Featured recipe

Pain-omelette

Baguette with onion omelette

At dawn in Abidjan, kiosks on every street corner from Cocody to Treichville fry eggs to order and stuff them into a split baguette for workers and schoolchildren: the pain-omelette. The omelette is loaded with onion, tomato and fresh chilli, sometimes with a smear of mayonnaise or a spoon of spaghetti tucked in, and eaten wrapped in paper on the way to work. The common mistake is a thick, dry omelette; keep it thin and still soft so it folds neatly into the bread. Stock cubes often contain meat, so use a vegetable one. Cook the egg fully set for pregnant people, young children, older or vulnerable people. Chef's tip: warm the split baguette on the same pan for 30 seconds while the omelette sets, so it's crisp and soaks up the oniony juices.

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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.

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KoryushkaFried smelt

When the ice breaks on the Neva in April and May, St Petersburg goes mad for koryushka, small silvery smelt that famously smell of fresh cucumber. Stalls sell them by the kilo, the city holds a smelt festival, and every cafe fries them by the plateful. Dusted in flour and fried in hot sunflower oil, they come out golden and crunchy outside, sweet and tender inside, eaten with fingers, soft bones and all, with lemon and boiled potatoes with dill. A common mistake is crowding the pan, which drops the oil temperature and leaves the fish soggy; fry in small batches. Fish is done when the flesh is opaque and flakes easily from the backbone. Frozen smelt or sprats work out of season. Chef's tip: rye flour gives a darker, nuttier crust, a favourite in Petersburg homes.

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Koy paMinced fish salad

Fishing villages on the Mekong in Champasak, down towards the islands of Si Phan Don, make koy pa from the morning catch and eat it with sticky rice under the stilt houses at lunchtime. It is a fierce, fresh salad: finely chopped fish tossed with lime, roasted chilli, shallot, galangal and toasted rice powder, then buried in mint, dill and sawtooth herb. Traditionally the fish is raw and only 'cooked' by lime, and raw river fish in the region can carry parasites; that raw version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Here the fish is poached until opaque and flaking, then chopped, keeping the texture and punch. Stirring the rice powder into hot fish is the mistake that ruins it, turning the salad gluey. Chef's tip: toast your own rice powder with a lemongrass stalk and lime leaf; the shop-bought kind has nothing like the same nutty perfume.

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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.

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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

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KoprovkaDill sauce with potatoes and eggs

Summer in a Czech garden means dill gone wild between the cucumbers, and koprovka is where most of it ends up. This pale green, gently sour cream sauce is a staple of Bohemian home cooking and of workplace canteens, where it is served over boiled potatoes with halved hard-boiled eggs (or with bread dumplings). It should be smooth, silky and only lightly thick, balanced between cream, a little vinegar and a pinch of sugar. Where it usually goes wrong is boiling the dill: it turns grey and loses its fresh smell, so stir it in at the end, off the heat. Chef's tip: keep the dill stalks, chop them very finely and simmer them in the sauce, then add the soft fronds at the end for a double hit of flavour.

30 min

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KorbáčikyBraided fresh cheese strings

Korbáčiky (little whips) come from Orava in northern Slovakia, where cheesemakers pull hot, stretchy curd into long thin strings and plait them into braids. Sold at roadside stalls in the Tatra foothills, they are chewy, squeaky and salty, usually lightly smoked, and are pulled apart and eaten with fingers like a snack, often with a cold drink on a hike. At home you can make the curd yourself from pasteurised milk in under an hour. Traditional korbáčiky are set with animal rennet, so this recipe uses vegetarian (microbial) rennet; any shop-bought curd should say the same. Use pasteurised whole milk that is not UHT-treated, or the curd will not set. Where most people go wrong is stretching the curd when it is not hot enough: it tears instead of pulling into glossy ropes. Chef's tip: wear clean rubber gloves for stretching, so you can work with water hot enough to make the curd silky.

60 min

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Komplet lepinjaFlatbread with kajmak and egg

Roadside inns in the hills around Užice and Zlatibor in western Serbia serve this as a breakfast for people with a long day ahead: a round flatbread hollowed out and filled with kajmak and an egg, baked, then soaked with pretop, the hot fat and juices left from roasting pork or lamb. It is rich, salty and messy, eaten with your hands with a yogurt drink and pickled peppers. At home, save the drippings from a Sunday pork roast, keep them in the fridge and reheat until bubbling. The usual slip is cutting the lid too thin, which leaves no room for the egg and it spills over the side. Bake until the white is fully set; for anyone pregnant, very young, elderly or unwell, bake on until the yolk is firm too. Chef's tip: put the lid back on for the last two minutes so it toasts, then dunk it straight into the hot drippings.

