Featured recipe

Sugar syrup

Sugar syrup (chashni) is the base of many Indian sweets, and recipes ask for it at different stages. A light syrup is for soaking sweets and sweetening drinks. One-thread and two-thread syrups are boiled longer so the sweet sets. You can make it with milk instead of water for some sweets.

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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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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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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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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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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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MatlouhSemolina flatbread

In Algiers and all over Algeria, homemade matlouh is the bread of choice for Ramadan iftar and for dipping into chorba or chakchouka. The dough is made with fine semolina and yeast, almost as wet as a batter, left to rise until airy, then shaped into thick rounds and cooked on a clay tajine or a heavy frying pan rather than in an oven. The result is soft and springy inside, with a thin, freckled, golden crust and the sweet, nutty taste of semolina. Eat it warm, torn by hand. Chef's tip: keep your hands wet with water, not floured, when shaping the sticky dough; flour makes the crust dry and floury.

55 min

Algerian Breads & Parathas

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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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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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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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MounaOrange-flower brioche

Oran's mouna came over with Spanish settlers as the Easter mona, and it is still baked for spring outings, recalling the Easter Monday picnics once held at the Santa Cruz chapel above the city. It is a tall, light, golden brioche with a crackly sugar crust, softly flavoured with orange-flower water and lemon zest rather than butter-heavy, and it tears into long, feathery strands. Eat it with coffee or hot chocolate, plain or with jam. The dough is slow and sticky, so give it time. Chef's tip: let the dough rise slowly overnight in the fridge after the first knead; it becomes easier to shape and the flavour deepens.

75 min

Algerian Baking

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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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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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CheburekiFried lamb pastry half-moons

Çiberek, as Crimean Tatars call them, are the great beach and roadside food of Crimea, from Bakhchysarai to Yevpatoria, and Crimean Tatar cafés in Kyiv and Lviv still fry them to order. A thin, blistered pastry, crisp at the edges, holds a filling of minced lamb, grated onion, black pepper and herbs that turns into a rich, peppery broth as it cooks; bite carefully, as it is meant to be juicy. Eat them hot from paper with a glass of ayran or a tomato salad. The mistake most home cooks make is leaving air pockets when sealing, so the pastry bursts and spits in the oil. Some cooks add a splash of vodka to the dough for extra blisters; this version uses none. Chef's tip: stir a few spoons of ice-cold water into the meat until it is almost sloppy; that water becomes the broth that makes a good chebureki.

75 min

Ukrainian Fast Food

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DoubaraSpicy chickpea stew

In Biskra, the oasis town at the gateway to the Algerian Sahara, doubara is street food, ladled from big pots into bowls from late afternoon and through Ramadan nights. Soft chickpeas or broad beans are simmered with cumin and garlic, then dressed with a fiery garlic-harissa sauce, olive oil, lemon and a heap of chopped tomato, onion, parsley and fresh chilli on top. It is hot, sour and very garlicky, filling yet fresh, and eaten with bread. Chef's tip: mash a ladle of the chickpeas into the broth at the end; it thickens the stew so the sauce clings.

45 min

Algerian Curries

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Arroz con maízRice with sweetcorn

In central Cuba, when the fields are full of young corn, families cut the kernels straight off the cob into the rice pot with a sofrito of onion, pepper, garlic and annatto, cooking everything together until golden and sticky at the base. Many farm cooks add salt pork; this vegan version leans on cumin and a little smoked paprika. A common mistake is using too much water, as fresh corn releases its own milk, so keep to the amounts given. Serve with black beans or a tomato and avocado salad. Chef's tip: scrape the cobs with the back of the knife after cutting off the kernels and add that milky pulp; it gives the rice a creamy sweetness.

45 min

Cuban Rice & Grains

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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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Charmoula sfaxienneSweet-sour onion and raisin sauce

The first meal after Ramadan in Sfax is unlike anywhere else: on the morning of Eid al-Fitr, families eat salted dried fish with charmoula, a thick, almost black sauce of onions and raisins cooked for hours in olive oil with black pepper, cinnamon and cloves. It is sweet, sour and spicy at once, glossy like a chutney, and its strong flavour is meant to wake up a stomach that has fasted for a month. Fish lovers serve it with salted fish; this vegetarian version is lovely with roast vegetables, hard-boiled eggs or simply bread. It keeps for weeks. Chef's tip: cook the onions down slowly until they collapse and caramelise before adding the raisins; hurrying gives a sharp, raw-tasting sauce.

