet first, which also deepens its flavour. Chill for at least an hour before serving. Chef's tip: stir the jug every time you pour, as the millet settles quickly to the bottom.

26 minAfricanDrinksVeganGluten free
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Massawa oven fish

Along the waterfront in Massawa, on Eritrea's Red Sea coast, fish restaurants slap whole snapper and grouper with a red berbere paste and lower them into scorching clay ovens, then bring them to the table on a tray with flatbread, lime and a fresh chilli relish. The skin chars and blisters, the spice paste turns smoky, and the flesh stays moist and sweet underneath. Everyone tears off pieces of bread and pulls the fish from the bone with their fingers. A domestic oven turned up as high as it goes gives a very good result. Chef's tip: score the fish deeply down to the bone and push the paste into the cuts, so the flavour reaches the middle and the thickest part cooks as fast as the tail.

50 minEritreanFishGluten freeSpicy
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Moukhbaza (Kassala mashed banana)

Kassala, in the green orchard country of eastern Sudan near the Eritrean border, grows bananas in abundance, and its signature dish uses them very simply: very ripe bananas mashed with a little sugar and cooked briefly until thick and jammy. Moukhbaza is eaten as a snack or light breakfast, torn kisra or soft gurasa pancakes dragged through it, and children adore it. It tastes like warm banana bread without the oven. Under-ripe fruit is the usual mistake; you want bananas with heavily speckled, almost black skins, or the mash is starchy and bland. Chef's tip: a squeeze of lime at the end keeps the colour bright and balances the sweetness.

15 minSudaneseSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Nafaqo (Somali potato-wrapped eggs)

Sold warm from street stalls and cafés around Mogadishu, especially in the late afternoon and at iftar in Ramadan, nafaqo is a fried snack with a surprise inside: a whole boiled egg wrapped in mashed potato seasoned with onion, coriander and xawaash. A light chickpea-flour batter gives it a crisp golden shell, and it is cut in half to show the yolk and eaten with a squeeze of lime and hot green chilli sauce. Kids love it, and it travels well in a lunchbox. A common mistake is using wet, freshly boiled mash, which slides off the egg and splits in the oil; steam-dry the potatoes and let the mash cool before shaping. Chef's tip: roll the peeled eggs in a little chickpea flour before wrapping them, so the potato grips the slippery white.

55 minSomaliSnacks & StartersGluten free
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ÎnvârtităRolled sweet cheese pastry

Sunday visits in the villages around Iași and Suceava rarely happen without a tray of învârtită, the coiled pastry whose name simply means 'twisted'. A soft dough is pulled over a floured tablecloth until it is as fine as paper, brushed with butter, covered in sweet cottage cheese with raisins and lemon zest, rolled up and wound into a snail before baking. Fresh from the oven it is crackly at the edges and moist in the middle; it is cut into wedges and eaten with coffee or a glass of milk. Families also fill it with sour cherries in June or grated pumpkin in autumn. Cottage cheese is usually made without animal rennet, but check the label if you keep strictly vegetarian. Lots of bakers stretch the dough too soon after mixing, and it tears into holes; give it the full rest. Chef's tip: drain the cottage cheese in a sieve for 20 minutes first, so the filling stays creamy and does not run out of the seams.

120 minRomanianBaking
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