What to eat today?

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Jodhpuri kabuli

Jodhpuri kabuli is a celebration rice from Marwar that has nothing to do with chickpeas; the name refers to its rich, layered style. Rice is stacked with vegetables simmered in spiced yogurt and milk, crisp fried bread cubes, cashews, raisins and saffron, then steamed under a lid so the bread absorbs the juices while the top stays crunchy. Jodhpur families cook it for weddings and festive lunches, and it is eaten on its own with raita or kadhi. A common mistake is layering the bread at the bottom, where it becomes soggy; it belongs in the middle and on top. Chef's tip: cook the rice only until it still has a firm bite, because it will finish cooking during the dum.

75 min

Indian Rice & Grains

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Ranon'apango

Ranon'apango is the everyday drink of Madagascar: after rice is cooked, the crust at the bottom of the pot is left to toast until golden, then water is boiled with it to make a pale amber, nutty, slightly smoky drink. It is served warm or cold in jugs alongside meals in homes and hotelys, and is a safe way to drink boiled water. Chef's tip: toast the crust until golden-brown, not black; burnt rice makes the drink bitter.

30 min

Malagasy Drinks

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Guo bao rou

Created in a Harbin government kitchen in the early 1900s to please Russian guests, this is the north-east's own sweet-and-sour pork, and every Dongbei restaurant still serves a heaped plate of it. Large, thin slices of tenderloin go into a thick potato-starch coating, are fried twice until they shatter, then are tossed in a pale, sharp sugar-and-vinegar glaze with shreds of ginger, carrot and coriander. Unlike the red Cantonese version there is no ketchup and no pineapple; the flavour is cleaner and more sour. Bring it to the table the second it leaves the wok, alongside steamed rice and a cold cucumber salad. Chef's tip: soak the potato starch in water for an hour and pour off the clear liquid; the thick paste underneath gives the crispest coating.

45 min

Malaysian Pasta & Noodles

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Kolo mee

Ask anyone from Kuching what they miss most and the answer is usually kolo mee, a bowl that looks almost too simple: curly, springy egg noodles tossed in fragrant shallot oil, a little soy and white pepper, then crowned with savoury minced pork and slices of char siu. There is no thick gravy and no chilli on top; the flavour is clean, porky and aromatic, and the texture is the whole point, each strand bouncy and separate. Stalls often add a dash of red char siu oil for the 'red' version. It is eaten at any hour with a small bowl of clear soup and pickled green chilli on the side. Chef's tip: cook the noodles in small portions in a big pot of fiercely boiling water and shake them really dry; any leftover water dilutes the shallot oil.

40 min

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Lasary legioma

Lasary legioma, vegetable lasary, is a tangy, turmeric-yellow pickle of carrot, green beans and cabbage that sits on the table in Malagasy homes and hotelys (small canteens) to brighten rice and plain dishes. It is close to the achards of Réunion and Mauritius and is made in large jars to last the week. Chef's tip: blanch the vegetables for only a minute and cool them fast; they should stay crunchy, not cooked.

33 min

Malagasy Chutneys & Dips

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Rajasthani kalmi vada

Kalmi vada gets its name from kalam, the Hindi word for pen: the fried chana-dal log is sliced into thin, slanted pieces that resemble pen nibs, then fried again until the slices are crunchy right through. In Jaipur and Ajmer, kalmi vadas are sold by weight from big trays, especially during the monsoon, and served with mint chutney and hot tea. The dal is ground coarse and spiced with whole coriander, fennel and chilli, so every bite crackles. The mistake to avoid is adding water when grinding; a wet mix won't hold its shape and absorbs oil. Chef's tip: let the first-fried logs cool completely before slicing, or they'll crumble under the knife.

55 min

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Peking duck (home style)

Beijing's famous roast duck is a banquet showpiece, carved at the table in restaurants near Qianmen and eaten in thin wheat pancakes with sticks of cucumber, spring onion and a smear of sweet bean sauce. Restaurants use hanging ovens and inflate the skin with air; at home a scald with boiling water, a sweet vinegar glaze and a night uncovered in the fridge get you most of the way there. The prize is the lacquered, glass-crisp skin, with the meat underneath still juicy. Serve it as the centrepiece of a family feast, followed by a simple soup made from the carcass. Chef's tip: dry the duck uncovered on a rack in the fridge for at least 12 hours; a dry skin is the whole secret.

240 min

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Mewari makki ki kadhi

In the Mewar region around Udaipur, maize is a staple crop, and in winter it even goes into kadhi. Instead of gram flour, cooks thicken sour buttermilk with fine maize flour, which gives a golden, slightly earthy, gently sweet kadhi with no pakoras in it. It is ladled over makki ki roti or bajra roti, or eaten with plain rice and a raw onion on the side. The tadka is simple but bold: ghee, cumin, fenugreek, crushed garlic and whole red chillies. The usual mistake is not stirring until it boils—the yogurt splits into curds and whey. Chef's tip: simmer it longer than you would a besan kadhi, at least 20 minutes, until no raw corn taste remains.

45 min

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Mageu

Mageu (also amahewu or mahewu) is a thin, sour, nourishing drink of fermented maize porridge, made in homes across Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia and Botswana and drunk by farm workers, schoolchildren and anyone needing a filling lift on a hot afternoon. A little wheat flour or a spoonful of the last batch starts the fermentation overnight. Commercial cartons are sold everywhere, but home-made tastes fresher. Chef's tip: let the porridge cool to lukewarm before adding the starter; too hot and it kills the fermentation.

25 minSouthern African Drinks

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Anhui bamboo shoots with ham

When the spring bamboo shoots push up through the hillsides of Huizhou, farmhouse kitchens braise them with chunks of the region's cured ham. The salty, deep-flavoured ham seasons the broth, and the shoots soak it up while keeping their crunch and gentle sweetness. Serve it as a side dish with rice and other plates, or as a light lunch by itself. Fresh bamboo shoots must be peeled and boiled before use, because raw shoots contain natural toxins; canned shoots are already cooked and only need rinsing. Chef's tip: taste the broth before adding any salt, as the ham often brings all the salt the dish needs.

60 min

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Kvass

Before the cola era, kvass was Russia's everyday thirst-quencher, sold every summer from yellow barrel trailers on Moscow street corners and poured into glass mugs. At home it is brewed from dried rye bread, sugar and a pinch of yeast, fermented for a day or two until it tastes malty, a little sour and gently fizzy, and only about 1% alcohol. It is drunk ice cold and is also the broth for okroshka. Chef's tip: toast the bread until really dark, almost burnt at the edges; that is where kvass gets its deep colour and its toasted, malty taste.

