Featured recipe

Khurmi

Wheat and jaggery biscuits

Khurmi are the sweet half of Chhattisgarh's Teeja-Pola festival snacks, made in big batches alongside the salty thethri. The dough is wheat flour and a little semolina bound with melted jaggery, studded with sesame and coconut, then cut into diamonds or pressed into small patterned shapes and fried until dark gold. They have a hard, crunchy bite and a deep caramel flavour, and they last for weeks in a steel dabba, ready for visitors and children back from school. Chef's tip: cool the jaggery water to lukewarm before kneading; hot jaggery makes a slack dough that spreads and soaks up oil.

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KajmakClotted milk cream

At the Zlatibor and Čačak markets, women sell kajmak from wide tubs, cut in soft ivory folds that taste of cooked milk, butter and a little salt. It is made by slowly heating rich milk, letting it settle in shallow pans and lifting off the thick skin that forms as it cools, then layering those skins with salt. This home version uses pasteurised milk and cream and stays in the fridge throughout; the long-aged, raw-milk kajmak of the villages is not something to copy at home. Spread it on warm lepinja or proja, or stir it into hot potatoes. A common mistake is letting the milk boil: the bubbles tear the skin and you end up with flecks instead of a thick sheet. Chef's tip: keep the skimmed milk left underneath for porridge, proja or pancakes; nothing goes to waste.

1440 minBalkan Basics

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Sri Lankan buryani

At a Sri Lankan Muslim wedding or a Friday gathering in Colombo's Maradana or Kandy's old town, buryani arrives on huge platters, each portion crowned with a leg of chicken, a halved boiled egg, fried cashews and sultanas. It is lighter and more perfumed than most mainland Indian versions, built on chicken marinated in yoghurt and warm spices, layered with long-grain rice, fried onions, mint and rose water, then sealed and steamed so the grains take on the aroma. It is never eaten alone: a sharp mint sambol, a sweet-sour pickle called achcharu and a bowl of raita-like salad are the expected companions. A frequent misstep is boiling the rice fully before layering, which leaves it mushy after the steaming. Chef's tip: drain the rice when it is about 70 percent cooked, still with a firm white core, because it finishes in the steam.

120 min

Sri Lankan Rice & Grains

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Chorbet hout (Sfax fish soup)

Along the coast around Sfax, a bowl of chorbet hout often opens the meal at Ramadan iftar, after dates and water: a red, peppery broth of tomato, harissa and caraway, thick with tiny bird's-tongue pasta and flakes of white fish, finished with a squeeze of lemon. Grouper, sea bream or mullet are the local choices, and any firm white fish works. The soup is warming and spicy with a fresh lift from parsley and celery, and goes well with bread and a brik. Chef's tip: poach the fish briefly, lift it out and only return the flakes at the end; leaving it to boil with the pasta is the common mistake, and it breaks into threads.

50 min

Tunisian Soups

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Sri Lankan patties

Patties are the short eat that marks a Sri Lankan celebration, made by the hundred for weddings, Avurudu New Year visits and Christmas open houses, and sold warm from bakeries in paper bags. The pastry is the clue to their identity: rich with butter, egg and coconut milk, rolled thin, folded into half-moons and crimped with a fork, then fried until blistered and flaky. Inside is a gently spiced mix of chicken, potato and leeks with a hint of cinnamon, and a vegetable filling of potato, carrot and leek is equally common when guests are vegetarian. It goes wrong when the filling is still warm when it meets the pastry, which then softens, tears and leaks in the oil. Chef's tip: rest the pastry in the fridge for half an hour before rolling, and press the edges with a fork dipped in flour so they seal firmly.

75 min

Sri Lankan Snacks & Starters

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Osban (Tunisian stuffed lamb sausages)

Eid al-Adha in Tunisia means using every part of the sheep, and osban is how the tripe is honoured: cleaned pieces are sewn into pouches and packed with rice, chopped liver and lamb, chard, a big bunch of parsley and coriander, dried mint and harissa, then simmered in a red chickpea sauce and served over couscous. Families all over the country, from Tunis to the south, make a batch and freeze some for later. The filling cooks into a soft, herby, peppery sausage and the tripe turns tender. Buy tripe that the butcher has already cleaned and scalded, or use natural sausage casings for an easier version. Chef's tip: fill the pouches only two-thirds full and prick them with a needle; the rice swells as it cooks, and overstuffed osban burst, which is the most common mistake.

