Featured recipe

Dhalpuri roti

Split pea filled flatbread

Dhalpuri is the pride of Trinidad's Indo-Caribbean kitchens and roti shops, from Chaguanas to San Fernando: a large, soft, thin roti with a hidden layer of finely ground, seasoned yellow split peas. It's wrapped around curry channa and aloo, curry pumpkin or curry mango to make a 'roti', or torn and eaten alongside. It came with Indian indentured workers in the 1800s and became something distinctly Trini: thinner and softer than an Indian dal paratha, cooked on a flat iron 'tawa'. Chef's tip: the split peas must be boiled only until just tender, drained, then dried and ground into a fine, dry powder. Any dampness and the roti will burst when you roll it out.

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Nova Scotia oatcakes

Nova Scotia oatcakes are nothing like the plain Scottish kind: Cape Breton bakers, with their Highland roots, made them sweeter and richer, with butter and brown sugar, so they crunch like a cross between a biscuit and shortbread. They are sold at every coffee shop in Antigonish and Baddeck and eaten with tea, or with a slice of sharp cheddar. A common mistake is rolling them thick; 5 mm gives the proper snap. Chef's tip: chill the rolled dough before cutting so the squares stay sharp.

35 min

Canadian Baking

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Kmínová polévkaCaraway soup

Few soups are as cheap or as old as this one. Kmínová polévka was the Bohemian peasant's breakfast long before coffee arrived, and Czech mothers still make it for an upset stomach or a hangover. The roux is cooked until it smells of toasted hazelnuts, the caraway is fried in butter until it pops, and the hot soup is poured straight onto crunchy toasted bread so it softens at the edges. Where most people go wrong is taking the roux off the heat while it is still pale: you get a floury, raw-tasting soup instead of a nutty one. A beaten egg trickled in at the end makes it more filling. Chef's tip: crush half the caraway in a mortar first, so the flavour spreads through the broth while the whole seeds give little bursts.

25 min

Czech Soups

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Kluski z makiemNoodles with sweet poppy seed

Poppy seed is the taste of a Polish Christmas Eve, and in central and eastern Poland it often reaches the table as a bowl of wide noodles in a sweet, dark poppy mixture with honey, walnuts and raisins. It sounds strange to anyone who expects pasta to be savoury, but it is closer to a pudding: nutty, slightly bitter, sticky with honey, eaten at room temperature as the last dish of the night. Where most people go wrong is using whole poppy seeds straight from the packet; they must be scalded and ground, or the dish is gritty and bland. Chef's tip: buy ready-ground poppy seed or grind scalded seeds twice in a spice grinder until they turn grey and buttery.

45 min

Polish Desserts

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KnäckebrödRye crispbread

Knäckebröd is the crispbread that Swedes have baked since the Vikings: rye flour and seeds rolled thin, pricked all over and baked until bone-dry, so it keeps for weeks; once it was baked with a hole in the middle and hung on poles under the kitchen ceiling. Today it is eaten at breakfast with butter, cheese and cucumber in every Swedish home. A common mistake is rolling unevenly, which leaves soft patches that go stale. Chef's tip: roll the dough directly on baking paper with a knobbled rolling pin or prick it heavily with a fork, then bake twice, the second time low, until completely dry.

60 minScandinavian Breads & Parathas

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KobeteLamb and potato pie

Kobete is the grand pie of Crimean Tatar celebrations, a tall golden dome cut at the table like a cake, its name thought to come from an old word for a pastry dome. Inside, small cubes of raw lamb, potato and onion are seasoned with black pepper and baked slowly in a soft, buttery yoghurt pastry, so the meat cooks in its own juices into a peppery broth that soaks the potato. Chicken versions are common too. Serve warm with a sharp salad or ayran. People tend to cut the meat too big; in a sealed pie, large chunks stay chewy while the crust burns. Allow time for the long bake and a short rest before slicing. Chef's tip: pour a ladle of hot stock through the steam hole halfway through baking, which keeps the filling juicy and tells you, by the bubbling, that it is cooking well inside.

150 min

Ukrainian Meat

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Aiyu jelly with lemonAiyu fig jelly with lemon

Squeezing a little cloth bag of seeds in a bowl of water until it turns into jelly sounds like a magic trick, yet that's how aiyu has been made for well over a century in Chiayi, at the foot of the Alishan hills where the climbing fig grows wild. The pectin in the dried seeds sets the water into a soft, glassy, pale-gold jelly with almost no taste of its own, so it's cut into cubes and served icy cold with tart lemon juice and honey syrup, the most refreshing thing on a sticky Taipei summer afternoon. The classic failure is a bowl that won't set, usually because the bowl was oily or the water was distilled or very soft; it needs ordinary tap or mineral water. Chef's tip: rub the bag steadily for 8–10 minutes and stop as soon as it feels slippery and nothing more comes out, or the jelly turns cloudy and bitter.