50 min

Russian Drinks

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Kung pao chicken

Named after a 19th-century governor of Sichuan, gong bao chicken is weeknight food in Chengdu: small cubes of tender thigh meat tossed in a wok with scorched chillies, tingling Sichuan pepper and crunchy peanuts. Its signature is the glossy sauce Sichuan cooks call 'lychee flavour', sweet and sour in equal measure, clinging lightly rather than pooling on the plate. The chilli here perfumes the oil more than it burns, so it is the gentlest of the classic Sichuan stir-fries. Serve it with plain steamed rice and a green vegetable such as stir-fried pak choi. Chef's tip: mix the sauce in a bowl before you light the hob, because the whole stir-fry is over in about four minutes and there is no time to measure once the wok is hot.

25 min

Chinese Chicken

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Mohan thaal

Mohan thaal, named after Krishna, is offered at temples on Janmashtami and fills sweet boxes at Diwali in both Rajasthan and Gujarat. It is coarse gram flour roasted in ghee until it turns golden and smells like roasted nuts, then set with cardamom syrup into a grainy, fudge-like slab and cut into diamonds. The texture comes from a step called dhabo: rubbing ghee and milk into the flour, then sieving it into tiny granules before roasting. The mistake most cooks make is cooking the syrup too long; the fudge sets rock-hard and crumbles when cut. Chef's tip: take the syrup off the heat at a firm one-and-a-half string stage, and stop stirring when the mixture pulls away from the pan's sides in one mass.

65 min

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Ghevar

During the monsoon festival of Teej and through Raksha Bandhan, Jaipur's sweet shops stack golden, honeycomb discs of ghevar in their windows. The batter is little more than flour, chilled ghee and ice-cold water, poured into hot ghee in thin streams so it foams into a lacy round. It is then soaked in syrup and finished with rabri, sliced pistachios and a pinch of saffron. Married daughters traditionally receive it from their mothers' homes during Teej. The most common mistake is batter that is too warm or too thick; it fries into a heavy pancake instead of a web. Chef's tip: whisk the ghee with ice cubes until it is white and fluffy before adding flour, and keep the batter bowl in a tray of ice water while frying. A narrow, deep pan, or a metal ring set in a saucepan, gives the sides that help the batter build up.

90 min

Vietnamese Snacks & Starters

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Vegetable romazava

Romazava is often called the national dish of Madagascar: a light, gingery broth of several kinds of leafy greens (brèdes) and tomato, ladled over a big plate of rice. In Antananarivo it usually includes zebu beef; this vegetable version keeps the essential leaves, especially brèdes mafana (paracress), whose flowers and leaves make the mouth tingle. Spinach, watercress and mustard greens work well outside Madagascar. Chef's tip: add the greens in order of toughness and stop as soon as they are tender; romazava should taste fresh and green, not stewed.

45 min

Malagasy Soups

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Koba akondro

Koba is the street sweet of Madagascar's highlands, sold in thick slices from huge logs wrapped in banana leaves at markets and taxi-brousse stops around Antananarivo and Antsirabe. Koba ravina is a dense block of ground peanuts, rice flour and brown sugar; koba akondro adds ripe banana and is softer. This home version makes small parcels that steam in an hour and a half instead of a whole day. Chef's tip: wrap the parcels tightly; loose parcels let water in and the koba turns sticky instead of firm.

120 min

Malagasy Desserts

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Nem ran (Hanoi fried spring rolls)

At Tết, the lunar new year, a plate of nem rán sits on almost every family feast tray in Hanoi and the north, and the same rolls turn up at weddings, death anniversaries and Sunday lunches all year. Northern cooks wrap a filling of minced pork, crab or prawn, glass noodles and wood ear mushroom in thin rice paper, which fries into a pale golden, bubbly shell quite different from wheat-wrapped spring rolls. Southerners call the same idea chả giò. Serve them cut in pieces with rice vermicelli, lettuce, herbs and a warm sweet-sour fish sauce. Chef's tip: fry them twice, first gently to cook the filling through, then briefly in hotter oil to crisp; they stay crunchy far longer.

60 min

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Lasary voatabia

Lasary voatabia is the fresh tomato relish served beside the rice at almost every Malagasy meal, from Antananarivo's highland homes to the coast. Tomatoes and spring onion are chopped very small, sharpened with lime or vinegar and a little sakay (chilli), and spooned onto the rice to wake up broths like romazava. It is juicier and finer than a salad. Chef's tip: chop the tomatoes very small, almost to a pulp at the edges; the juice is meant to soak into the rice.

10 min

Malagasy Chutneys & Dips

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Papad ki sabzi

Papad ki sabzi comes from Rajasthan's dry interior, where fresh vegetables were scarce and pantries relied on sun-dried staples. Roasted papads are broken into a hot, spiced yogurt gravy at the last minute, so they soften but keep a little chew. Marwari households still make it on days when the vegetable basket is empty, eating it with bajra roti or phulka and a little ghee. Because it's ready in minutes, it's also a favourite for unexpected guests. The common mistake is adding the papads too early: they swell and turn to mush. Chef's tip: go easy on the salt, because papads are already well salted; season after tasting with the papad in.

20 min

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Kanpur khoya and suji laddu

Kanpur's best-known sweet is a crumbly, rich laddu sold in brown paper boxes near the city's busy crossings and taken home as a souvenir from the city. It is made by roasting semolina slowly in ghee until it smells like warm biscuits, then mixing in browned khoya, sugar and plenty of cashews, giving a soft, melt-in-the-mouth bite with tiny pieces of crunch. Families make a batch for Diwali or Raksha Bandhan and keep it for a week. The biggest mistake is adding the sugar while the mixture is still hot; it melts and the laddus collapse into flat puddles. Chef's tip: if the mixture feels too dry to bind, sprinkle in warm milk a teaspoon at a time rather than adding more ghee.

45 min

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Bolo polana

Bolo polana takes its name from the old Polana district of Maputo and is a celebration cake in Mozambique, made for birthdays and Christmas, built on two of the country's great crops: cashew nuts and potatoes. Ground cashews and mashed potato make it dense, fragrant and very moist, with orange zest to lift it. It shows the Portuguese baking tradition meeting local ingredients. Chef's tip: grind the cashews in short pulses with a spoon of the sugar; ground alone, they turn to cashew butter.