180 min

Tunisian Meat

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Jamaican pepper shrimp

Drive through Middle Quarters in St Elizabeth and women by the roadside will lean into the car window holding bags of bright red pepper shrimp, calling "pepa swimps!" The river shrimp are boiled whole in a fiery brine of scotch bonnet, pimento, garlic and salt, then left to soak up the heat, and eaten with the fingers, shells and all sucked clean. Large shell-on prawns make a fine substitute. The usual mistake is overboiling, which leaves the shrimp rubbery; they need only a few minutes before steeping off the heat. Discard any shrimp that smell of ammonia or have soft, slimy shells before cooking. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of annatto or paprika gives the deep red colour of the roadside bags.

25 min

Jamaican Fish

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Highland grilled trout

Trout farms fed by cold Tatra streams supply the roadside grills and mountain inns of Podhale, and pstrąg po góralsku is what hikers order on the terrace with a view of Giewont: a whole fish, stuffed with garlic and fresh herbs, crisped in butter until the skin crackles. The flesh is sweet and delicate, scented by dill and parsley from the inside out. Serve it with boiled new potatoes, lemon and a cucumber salad with sour cream. The classic error is flipping too early, so the skin tears and sticks; leave it until it releases on its own. If you have a grill basket, the same fish is excellent over charcoal. Chef's tip: score the thickest part of each side twice, right down to the bone, so the head end cooks as fast as the tail.

28 min

Polish Fish

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Grilled oscypek with cranberry

Walk down Krupówki street in Zakopane in any season and the smell of smoke and warm cheese leads you to the grills, where highlanders turn thick slices of oscypek until they are striped and soft. The real thing is a spindle-shaped, carved sheep's milk cheese smoked in mountain huts; grilled, it turns chewy and squeaky outside, salty and smoky within, and the sharp-sweet cranberry cuts through it perfectly. Oscypek is made with animal rennet, so for a vegetarian plate use a smoked sheep's or cow's cheese made with vegetarian rennet, firm enough to hold its shape. The usual slip is slicing too thin; the cheese then melts through the grill. Chef's tip: oil the pan, not the cheese, and don't move the slices until they release on their own.

15 min

Polish Snacks & Starters

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Jamaican soursop juice

Soursop punch is a Sunday-dinner drink in Jamaica, made when a ripe, soft soursop comes from the market or a yard tree, and it is also sold in bottles at roadside juice stands. The white, custardy pulp tastes of pineapple, banana and strawberry all at once, and blended with milk, nutmeg and vanilla it becomes thick and creamy. The common mistake is blending the black seeds, which taste bitter and should not be eaten; always pick them out by hand. Chef's tip: use a fruit that gives softly all over when pressed, like a ripe avocado.

20 min

Jamaican Drinks

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Kaju maluwaCashew and pea coconut curry

In the cashew-growing country north of Colombo, around Kurunegala and Puttalam, fresh green cashews are cooked into this creamy curry for weddings, almsgivings and the Avurudu table, and no one would dream of calling it everyday food. The nuts turn soft and buttery in a mild, pale gravy of coconut milk scented with cinnamon, pandan and unroasted curry powder, with green peas for colour, and it sits on the festive spread beside yellow rice and a sharp pickle. Fresh cashews are hard to find outside Sri Lanka, so this recipe uses raw dried ones soaked until they are almost like the fresh kind. Not soaking them long enough is the usual mistake; they stay chalky in the middle however long they simmer, so give them at least six hours, or overnight. Chef's tip: a pinch of bicarbonate of soda in the soaking water softens the nuts faster and gives them that tender, just-picked texture.