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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.

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AranygaluskaGolden walnut yeast dumplings

Aranygaluska means golden dumplings, and the pull-apart cake really does come out of the oven bronze and gleaming. Walnut-sized balls of sweet yeast dough are dipped in melted butter, rolled in ground walnuts and sugar, stacked loosely in a ring tin and baked, so the nuts caramelise into a sticky crust. It is a family Sunday pudding all over Hungary and a favourite at school canteens, and Hungarian emigrants took it to America, where it became monkey bread. Pour warm vanilla custard over each helping. Some cooks serve it with a wine custard; this version keeps to vanilla, so it is alcohol-free. Where it goes wrong is packing the balls tightly; leave gaps so they can rise and the walnut coating reaches every side. Chef's tip: spoon a little apricot jam between the layers for a tart note.

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Konijn met pruimenRabbit with beer and prunes

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KoloRoasted barley and peanut snack

While the beans are roasted and the coffee is brewed three times over, a basket or small bowl of kolo goes round the room, and guests take a handful between cups. It is the simplest of snacks: whole barley grains roasted in a dry pan until they crack and smell like toast, mixed with roasted chickpeas and peanuts, sometimes with sunflower seeds or a little berbere. The barley is crunchy and nutty, the peanuts rich, the chickpeas mealy. Street sellers in Addis Ababa scoop it into paper cones, and families keep a jar for children's lunchboxes and long journeys. Note that barley contains gluten. Chef's tip: sprinkle a little salted water over the barley in the last minute of roasting; it evaporates instantly and leaves the salt clinging to every grain.

23 min

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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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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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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

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ČesnicaChristmas bread with a coin

On Serbian Orthodox Christmas morning, 7 January, the family stands around the table and breaks the česnica between them, turning the round loaf three times before everyone pulls off a piece. Whoever finds the coin hidden in the bread is said to have luck for the year. Recipes vary from flaky layered pies to this soft, slightly sweet yeasted loaf with a twisted rope round its edge, lovely with kajmak, cheese and the rest of the Christmas spread. Wrap the coin well and tell everyone before they bite, and keep an eye on small children, as a coin is a choking risk. The usual slip is rushing the rise in a cold kitchen, which gives a dense, heavy crumb; find a warm spot and wait until the dough has truly doubled. Chef's tip: brush the hot loaf with a little oil as it leaves the oven for a soft, shiny crust.

120 minBalkan Breads & Parathas

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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

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CharosetApple and walnut paste

At the Passover seder, Israeli families from Ashkenazi and Sephardic backgrounds alike set out charoset, a sweet brown paste that recalls the mortar the Israelites used as slaves in Egypt. This is the Ashkenazi style: chopped apples and walnuts with cinnamon and sweet red grape juice, coarse and crunchy; Sephardic tables more often blend dates, almonds and dried fruit. Many families use sweet red wine; this recipe is alcohol free, and if you do add wine it is for adults only. It is eaten on matzo with bitter herbs, and leftovers are great on yogurt. The common mistake is pulsing it to a purée: it should keep texture, like rough mortar. Chef's tip: chop the apple last and mix it with the juice at once so it doesn't brown.

15 min

Israeli Chutneys & Dips

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KololakBeef and rice meatballs in broth

Kololak are the big, soft meatballs of Gyumri, Armenia's second city, where they are cooked for family Sunday dinners: very finely minced beef is beaten with rice, onion and egg until smooth and springy, shaped into balls the size of a small orange and simmered in a light broth with tomato and herbs. The broth is served first as soup, the meatballs after. A common mistake is skipping the long kneading, which makes the meatballs crumble in the pot. Chef's tip: wet your hands with cold water while shaping, and lower the balls into broth that is only just simmering, so they hold together. Minced meat must reach 71 °C in the centre.

90 min

Armenian Meat

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KpokpoiSteamed fermented corn with palm oil

When the Ga people of Accra celebrate Homowo each August, a harvest festival whose name means 'hooting at hunger', chiefs sprinkle kpokpoi on the ground for the ancestors and families eat it from big bowls with palm nut soup. The fermented corn dough is steamed into fluffy, slightly sour crumbs, then rubbed with red palm oil and chopped okra so every grain is coated and the dish is pale orange and loose, not sticky. The festive soup is usually made with fish; this version is meat-free, and a vegetable palm nut soup or a simple pepper sauce goes well with it. Chef's tip: rub the steamed crumbs through a coarse sieve or between your palms while still warm; the usual mistake is leaving lumps, which stay doughy in the middle.