180 min

Tunisian Chutneys & Dips

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ChäschüechliCheese tartlets

Chäschüechli are the small, warm cheese tartlets of central Switzerland, sold in bakeries in Lucerne and Zug and eaten as a quick lunch with a salad or as a snack at a Fasnacht carnival stand: a crisp shortcrust case filled with a savoury custard of grated mountain cheese, cream, egg and a pinch of nutmeg, baked until puffed and golden. A common mistake is filling the cases to the brim; the custard puffs and spills over. Chef's tip: bake them on the lowest shelf so the bases crisp before the filling sets. Gruyère and Appenzeller are made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian Swiss-style cheese.

55 min

Swiss Snacks & Starters

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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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Meringues double crèmeMeringues with double cream

In the cheese town of Gruyères, every restaurant on the cobbled main street serves the same dessert: big, crisp, pale meringues, said to have been invented by a Swiss pastry cook in the Bernese Oberland, with a bowl of the region's famously thick crème double de la Gruyère, so rich it almost holds a spoon upright, and fresh berries. The cream is the star. Outside Switzerland, use the thickest double or clotted cream you can find. A common mistake is baking the meringues too hot, which browns them and leaves the inside sticky. Chef's tip: bake low and leave them to dry in the switched-off oven overnight, so they are crisp all the way through.

140 min

Swiss Desserts

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Khasi ko masuGoat curry

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

100 min

Nepali Curries

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ChapshuroMeat-filled griddled bread pies

Climb up to Karimabad in Hunza or wander Gilgit's bazaar in the evening and you will smell chapshuro before you see it: round pies of thin wholewheat dough wrapped around raw spiced mince, onion, green chilli and coriander, cooked slowly on a griddle until the crust crisps and the meat inside steams in its own juices. They are cut into wedges like a pizza and eaten hot as a snack or a light lunch, with green tea or apricot juice, and every family has its own level of chilli. The difficulty is heat control: too hot and the crust burns before the filling is cooked through. Use a medium-low flame and turn often. Chef's tip: press the pie flat with your palm once it is on the griddle, so the filling forms a thin, even layer that cooks right through.

65 min

Pakistani Snacks & Starters

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KhashlamaLamb and vegetable stew

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

170 min

Armenian Meat

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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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KharchoBeef, rice and walnut soup

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

140 min

Georgian Soups

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Aab goshtMutton in spiced milk

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

100 min

Pakistani Meat

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Khamiri rotiLeavened wholewheat flatbread

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

180 min

Pakistani Breads & Parathas

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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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BerkoukesLarge couscous pearls in vegetable broth

Berkoukes, the big chewy couscous pearls rolled by hand in Tlemcen and the west of Algeria, is cold-weather food and a classic dish for the end of winter or a family supper. Cooked directly in a thick, tomato-red broth with courgette, carrot, potato, turnip, peas and chickpeas, it becomes a spoonable, comforting stew, fragrant with garlic, paprika, dried mint and fresh coriander. Many families make it with meat or khlii; this is the vegetable version cooked at home on ordinary days. Bought berkoukes, maftoul or giant couscous are fine. Chef's tip: steam or toast the berkoukes before simmering it; the pearls hold their shape and don't turn to porridge.

60 min

Algerian Pasta & Noodles

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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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KarantikaBaked chickpea flour flan

Schoolchildren in Oran spend their pocket money on karantika, a savoury chickpea-flour flan baked in huge trays and cut into squares by street vendors, who sprinkle it with cumin and harissa and often stuff it into a piece of baguette. Its roots go back to the Spanish calentica of Oran's past, and it has spread across western Algeria. Made with only chickpea flour, water, oil and egg, it bakes into a soft, custardy, slightly wobbly middle under a crisp, burnished top. Serve it warm, cut into squares, with harissa; to keep the dish gluten free, skip the bread. Chef's tip: rest the batter for at least 30 minutes before baking; the flour hydrates and the flan sets smooth instead of grainy.

45 min

Algerian Snacks & Starters

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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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Khajoor shakeDate and almond milkshake

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

10 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Khobz mellaEmber-baked bread

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

90 min

Tunisian Breads & Parathas

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Khaddi kebabRoast spiced lamb over rice

A khaddi, in Baloch country, is a pit dug in the ground and lined with hot stones; a whole goat or lamb, rubbed with salt and spices and stuffed with rice, is lowered in, covered with earth and left for hours, then dug out for weddings and tribal feasts. Few home cooks have a pit, so this version roasts a bone-in lamb shoulder low and slow under foil, then sets it on a tray of part-cooked rice so the rice drinks the dripping juices, the same marriage of meat and rice the pit gives. The meat should pull apart with a spoon and the rice taste deeply of lamb. Stuffing raw rice inside a big joint is where cooks go wrong at home: the centre stays underdone and is not safe, so cook the rice under the meat instead. Chef's tip: roast the lamb the day before, chill it in its juices and lift off the hard fat, then reheat with the rice; it carves more neatly too.

