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Sayur lodeh

Sayur lodeh is everyday cooking in Central Java, made in big pots in Solo and Semarang kitchens and ladled over rice, with lontong rice cakes at Lebaran, or alongside opor and sambal goreng on festive tables. It's soupy rather than thick: a fragrant broth of coconut milk, galangal, lemongrass and lime leaf that carries chunks of aubergine, long beans, chayote and sweetcorn, plus tempeh and tofu to make it a meal. The flavour is mellow and slightly sweet, so the heat comes from sambal on the side. Chef's tip: keep the pot at a gentle simmer once the coconut milk goes in and stir now and then — a rolling boil splits the coconut milk into oily curds.

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Ladakhi skyu

Skyu is what Ladakhi families in Leh and the villages along the Indus cook when the passes close and fresh vegetables run short: a thick stew of turnip, potato and carrot with little cups of wheat dough pressed with the thumb, a bit like orecchiette. It is filling, gently peppery and made in a single pot on the kitchen stove that also heats the house. Some homes finish it with a splash of milk or a crumble of dried cheese; this version keeps it plant-based and lets the vegetables flavour the broth. Chef's tip: press each piece of dough thin enough to see the thumbprint clearly; thick pieces stay doughy in the middle.

60 min

Indian Soups

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Hakka salt-baked chicken

Hakka families in the Dongjiang river valley of eastern Guangdong are said to have invented this dish by burying chickens in hot salt to cook and keep them while on the move. Wrapped in paper and surrounded by sizzling coarse salt in a wok, the bird cooks in its own juices: the skin turns golden and taut, the meat stays dense and moist, and sand ginger gives it a warm, peppery perfume. It is a celebration dish in Meizhou and Huizhou, served chopped on the bone, at room temperature or warm, with plain rice, blanched greens and a little sand ginger dip. Chef's tip: dry the chicken uncovered in the fridge before wrapping it; wet skin steams instead of roasting and turns flabby.

90 min

Chinese Chicken

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Miyeok guk with beef

Ask someone in Korea what they ate on their birthday morning and the answer is usually miyeok guk. The same soup is given to new mothers for weeks after a birth, as the seaweed is rich in iodine, calcium and iron. Some students avoid it on exam days, because slippery seaweed is said to make you 'slip' in the test. The broth is clear and mild, made with brisket fried in sesame oil and seasoned with soup soy sauce. Chef's tip: squeeze the soaked seaweed hard and fry it with the beef for a few minutes; it gives the broth a rounder, nutty taste.

30 min

Korean Soups

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Kalari kulcha

Kalari, also spelt kaladi, is a fresh, stretchy cheese made in the hills around Udhampur and Ramnagar in Jammu, often from buffalo or goat milk. Street sellers in Jammu city lay slices of it on a hot iron tawa with no oil at all: the cheese releases its own fat and fries to a blistered brown crust while the inside turns soft and slightly stringy. They stuff it into a warm kulcha with onion, tomato, green chutney and a shake of chaat masala, and it is eaten standing up, especially on winter evenings. Outside Jammu, use halloumi, which behaves almost the same, or firm paneer with a teaspoon of oil. Chef's tip: dry the cheese slices on kitchen paper first; wet cheese steams instead of crisping.

25 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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Budae jjigae

Budae jjigae grew up in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, in the hard years after the Korean War, when surplus tinned meat and sausages from the nearby US army base were cooked with kimchi and chilli. The town still has a whole street of restaurants serving it. It is a sharing dish: a wide pan goes on a gas burner in the middle of the table, and friends fish out sausages and noodles as it bubbles. Chef's tip: arrange everything in neat piles in the pan before the stock goes in, so each person can see what they are reaching for.

30 min

Korean Soups

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Kashmiri modur pulav

Modur means sweet in Kashmiri, and this ghee-rich saffron rice is served at Kashmiri weddings and on Navreh, the Pandit new year, glowing orange and studded with almonds, cashews and raisins. In the hills of Himachal Pradesh the dham feast ends with a near-identical sweet rice called mittha, so this one page covers both: Himachal cooks often add a little more raisin and a pinch of fennel, which you can do too. It is sweet but not dessert-sweet, perfumed with cinnamon and cardamom, and is eaten alongside savoury curries as well as on its own. Chef's tip: soak the saffron in warm milk for at least 15 minutes before you start; it gives the rice its colour far more evenly than strands scattered dry.

70 min

Indian Rice & Grains

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Shopska salad

Shopska salata is named after the Shopi people of the Sofia region and has become Bulgaria's national salad, the first thing ordered at any mehana (tavern) with a cold glass of rakia. Ripe tomatoes, cucumber, onion and soft roasted peppers are dressed simply with sunflower oil and vinegar, then buried under finely grated sirene, the Bulgarian white brined cheese, so the top looks like fresh snow. Unlike a Greek village salad, there are no olives and the cheese is grated, not in a slab. Chef's tip: salt and dress the vegetables before the cheese goes on; dressing over the cheese is the common mistake and turns the white snow soggy.

20 min

Bulgarian Salads

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Chaozhou braised goose

Walk past a lou mei counter in Chaozhou or Shantou and the glossy brown geese hanging there are the first thing you notice; braised goose is offered at ancestral rites, weddings and New Year, then sliced for everyone at the table. The bird simmers slowly in a master stock of soy, rock sugar, galangal and whole spices until the meat is tender and deeply savoury with a gentle sweetness, while the skin stays smooth and the fat soft. Goose can be hard to find, so goose legs or plump duck legs work well at home. Slice it thinly and serve with plain rice or rice porridge, braised tofu and eggs from the same pot, and the sharp garlic vinegar Teochew people always put alongside. Chef's tip: strain and freeze the stock after use; each time you braise in it again the flavour gets deeper, which is how Chaozhou shops keep a 'master' stock for years.