90 minSouthern African Baking

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Sarawak laksa

Kuching wakes up to laksa Sarawak, ordered at coffee shops before work and reaching its peak on a lazy Sunday morning. It looks nothing like curry laksa: the broth is a russet, gently creamy soup built on a complex paste of chillies, shallots, galangal, toasted sesame, peanuts and warm whole spices, cooked into a chicken and prawn-shell stock with tamarind and a little coconut milk. Thin rice vermicelli is topped with shredded chicken, whole prawns, ribbons of omelette and bean sprouts, and every bowl comes with lime and a dab of sambal belacan. The work is in the paste, which keeps well and makes several batches. Chef's tip: toast the spices, sesame seeds and peanuts separately in a dry pan before grinding; it gives the broth its deep, roasted aroma.

90 min

Malaysian Soups

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Twice-cooked pork

Sichuan families say no dish is more homely than hui guo rou, literally 'meat returned to the pot': pork belly is simmered whole, cooled, sliced paper-thin and then fried again with fermented chilli bean paste until the fat turns translucent and the slices curl into little cups. It was once the treat cooked after ancestral offerings, when the boiled pork came back to the kitchen, and it is still the dish many Chengdu people crave most when they are far from home. The flavour is rich, salty and savoury with a slow chilli warmth rather than a sharp burn, and the leeks bring a sweet, green crunch. Eat it with a big bowl of rice to soak up the red oil. Chef's tip: chill the boiled pork for 15 minutes in the freezer before slicing; firm pork gives clean, even 3 mm slices that curl beautifully in the wok.

60 min

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Kathal ki sabzi

In Uttar Pradesh, people joke that kathal is the vegetarian's mutton, and the comparison makes sense once you taste it. Young, unripe jackfruit has a firm, fibrous texture that absorbs a slow-cooked onion masala and the smoky warmth of black cardamom. Lucknow and Kanpur homes cook it in summer when the green fruit is plentiful, and it is a common choice for Sunday lunches and family gatherings, served with paratha or rice. The mistake to avoid is undercooking the jackfruit before adding it to the masala; it will remain rubbery no matter how long it simmers afterward. Chef's tip: frying the boiled pieces until golden before they go into the gravy gives them a meaty crust that holds up in the sauce.

75 min

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Nhopi

Nhopi is a simple Shona dish from Zimbabwe, made at harvest time when the pumpkins come in: pumpkin or butternut boiled soft, mashed and enriched with peanut butter. Some families stir in a little maize meal to make it thicker (nhopi dovi), and it is eaten for breakfast or as a side with greens. It is sweet, nutty and loved by children. Chef's tip: drain the pumpkin very well before mashing, or the nhopi turns thin and watery.

30 minSouthern African Sides

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Mawa jalebi

Mawa jalebi, sometimes called khoya jalebi, belongs to Jabalpur and the towns of the Mahakoshal region of Madhya Pradesh, where sweet shops sell them stacked like dark brown coils. Unlike the crisp batter jalebi piped into hot oil, these are rolled from a soft khoya dough into ropes, coiled by hand and fried slowly, so they come out tender and almost fudgy inside a thin caramelised skin. They are eaten warm on winter mornings and bought by the kilo for weddings. Chef's tip: roll the ropes no thicker than a pencil; thicker coils look generous but stay doughy at the core.

75 min

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Mathura peda

Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, Krishna's birthplace, has a peda all its own: not the pale milky kind found elsewhere, but a dusty-brown disc with a deep, toffee-like flavour from milk solids slowly roasted until they caramelise. Pilgrims buy boxes after visiting the temples, and they are made in huge batches around Janmashtami as an offering. The texture should be dense yet slightly grainy, rolled in fine boora sugar so the outside sparkles. The usual mistake is rushing the roasting over high heat, which scorches the khoya in spots and makes it bitter and greasy. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and scrape the bottom of the pan constantly; the colour should change gradually from cream to light brown, then to the shade of milky coffee.

50 min

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New England clam chowder

In Boston and along the Massachusetts and Maine coast, chowder is served in paper cups at the harbour, in bread bowls and at every clam shack with oyster crackers on the side. Fresh clams are steamed open, their briny juice becomes the stock, and potatoes, onion and a little smoky bacon (pork) simmer in it before cream goes in. It is creamy but not gluey. Chef's tip: thicken it only lightly; chowder should coat a spoon, not stand up in it.

60 min

American Soups

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Lucknowi galouti kebab

Lucknow's galouti kebab is said to have been created in the kitchens of the Nawabs of Awadh for a ruler who had lost his teeth, and 'galouti' means something that melts. The minced lamb is ground again until it's almost a paste, tenderised with raw papaya, scented with a dozen spices plus rose water and saffron, and fried gently on a flat griddle. In the old city around Aminabad they are sold all day on small, flaky ulte tawe ka paratha with sliced onion and mint chutney, and they are a must at Ramadan iftars. Chef's tip: chill the mixture well before shaping; the patties are meant to be fragile, and a cold mixture is the only way to get them into the pan in one piece.

125 min

Indian Meat

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Agra petha

Every train pulling out of Agra carries boxes of petha. The city's halwais have been candying ash gourd for generations, and the plain white kind remains the classic: firm, crystal-clear cubes with a sugar crust and a juicy centre, lightly scented with rose or kewra. At home it makes a good festival sweet for Diwali gifting because it keeps for two weeks. The firmness comes from soaking the gourd in food-grade slaked lime (chuna, sold as pickling lime) or, as some cooks prefer, in alum water. Leaving out the soak, or rushing it, is the most common mistake: the cubes fall apart in the syrup. Chef's tip: prick each cube deeply all over with a fork before soaking, so the lime water and later the syrup reach the centre.

110 min

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Matapa

Matapa is the great dish of southern Mozambique, from Maputo to Inhambane: young cassava leaves pounded and cooked for a long time with ground peanuts, coconut milk and garlic until soft, creamy and deep green. It is eaten with rice or xima (maize porridge), and on the coast it often has crab or prawns stirred in; this version keeps to the leaves. Frozen ground cassava leaves are sold in African grocers. Chef's tip: cook the cassava leaves for at least an hour; undercooked they taste bitter and are not safe to eat.