60 min

Ghanaian Rice & Grains

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KubdariBeef-stuffed bread

Kubdari is the meat bread of Svaneti, the highest inhabited region of the Caucasus, where hunters and herders needed a pie that would keep them going on the slopes around Mestia: a plain, soft dough wrapped around hand-chopped beef, onion and Svan salt fragrant with blue fenugreek and coriander, then flattened and baked until juicy inside. Some families mix in pork; this version uses beef. A common mistake is using minced meat; hand-chopped pieces stay juicy and give kubdari its texture. Chef's tip: add a spoon of cold water to the filling, which turns to steam in the oven and keeps the meat moist. The filling needs to reach 71 °C.

75 min

Georgian Breads & Parathas

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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

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KolbullarThick campfire pancakes

Kolbullar were the food of the charcoal burners who tended slow-smouldering kilns in the forests of Norrland and Bergslagen for weeks at a time: a thick batter of flour, milk and water fried in a pan over the fire, usually with pieces of salt pork mixed in. Today they are a favourite of Swedish hiking trips and forest festivals. This version leaves out the pork and is served with lingonberries and a pinch of flaky salt. A common mistake is spreading the batter thin like a crêpe; kolbullar are thick and chewy. Chef's tip: let the batter stand for 20 minutes so the flour swells and the pancakes stay soft in the middle.

30 minScandinavian Breakfast & Brunch

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Kola kendaHerbal red rice porridge

Early in the morning, outside bus stands in Kandy and along the walking paths of Colombo's parks, vendors ladle bright green kola kenda from big pots into cups, handing each customer a lump of jaggery to bite between sips. It is a thin, savoury porridge of red rice cooked until it breaks down, enriched with coconut milk and coloured with the juice of fresh leaves, most often gotu kola, though cooks also use hathawariya, mukunuwenna or even curry leaves. The taste is grassy, slightly bitter and very restoring, and older Sri Lankans drink it as a daily tonic. The leaf juice must never boil; adding it to a bubbling pot is the mistake that turns the porridge khaki and dulls the fresh flavour. Chef's tip: blend the leaves with cold water and strain them through a fine sieve, so the kenda stays silky with no stringy bits.

40 min

Sri Lankan Breakfast & Brunch

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KoldskålCold buttermilk soup

On the first warm day of summer, Danes buy cartons of koldskål and packets of kammerjunker, small crunchy rusks, and the season has begun: koldskål is a cold, sweet, tangy buttermilk 'soup' with lemon and vanilla, eaten from bowls as a dessert or a light supper, sometimes with strawberries. Homemade, it is whisked with egg yolks for richness. Raw egg yolk is not suitable for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system, so this recipe uses pasteurised egg yolks. A common mistake is serving it at room temperature; it must be very cold. Chef's tip: whisk the yolks and sugar until thick and pale before the buttermilk goes in, which gives a silky, foamy soup.

15 minScandinavian Desserts

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KokonteDried cassava swallow

Dried in the sun and ground to a coarse brown powder, cassava keeps for months as kokonte, and in Ashanti villages it is the swallow of the dry season and of lean times. Cooked, it turns into a smooth, firm, earthy-tasting dough, darker than fufu and with a faint smokiness, that is classically eaten with groundnut soup or palm nut soup; its colour earned it the joking nickname 'face the wall'. It takes only minutes to make. Those soups usually carry meat or fish, so serve a vegetable soup for a meat-free meal. Chef's tip: mix a third of the powder with cold water to a paste before it goes into the boiling water; dumping dry powder into hot water is the common mistake and makes stubborn lumps.

20 min

Ghanaian Basics

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ArikanchanTaro leaf rolls in mustard gravy

Arikanchan is a monsoon speciality of Maithil kitchens in Janakpur and the eastern Terai, cooked when the taro plants in the courtyard put out huge, tender leaves. A spiced chickpea-flour paste is spread over the leaves, which are rolled up tight like a Swiss roll and steamed, then the rolls are sliced into spirals, fried and simmered in a punchy gravy of ground mustard seed, garlic, chilli and tomato cooked in mustard oil. The result is soft and layered, with a gentle sourness and the nose-tingling heat of fresh mustard, eaten with rice and a dal. The biggest risk is undercooking the taro leaves, which can leave an itchy, scratchy feeling in the throat. Chef's tip: use only young leaves, strip the thick ribs, and always include the tamarind in the paste, because the sourness neutralises the irritant in the leaves.