30 min

Taiwanese Drinks

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KljukušaBaked grated potato batter

Ask anyone from Bihać or Cazin in north-western Bosnia about kljukuša and they will describe a big tray of it coming out of the oven on a weekday, golden and blistered, then soaked in garlic yogurt at the table. Grated raw potato is stirred into a loose flour batter and baked in a thin layer, giving a crisp, browned top and a soft, slightly chewy middle, a bit like a potato pancake from the oven. The cold, garlicky yogurt against the hot potato is the whole point, with a green salad or pickles on the side. The usual slip is spreading it too thick, which leaves a gummy, undercooked centre; keep the layer to about 1.5 cm. Chef's tip: get the oiled tray smoking hot in the oven first, so the bottom crisps as soon as the batter hits it.

60 minBalkan Vegetarian

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Stuffed three treasures with fish paste

Walk past the street stalls of Mong Kok or Sham Shui Po in the afternoon and you will smell jin yeung saam bou sizzling on wide griddles: chunks of green pepper, aubergine and tofu, each pressed full of bouncy white fish paste and fried until golden, then splashed with a little soy or a glossy oyster sauce gravy. People point at the pieces they want, take them in a paper bowl with a bamboo skewer and eat them while walking; at home they become a side dish with rice. The fish paste should be springy, the vegetables soft, the tofu creamy. The trap is wet vegetables: unless you dust the cut sides with cornflour first, the paste slides straight off in the pan. Chef's tip: slap the fish paste against the bowl for a few minutes; it gets bouncier the more you work it.

50 min

Hong Kong Snacks & Starters

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Hong Kong iced lemon tea

Ask for 'ling cha, dung' at any Hong Kong cha chaan teng and a tall glass arrives crammed with ice, a heap of thin lemon slices and a long spoon for pounding them, the default thirst-quencher with set lunches all year round. The tea is brewed almost bitter, so it holds its own against the ice, and the sharp lemon and simple syrup turn it bright, tangy and refreshing. It is drunk with everything from macaroni soup breakfasts to afternoon pineapple buns. The common slip is brewing tea at normal strength, which tastes thin and watery once the ice melts; double the tea. Chef's tip: press the lemon slices with the back of the spoon only a few times to release juice and oil from the zest; grinding them to a pulp brings out bitterness from the pith.

10 min

Hong Kong Drinks

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Kluski leniweLazy cheese dumplings

Lazy dumplings earn their name honestly: instead of filling and pinching like pierogi, you knead the cheese straight into the dough and cut it into diamonds. Across Lesser Poland they are a school-day lunch, a canteen favourite and the first thing many Polish children learn to cook. Good ones are pillow-soft and faintly tangy from the twaróg, rolled in breadcrumbs toasted in butter and finished with a spoon of sugar, sometimes sour cream or cinnamon too. The usual slip is adding too much flour to stop the dough sticking, which makes the dumplings heavy and doughy. Twaróg is usually made without rennet, but check the label if you need it strictly vegetarian. Chef's tip: press the twaróg through a sieve or mash it with a fork until completely smooth, so the dough needs less flour.

35 min

Polish Vegetarian

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KleinurCardamom twisted doughnuts

Kleinur are the twisted doughnuts of Iceland, fried in big batches and kept in tins for coffee time; Icelandic grandmothers cut the dough into diamonds with a special wheel, slit the centre and pull one end through, so each one twists into a knot. The same pastry is known as klejner in Denmark and klenäter in Sweden, made especially at Christmas. The dough is flavoured with cardamom and enriched with buttermilk. A common mistake is frying at too low a heat, which makes them greasy. Chef's tip: roll the dough thin, about 5 mm, and fry at 175 °C; they puff, brown in a minute and stay light.

70 minScandinavian Baking

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Arroz a la cubanaRice with tomato and egg

Havana cafeterías put this plate on the lunch board when cooks want something cheap, fast and filling: a mound of plain white rice, a ladle of garlicky tomato sauce, a fried egg with a runny yolk and slices of caramelised ripe plantain. Breaking the yolk into the rice and sauce is the whole point, so the eggs should be fried at the last minute. The usual mistake is using plantains that are still yellow-green; they need black-spotted skins to turn soft and sweet in the pan. Serve with a simple avocado salad. Chef's tip: baste the egg whites with hot oil from the pan so they set with lacy edges while the yolks stay liquid.

30 min

Cuban Rice & Grains

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KlinRice and cheese filo pie

Klin is the festive pie of the Rhodopes, baked for Gergyovden in May, for weddings and for the end of the haymaking, in large round tins that come out to be shared across the village. Thin pastry sheets are layered with a loose, custardy mix of cooked rice, crumbled white cheese, eggs, milk and butter, so it bakes tender and soft inside with a crisp, golden lid. The rice makes it heartier than banitsa and gives every slice a gentle, creamy chew. It is eaten warm or cold with yogurt or ayran. Sirene is often made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian white cheese. Where most people go wrong is cooking the rice fully; it must stay slightly firm, because it carries on soaking up milk in the oven. Chef's tip: pour any leftover egg and milk over the top just before baking, and the surface puffs into a glossy, golden crust.