90 minSouthern African Curries

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Singapore chilli crab

Chilli crab was first sold from a pushcart on the Kallang river in the 1950s and is now the dish visitors queue for along Singapore's East Coast seafood strip. Big mud crabs are cut up, wok-fried and simmered in a thick, sweet, tangy and gently hot sauce of chilli, tomato and garlic, which is then silked with beaten egg. Everyone eats with their hands and mops up the sauce with fried or steamed mantou buns. It is a weekend or celebration meal, messy and loud. Buy crabs live or freshly cooked the same day from a fishmonger you trust. Discard any live crab that doesn't move, smells of ammonia or has a cracked, leaking shell. The common mistake is boiling the sauce after adding the egg, which scrambles it into lumps; pour it in a thin stream over a low heat. Chef's tip: ask the fishmonger to clean and quarter the crab for you, and crack each claw lightly with the back of a cleaver so the sauce soaks in.

55 min

Singaporean Fish

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Tehri

In many Uttar Pradesh homes, tehri is what happens on a cold evening when nobody wants to cook three dishes. Rice, potatoes, cauliflower and peas go into one pot with mustard oil, turmeric and whole spices, and come out yellow, fluffy and lightly spiced. Families in Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi eat it with plain yogurt, a spoon of mango pickle and roasted papad, and it is also cooked for winter picnics. It differs from pulao in its turmeric colour and the sharp warmth of smoked mustard oil. A frequent mistake is stirring after the water goes in, which breaks the grains and makes the rice gluey. Chef's tip: heat the mustard oil until it just smokes, then let it cool for a few seconds before adding spices; this mellows its bite without losing the flavour.

50 min

Indian Rice & Grains

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Shahi tukda

Shahi tukda, the 'royal piece', comes from the Mughal kitchens of Old Delhi, and you'll still find trays of it around Jama Masjid during Ramzan, eaten after the evening meal, and at Eid feasts. Thick slices of bread are fried in ghee until crisp and golden, dipped briefly in cardamom and saffron syrup, then covered with rabri, milk slowly reduced until thick and full of creamy flakes. The bread stays crisp at the edges and soft in the middle. It's rich, so small pieces go a long way. Chef's tip: start the rabri first and let it simmer while you fry the bread; it takes the longest and needs only an occasional stir.

75 min

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Char siu

Hanging in long glossy strips in the windows of Guangzhou's siu mei shops, char siu is the roast pork Cantonese families pick up on the way home to put on rice, noodles or into steamed buns. The outside is lacquered, sweet and a little charred at the edges; the inside stays juicy, savoury and faintly scented with five-spice. Shoulder (pork butt) is the cut to use, because its marbling keeps the strips moist through a hot oven. Marinate it overnight in the fridge, roast it the next day and eat it warm with steamed rice and blanched greens, or cold in fried rice and noodle soups. Chef's tip: save the honey for the last ten minutes; brushed on at the start it burns black long before the pork is cooked.

120 min

Belgian Snacks & Starters

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Asperges à la flamande

In May and June, white asparagus from Mechelen and the sandy fields around Limburg arrive in Belgian markets, and asperges à la flamande (asperges op Vlaamse wijze) is the way to eat them. The pale spears are peeled and cooked until tender, then covered with a warm sauce of melted butter, chopped hard-boiled egg, parsley and nutmeg that is half sauce and half garnish. It is served as a starter in Flemish restaurants all through the short asparagus season, sometimes with a slice of ham alongside; here it stays meat-free. Chef's tip: peel the spears from just below the tip all the way down with a swivel peeler; white asparagus has a thick, bitter skin, and missing even a strip leaves woody threads.

35 min

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Pondicherry fish assad

In Puducherry, the former French enclave on the Tamil coast, Creole families of mixed Tamil and French descent cook a fish curry that is softer and creamier than anything else along that shore. Assad is mild and pale, fragrant with fennel, pepper and curry leaves, with the fish poached in thin coconut milk and finished with a thick, rich pour. It is a Sunday-lunch and Christmas dish in these homes, eaten with plain rice or a crusty loaf from the town's bakeries. Chef's tip: add the thick coconut milk only at the very end and keep the curry below a boil, so it stays silky and white.

40 min

Indian Fish

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Muriwo une dovi

Muriwo une dovi, greens with peanut butter, is a daily relish in Zimbabwean homes, eaten with sadza at lunch and supper. Collard greens, rape or pumpkin leaves are cooked with onion and tomato, then stirred into a creamy peanut sauce. Zambia's ifisashi is the same idea, usually without tomato and often made with pumpkin leaves or spinach and eaten with nshima. Chef's tip: add the peanut butter at the end and cook just long enough to thicken; long boiling makes it gluey.

30 minSouthern African Sides

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Mushroom luwombo

Luwombo is a royal dish of the Buganda kingdom in central Uganda, served at weddings, introduction ceremonies and Christmas: a stew wrapped and tied in softened banana leaves and steamed for hours so the leaf perfumes everything. Chicken, beef or smoked fish are traditional, but mushroom luwombo in a groundnut (peanut) sauce is a well-loved meat-free version, especially with the large wild mushrooms sold in Kampala markets. Serve with matoke. Chef's tip: wilt the banana leaves over a flame until they turn glossy and bendy; stiff leaves split and the sauce runs out.

130 minEast African Vegetarian

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Oliebollen

On the last day of December the queues outside the oliebollenkraam, the caravan-like stalls that pop up in every Dutch town, stretch round the block. Oliebollen ('oil balls') are the food of Oudejaarsavond, New Year's Eve: round, yeasted fritters full of raisins, currants and apple, deep-fried and buried in icing sugar. Families fry big batches at home in the afternoon and eat them with champagne at midnight. They are best within a few hours. Chef's tip: dip your two scooping spoons in the hot oil before each ball; the sticky dough slides off cleanly and the balls come out round instead of ragged.

60 min

Dutch Desserts

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Banarasi tamatar chaat

Walk through the lanes near Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi in the evening and you will see vendors mashing tomatoes and potatoes in large iron pans, cooking them with ghee and spices until thick, then spooning the mixture into small clay cups. Tamatar chaat is unique to Banaras: served hot, spicy, tangy, and finished with a thin sugar syrup and a pinch of chaat masala, then topped with crisp sev for crunch. Locals eat it standing up after the aarti, often followed by a glass of lassi. Many people forget the sugar syrup, but that's what balances the sourness and makes it Banarasi. Chef's tip: use very ripe, soft tomatoes and mash them right in the pan with the back of the ladle, leaving some texture.

40 min

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Awadhi vegetable dum biryani

Lucknow's cooks built their reputation on restraint: the Awadhi biryani is perfumed rather than fiery, with no tomato, very little chilli and whole spices that whisper instead of shout. Vegetables are cooked in spiced yogurt, layered with long-grain rice that is only three-quarters done, then sealed under a dough lid so everything finishes in its own steam, a technique the city calls dum pukht. It is the dish for Eid gatherings, wedding buffets and long Sunday lunches across Uttar Pradesh, served with a cooling raita and a sliced onion salad. The common mistake is boiling the rice fully before layering; it then turns soft and sticky under the lid instead of separating into long, distinct grains. Chef's tip: lift a grain and press it between your fingers before draining; it should break into two or three firm pieces with a white core.