70 min

Nepali Vegetarian

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KoktalSmoked carp with vegetables

Koktal is the fishermen's dish of Lake Balkhash and the Ili River in south-east Kazakhstan: a large carp split open along the back, salted, scored and roasted skin-side out on a frame over smoky fires, then baked with tomatoes, peppers and onions. In Almaty restaurants it is brought to the table on a wooden board. This version smokes the fish briefly in a covered barbecue and finishes it in the oven. A common mistake is leaving the scales on near the head and tail; scale the fish well, or the skin turns leathery. Chef's tip: score the flesh in a deep diamond pattern so the smoke and seasoning get into the thick fillets. Cook until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily.

80 min

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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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Manioc curryCassava coconut curry

For generations, manioc has been the filling, cheap breakfast of tea-estate lines and rural kitchens in the hills around Kandy, and a plate of it with a red heap of lunu miris and a cup of plain tea is still a working person's favourite. Cassava roots are boiled until floury, then simmered in coconut milk with turmeric, mustard seed, fenugreek and curry leaves until the edges crumble into a thick golden gravy. It also appears at dinner with a fiery sambol and, in some homes, beside a fish curry. Cassava must always be peeled, boiled thoroughly in plenty of water and the water thrown away, because the raw root contains natural compounds that are harmful; never eat it raw or half-cooked. Overboiling is the other pitfall, since the pieces then dissolve completely into the milk. Chef's tip: take out the woody string that runs down the centre of each piece after boiling, when it pulls out easily.

45 min

Sri Lankan Curries

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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

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Kofi brokemanRoasted plantain with peanuts

The name jokes that this is food for 'Kofi who is broke': a ripe plantain roasted over a charcoal grill on a street corner in Accra or Kumasi, handed over with a twist of roasted groundnuts for very little money. The skin chars black while the inside turns soft, sweet and smoky, and the nuts give it salt and crunch, so it is surprisingly filling. At home a hot grill pan, oven or barbecue does the job. Chef's tip: choose plantains that are yellow with a few black spots, firm but not green; fully black ones collapse on the grill, and green ones, the usual mistake, stay starchy and dry.

30 min

Ghanaian Snacks & Starters

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Mangal saladGrilled aubergine, pepper and tomato salad

At every summer kebab grill in the Absheron villages outside Baku, a few aubergines, peppers and tomatoes are thrown straight onto the coals beside the skewers, then peeled, chopped with onion, basil and coriander and dressed with oil. Mangal salad tastes deeply smoky, soft and sweet, and is served with the meat or on its own with bread. A common mistake is pulling the vegetables off before the skins are fully black; the flesh stays firm and lacks smoke. Chef's tip: let the charred vegetables sweat in a covered bowl for 10 minutes; the skins slip off easily and the juices collect for the dressing.

40 min

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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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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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KnyshiPotato-filled yeast buns

On Poltava farms knyshi came out of the stove alongside the bread on baking day: rounds of soft milk dough with their edges pinched up like a little open basket, so the filling shows in the middle. Potato mashed with plenty of onion fried in sunflower oil and a handful of dill is the everyday version, and the buns are eaten warm with a bowl of soup or cold on the way to the fields. Some cooks fill them with curd cheese or poppy seed instead, especially for Christmas Eve. The dough should be pillowy and the potato soft and peppery. Most people go wrong by spooning in warm, wet mash, which steams the dough from inside and makes it soggy; let the filling cool fully. Chef's tip: brush the baked buns with melted butter the moment they come out of the oven, then cover with a towel for 10 minutes so the crust turns soft and silky.

120 min

Ukrainian Baking

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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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Kofta chalowMeatballs with rice

Kofta chalow is weekday comfort in Kabul homes: tender, coriander-flecked meatballs simmered in a brick-red sauce of onion and tomato, spooned over chalow, plain long-grain rice that is boiled, drained and then steamed with a little oil and cumin until each grain stands apart. The sauce soaks into the rice, the meatballs are soft enough to cut with a spoon, and the meal is finished with a salad of chopped tomato, cucumber and onion and a dab of green chutney. The meatballs fall apart in the pan when the grated onion goes in wet, so squeeze it hard in your fist first. Chef's tip: chill the shaped koftas for 20 minutes before they go into the sauce; they firm up and keep their round shape.