50 min

Sri Lankan Curries

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Christmas mushroom soup

In many Polish homes the Christmas Eve supper opens with either beetroot barszcz or this soup, and families argue about which is better. Dried porcini picked and threaded on strings in September are soaked and simmered with root vegetables into a clear, deep-brown broth with a smoky, almost meaty depth, then served with thin noodles or łazanki. It is fully meat-free, as Wigilia tradition requires, and kept dairy-free here. A common mistake is pouring the soaking water in with its grit; let it settle and leave the last spoonfuls behind. Chef's tip: soak the mushrooms overnight in cold water and cook them in that water for the most flavour.

90 min

Polish Soups

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Cabbage with peas

Of the twelve dishes on a Polish Christmas Eve table, this is the humblest and often the one people go back to for seconds. Sour, tangy sauerkraut is braised slowly with yellow split peas until the peas collapse into a soft, savoury mash that binds the cabbage, with dried mushrooms and golden onion for depth. Serve it warm next to pierogi or potatoes, and know that it tastes even better reheated the next day. The usual slip is adding salt before the peas are cooked, which keeps them hard; season only at the end, as the sauerkraut is salty anyway. Chef's tip: if your sauerkraut is very sour, rinse it once and squeeze it, keeping a little juice to adjust the sharpness later.

90 min

Polish Vegetarian

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Stuffed eggs

The clever bit of the Polish Easter version is that the eggs are halved lengthways shell and all with a sharp knife, then the filling goes back into the shells and the cut sides are fried until crusty. It is a dish of the Easter breakfast and of name-day parties, served hot from the pan or cold from the fridge. The filling of mashed yolk, chives, mayonnaise and a little mustard turns golden and slightly crisp on top while staying soft beneath. Where most people go wrong is cutting with a blunt knife, which shatters the shell; use a large, very sharp knife and one firm stroke. Chef's tip: chill the boiled eggs fully before cutting so the white holds together.

30 min

Polish Snacks & Starters

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Rose petal jam

Ask a Polish baker what goes inside a proper pączek and the answer is rose jam, not strawberry. In June, families gather the scented pink petals of wild beach roses (Rosa rugosa) from hedges along the Baltic coast and in gardens, then pound them with sugar into a sticky, intensely perfumed paste that keeps for a year. The flavour is floral and sweet with a little sharpness from lemon, lovely in doughnuts, swirled into yoghurt or spread on cheesecake. Pick only from plants that have not been sprayed and away from roads. Where most people go wrong is leaving the bitter white base of the petals on; snip it off. Chef's tip: lemon juice turns dull petals bright magenta, so add it right at the start.

40 min

Polish Chutneys & Dips

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Roast goose with apples

On 11 November, St Martin's Day and Poland's Independence Day, roast goose comes back to tables from Poznań to Gdańsk, and Pomeranian and Kujawy farms still raise their own white geese for it. The bird is rubbed with marjoram, garlic and salt, left overnight in the fridge, then stuffed with sharp apples and roasted slowly so the fat renders out and the skin turns crisp and mahogany. The meat is dark and rich, the apples collapse into a tart sauce. Serve with braised red cabbage, potato dumplings and the pan juices. Most people forget to drain the fat as it roasts, and the bird ends up frying in its own puddle; pour it off every half hour and save it for roast potatoes. Allow an extra night for the marinade. Chef's tip: prick the skin all over, especially under the wings and thighs, without piercing the meat, so the fat has somewhere to escape.

240 min

Polish Meat

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Fried vendace

Sielawa, the small silvery whitefish of the deep Masurian lakes, is a holiday treat in Mikołajki, Giżycko and the lakeside fish huts, sold freshly fried on paper plates with a lemon wedge and a slice of bread. The fish are so slender that, once floured and fried in butter, the fine bones become soft enough to eat and the skin turns golden and crunchy around sweet, delicate flesh. A cold cucumber salad or chips are the usual companions. Overcrowding the pan is the chief error: the fish steam instead of frying and the coating goes pale and soggy. If vendace is hard to find, smelt, small whiting or sprats work the same way. Chef's tip: dry the fish properly before flouring and fry in two batches, adding a little fresh butter and oil each time so it never burns.