115 min

Indian Rice & Grains

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Brown stew chicken

Ask a Jamaican what was on the table for weekday dinner growing up and brown stew chicken will be near the top of the list, served at home and at every cookshop from Montego Bay to Spanish Town. The deep colour comes from 'browning': sugar caramelised in hot oil until it is dark, then the seasoned chicken is turned in it so every piece takes on a mahogany coat. Peppers, onion, tomato and thyme simmer down into a sticky, savoury gravy that begs for a pile of white rice, rice and peas or boiled dumplings. Chef's tip: season the chicken the night before and dry each piece well before it goes into the caramel; wet chicken spits violently and won't take on that deep brown colour.

70 min

Jamaican Chicken

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Chips mayai

Chips mayai ('chips and eggs') is Tanzania's best-loved street food, fried to order in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar at evening stalls with big flat pans: fresh chips are bound into a thick omelette and served with kachumbari and chilli sauce or ketchup. Children and students live on it. Chef's tip: let the chips go crisp before pouring in the egg; soft chips make a soggy omelette.

40 minEast African Fast Food

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Delhi-style fruit chaat

Delhi's fruit chaat wallahs set up their carts in the afternoons with towers of guava, papaya, apples and bananas, plus roasted sweet potato, and chop whatever you point at into a leaf bowl. Then comes the part that makes it chaat rather than fruit salad: a big shake of tangy chaat masala, black salt and roasted cumin, a squeeze of lime, sometimes a pinch of chilli. It's a refreshing mid-afternoon snack in summer, and a regular sight on Ramzan iftar spreads too. The salt and spice make sweet fruit taste even sweeter. Chef's tip: season it just before eating; once the salt goes on, the fruit starts weeping juice and goes soft within 15 minutes.

15 min

Indian Salads

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Maharagwe ya nazi

Maharagwe ya nazi, red beans in coconut, is a weekday staple along the Swahili coast from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam and on Zanzibar, eaten with chapati, rice or mandazi. The beans are cooked until creamy, then simmered in a gently spiced tomato and coconut sauce. It differs from mbaazi wa nazi (pigeon peas) in its red kidney beans and its tomato-based, curry-spiced sauce. Chef's tip: add the coconut milk at the end and keep it at a bare simmer; boiled hard, it splits and turns oily.

45 minEast African Curries

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Rolex

The rolex is Uganda's most famous street food, its name a play on 'rolled eggs': at stalls all over Kampala, and now the whole country, a vendor beats eggs with shredded cabbage, tomato and onion, fries a thin omelette, lays a fresh chapati on top and rolls the two together. It is breakfast, lunch and late-night food. Unlike the Mombasa coast egg chapati, nothing is folded inside raw pastry: the omelette and a soft, ready-cooked chapati are rolled together. Chef's tip: cook the omelette thin and wide, the size of the chapati, so every bite has egg.

20 minEast African Breakfast & Brunch

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Engadiner Nusstorte

The Engadiner Nusstorte comes from the high Engadine valley in Graubünden, where pastry cooks who had emigrated to Italian and French cities brought home their skills in the 1800s, and walnuts arrived from Italy over the passes. It is a shallow, closed tart of rich butter pastry filled with chopped walnuts set in thick, golden cream caramel. Bakeries all over Switzerland sell it, and it keeps for weeks, so families give it as a gift and take it on hikes. Cut it into thin wedges: it is very rich, chewy, crunchy and buttery all at once. Chef's tip: let the caramel reach a deep amber before you pour in the cream; pale caramel tastes only of sugar, dark amber gives the toffee note the tart is known for.

80 min

Swiss Baking

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Rogan josh

In the Kashmir Valley this deep-red lamb braise turns up at every wazwan, the multi-course wedding feast cooked by hereditary chefs, and on Sunday tables in Srinagar through the cold months. The Kashmiri Pandit version cooked here uses no onion, garlic or tomato: the colour comes from mild Kashmiri chillies, the warmth from ground fennel and dry ginger, and the body from yogurt cooked down until the fat rises red to the top (that red oil is the 'rogan'). Eat it with plain steamed rice, the Kashmiri way. Chef's tip: use bone-in shoulder or leg and give it time; the bones and slow simmer make the thick, glossy gravy, and boneless meat turns stringy before the sauce is ready.

120 min

Indian Meat

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Hyderabadi lukhmi

Lukhmi are Hyderabad's answer to the samosa: flat, square, crisp little pastries with a filling of spiced mutton keema, fork-crimped at the edges. In the Deccani homes of the old city they are a fixture of wedding dinners and the evening iftar table in Ramadan, and a plate of them often arrives with Irani chai at the city's old cafés. They can be shaped a day ahead and fried just before guests come. Chef's tip: cook the keema until completely dry and let it cool fully; a damp or warm filling makes the pastry burst in the oil.

85 min

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Bang bang chicken

Street vendors in Leshan, the river town below the Giant Buddha, used to cut their poached chicken by tapping a wooden stick against the back of the cleaver, and that knocking gave bang bang ji its name. It is a cold dish, eaten as a starter at banquets or bought by the bagful for a picnic: silky shreds of chicken piled on cool cucumber and drenched in a nutty, sweet, tingling sauce of sesame paste, chilli oil and ground Sichuan pepper. The contrast of cold meat, crisp vegetable and rich dressing makes it ideal for a hot day. Serve it with other cold plates, a bowl of rice or simply some flatbread. Chef's tip: beat the cooked breasts gently with a rolling pin before shredding; the fibres loosen and pull apart into long, soft strands that hold the sauce.

40 min

Chinese Chicken

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Smash burger

Diners and drive-ins across the American Midwest have smashed burgers on hot griddles for a century, and the style is now everywhere from food trucks to backyard cookouts. A ball of beef is pressed hard onto a very hot pan so it spreads thin and develops a deep brown, lacy crust, then gets a slice of cheese and goes into a soft toasted bun with pickles and a tangy sauce. Two thin patties per burger is the classic. Chef's tip: smash within the first 30 seconds only; pressing later squeezes out the juice.