85 min

Afghan Meat

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CepelinaiMeat-filled potato dumplings

Cepelinai, named after the Zeppelin airships they resemble, are Lithuania's national dish: big oval dumplings of grated raw and boiled potato wrapped around seasoned minced pork, simmered until glossy and served with a sauce of sour cream and fried bacon bits and onion. This dish contains pork. Families in Kaunas and Vilnius make them on weekends and holidays; curd cheese or mushroom fillings are common vegetarian versions. A common mistake is skipping the potato starch; it is what holds the dumplings together. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated potato very dry and stir back the starch that settles from the liquid. Minced pork must reach 71 °C.

100 minBaltic Meat

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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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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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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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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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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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LaskonkyCoconut meringue sandwiches

Laskonky are the chewy little meringue sandwiches in every Czech cake counter, from station cafes in Brno to the bakeries of small Bohemian towns. Two pale-gold discs of coconut and ground walnut meringue, crisp outside and chewy within, hold a thick layer of coffee butter cream. They are sweet and nutty, with the coffee keeping things grown-up, and they are naturally made without flour. A common mistake is baking them too hot, which browns the outside before the centre dries; low heat and patience give the right chew. Make the custard for the cream first so it can cool. The egg yolks in the cream are cooked until the custard bubbles. Chef's tip: spread a thin layer of the meringue on the paper rather than piping tall mounds; flat, even discs sandwich neatly.

90 min

Czech Desserts

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MalehSalted fish stew

Before refrigeration, fishermen in Ras Al Khaimah and along the coast of the United Arab Emirates packed their surplus catch in salt for weeks, and maleh is still cooked in Emirati homes, especially in winter, with rice and fresh lime. The stew is sharp and deeply savoury, the firm salted fish flaking into a thick onion and tomato gravy warmed with bezar. This home version salts fresh fish in the fridge for 2–3 days, which gives the same firm, briny bite without the long cure; ready-cured maleh from a Gulf grocer is soaked and used in the same way. The mistake people make is forgetting to soak the fish, which leaves the dish too salty to eat. Chef's tip: taste a flake after soaking; it should be pleasantly salty, like an olive, before it goes into the pot.

60 minGulf Arabian Fish

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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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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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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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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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MallorcasCoiled sweet egg rolls

In Old San Juan's old-fashioned cafés and neighbourhood bakeries serve mallorcas split, pressed on a hot griddle with butter and buried in icing sugar, often with a slice of melted cheese inside for a sweet-salty breakfast (many cheeses are made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian one). The dough is rich with egg yolks, milk and butter, coiled like a snail shell so it bakes into soft, pull-apart layers. The common mistake is under-proving the coils, which gives tight, bready rolls instead of feathery ones. Chef's tip: brush the coils with melted butter before the last rise and again straight out of the oven; that buttery skin is what holds the snowy sugar.

60 min

Puerto Rican 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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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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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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Kishk sa'idiFermented yoghurt and wheat porridge

Kishk sa'idi belongs to the villages of the Sa'id, from Minya down to Qena and Luxor, where wheat and soured yoghurt are mixed, rolled into balls and dried on rooftops in the summer sun so the family has it through the winter. Soaked and simmered, the kishk becomes a thick, tangy, creamy porridge, finished with plenty of onions fried in ghee and eaten hot with bread. It is usually cooked in chicken stock; this vegetarian version uses vegetable stock and a little milk for body. Look for Upper Egyptian kishk at Egyptian grocers; Levantine kishk powder works but is often sourer, so add a little extra milk. Allow at least 2 hours for soaking. Chef's tip: keep it at a gentle bubble and stir constantly, because the yoghurt catches on the bottom and turns lumpy within minutes.

50 min

Egyptian Curries

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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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KuchelaSpicy green mango relish

Kuchela is the dark, oily, intensely sour mango relish that sits in a jar on almost every south Trinidad table, spooned beside roti, dhal and rice, curry or doubles. Green mango is grated, squeezed and dried until leathery, then cooked in mustard oil with amchar masala, garlic and scotch bonnet until almost black. The common mistake is skipping the drying; wet mango stews instead of frying and the relish goes mouldy quickly. Mustard oil is traditional; heat it to smoking first to mellow it. Chef's tip: wring the grated mango in a cloth with real force; the drier it is before it hits the oil, the longer the kuchela keeps.

90 min

Trinidadian Chutneys & Dips

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Malu paanFish-filled bread buns

Ask any Sri Lankan what they miss from home and malu paan comes up quickly, the soft, slightly sweet triangular bun from the neighbourhood bakery van or a Colombo railway station kiosk, split open to reveal a spicy filling of fish, potato, onion and curry leaves. Office workers buy two with a plain tea for an afternoon snack, children find them in their school bags, and they appear at every short-eats spread. Tinned mackerel is the usual filling at home and gives the right rich, savoury taste, and the dough needs about 1 1/2 hours to rise. Don't make the classic error of using a wet filling, which soaks the dough and stops the buns from baking through at the seams. Chef's tip: cook the filling until it is quite dry and let it cool completely, then pinch the three corners of each bun firmly so they stay closed in the oven.