300 min

Pakistani Meat

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Aloo andayPotato and egg curry

Ask almost anyone who grew up in a Punjabi household in Pakistan what was cooked at the end of the month, when the meat money had run out, and aloo anday will come up with real affection. Halved hard-boiled eggs and chunks of potato sit in a loose, brick-red shorba of browned onion and tomato, thin enough to soak into a chapati and rice alike, with a cut green chilli on top. It is a weeknight and Sunday-brunch dish rather than a guest dish, and children tend to love it. Where it goes wrong is in the masala: if the onions and tomatoes are not fried until the oil separates, the gravy tastes raw and watery however long it simmers. Chef's tip: score the peeled eggs lightly with a knife and fry them in the masala for a minute before the water goes in, so they take on colour and flavour.

40 min

Pakistani 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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Changhua ba-wanPork-filled starch dumplings

Changhua's old market streets are lined with shops whose woks are full of these dumplings sitting in warm oil, ready to be split open, sauced and eaten as a mid-morning or afternoon snack. The wobbly, translucent skin of sweet potato starch is chewy and slightly sticky, wrapped around a savoury filling of marinated pork, bamboo shoot and shiitake, and the whole thing is drenched in a sweet pink-brown sauce with garlic and coriander. The trickiest part is the wrapper: a dough made only of raw starch cracks and turns gluey, so cook part of it into a paste first. Make it gluten-free by using tamari or gluten-free soy sauce, as here. Chef's tip: oil the saucers well and keep your fingers wet when shaping; the starch dough is sticky, and water lets you smooth it into neat domes.

90 min

Taiwanese Snacks & Starters

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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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KavumFried rice flour oil cakes

On the Sinhala and Tamil New Year tray in April, kavum is the sweet that marks a real Avurudu kitchen, and in villages neighbours still gather around a big pan of oil to fry them together. A thick batter of rice flour and dark kithul treacle is rested overnight, then ladled into hot coconut oil, where the cook pokes and bastes the middle with a thin stick until it puffs up into the famous konda, the little topknot. The cakes are dark brown, crisp at the rim and soft and chewy inside, with a smoky treacle flavour, and they are eaten with plantains, kokis and milk rice. A batter that is too runny is the classic disappointment, since it spreads flat and never forms a knob; it should drop thickly from the spoon, like cold honey. Chef's tip: fry one test cake first and adjust the batter with a spoon of rice flour or coconut milk before doing the rest.

80 min

Sri Lankan Desserts

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KazyBeef and lamb rib sausage

Kazy is the most prized food on a Kazakh feast table: a thick sausage of whole rib meat and rib fat, seasoned with salt, garlic and black pepper, stuffed into a casing, then dried or smoked and boiled for weddings and Nauryz, and sliced into glossy rounds that show the meat and the white fat. It is traditionally made with horse meat; this recipe uses beef short rib meat with a little lamb fat instead, as the site does not use horse, and it is cooked fresh rather than air-dried. A common mistake is mincing the meat; kazy is made from long strips of rib meat, which is what gives its look when sliced. Chef's tip: simmer it very gently; boiling hard bursts the casing and the fat melts away. The centre must reach 71 °C.

210 min

Kazakh Meat

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KattamaFlaky onion flatbread

Kattama is the layered flatbread of Kyrgyz homes, made to go with tea on cold mornings in Bishkek and the villages around Lake Issyk-Kul: a plain dough rolled thin, spread with butter and chopped onion, rolled up, coiled and rolled flat again, then fried in a pan so it puffs into flaky, crisp layers. A common mistake is pressing the coiled dough too hard, which squeezes out the butter and flattens the layers. Chef's tip: let the coils rest for 15 minutes before the final rolling; the gluten relaxes and the bread opens up into layers as it cooks.

65 min

Kyrgyz Breads & Parathas

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Kauk nyin baungSteamed sticky rice with peas

At sunrise on Yangon street corners, women sit behind bamboo baskets of steaming sticky rice wrapped in cloth, spooning portions onto squares of banana leaf for people heading to work. The glutinous rice is soaked and steamed until each grain is glossy, chewy and slightly translucent, then topped with soft pe pyot peas, freshly grated coconut and a sprinkle of toasted sesame pounded with salt. It is a plain, satisfying breakfast, sweet from the coconut, salty and nutty from the sesame, and usually eaten with a cup of green tea; some vendors use purple sticky rice for a darker, nuttier bowl. Boiling the rice like ordinary rice is the mistake that ruins it, turning it to glue, so always steam it. Chef's tip: soak the rice overnight; a short soak leaves hard white centres in the grains.

50 min

Burmese Breakfast & Brunch

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