25 min

American Fast Food

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Cobb salad

The Cobb salad was born at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood in the 1930s, and it is still a lunch classic in Los Angeles delis and hotel coffee shops. Rows of chopped chicken, crisp bacon (pork), hard-boiled egg, avocado, tomato and blue cheese sit on crisp lettuce, and everyone mixes them with a sharp red wine vinegar dressing at the table. Chef's tip: chop everything to roughly the same small size so each forkful gets a bit of everything.

45 min

American Salads

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Bigos

Bigos, the hunter's stew, is cooked in huge pots across Poland for Christmas, New Year and the long winter, and every family insists theirs is best on the third reheating. Sauerkraut and fresh cabbage stew for hours with pork shoulder, smoked kiełbasa and bacon, dried wild mushrooms, prunes, juniper and a splash of red wine; it is a pork dish through and through. The wine contains alcohol; for an alcohol-free version use 100 ml apple juice with 1 tbsp cider vinegar. Serve with rye bread or boiled potatoes. Chef's tip: taste the sauerkraut first; if it is very sharp, rinse it once in cold water and squeeze it dry.

240 min

Polish Meat

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Ram ladoo

Despite the name, ram ladoo aren't sweet. They're small, crisp moong and chana dal fritters, sold from carts across Delhi in winter, when white radish is at its best. The vendor splits a few hot ones, smears them with a sharp coriander chutney and buries them under a heap of grated mooli and its leaves, with lemon and chaat masala over the top. Hot, crunchy fritters against cold, peppery radish is the whole appeal; it's a light snack for a foggy evening. Chef's tip: grind the soaked dal with as little water as possible, then beat the batter by hand for 3–4 minutes; air whipped into it is what makes the ladoos puff up and stay light.

50 min

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Papdi chaat

Papdi chaat is the plate Delhi orders without thinking about it, from the stalls outside Bengali Market to wedding buffets. Small, flaky wheat wafers called papdi are laid flat, topped with potato and chickpeas, drowned in sweetened yogurt and streaked with tamarind and green chutney, so you get crunch and creaminess in the same spoonful. Homemade papdi, crisp with ajwain, are far better than shop ones and keep for a week in a tin, though bought papdi will do on a busy day. Chef's tip: rub the oil into the flour until it holds together when squeezed; that shortening is what makes the papdi flaky rather than hard.

45 min

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Asmara pasta al sugo

Pasta is part of everyday life in Asmara, a legacy of the Italian years, and in Eritrean homes and cafés 'pasta al sugo' means spaghetti in a slow tomato sauce warmed with berbere, garlic and plenty of onion. It is eaten on weekdays and after church on Sundays, often with a banana or a green chilli on the side. The usual sauce has minced beef; this one uses finely chopped mushrooms and carrot for the same body. Chef's tip: cook the onions and berbere slowly before the tomato goes in; raw berbere tastes dusty.

60 min

Eritrean Pasta & Noodles

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Aloo tikki chaat

In Delhi, aloo tikki is fried on a giant iron tawa at the edge of a busy market, flattened with a spatula until the outside is shatteringly crisp, then smothered in spiced chickpeas, cool yogurt and green and tamarind chutneys. Places like Chandni Chowk and Lajpat Nagar have queues for it on winter evenings. Delhi tikkis are often stuffed with a little spiced chana dal, which adds bite inside the soft potato. Unlike Mumbai's ragda pattice, it's served with chole and a lot of yogurt. Chef's tip: let the tikkis sit undisturbed on the hot pan for the first 5 minutes; a crust forms that stops them breaking when you turn them.

65 min

Mauritian Snacks & Starters

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Nasi dagang

Breakfast on the east coast, in Kuala Terengganu and Kota Bharu, very often means nasi dagang: soft, slightly sticky rice steamed twice with coconut milk, ginger and fenugreek seeds, wrapped in paper with a ladle of gulai ikan tongkol, a gentle tuna curry. The rice is fragrant and a little chewy from the glutinous grains mixed in, while the curry is mellow, coconutty and sour from dried tamarind slices. Stalls sell it from dawn, with hard-boiled eggs and cucumber pickle on the side. It also makes a fine weekend brunch at home. Chef's tip: soak the two kinds of rice overnight so the grains steam evenly and turn plump rather than chalky.

90 min

Malaysian Rice & Grains

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Mandua ki roti

Mandua, or finger millet, is the grain that hill farmers in Uttarakhand have relied on for generations, and its roti is the staple of a pahadi winter kitchen. The rotis come out dark brown, slightly sweet and earthy, and they are eaten hot from the tawa with a spoon of ghee, kafuli or a bowl of chainsoo, sometimes with jaggery on the side. With no gluten to hold it together the dough is fragile, so cooks pat it out between wet palms rather than rolling it. Chef's tip: knead the dough in two small batches with hot water; millet dough dries and cracks quickly, so the second batch stays fresh while you cook the first.

35 min

Indian Breads & Parathas

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Kachumbari

Kachumbari is the raw salad that goes with nearly everything in Kenya and Tanzania: nyama choma grills in Nairobi, pilau on the Swahili coast, chips mayai at roadside stalls and ugali at home. It is simply ripe tomato and red onion cut small, with coriander, chilli and lime, and sometimes cucumber or avocado. Chef's tip: soak the sliced onion in salted water for ten minutes; it takes away the harsh bite without losing the crunch.

15 minEast African Salads

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Gâteau patate

Gâteau patate are little half-moon pastries made from mashed sweet potato dough and filled with sweetened grated coconut and cardamom, then fried until golden. They are a teatime treat in Mauritian homes and are sold at markets and fairs, especially around Divali and the end of the year. Chef's tip: use the sweet potatoes while still warm to make the dough; cold mash needs more flour and the gâteaux turn heavy.

70 min

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Daulat ki chaat

Daulat ki chaat appears in the lanes of Chandni Chowk only in the coldest months, from about November to February. Vendors whisk milk and cream through the night and leave it out under the winter dew, then skim off a foam so light it disappears on your tongue, topped with saffron, khoya, sugar and pistachios. It's sold before the sun gets high, because warmth destroys it. A home kitchen can't recreate a Delhi winter night, so this version uses very cold milk and cream whipped to a loose foam and layered with saffron. It comes close: airy, cool, faintly sweet. Chef's tip: chill everything, bowl and whisk included, for at least 4 hours; the colder the milk, the more stable the foam.