90 min

Bulgarian Baking

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Kluski śląskieSilesian potato dumplings

No Sunday dinner in Katowice, Gliwice or Opole feels complete without a heap of these pale, bouncy dumplings, traditionally next to roulade and red cabbage. Here they are served the meatless way, with browned butter and fried onion, or with a mushroom sauce poured into the little dent each one gets from your thumb. They are made from boiled, riced potato and potato starch, so the texture is springy and smooth, almost elastic, with a clean potato taste. The classic error is guessing the starch: Silesian cooks press the cooled potatoes flat, cut out a quarter and fill the gap with starch, which gives the right ratio every time. Chef's tip: rice the potatoes while hot but let them cool completely before mixing, or the dough turns gluey.

50 min

Polish Sides

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Kochu shakTaro greens with coconut

In the wet villages of Khulna and Bagerhat, near the edge of the Sundarbans, taro grows wild along every pond, and its dark leaves and tender stems are cut, chopped fine and simmered into a soft, creamy green dish with grated coconut. At home it is often cooked with small shrimp or the head of a hilsa for richness; this version keeps it vegetarian and leans on coconut and mustard oil instead. Cooked well, it is soft and silky, coconut-sweet and earthy, and is eaten with rice and a squeeze of lime. Taro leaves contain calcium oxalate crystals that make the mouth itch if they are undercooked, so the classic error is pulling it off the heat too soon; it needs a full 25 minutes and a sour element at the end. Chef's tip: use young leaves from edible taro and wear gloves or oil your hands while cutting the stems.

45 min

Bangladeshi Vegetarian

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Kittitian goat waterPeppery goat stew

Goat water is what St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat serve at weddings, village fêtes and every Saturday cookshop: a thick, dark, peppery goat stew-soup flavoured with cloves, thyme, tomato and a heap of hot pepper, thickened with flour and studded with breadfruit, green papaya or dumplings. On Montserrat it is the national dish and comes with crusty bread rolls. The common mistake is thinning it out; despite the name, true goat water should coat a spoon. Ask your butcher to chop bone-in goat into small pieces. Chef's tip: brown a spoonful of flour in the pot before adding the liquid; it gives the gravy its deep colour and nutty taste.

180 minCaribbean Soups

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KjötsúpaLamb and root vegetable soup

Kjötsúpa is the soup every Icelander grew up on, simmered from bony lamb shoulder with swede, potatoes, carrots, onion and a handful of rolled oats or rice to thicken it. Icelandic lamb is free-grazing and flavourful, and on the first day of winter in late October, Kjötsúpudagurinn, free soup is ladled out on Skólavörðustígur in Reykjavík. A common mistake is skimming too little at the start, which leaves a greasy, cloudy soup. Chef's tip: serve the meat on a plate beside the soup, as many Icelandic families do, so everyone can pull it from the bone.

120 minScandinavian Soups

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KishkeStuffed baked derma

Kishke, also called derma, was once stuffed into cleaned beef intestine and buried in the Shabbat cholent to cook overnight, and Haredi neighbourhoods such as Jerusalem's Geula still sell it at the butcher, orange with paprika, for Friday. The filling is humble: flour or matzo meal, onion, carrot and celery bound with rendered chicken fat, which cooks into a dense, savoury sausage with a crackling crust. This home version fills a sausage casing or rolls the mixture into a paper-and-foil log, then bakes it on its own or lays it on top of the cholent. Too dry a filling is the usual problem; it should feel like a soft, oily dough. Chef's tip: slice leftover kishke and fry the rounds in a dry pan until crisp on both sides.

145 min

Israeli Meat

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Haitian konparètCoconut ginger spice bread

Jérémie, at the far western tip of Haiti, is the home of konparèt, dense round loaves of spiced bread made with grated coconut, fresh ginger, nutmeg and vanilla, baked until firm and golden. They are a Grand'Anse travelling food, carried home from the coast in baskets and eaten with coffee or hot cocoa in the afternoon. They are meant to be firm and close-crumbed, not fluffy, so the mistake is adding extra liquid to make the dough soft. Use freshly grated coconut if you can, as it gives the moistest crumb. Chef's tip: grate the ginger on the fine side of the grater and squeeze its juice into the dough too; that heat is the signature of a good konparèt.

55 min

Haitian Baking

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Kishmish panirFresh cheese with raisins

Spring in Kabul is announced by sellers who appear on street corners with trays of soft white panir laid on leaves and a heap of dark red raisins beside it, and kishmish panir becomes the snack of the season. The cheese is unripened and barely salted, milky and springy like a just-set curd, and the chewy, sweet-tart raisins are eaten alongside it in alternate mouthfuls, usually with a piece of naan and a glass of green tea. Afghan panir is set with rennet, traditionally animal rennet, so use a vegetarian (microbial) rennet to keep it vegetarian, and always start with pasteurised milk. The batch that refuses to set has nearly always been made with UHT or ultra-filtered milk, which will not curdle with rennet. Chef's tip: soak the raisins in cold water for half an hour first; they plump up and stop tasting dusty.