25 min

Polish Fish

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Smoked eel

Fish smokehouses dot the shores of the Great Masurian Lakes, and an eel hot-smoked over alder, golden-skinned and glistening, is the prize of any summer trip to Węgorzewo or Ruciane-Nida. The flesh is rich, soft and smoky-sweet, and it is eaten cold on rye bread with grated horseradish and a squeeze of lemon. European wild eel is endangered, so buy farmed eel from a responsible fishmonger, ready gutted. This is a fully hot-smoked version: the fish is brined in the fridge and cooked through in the smoker. Smoked fish can carry listeria if it is not cooked through or kept cold, so it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system unless reheated until steaming. Many home smokers run the heat too low throughout, which leaves the eel smoky but undercooked. Chef's tip: ready hot-smoked eel from a lakeside smokehouse is the easy route; just serve it well chilled with the same garnishes.

240 min

Polish Fish

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Fried Christmas carp

For many Polish families, Wigilia, the meatless Christmas Eve supper, is not complete without fried carp, bought live from market tanks in mid-December or, more often today, cleaned and cut into steaks at the fishmonger. The steaks are salted, floured and fried until the skin crisps and the white flesh turns sweet and juicy. Serve with boiled potatoes, sauerkraut with peas, or simply bread and a lemon wedge, after the beetroot barszcz. Keeping a scale from the Christmas carp in your wallet is said to bring money all year. Carp has a reputation for tasting muddy, and the usual culprit is skipping the salting and resting time. Ask the fishmonger to score the steaks finely so the small Y-shaped bones soften as they fry. Chef's tip: salt the steaks and leave them in the fridge for 20 minutes, then pat completely dry; the flesh firms up and the flour clings in a thin, even crust.

40 min

Polish Fish

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Kakra bhunaMud crab masala

The muddy channels of the Sundarbans and the shrimp farms around Shyamnagar and Paikgachha are crab country, and in Khulna homes the big-clawed mud crabs are chopped in half, fried and then cooked down in a thick, fiery masala until it coats every crack and crevice. It is a dish for eating with your hands, sucking the masala from the shells and cracking the claws, with plain rice and a bowl of water for your fingers. Crabs must be bought alive and lively, or freshly cooked from a fishmonger you trust: throw away any that are dead before cooking, have a cracked shell or smell unpleasant. Ask the fishmonger to dispatch and clean them for you if you are not confident doing it yourself. Undercooking is the risk to avoid; the shells should be bright orange-red and the meat white and opaque right through. Chef's tip: crack the claws lightly before they go in, so the masala seeps inside.

60 min

Bangladeshi Fish

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Pumpkin millet porridge

Autumn in central Ukraine means piles of grey-skinned pumpkins in every yard, and the first thing many grandmothers make with them is this golden breakfast porridge. Diced pumpkin is simmered until it collapses, then millet and milk are added and the pot is left to cook down into something thick, creamy and faintly sweet, finished with butter and a spoon of honey. In villages around Cherkasy and Vinnytsia it was once baked for hours in the clay stove; a heavy pan on a low heat gives a very similar result. Serve it hot in deep bowls, with extra honey and a few raisins for children. The usual slip is skipping the rinse: millet carries a bitter dust, and only washing it in several changes of hot water takes it away. Chef's tip: choose a dense, deep-orange pumpkin such as butternut or a Ukrainian 'muscat' type; watery Halloween pumpkins make a thin, pale kasha.

50 min

Ukrainian Breakfast & Brunch

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Bajan coconut turnovers

Glass cases in Bridgetown bakeries hold rows of turnovers, soft golden half-moons of sweet yeasted dough with a sticky filling of grated coconut, brown sugar, almond essence and spice peeking out at the edges, often tinted red. Bajans eat them mid-morning with a mug of cocoa or a cold sweet drink. The mistake is overfilling, which bursts the seams in the oven; leave a clear border to seal. Chef's tip: cook the coconut filling until almost dry and cool it fully before using, as warm wet filling makes the dough soggy.