65 min

Sri Lankan Snacks & Starters

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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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Balochi kaakSmoky wholewheat bread

Out in the hills of Balochistan, from Kalat to the passes above Quetta, kaak is shepherds' and travellers' bread: dough wrapped around a smooth river stone that has been heated in the fire, then propped among the embers until a thick, smoky crust forms and the stone cooks it from inside too. It is served torn into chunks alongside sajji, the slow-roasted lamb of Balochi feasts, or with yogurt and tea on the road. This version is for a home oven: the dough is shaped into a thick round and baked on a very hot tray or stone, then finished over a flame for that charred, campfire taste. Under-heating is the main pitfall, giving a pale, heavy loaf. Chef's tip: preheat the tray in the oven for a full 30 minutes. If you try the stone method outdoors, use only dense, dry stones never taken from water, as wet or porous stones can crack violently when heated.

90 min

Pakistani Breads & Parathas

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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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Bahamian guava duffSteamed guava roll

Guava duff is the Bahamas' best-loved dessert, served at Junkanoo season, Sunday dinners and Nassau restaurants alike: a soft dough spread with sweet stewed guava, rolled up, wrapped in cloth or foil and steamed until tender, then sliced and drowned in a warm butter sauce. Traditionally the sauce has rum in it, which is only lightly cooked, so the rum version is for adults only; the vanilla sauce below makes it alcohol-free for everyone. The most common mistake is rolling the duff too tight, which stops it rising; leave room in the wrapping for it to swell. Chef's tip: sieve the guava pulp to remove the hard seeds, and keep the thick paste for the filling.

135 minCaribbean Desserts

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Mahi (Kabul fried fish)Fried battered fish

When the snow comes, Kabul's fish sellers set up their huge woks of oil, and the smell of mahi frying drifts across the city's bridges and bazaars, with stalls next door piling up bright orange jalebi to eat alongside it; mahi wa jalebi, fish and sweets, is a winter outing for the whole family. Chunks of firm fish are coated in a thin, spiced batter of flour, garlic, coriander seed, cumin and chilli and fried until crisp and reddish-gold, then eaten hot with naan, green chutney and a squeeze of lemon. Carp or other river fish is traditional, but any firm white fish works. Crowding the pan drops the oil temperature and gives soggy, greasy pieces, so fry only a few at a time. Chef's tip: salt the fish and leave it for 10 minutes, then pat it completely dry so the batter grips.

40 min

Afghan Fish

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KholodetsMeat jelly

Kholodets is winter food, made in big batches before New Year and Orthodox Christmas when the cold balcony doubles as a fridge. Pork trotters and beef shin are simmered for hours until the broth is rich enough to set on its own, no added setting agent; the meat is shredded, layered with garlic and covered with the strained stock to set into a trembling, clear jelly. It is eaten cold, cut into squares, with sharp horseradish and mustard and hot boiled potatoes. This dish uses pork (trotters and knuckle) as well as beef. Where most people go wrong is letting the pot boil hard, which makes the jelly cloudy and greasy. Chef's tip: spoon a little broth onto a cold saucer after 5 hours; if it sets firm in the fridge in 15 minutes, the stock is ready.

480 min

Russian Meat

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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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ChainakiTeapot lamb with split peas

In the teahouses of northern and central Afghanistan, from Mazar to the Salang road, every traveller who orders chainaki gets his own small metal teapot packed with lamb, onion, split peas and water, set in the embers beside the samovar from morning until lunch. When it is ready, the broth is poured off over torn naan in a bowl and the soft meat eaten after, with raw onion and green chilli. The taste is simple and pure: clean lamb, sweet onion, a little turmeric and pepper. Rushing it on a high flame toughens the meat and boils the broth cloudy, so the heat should be so low that the liquid only trembles. Chef's tip: a small heavy lidded casserole in a low oven gives exactly the same result as the teapot, with no risk of it boiling dry.