25 min

Afghan Snacks & Starters

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Flan de quesoCream cheese flan

Denser and tangier than a plain egg flan, flan de queso is the dessert Puerto Rican families bake for birthdays and Nochebuena, often a day ahead so it can chill overnight. Cream cheese is blended with evaporated and condensed milk and eggs, then baked slowly in a water bath on a layer of amber caramel, so it turns out glossy, sliceable and somewhere between a flan and a cheesecake. The common mistake is baking it too hot, which makes it puff, crack and weep; low heat and a water bath keep it silky. Chef's tip: take the caramel to the colour of a dark copper coin, as a pale caramel tastes only sweet and a bitter edge balances the rich cheese.

90 min

Puerto Rican Desserts

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Dominican berenjena guisadaStewed aubergine

Dominican home cooks make berenjena guisada as a weekday side next to white rice and beans, the aubergine stewed down with tomato, sweet peppers and plenty of dried oregano into a soft, savoury guiso. It is light, quick and good hot or at room temperature. The common mistake is adding all the water at the start, which boils the aubergine grey; let it soak up the oil and sofrito first, then add liquid a little at a time. Chef's tip: rub the dried oregano between your palms as it goes in, to release the oils; Dominican cooks swear by it.

35 min

Puerto Rican Vegetarian

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Pescado con cocoFish in coconut sauce

On the Samaná peninsula in the north-east of the Dominican Republic, where coconut palms grow down to the sea and the local cooking carries traces of the African-American settlers who arrived there in the 1820s, fish is braised in fresh coconut milk with tomato, peppers and herbs. It is served at beach shacks in Las Terrenas with white rice and tostones to mop up the sauce. The common mistake is boiling the sauce hard once the coconut milk is in, which makes it split and oily; keep it at a gentle simmer. Chef's tip: let the fish sit in lime, garlic and salt in the fridge for 15 minutes first, but no longer, or the acid starts to cook it.

40 min

Puerto Rican Fish

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CaricolesWhelks in celery broth

Caricoles are the whelks sold hot in paper cups from street carts in Brussels, at the Marolles flea market, the Place Sainte-Catherine and the Christmas market: the sea snails are simmered for an hour in a peppery broth with celery, onion, thyme, bay and a lot of black pepper and chilli, and you pick them out with a toothpick and drink the broth. Buy whelks live or freshly cooked from a fishmonger. Live whelks should be tightly closed inside their shells or retract when touched; throw away any that smell bad or have broken shells, and any that stay open and limp after cooking. A common mistake is skipping the purge, which leaves them gritty. Chef's tip: soak live whelks in salted cold water for an hour and rinse them several times, then start them in cold broth so they don't toughen.

90 min

Belgian Fish

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KleijaDate-filled cardamom cookies

Kleija is the pride of Qassim, the farming heartland north of Riyadh, where an entire festival in Buraidah is devoted to these round, stamped cookies filled with date paste and fragrant with cardamom, saffron and a little fennel. They are packed for journeys, offered to guests with Arabic coffee and baked in big batches before Eid. The pastry is short and crumbly with a soft, chewy date centre. A common mistake is overworking the dough after adding ghee, which makes it tough; mix just until it holds. Store them in a tin for a week. Chef's tip: roll the date paste into small balls with damp hands first, so each cookie gets the same amount and seals neatly.

75 minGulf Arabian Baking

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Kochur loti chingriTaro stolons with prawns

Kochur loti are the long, thin runners that taro plants send out across the pond banks in the rainy season, and in Khulna, where freshwater prawns are farmed in every second field, the two end up in the same karai. The stolons are peeled, cut into short lengths and cooked with small prawns, onion and freshly grated coconut until soft and almost melting, giving a mild, slightly sweet, gently earthy dish for lunch with rice and dal. Taro of all kinds contains crystals that make the mouth and throat itch if it is not cooked enough or balanced with something sour, so the stolons need peeling, a full cook and a squeeze of lime. Many people undercook the loti because they look tender early; give them the whole time. Chef's tip: oil your hands before peeling the stolons, or wear gloves, as the sap can irritate the skin.

50 min

Bangladeshi Fish

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Kołocz śląskiSilesian cheese yeast cake

Silesian weddings once had kołocz delivered to every neighbour as a thank-you, and the wide trays still appear at christenings, harvest festivals and church fairs in Opole and around Katowice. The base is a soft, lightly sweet yeast dough, spread with a thick layer of vanilla twaróg and covered with a buttery crumble that bakes into craggy golden lumps. It keeps well for two days and cuts into neat squares for coffee. A common mistake is baking it before the dough has had its second rise under the topping, which gives a dense, bready base. Twaróg is usually rennet-free, but check the label. Chef's tip: keep the crumble in the fridge until the last moment so it stays in distinct lumps in the oven.