40 min

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Raj kachori

Raj kachori is the showpiece at Delhi's sweet-and-chaat shops: a fist-sized puri, fried until it balloons and turns crisp as a biscuit, then cracked open and stuffed with potato, chickpeas, sprouted moong, sweet yogurt, two chutneys and a snowfall of sev. It arrives on a steel plate at weddings and family outings, and it's eaten with a spoon because there's no other way. Every bite is crunchy, cold, sweet, sour and spicy at once. The puris can be fried a day ahead and kept in a tin. Chef's tip: roll the dough thin and even, and keep the oil properly hot; a puri rolled thicker on one side won't puff into a full ball.

65 min

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Qorma-e sabzi

Qorma-e sabzi is the green qorma of Kabul: lamb slowly braised with a large amount of spinach, dill, coriander and spring onion until the greens collapse into a dark, silky sauce. Afghan cooks fry the onions slowly until deep brown first, so the stew tastes sweet and savoury against the slightly bitter greens, and a spoon of dried fenugreek leaves adds the typical bitter-sweet scent. It is served on Fridays and for guests with chalaw, plain white rice, or with naan. The common mistake is adding the greens raw and wet in one go, which stews them grey and watery; wilt and squeeze them first. Chef's tip: let the stew simmer uncovered for the last 15 minutes until the oil rises to the top; that is the sign of a well-cooked qorma.

135 min

Afghan Curries

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Basbaas

Basbaas means chilli in Somali, and basbaas cagaar, the green sauce, is on every Somali table, spooned over rice, pasta, sambuusa and grilled food. It is sharp, hot and fresh, and every family has its own balance of chilli, coriander and lime; some add a tomato to soften it. Make a jar and keep it in the fridge all week. Chef's tip: add the lime juice to the blender before the chillies; the acid keeps the sauce bright green.

10 min

Somali Chutneys & Dips

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Delhi chole kulche

Walk through any Delhi office district at lunchtime and you'll find a cart with a huge brass pot of pale white peas and a stack of soft kulchas warming on a tawa. Delhiites call it chole kulche even though it's made with dried white peas (safed matar) rather than chickpeas. The vendor scoops the peas onto a leaf plate, piles on raw onion, tomato, green chilli and ginger, squeezes lime over and dusts it with a sour, smoky masala. It's tangy, fresh and filling, and very different from the rich, stuffed Amritsari kulcha. Chef's tip: mash a ladleful of the cooked peas back into the pot; it thickens the liquid so the toppings and masala cling instead of sliding off.

90 min

Indian Fast Food

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Singodi

Singodi is Almora's other famous sweet, sold in the same shops as bal mithai but looking nothing like it: a soft, pale mix of khoya and coconut packed into a cone of maalu leaf and pinned shut with a twig. The leaf leaves a faint green, woody scent in the sweet, which is the whole point, and people in Kumaon unwrap them at weddings and on trips home. Maalu leaves are almost impossible to buy elsewhere, so this version uses banana leaf or fresh betel (paan) leaves; both give a gentle leafy aroma. Chef's tip: wrap the singodi while the filling is still warm and leave them in the fridge overnight, so the scent of the leaf soaks in.

45 min

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Xalwo

Xalwo is the sweet of Somali celebrations: weddings, Eid and the arrival of guests are all marked with a tray of this dark, glossy, chewy confection, cut into diamonds and served with coffee or spiced tea. Sugar is caramelised, then cooked slowly with cornflour and oil or ghee while the cook stirs without stopping until it pulls away from the pan. It is a cousin of Omani and Yemeni halwa. Chef's tip: stir constantly and keep going until the oil starts to separate and shine on the surface; stopped early, xalwo stays soft and does not set.

70 min

Somali Desserts

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Jamaican curry goat

No Jamaican wedding, nine-night or big Sunday family lunch is complete without a pot of curry goat, often cooked outdoors in a huge pot by whoever has the steadiest hand with the seasoning. It came to the island with Indian indentured workers in the 1800s and became fully Jamaican with scotch bonnet, pimento and thyme. The bone-in pieces are seasoned overnight, browned with the curry powder until it darkens, then simmered for a couple of hours into a rich, brick-yellow gravy with soft potatoes that thicken it. Serve with white rice or rice and peas and a little fried plantain. If you can't find goat, bone-in mutton or lamb shoulder works the same way. Chef's tip: 'burn' the curry first; fry the curry powder in hot oil for a minute until it darkens and smells toasty before the meat goes in, and the gravy will never taste raw or chalky.

160 min

Jamaican Curries

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Bal mithai

Bal mithai belongs to Almora in Kumaon, where sweet shops on the old Lala Bazaar have sold it for well over a century. Khoya is cooked slowly with sugar until it caramelises to the colour of dark chocolate, set into bars and rolled in little white sugar balls, which give a crunchy bite against the fudgy middle. Families carry boxes of it home from the hills as the town's best-known souvenir. The flavour is deep and toffee-like, with no added colour or cocoa. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and be patient; the deep brown comes from slow caramelising over half an hour, not from turning the flame up.

45 min

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Chainsoo

Chainsoo comes from the Garhwal hills, where whole black urad is roasted in a dry pan until it smells like toasted bread, ground coarsely on a hand mill and cooked into a thick, smoky dal. It is a winter dish: heavy, warming and full of protein, eaten with plain rice or jhangora and a drizzle of ghee for anyone who isn't keeping it vegan. Village cooks make it in a lohe ki kadhai, the iron pan that turns it almost black. The texture should be grainy and spoonable, somewhere between a dal and a porridge. Chef's tip: roast the urad slowly over a medium-low heat; the moment it turns from golden to dark brown it tastes bitter, so keep stirring and pull it off early.

65 min

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Bhatt ki churkani

Black soybeans, called bhatt, grow on the slopes around Almora and Pithoragarh, and churkani is the everyday Kumaoni way of eating them: roasted in a dry iron pan until they crack, then simmered with garlic, ginger and a little rice flour into a thick, nearly black gravy. It's the kind of food that keeps people warm through a hill winter, eaten with steamed rice, a spoonful of ghee and a sharp radish raita. The roasting gives a nutty, almost smoky taste you won't get from boiling the beans. Chef's tip: cook it in an iron kadhai if you have one; the metal reacts with the beans and gives churkani its traditional dark colour.

75 min

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Methi matar malai

Methi matar malai belongs to the Punjabi wedding buffet and the dhaba menu as much as to winter home cooking, when bunches of fresh fenugreek pile up in the markets of Ludhiana and Jalandhar. Bitter-sweet methi leaves and sweet green peas sit in a pale, silky gravy of onion, cashew and cream, mild enough for children and rich enough for a celebration. Serve it with butter naan, lachha paratha or jeera rice. Chef's tip: salt the chopped methi and squeeze it before cooking; it takes away much of the bitterness while keeping the flavour.