60 min

Bajan Baking

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Jamaican green banana porridge

Green banana porridge is the breakfast many Jamaicans remember from their grandmothers' kitchens in St Mary and St Ann, where bananas are cheap and plentiful and the porridge was said to "build you up" for the day. Unripe bananas grated or blended with water cook into a smooth, silky porridge with a gentle, earthy flavour, sweetened with condensed milk and scented with nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. The common mistake is not whisking as it heats; the starch thickens suddenly and goes lumpy within a minute. Peel the green bananas with oiled hands or gloves, because the sap stains. Chef's tip: blend the bananas with the water until completely smooth before they go into the pot, which makes it far easier to keep lump-free.

30 min

Jamaican Breakfast & Brunch

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Napoleon cake

Legend links this cake to 1912, the centenary of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, when St Petersburg confectioners cut triangular pastries shaped like his hat. By Soviet times it had grown into the tall round cake every family baked for birthdays and New Year's Eve. Eight wafer-thin rounds of quick flaky pastry are stacked with vanilla custard enriched with butter, then left overnight so the layers soften into something between a mille-feuille and a tender sponge; crushed trimmings give the snowy finish. Where most people go wrong is serving it the same day; without the long rest in the fridge it is crisp and dry instead of melting. Chef's tip: roll each piece of pastry straight onto baking paper and trim it around a 24 cm plate before baking, so you never have to lift thin raw dough.

240 min

Russian Desserts

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CervelatGrilled sausage

The cervelat, a short, fat, smoked sausage of beef and pork, is called Switzerland's national sausage, and it is what every Swiss child grills on a stick over a campfire on 1 August, National Day, on school trips and on mountain hikes: the ends are cut into a cross so they curl open like a flower as they cook, and it is eaten with bread and mustard. This sausage contains pork. Cervelat is bought ready-cooked and smoked; grilling heats it through and crisps it. A common mistake is grilling over flames, which burns the skin black before the inside is hot. Chef's tip: grill over glowing embers and turn often until the scored ends open out; heat until piping hot, 71 °C.

15 min

Swiss Meat

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Kammounia (Tunisian cumin beef stew)

Cumin, kammoun in Arabic, gives kammounia its name, and the dish uses it boldly: chunks of beef, or in many Tunis homes lamb's liver, simmer in a thick, dark sauce of garlic, tomato paste and a generous amount of ground cumin until the meat is tender and the sauce clings to it. It is everyday family food in Tunis and Sfax, scooped up with crusty bread or served alongside a salad and olives. The flavour is earthy, warm and garlicky with a gentle heat from harissa. The usual mistake is adding the cumin at the start and frying it hard, which makes it bitter; it goes in once the sauce is simmering. Chef's tip: add half the cumin at the start and the rest in the last 10 minutes; all of it at once risks a flat, slightly bitter sauce, while the late addition keeps the aroma bright.

90 min

Tunisian Meat

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Bkaila (Tunisian spinach and beef stew)

Tunisian Jewish families in Tunis, and those who carried the dish to Paris and Israel, cook bkaila for Rosh Hashanah and for Friday-night dinners: a heap of spinach is fried in olive oil for over an hour, until it shrinks to a dark, almost black, crumbly paste, then simmered for hours with chunks of beef, white beans, garlic and dried mint. The result looks dramatic and tastes deep and earthy, a little like a long-braised green sauce, with tender meat and creamy beans. It is eaten with couscous or bread, and is even better reheated the next day. Start the beans soaking the night before. Chef's tip: fry the spinach over a medium-low heat and stir often; turning up the heat to save time is the classic mistake, scorching the leaves so the whole pot turns bitter.

240 min

Tunisian Meat

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Mors

Northern Russia picks cranberries and lingonberries from the bogs in autumn, and many of them end up as mors, a tart, crimson drink served from a jug at family dinners and offered in cafes and canteens from Arkhangelsk to Siberia. Unlike kissel it is thin and refreshing, made by pressing out the raw berry juice, cooking the skins in water and then combining the two so the fresh vitamin-rich juice is never boiled. Honey goes in last, once the liquid has cooled a little, to keep its flavour. Where most people go wrong is boiling the pressed juice along with the pulp; keep it aside until the end. Honey is not for babies under one year old. Chef's tip: serve it cold with ice in summer or warmed gently in winter; it is good both ways.