150 min

Polish Baking

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MajareteCoconut rice-flour pudding

Puerto Rican grandmothers cook majarete on the stove in one pan, pour it into a dish and leave it to set while the Sunday dinner is eaten; it shows up again at Christmas beside the tembleque. Rice flour, coconut milk and whole milk are stirred with cinnamon and a little orange zest until they thicken into a silky, spoonable pudding, dusted with more cinnamon. In the Dominican Republic the same name goes to a version made with fresh grated corn. The common mistake is walking away from the pan; rice flour lumps and catches in seconds, so whisk constantly. Chef's tip: whisk the rice flour into the cold milks before the pan goes on the heat, and it will be perfectly smooth.

30 min

Puerto Rican Desserts

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Ensalada de coditosMacaroni salad

No Puerto Rican cumpleaños, baby shower or Thanksgiving-style family spread feels complete without a big bowl of coditos sitting next to the arroz con gandules. Elbow macaroni is folded through creamy mayonnaise with crunchy pepper, onion and celery, chopped hard-boiled egg and sweet pimientos, then chilled until the pasta drinks up the dressing. The common mistake is dressing the pasta piping hot, which makes the mayonnaise oily and split; let it cool first. Keep it in the fridge and don't leave it out in the sun for more than 2 hours. Chef's tip: toss the drained pasta with a splash of the pimiento liquid while it is still warm, so it is seasoned all the way through.

30 min

Puerto Rican Salads

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KilishiSpiced dried beef

Long-distance travellers in the Hausa north have carried kilishi for generations: beef sliced so thin you can see light through it, coated in a fiery paste of ground roasted groundnuts, ginger, onion and chilli, dried, then flashed over a fire until it crackles. It is sold in Kano and Sokoto markets in stacked sheets and eaten as a snack or with a cold drink. Traditionally it is sun-dried raw; this home version heats the meat to 71 °C in the oven before drying and is stored in the fridge, which makes it safer. Sun-dried, uncooked kilishi is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: freeze the beef for an hour before slicing; firm meat is the only way to get sheets 3 mm thin at home.

240 min

Nigerian Meat

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Ambarella curryJune plum curry

Ambarella trees, heavy with green, plum-sized fruit, shade countless gardens around Galle, and when the crop comes in, cooks turn the sour, crunchy fruit into this sweet-sour curry for Sunday lunch and family gatherings. The fruits are scored and cooked whole with roasted curry powder, garlic, cinnamon and cloves, then sweetened with sugar and finished in coconut milk, until the flesh softens and drinks in the dark, glossy gravy. Its tangy, fruity flavour cuts through richer dishes, and it is served in small portions with rice alongside a dhal and a meat or fish curry. Each fruit hides a spiky, fibrous stone, so warn guests to nibble around it. Leaving the skins whole and unscored is where many go wrong, because the spices never get in; make several deep cuts in each fruit. Frozen ambarella is sold in Sri Lankan shops; firm green mango is the nearest stand-in. Chef's tip: let the curry rest for an hour before serving, as the fruit keeps soaking up flavour.

50 min

Sri Lankan Curries

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Kimbula banisCrocodile-shaped sweet bun

Kimbula means crocodile, and these long, ridged buns with tapered ends and a back glittering with sugar are a childhood favourite from every Sri Lankan village bakery and the bread vans that drive the lanes playing tinny music each morning. The sweet, slightly enriched yeast dough is rolled up like a Swiss roll, tapered into a head and a tail, slashed along the top and showered with coarse sugar, which caramelises in the oven into a crunchy crust over a soft, fluffy crumb. They are eaten for breakfast or an afternoon snack with plain tea, often pulled apart along the ridges. Under-baking is the error that bakers see most, leaving the centre doughy; the buns should be a deep golden brown and sound hollow underneath. Chef's tip: sprinkle a layer of sugar on the dough before you roll it up, which gives sweet streaks inside as well as the crust on top.

55 min

Sri Lankan Baking

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Kiri hodiCoconut milk gravy

Think of kiri hodi as Sri Lanka's comfort sauce: a thin, pale-yellow coconut milk broth, gently soured with lime, that gets ladled over a plate of string hoppers or pittu at breakfast and soaks right into them. Little cafés in Colombo and the coastal towns serve it in a small steel bowl alongside pol sambol, and at home it is often the first thing cooks make when someone is unwell, because it is soothing rather than hot. The flavour comes from fenugreek, cinnamon and curry leaves softened in the milk, with a couple of green chillies for warmth; some families slip in halved boiled eggs or a pinch of Maldive fish, but the plain vegan version is the everyday one. The classic slip is letting it boil hard once the thick milk is in, which curdles it into oily flecks. Chef's tip: add the lime only after the pan is off the heat, so the gravy stays smooth and the sourness stays bright.