165 min

Afghan Meat

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Csabai kolbászPaprika pork sausage

Every October the town of Békéscsaba holds a sausage festival where teams grind, season and stuff pork by hand, and the town's name is on Hungary's most famous paprika sausage. The real csabai is smoked over beech and then air-dried for weeks; curing like that needs curing salt, careful temperature and humidity control and a lot of experience, so this recipe makes the same spicy pork mixture as a fresh sausage that is cooked through to 71 °C and never eaten raw. It is fiery, garlicky and deep red from sweet and hot paprika with a warm hint of caraway, and is excellent grilled or pan-fried, with mustard, fresh bread, pickled peppers and raw onion. The usual slip is letting the meat get warm while you work, which smears the fat and gives a dry, crumbly sausage; keep everything ice cold. Chef's tip: fry a small test patty before stuffing to check the salt and heat.

240 min

Hungarian Meat

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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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Marak temaniSpiced beef and potato soup

Friday night in Rosh HaAyin, Tel Aviv's Kerem HaTeimanim and other Yemenite-Jewish neighbourhoods often means a big pot of marak temani, a yellow broth of beef on the bone with potatoes, onion and carrot, coloured and perfumed by hawaij, the Yemenite blend of turmeric, cumin, black pepper and cardamom. It is eaten piping hot with fiery zhug stirred in at the table and soft bread or jachnun-style pastry for dipping. The meat is cooked long enough to fall from the bone but the broth stays clear and light. The most common mistake is boiling it hard, which clouds the soup; keep it at a lazy simmer and skim early. Chef's tip: add the potatoes only for the last 40 minutes so they hold their shape.

165 min

Israeli Soups

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Marchwangan kormaFiery red mutton korma

The name says it all: marchwangan means chilli, and this is the wazwan's hottest course, mutton cooked in a deep crimson gravy of Kashmiri chillies, mustard oil, fennel, dry ginger and a breath of cinnamon, with a spoonful of tamarind for sharpness. Kashmiri chillies bring colour more than ferocity, so you need a lot of them, and a few hotter dried chillies give the real kick. It is served at weddings and family feasts in Azad Kashmir and by Kashmiri households in Lahore and Rawalpindi with plain rice, alongside milder dishes like gushtaba to cool the palate. Scorching the chilli paste is how it goes wrong; it turns bitter and brown, so fry it on a moderate heat with a splash of water. Chef's tip: soak the whole dried chillies in hot water and blend them rather than using only powder, for a smoother, glossier gravy.

110 min

Pakistani Meat

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MarhapörköltBeef paprika stew

Pörkölt is the stew most Hungarians actually cook at home, more often than gulyás, and on the Great Plain beef pörkölt simmers in a cauldron at every village festival and harvest gathering. Unlike soup, it has almost no added liquid: a big pile of onions melts slowly in fat, paprika goes in off the heat, then the beef stews in its own juices with a little tomato and pale green pepper until the sauce is thick, glossy and brick red. It is deep, sweet and gently peppery, and it belongs next to nokedli (small dumplings) or boiled potatoes and a pickled cucumber. The usual slip is adding paprika to a hot pan, which scorches it bitter in seconds; always pull the pot off the heat first. Chef's tip: add water only a few spoons at a time, just enough to stop it catching, so the sauce stays concentrated.

150 min

Hungarian Meat

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Maritime brown breadOat and molasses loaf

Brown bread in the Maritimes means a soft, slightly sweet yeasted loaf of rolled oats and molasses, baked on Saturdays in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick kitchens and served with baked beans, fish cakes or just butter. Boiling water poured over the oats first gives it a moist, tender crumb that keeps well. It makes wonderful toast. A common mistake is adding too much flour because the dough is sticky; a soft dough gives a lighter loaf. Chef's tip: oil your hands rather than flouring them when kneading.

70 min

Canadian Breads & Parathas

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Khajoor ka halwaDate halwa

The oasis towns of Turbat and Panjgur in Makran grow some of Pakistan's finest dates, the soft, honeyed Begum Jangi and Muzawati among them, and after the late-summer harvest households turn the surplus into this rich, fudgy halwa. Dates are softened in warm milk, mashed and cooked down slowly in ghee until the mixture is dark and glossy and comes away from the pan, then finished with almonds, walnuts and cardamom. It needs little or no added sugar, and it is served in small portions at Eid, to new mothers and to guests with green tea. Using dry, hard dates without soaking is where it goes wrong, leaving the halwa lumpy and leathery. Chef's tip: choose soft, moist dates and blend them only briefly after soaking, so a few small pieces remain for texture.