20 min

Russian Drinks

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Salted saffron milk caps

Northern Russians rank ryzhiki, the orange saffron milk caps of the pine woods, above almost every other mushroom, and salted ones from around Arkhangelsk once travelled to the tsar's table. Salted, they keep their bright colour, turn firm and juicy with a clean, resinous taste, and are served with thin onion rings, sunflower oil and hot boiled potatoes; for non-vegans a spoon of sour cream is classic. Old cellars dry-salted them raw for months; this safer fridge version blanches the caps briefly and keeps them in a measured brine in the fridge, ready in about a week. Only use mushrooms identified by an experienced forager or bought from a trusted seller. Where most people go wrong is guessing the salt; too little lets spoilage start, so weigh it. Chef's tip: the caps bruise green where handled, which is normal, so don't worry when the edges darken.

30 min

Russian Basics

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Kaha bathTurmeric coconut rice

Burgher Sunday lunches, Christmas tables and Colombo wedding buffets share one thing: a heap of fragrant, saffron-coloured kaha bath, the yellow rice that also forms the base of lamprais. Long-grain or samba rice is fried with onion, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and curry leaves, then cooked in coconut milk with turmeric, lemongrass and pandan until every grain is separate, glossy and perfumed. It is served with chicken or beef curry, brinjal moju and a sharp achcharu, and is often scattered with fried cashews and raisins. Burgher cooks usually use ghee or butter and chicken stock; this version is vegan, with coconut oil and coconut milk carrying the richness. Lifting the lid to stir while it cooks is the slip that turns it mushy, so seal the pot and leave it alone. Chef's tip: rinse the rice until the water runs clear and drain it well; dry grains toast better in the oil and stay fluffy.

40 min

Sri Lankan Rice & Grains

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Eggplant rolls

Every birthday buffet in Russian flats seems to have a plate of these little rolls, brought out with the herring and the salads: thin strips of fried aubergine wrapped around a sharp garlic and cheese filling with a slice of tomato peeking out. The aubergine is silky, the filling creamy and punchy, and the tomato keeps it fresh. They are a cold starter, so make them an hour before guests arrive and keep them chilled. Where most people go wrong is frying thick slices in lots of oil, which leaves them greasy and stiff; slice thin, salt them, pat dry and fry in a shallow film of oil. Many hard cheeses use animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian one. Chef's tip: press the fried slices between paper towels while still warm; they shed surprising amounts of oil.

40 min

Russian Snacks & Starters

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Djouzia (walnut and honey nougat)

Shops in old Constantine wrap djouzia in twists of paper and sell it by weight, a soft, pale caramel-coloured nougat of honey, whipped egg white and plenty of walnuts. It is chewier and darker than white Provençal nougat, with a deep honey flavour and the slight bitterness of walnut skins. Djouzia is a gift sweet, carried to weddings and offered with coffee to visitors, and keeps for weeks. A sugar thermometer makes it reliable. Chef's tip: cook the honey syrup to 125 °C; syrup that is pulled off too early is the most common mistake, and the nougat stays sticky and will not set enough to cut.

55 min

Algerian Desserts

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Vitamin salad

"Vitamin" salad was the bright spot on every Soviet stolovaya tray, scooped from a steel tray beside the cutlets and buckwheat, and it is still how many Russians start a light lunch. Fresh white cabbage, carrot and green apple are rubbed with salt and sugar, then dressed simply with sunflower oil and vinegar, so it tastes crisp, juicy and sweet-sour. It goes with almost anything hot and is a good way to use half a cabbage. A common mistake is skipping the squeeze: crushing the cabbage with salt for a minute or two softens it and draws out juice that becomes part of the dressing. Grate the apple last so it does not brown. Chef's tip: unrefined, toasted-seed sunflower oil gives the true canteen flavour; a splash goes a long way.

15 min

Russian Salads

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Jamaican pumpkin soup

Ital kitchens in the Blue Mountains cook pumpkin soup on cool evenings, when the mist comes down over the coffee farms and something golden and peppery is needed. This one is meat-free and dairy-free: calabaza, carrot and chocho simmer with thyme, scallion and pimento until the pumpkin breaks down into a thick, naturally sweet broth, with a few spinners for chew. People often add the scotch bonnet already cut, which can make the whole pot ferociously hot; drop it in whole and take it out when the soup tastes right. Chocho (chayote) is optional, and courgette is a fair swap. Chef's tip: leave the soup chunky rather than blending; Jamaicans like to see the pieces of pumpkin collapsing into it.