20 min

Sri Lankan Curries

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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 minCaribbean Soups

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AboboiBambara beans in palm oil

Bambara beans, round and speckled, are one of West Africa's oldest crops, and in Accra they become aboboi: simmered for a long time until creamy, then finished in red palm oil fried with onion and pepper. Street sellers dish it out in the evening, often with gari sprinkled on top for crunch and sometimes with fried fish; this version keeps it meat-free and lets the earthy, chestnut-like beans shine. It is filling, protein-rich and costs little. Dried Bambara beans are sold in African and Asian shops; black-eyed beans cook faster if you cannot find them. Don't add salt before the beans are soft, or the skins stay hard however long they cook. Chef's tip: soak the beans overnight and use a pressure cooker if you have one, as unsoaked Bambara beans can take three hours and still stay hard, which is the most common disappointment.

125 min

Ghanaian Vegetarian

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LutfiskLye-cured cod with white sauce

Lutfisk, lutefisk in Norway, is dried cod or ling soaked in water and lye for days until it swells into a soft, jelly-like fish, then rinsed and baked or steamed and eaten at Christmas with white sauce, peas, boiled potatoes, allspice and, in Norway, bacon fat. It divides families, loved by some, avoided by others. Lye is caustic, so never cure it at home; buy ready-soaked lutfisk from Scandinavian shops and fishmongers in December. A common mistake is cooking it in an aluminium dish, which reacts and discolours it. Chef's tip: salt the fish and leave it for 15 minutes before baking; it draws out water and keeps the flakes firm. It is done when it is opaque and flakes.

60 minScandinavian Fish

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LencsefőzelékLentil stew

On New Year's Day all over Hungary, a pot of lencsefőzelék sits on the stove, because every lentil eaten is meant to bring a coin in the year ahead. The rest of the year it is an everyday Budapest canteen dish. Meat-eaters often top it with sausage or a fried egg; this version is fully plant-based and eaten with pickled vegetables and crusty bread. The lentils cook until creamy with a whole bay leaf, a little carrot and onion, then a paprika roux made with oil and a dash of vinegar turn them into a thick, savoury, gently sour stew. Where most people go wrong is making the roux too dark or adding paprika over high heat, which turns it bitter; take the pan off the heat first. Chef's tip: rest the finished stew for 10 minutes before serving; it thickens and the flavours settle.

50 min

Hungarian Curries

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Kichiri qurootRice and mung beans

Ask Afghans what their grandmother cooked on cold winter evenings and kichiri quroot comes up again and again: a soft mound of short-grain rice and mung beans cooked until creamy and sticky, with a well pressed into the top and filled with qurut, the salty sauce made from dried yogurt balls. Hot oil with dried mint is poured over just before it reaches the table, and the rice is eaten with a spoon from a shared plate. Families in Kabul often serve it with a pan of meatballs in tomato sauce on the side; this is the meatless version, which is just as common on a quiet night. If you rinse all the starch away it will never turn sticky, so wash the rice only once. Chef's tip: if you can't find qurut, thick strained yogurt with a pinch of salt and garlic gives you something close.

75 min

Afghan Rice & Grains

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Luzerner ChügelipasteteVeal ball pastry shell

Chügelipastete is the Sunday and Christmas dish of Lucerne, a showpiece brought to the table whole: a big, tall puff pastry shell, like a giant vol-au-vent, filled with little veal meatballs (chügeli), sweetbreads or diced veal and mushrooms in a creamy white sauce, sometimes with raisins. Lucerne bakeries sell the shells ready-made. A common mistake is filling the pastry too early, which makes it soggy. Chef's tip: fill the warm shell at the very last moment and serve the extra sauce on the side. Veal meatballs must reach 71 °C.

120 min

Swiss Meat

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KibbelingBattered white fish chunks

Kibbeling is the fish snack of Dutch markets and harbours, sold in paper trays from fish vans at Saturday markets from Volendam to Rotterdam: bite-sized chunks of cod or pollock coated in a spiced batter and fried until crisp, with a pot of garlic sauce or remoulade. It began as a way to use the cheeks of cod. A common mistake is a thick batter, which turns bready and greasy. Chef's tip: season the batter well with a little curry powder and paprika, the market-van secret, and fry at 180 °C until golden; the fish is done when opaque and flaking.

25 min

Dutch Fish

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KichelCrisp bow-tie egg cookies

At kiddush in Ashkenazi synagogues, from Bnei Brak to the old shuls of Haifa, plates of kichel sit beside pickled herring and a small glass of something, and children quietly fill their pockets. The dough is barely sweet, rich in eggs, rolled out on sugar and twisted into bow-ties that puff up hollow and shatter when you bite them. They are good with tea, or with salty herring the traditional way. The common mistake is underbaking: they must dry right through and turn golden, or they go soft and chewy within a day. Chef's tip: roll the dough directly onto a layer of sugar so the crystals press in and caramelise underneath.