40 min

Malaysian Snacks & Starters

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Otak-otak

Drive through Muar in Johor and you will see roadside grills stacked with slim green parcels, sold by the dozen in paper bags for the journey home. Inside each is a soft, bright-orange custard of pounded mackerel, coconut milk and egg, flavoured with a chilli-lemongrass rempah and kaffir lime leaf, which turns smoky and slightly charred at the edges from the grill. Melaka's Nyonya cooks make a fatter, steamed version, but this one is grilled in banana leaf. Eat it warm, peeled straight out of the leaf, with white bread, rice or nasi lemak. Chef's tip: chill the fish mixture for 15 minutes before wrapping; it firms up and is far easier to spoon onto the leaves.

50 min

Malaysian Fish

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Keropok lekor

Along the beach road from Kuala Terengganu to Marang, roadside huts sell keropok lekor in paper bags, still hot from the wok. These are long, grey-white sausages of fish and sago starch, boiled until they float and then sliced and fried, so the outside puffs and crisps while the inside stays dense, bouncy and tasting clearly of the sea. Locals dip them in a sweet, garlicky chilli sauce and eat them with tea in the late afternoon. They freeze well after boiling, ready to fry any time. Chef's tip: knead the fish with ice-cold water; keeping the dough cold is what gives the springy bite.

60 min

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Black pepper crab

If chilli crab is Singapore's sweet crowd-pleaser, black pepper crab is the one locals often order beside it: dry rather than saucy, sharp with freshly cracked black pepper, rich with butter and with a salty edge from oyster and soy sauce. It was created in the 1950s–60s at the seafood restaurants of Upper Serangoon and East Coast, and is eaten at long family dinners with rice or plain bread to mop the buttery wok juices. Note that this dish contains butter, so it is not dairy free. Buy crabs live or freshly cooked the same day from a fishmonger you trust. Discard any live crab that doesn't move, smells of ammonia or has a cracked, leaking shell. The common mistake is using pre-ground pepper powder, which tastes dusty and burns; crack whole peppercorns coarsely. Chef's tip: toast the cracked pepper in the dry wok for a minute before the butter goes in to wake up its aroma.

45 min

Singaporean Fish

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Aseeda

Aseeda (asida) is the stiff, slightly sour sorghum porridge eaten across Sudan, especially in Darfur, Kordofan and the countryside, where it is the daily staple. The batter is left to ferment before being cooked into a smooth, firm dough, shaped in a bowl into a dome, and turned out with mullah poured around it. During Ramadan it is a common iftar dish. Chef's tip: beat hard with a wooden spoon once the dough thickens; that beating is what makes aseeda smooth instead of lumpy.

35 min

Sudanese Rice & Grains

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Canjeero

Canjeero (also called laxoox) is Somali breakfast, made fresh each morning in homes and sold in cafés from Mogadishu to Djibouti: thin, spongy pancakes from a soured batter, cooked on one side only so the top is full of tiny holes. Eaten warm, they are drizzled with sesame oil or ghee and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled up with sweet spiced tea; on weekends they come with liver or beans. They are smaller and lighter than Ethiopian injera and made mostly from wheat. Chef's tip: spread the batter in a spiral with the back of the ladle, starting in the middle; that is what makes the thin, even, lacy sheet.

40 min

Somali Breakfast & Brunch

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Jhangora ki kheer

Jhangora is barnyard millet, a hardy grain that grows on the high fields of Garhwal and Kumaon, and this kheer is how most hill families turn it into something special. It cooks faster than rice kheer and ends up softer and silkier, with a light, nutty taste. Because millet isn't a cereal grain, it's eaten on Navratri and Ekadashi fasts, when you'll find bowls of it at temples and in homes from Rishikesh to Chamoli. It is just as good chilled the next day. Chef's tip: soak the millet for 20 minutes before cooking; it softens evenly and you won't be left with hard little grains in the pudding.

60 min

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Aloo ke gutke

Ask anyone from Kumaon what they miss most from home and aloo ke gutke comes up quickly. Hill potatoes are boiled, cut into rough chunks and tossed in smoking mustard oil with jakhiya, a tiny wild seed that pops and crunches like mustard but tastes more like toasted cumin. It's served at tea time with a mug of chai, on festival plates next to puri, and in local dhabas with cucumber raita. Outside Uttarakhand jakhiya is hard to find, so use cumin seeds with a few black mustard seeds instead; the dish will still taste right. Chef's tip: boil the potatoes a few hours ahead, or the night before, so they firm up and fry into crisp-edged cubes instead of crumbling.

40 min

Indian Sides

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Ayam pongteh

Melaka's Peranakan (Nyonya) kitchens cook ayam pongteh for family dinners and for the Chinese New Year reunion table: a dark, gentle braise of chicken and potatoes that has no chilli at all. Its savour comes from taucheo, salted fermented soybeans, fried with a lot of shallots and garlic, sweetened with palm sugar and coloured with dark soy. The gravy is thin, glossy and moreish, and the potatoes drink it up until they are soft enough to crush with a spoon. Spoon it over plain rice with sambal belacan on the side for anyone who wants heat. Chef's tip: pound the shallots rather than blending them to a purée; slightly coarse shallots melt into the gravy and give it body.

60 min

Malaysian Chicken

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Bariis iskukaris

Bariis iskukaris ('rice cooked together') is the centre of the table at Somali family lunches, Friday gatherings and Eid, from Mogadishu to Hargeisa and Somali neighbourhoods in Nairobi, Minneapolis and London. Long-grain rice is cooked in one pot with onion, tomato and the house spice mix xawaash, and topped with fried onions and raisins; it is usually crowned with goat, but this version cooks carrots, peas and potatoes into the rice. In true Somali style, serve it with a banana on the side and a spoon of green basbaas. Chef's tip: rinse and soak the basmati so the grains stay long and separate.

70 min

Somali Rice & Grains

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Kafuli

In the villages of Garhwal, kafuli is what goes into the iron kadhai when the terraces are full of palak and methi in late winter. The greens are blanched, ground roughly on a stone and simmered with a spoonful of soaked rice paste, which turns the curry silky without any cream. Mustard oil and a few dried chillies give it a sharp, warm edge, and the iron pan darkens it to a deep forest green. Eat it with mandua ki roti or plain rice and a dab of ghee for those who want it. Chef's tip: grind the greens in short pulses so you can still see flecks of leaf; kafuli should have texture, not look like a smooth soup.

45 min