60 min

Jamaican Soups

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Pomor-style cod

Along the White Sea coast near Arkhangelsk, the Pomors lived on cod, and this is how a fisherman's household turned a fillet into a whole supper: fish laid over sliced potatoes and buttery onions, then covered with beaten egg and milk and baked until set and golden, like a savoury fish custard. It is soft, mild and filling, and is eaten with pickled mushrooms, sauerkraut or a green salad. Where most people go wrong is using raw potato slices, which take far longer than the fish; par-boil them first. Chef's tip: salt the cod lightly 15 minutes ahead in the fridge, it firms up and does not leak water into the egg.

50 min

Russian Fish

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KahiFlaky pastry with date syrup

Kahi is what Baghdadi families in Ramat Gan and Or Yehuda make on Shavuot and festival mornings: squares of dough folded with butter into many layers, baked until flaky, then doused with silan (date syrup) or sugar and eaten with tea or a little yogurt. Outside it shatters; inside the layers stay soft and buttery. The common mistake is letting the butter melt into the dough while folding, which leaves you with a flat, bready square. Chef's tip: chill the folded dough for 20 minutes between rolls if your kitchen is warm, and bake in a really hot oven so the layers puff.

60 min

Israeli Breakfast & Brunch

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Mimosa salad

Named for the fluffy yellow mimosa flowers sold on every Moscow street corner for Women's Day on 8 March, this Soviet-era party salad is crowned with a snowfall of grated egg yolk. Underneath are layers of tinned salmon or saury, potato, carrot, onion and egg white, each with a little mayonnaise, so a spoonful is soft, rich and gently fishy. It is made ahead for birthdays and holidays and served chilled. Use shop-bought mayonnaise, which is made with pasteurised egg. A common mistake is mashing the fish with all its oil, which makes the bottom layer soggy. Chef's tip: grate the yolk straight over the salad at the very end, on the finest side of the grater, for the fluffiest flowers.

60 min

Russian Salads

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Date squares

Date squares are on the tea table in every Canadian church hall and school bake sale, called carrés aux dattes in Quebec and matrimonial cake in the West. A buttery oat crumble is pressed into a tin, spread with a soft date filling and covered with more crumble, then baked until golden. They keep for days and freeze well. A common mistake is spreading the dates while hot onto loose crumb, which makes the base soggy; press the base firmly. Chef's tip: add a strip of orange zest to the dates for a brighter flavour.

60 min

Canadian Baking

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Maple syrup pie

Tarte au sirop d'érable closes many a family meal in Quebec at Easter and through the sugaring season, a cousin of the sugar pie made with real maple syrup. The filling of syrup, cream and egg bakes into a soft, trembling, caramel-brown layer that tastes deeply of maple. Slice it thin; it is rich. A spoonful of crème fraîche or plain whipped cream cuts the sweetness. A common mistake is skipping the blind bake, which leaves a soggy base. Chef's tip: take the pie out while the centre still wobbles like jelly; it sets as it cools and over-baking makes it weep.

70 min

Canadian Desserts

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Bergen fish soup

Bergensk fiskesuppe is the soup of Bergen's rainy harbour: a creamy, slightly sweet-sour broth with julienned carrot, leek and celeriac, chunks of white fish and salmon, small fish dumplings and a spoon of sour cream, finished with chives. Bergen families make it on Saturdays, and every restaurant on the Bryggen wharf has its own. A common mistake is boiling the fish, which breaks it up and makes it dry. Chef's tip: add the fish at the end and poach it in barely trembling soup for 3–4 minutes, until just opaque and flaking.