45 min

Israeli Baking

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KibinaiLamb and onion pastries

Kibinai are the pastries of the Karaim, a small Turkic community settled in Trakai, the lake-island castle town near Vilnius, since the 14th century. Every café along Karaimų street sells them hot from the oven: half-moon pastries of flaky, buttery dough with a juicy filling of chopped lamb and onion, crimped along the top. A common mistake is mincing the meat; the Karaim chop it into small cubes so the filling stays juicy. Chef's tip: use cold dough and bake hot, so the pastry flakes and the juices stay sealed inside. The filling must reach 71 °C.

80 minBaltic Snacks & Starters

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Khubz ahmarRed date bread

In the palm groves of Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, bakers slap rounds of khubz ahmar onto the walls of tannour ovens, and its colour, a deep reddish brown, comes from date syrup kneaded straight into the dough. Locals eat it for breakfast and with tea, often spread with cream cheese or dipped in more syrup. Fenugreek and black seed give it a warm, almost maple-like perfume, and the crumb is dense and soft with a chewy crust. A common mistake is adding too much flour because the dough feels sticky; the syrup makes it tacky, and extra flour turns the bread heavy. Oil your hands instead. Chef's tip: bake on a very hot stone and pull the breads once the edges darken; the sugars burn quickly after that.

150 minGulf Arabian Breads & Parathas

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Anda parathaEgg-stuffed paratha

At the dhabas along the GT Road and the breakfast stalls of Rawalpindi's Saddar, the paratha-wala cracks an egg straight into a bowl with onion and chilli, half-cooks a paratha, pours the egg over and flips the whole thing onto the tawa so the egg fries into the bread. The result is one golden, layered disc that is crisp at the edges, soft where the egg meets the dough, and peppery with green chilli. Truck drivers, students and office workers eat it folded in half with chai, ketchup or green chutney, and it is a common packed lunch for school because it needs no curry. The problem most people run into is pouring the egg onto a raw paratha, which tears, or onto a fully cooked one, which will not let the egg stick. Chef's tip: cook the first side only until brown spots appear, then add the egg to the cooked side and flip so the egg sets against the hot iron.

30 min

Pakistani Breakfast & Brunch

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KhupluBeef, lamb and potato pie

The Chuvash people of the middle Volga bake khuplu for harvest festivals and to welcome guests: one large, round, closed pie with a thin yeast crust and a deep filling of diced meat, potato and onion, traditionally with a little vent on top and a ring of dough to decorate it. Cut at the table, it spills meaty juice into the potatoes, and it is eaten warm with a glass of cold buttermilk or a bowl of soup. The usual slip is under-baking; a pie this deep needs well over an hour and a thermometer check. Chef's tip: lay the potatoes at the bottom and the meat on top, so the potatoes drink the juices and the base does not go soggy.

150 min

Russian Meat

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Aloo tukTwice-fried pressed potatoes

Aloo tuk is the crunch on a Sindhi plate, the thing children steal first: small potatoes boiled, fried, squashed flat and fried again until they are craggy and crisp at the edges and fluffy within, then showered with red chilli, tangy amchur and salt. In Sindhi homes from Karachi to Shikarpur they sit beside Sindhi kadhi and rice or dal and bhuga chawal, and they are also served on their own as a teatime snack with green chutney. The most common error is pressing the potatoes while they are still raw-centred or too hot and wet, which makes them tear instead of flatten neatly. Chef's tip: after the first fry let them cool for five minutes, then press each one under a flat-bottomed bowl so it cracks at the edges, since those cracks become the crispest bits. For children, go easy on the chilli and use more amchur.

40 min

Pakistani Snacks & Starters

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Kurban chorbaLamb and rice feast soup

On saints' days such as St George's in May or St Dimitar's in October, Bulgarian villages set big cauldrons over fires in the churchyard or square, and the kurban, the shared offering, is ladled out as a rich lamb soup to everyone who comes, neighbours and strangers alike. Lamb on the bone simmers gently with onion until tender, then the meat is pulled into pieces and returned to the broth with rice, carrot, red pepper, tomato, paprika, dried mint and plenty of parsley. It tastes deep, meaty and herby, sharpened with a squeeze of lemon, and bread on the side is traditional. The usual slip is skipping the skimming at the start; grey foam left in the pot muddies the broth. Chef's tip: rub the mint and savory between your palms over the pot in the last five minutes, so the herbs stay bright.

150 min

Bulgarian Soups

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KhashlamaLamb and vegetable stew

Khashlama is a village dish from across Armenia, made in a big pot for family gatherings in Ararat and Kotayk: chunks of lamb on the bone, or beef, layered with onions, tomatoes, peppers and potatoes and cooked slowly with very little liquid, so the meat stews in its own juices and the vegetables soak them up. It is served in deep plates with lavash and lots of fresh herbs. A common mistake is adding water to cover; the result is a soup, not khashlama. Chef's tip: put the lamb on the bottom and the potatoes on top, so the meat browns slightly and the potatoes steam in the juices without breaking.