40 min

Pakistani Indian Sweets

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Khai paenCrispy river weed sheets

Along the Mekong and Nam Khan below Luang Prabang, women gather silky green river weed in the dry months, when the water runs low and clear, then press it into thin sheets and dry them in the sun. Those sheets turn up everywhere in town, stacked at the morning market and the night market, and a plate of fried khai paen is a favourite nibble with sticky rice and a pot of jeow bong in the late afternoon. Frying takes seconds: the sheets puff, darken and turn shatteringly crisp, tasting of the river, toasted sesame and garlic, a little like nori but earthier. Buy the sheets dried; outside Laos, look in Southeast Asian grocers, and if you can't find them, nori sheets make a stand-in, though they are thinner, sea-salty rather than freshwater and fry even faster. Leaving a sheet in the oil a moment too long is the classic error, as it goes bitter and brown almost instantly. Chef's tip: cut the sheets into squares with scissors before frying, not after, so they don't crumble into dust.

15 min

Lao Snacks & Starters

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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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AnoushabourChristmas wheat pudding

Anoushabour, 'sweet soup', is cooked by Armenian families for New Year and for Christmas, which the Armenian church keeps on 6 January; in Yerevan and diaspora kitchens a big pot is made and bowls are carried to friends. Whole hulled wheat is simmered until creamy, sweetened and filled with apricots, raisins and prunes, then topped with walnuts, almonds, pomegranate and cinnamon. A common mistake is adding the fruit early, which turns it to pulp. Chef's tip: stir in a spoon of rose water at the end and serve the pudding cool; it sets slightly and the flavours come together.

120 min

Armenian Desserts

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KhaginaSpiced scrambled eggs

Ask almost any Pakistani what their mother made on a school morning and khagina comes up: eggs beaten with salt and turmeric and stirred into onion, tomato and green chilli softened in oil, served in a heap beside a hot paratha with a cup of doodh patti. It comes from the old Mughal and Hyderabadi kitchens that reached Karachi after Partition, and it differs from a plain scramble in being cooked a little longer, so it sets into soft, moist clumps coloured by the masala rather than staying creamy. It is everyday food in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar alike, also eaten for a quick supper with chapati. The usual mistake is adding the eggs before the tomato has cooked down, which leaves the dish watery and the eggs rubbery. Chef's tip: take the pan off the heat while the eggs still look slightly glossy but no liquid egg remains, because they keep cooking on the plate.

15 min

Pakistani Breakfast & Brunch

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Keshi yenaChicken-stuffed Edam cheese

Keshi yena, "stuffed cheese", is the most famous dish of Curaçao and Aruba, born when cooks on Dutch plantations reused the rinds of big Edam cheeses by filling them with leftover meat. Today it is a festive dish: a spiced chicken filling with tomato, onion, olives, capers, raisins and hot pepper, sealed in sliced Edam and baked until the cheese melts into a golden crust, eaten with white rice or funchi. The mistake to avoid is a wet filling, which makes the cheese case collapse; cook it down until thick. This home version is baked in ramekins lined with cheese slices. Chef's tip: oil the ramekins well and turn the cheese cups out onto plates for a dramatic presentation.

75 minCaribbean Chicken

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Cascos de guayaba con quesoGuava shells with white cheese

On Cuban tables from Havana to Pinar del Río, the most loved dessert is also one of the simplest: guava halves, scooped of their seeds and simmered in syrup until glossy and tender, served beside a slab of salty white cheese. The sweet, perfumed fruit and the sharp cheese balance each other perfectly. Cooks often overcook the shells until they fall apart; they should still hold their cup shape. Queso blanco and cream cheese are usually made with animal rennet or microbial enzymes depending on the maker, so check the label and choose a vegetarian one if needed. Chef's tip: simmer the scooped-out seeds and pulp in a little water, sieve them and add that purée to the syrup, which gives it a deep pink colour and real guava flavour.

85 min

Cuban Desserts

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Kesel muwa curryBanana blossom curry

Every banana plant in a Sri Lankan back garden eventually pushes out a heavy, purple, spear-shaped flower, and rather than waste it, home cooks across the western province slice it into this savoury, slightly meaty curry. Once the tough outer bracts come off, the pale heart is shredded and cooked with roasted curry powder, mustard seed and chilli, then finished with coconut milk until it is tender with a faint, pleasant astringency, a bit like artichoke. It is a weekday dish, served with red rice, parippu and a pol sambol. The flower browns and turns bitter within minutes of being cut, which is where most first attempts go wrong, so have a bowl of salted turmeric water waiting and drop the slices in as you go. Chef's tip: if you can only find tinned banana blossom in brine, rinse it well, chop it and skip the soaking; it needs only half the cooking time.

50 min

Sri Lankan Curries

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