55 minScandinavian Soups

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Aab goshtMutton in spiced milk

Pale, gentle and fragrant with green cardamom, aab gosht is the Kashmiri kitchen's answer to anyone who thinks the cuisine is all chilli. Mutton on the bone is first boiled with whole spices, then finished in reduced milk with fennel and dry ginger until the sauce turns ivory and thick, almost like a savoury kheer. It is a wazwan dish and a family favourite for Sunday lunch among Kashmiri households in Muzaffarabad and Lahore, eaten over plain rice with a sharp green chutney on the side for contrast. Boiling the milk hard is what ruins it, since it catches on the base and leaves a scorched taste through the whole pot. Chef's tip: reduce the milk in a separate wide pan while the meat cooks, then combine them; it thickens faster and is far less likely to burn.

100 min

Pakistani Meat

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Kala bhunaDark mustard oil beef curry

Kala means black, and that is the colour you are aiming for: Chittagong's kala bhuna is beef that is first cooked with spices until tender and then fried and stirred, patiently, for the best part of an hour until the pieces turn dark brown to nearly black and the masala clings to them like a crust. It is a dish from the port city's wedding and Eid kitchens, now a fixture of Chittagong restaurants in Dhaka, eaten with plain rice, khichuri or rice-flour chitoi ruti. The taste is deep and roasted, sharp with mustard oil, black pepper and a little nutmeg and mace, with no gravy at all. The most common slip is turning up the heat to speed up the blackening, which burns the spices bitter rather than caramelising the meat. Chef's tip: it improves overnight, so make it a day ahead and re-fry it briefly before serving.

150 min

Bangladeshi Meat

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Lac-Saint-Jean blueberry pie

Around Lac-Saint-Jean in Quebec the low wild blueberries ripen in August, and the region is so proud of them that locals are nicknamed bleuets. Every church supper and roadside casse-croûte there sells a deep tarte aux bleuets with a flaky top crust and a dark, jammy filling that holds when sliced. Wild berries are smaller and more intense than cultivated ones and frozen wild berries work well. Serve slightly warm with vanilla ice cream or a jug of cream. A common mistake is skimping on the cornflour, which leaves a soupy filling. Chef's tip: let the pie cool for at least three hours so the juices set; cut it hot and the filling runs all over the plate.

100 min

Canadian Desserts

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Maple cream

Crème d'érable is sold in little jars in every Quebec market from Jean-Talon to the Beauce farm stands, and despite the name there is no cream in it: pure maple syrup is boiled to the soft-ball stage, cooled without stirring and then beaten until it turns pale and creamy. It is spread on toast, crêpes and warm bagels. Patience and a thermometer are the whole trick. The common mistake is stirring the syrup while it cools, which sets off large grainy crystals instead of a smooth cream. Chef's tip: use a light, golden syrup; dark syrups taste stronger but can stay runny.

65 min

Canadian Chutneys & Dips

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Shoti bread

Every Kakhetian village has a bakery where the baker leans into a round, pit-like tone oven and slaps long, pointed loaves onto its hot clay wall; the bread comes out crackly at the tips and soft in the middle, and it is bought warm every morning in Telavi and Sighnaghi. Shoti is just flour, water, yeast and salt, so the shape and the blast of heat do the work. At home a pizza stone or an upturned heavy baking tray, heated for a long time, gives a good copy. A common mistake is a dry, stiff dough; it should be soft enough to stretch into a long canoe without tearing. Chef's tip: spray the oven walls with water as the bread goes in; the burst of steam gives the blistered, glossy crust of the tone.

50 min

Georgian Breads & Parathas

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Kachumar saladTomato, onion and cucumber salad

No Pakistani dastarkhwan feels complete without a little bowl of kachumar, whether it sits beside a biryani at a Karachi wedding, a karahi at a highway truck stop or plain dal at home on a Tuesday. It is nothing more than tomato, onion and cucumber cut into very small, even dice, dressed at the last moment with lemon, salt, green chilli and coriander, yet the crunch and sharpness are what make rich food feel lighter. Some families add a pinch of roasted cumin or a few mint leaves; in Punjab it is often spooned straight onto the side of the plate rather than served apart. Dressing it too early is the main trap, because the salt pulls water from the tomatoes and leaves a soggy puddle. Chef's tip: seed the tomatoes and cucumber before dicing so the salad stays crisp for the whole meal.

10 min

Pakistani Salads

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