170 min

Armenian Meat

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Khasi ko masuGoat curry

For most Nepali families the tenth day of Dashain, when elders put tika and jamara on younger relatives' foreheads, means a pot of khasi ko masu bubbling in the kitchen, bone-in castrated goat cooked in mustard oil with heaps of onion, ginger and garlic and whole spices until the meat falls from the bone. It is a celebratory but homely curry, with a loose, glossy, deep-red gravy, eaten with plain rice or sel roti and a cucumber achar, and the same curry fills plates at weddings and family visits for weeks after the festival. Use goat or mutton with plenty of bone, since the marrow and connective tissue give the gravy its body. The usual shortcut, rushing the onions, leaves the gravy thin and sharp; they must cook to a deep brown. Chef's tip: a pinch of jimbu, the dried Himalayan herb, added at the end gives the curry its unmistakable hill-country aroma.

100 min

Nepali Curries

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KharchoBeef, rice and walnut soup

Kharcho is the soup Tbilisi cooks make when the weather turns cold: beef brisket simmered until it falls apart, then thickened with rice and ground walnuts and given its sour, tangy edge by tkemali plum sauce, with khmeli-suneli, garlic and a lot of coriander. It is spooned into deep bowls in old-town cafés and eaten with shoti bread, and it is thick enough to be a whole meal. A common mistake is adding the rice too early, so it swells into porridge and the soup loses its body. Chef's tip: grind the walnuts with garlic and a ladle of hot broth before stirring them in, so they thicken the soup smoothly rather than floating as crumbs.

140 min

Georgian Soups

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KhirshaReduced milk fudge

In the dairy belt of Sirajganj and Pabna, where milk is cheap and plentiful, khirsha is made the patient way: milk is boiled in a wide iron karai and stirred for well over an hour until it has reduced to a sixth of its volume and become a thick, pale-caramel paste, then sweetened and cooked a little longer. Sold in clay saucers or pressed into blocks, it tastes of pure cooked milk, sweet and slightly toffee-like, with a fudgy, fine-grained texture. It is eaten on its own, spread on puffed rice, rolled into pithas or packed into the shells of other sweets. Burning the bottom is the classic mishap, which makes the whole batch taste scorched, so stir constantly and scrape the corners once it thickens. Chef's tip: use a wide, heavy pan rather than a deep one; the bigger the surface, the faster the milk reduces.

90 min

Bangladeshi Indian Sweets

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Khamiri rotiLeavened wholewheat flatbread

Long before packets of yeast reached Pakistani kitchens, households kept back a lump of yesterday's dough and worked it into the new batch, and khamiri roti is the bread that method makes: thicker and softer than a chapati, with an airy crumb and a gentle sourness. It is the standard bread of many neighbourhood tandoors from Multan to Peshawar, bought by the stack for lunch with chana, sabzi, dal or saag, and some families make it on a tawa during Ramadan because it stays soft until sehri. This version uses a little yeast and a long rise to get the same flavour without the starter. People often get it wrong by rolling it as thin as a chapati, which pushes out the gas and leaves a flat, leathery roti. Chef's tip: let the dough ferment for at least two and a half hours, or overnight in the fridge, and shape each roti by patting it out with your palms rather than with a rolling pin.

180 min

Pakistani Breads & Parathas

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Khajoor shakeDate and almond milkshake

Dates are the first thing on the table when the azan sounds for iftar in Pakistan, and in many homes in Karachi and Islamabad the dates go straight into the blender with cold milk and a handful of soaked almonds, making a thick, caramel-sweet shake that restores energy quickly after a long summer fast. Soft, moist dates such as the Aseel from Khairpur in Sindh give the smoothest result, and the drink needs no added sugar at all. It is also a popular breakfast for children and a quick snack after school. The typical mistake is blending dry, hard dates straight from the packet, which leaves chewy fragments and a gritty shake. Chef's tip: soak the stoned dates and almonds in a little warm milk for 10 minutes first, and blend them to a smooth paste before adding the rest of the cold milk.

10 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Khobz mellaEmber-baked bread

Around Douz, on the edge of the Tunisian Sahara, nomadic herders bake khobz mella by digging a hollow in sand heated under a fire, laying in a thick round of dough and burying it under more hot sand and embers. Brushed off and broken up, the crusty, smoky bread is crumbled into a tomato, pepper and onion stew to make mella, or eaten with olive oil and dates. Visitors to desert camps watch it being made by firelight. At home, a pizza stone or an upturned heavy tray in a very hot oven gives a similar chewy loaf with a thick crust; a charcoal barbecue gets you close to the smoky flavour. Chef's tip: dock the dough well with a fork; without it the round puffs up into a hollow ball and the crust cracks.

90 min

Tunisian Breads & Parathas

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