150 min

Chinese Meat

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Kimchi jjigae

Every Korean home has a version of kimchi jjigae, and it turns up on the table from Seoul to Busan at breakfast, lunch and late at night. It is the classic way to use up kimchi that has fermented for weeks and turned properly sour. Pork belly gives the broth richness, tofu soaks up the heat, and the pot comes to the table still boiling, next to a bowl of plain rice. Chef's tip: fry the kimchi in the pork fat for a full 5 minutes before any water goes in; that is where the deep, savoury flavour comes from.

30 min

Korean Soups

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Nadru yakhni

Lotus stem, called nadru in Kashmiri, is pulled from the shallow waters of the Dal and Anchar lakes around Srinagar, and Kashmiri Pandit families treat it as something close to a festive vegetable. Yakhni is their pale, onion-free yogurt gravy, scented with fennel, dry ginger and black cardamom instead of tomato or chilli. The lotus slices stay faintly crunchy and show their lacy holes in a creamy, ivory sauce. It turns up at Herath (Shivratri) meals and at Sunday lunches, always with a mound of plain steamed rice. Chef's tip: pick firm, pale stems with closed ends; the ends keep mud out of the hollow channels, so you rinse far less.

55 min

Indian Curries

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Pinni

When the fog settles over Punjab in December, kitchens fill with the smell of wheat flour roasting slowly in ghee: pinni season has started. These dense, crumbly balls of roasted atta, jaggery, almonds and fried edible gum are made in big batches for Lohri, packed into tins for relatives and given to new mothers for strength. One pinni with a glass of hot milk is a classic winter breakfast. Chef's tip: let the roasted flour cool until just warm before adding the jaggery; if it is hot, the jaggery melts and the pinni set hard as stone.

50 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Kashmiri girda

Every neighbourhood in Srinagar has a kandur, a baker working at a pit oven, and before sunrise people queue there for girda: round breads about the size of a side plate, pressed all over with fingertips so the crust sets in ridges and hollows. The outside is lightly crisp, the crumb soft and slightly chewy, and the bread is torn and dunked into salty pink noon chai or spread with butter. A home oven with a heavy tray heated until very hot gets close to the kandur. Chef's tip: wrap the breads in a clean cloth as they come out; the trapped steam keeps the crust tender rather than hard.

142 min

Indian Baking

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Mangalorean kori rotti

Kori rotti belongs to the Bunt community of Mangalore and Udupi, where it is cooked for weddings, the Aati festival and Sunday lunches. Kori is chicken, simmered in a thin, red coconut-milk gravy built on roasted Byadgi chillies; rotti are paper-thin dried rice wafers, bought in stacks and crumbled into the plate just before the curry goes over. They soften at the edges and stay crunchy in the middle. Chef's tip: pour the curry over the rotti only at the table; left to sit, the wafers turn to mush.

75 min

Indian Chicken

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Jushi (Okinawan mixed rice)

Jushi is Okinawa's seasoned rice, cooked with pork, vegetables and bonito stock. The firm kind, kufa-jushi, is what you find in rice balls at Okinawan supermarkets and alongside soba at lunch counters; a soupy, porridge-like version is cooked as well. On the winter solstice many families make a special jushi with taro root. Pork fat is part of its flavour, so the rice is cooked with a little lard and the belly pork itself. Chef's tip: measure the liquid carefully; the soy and stock replace part of the water, and firm, separate grains are what you want.

50 min

Japanese Rice & Grains

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Monji haak

Kohlrabi, monji in Kashmiri, grows in almost every kitchen garden in the Kashmir Valley, and families cook the round bulb and its leaves together in one pot. Like its cousin haak, it is a dish of very few ingredients: mustard oil, dried chilli, a pinch of asafoetida and salt, simmered with a splash of water until the bulb turns sweet and tender. It is eaten through the cold months with plain rice and a bowl of yogurt, and Kashmiris will tell you it tastes best in autumn when the bulbs are young. Chef's tip: buy kohlrabi with fresh, perky leaves attached; if the leaves are tired, add a handful of spinach instead.

35 min

Indian Sides

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Rafute (Okinawan braised pork belly)

Rafute comes from the cooking of the old Ryukyu court in Okinawa, where pork has long been the most important meat. Thick blocks of skin-on belly are boiled to remove fat, then braised slowly in awamori, the local rice spirit, with soy, bonito stock and the islands' dark brown sugar. Today it is a dish for family celebrations and the Okinawan New Year, a staple of izakayas in Naha, and a topping for Okinawa soba. Expect deep amber pieces that hold their shape but cut with chopsticks. Chef's tip: cook it the day before; chilling lets you lift off the set fat, and the flavour soaks deeper into the meat overnight.

180 min

Japanese Meat

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Chaman kaliya

In Kashmir paneer is called chaman, and kaliya is the name for a gravy coloured bright yellow with turmeric rather than red with chilli. Kashmiri Pandit cooks fry thick slabs of paneer, rest them in warm water so they stay spongy, then simmer them in milk with fennel, dry ginger and cardamom. The result is mild, sweet-scented and soothing, a dish that sits beside the fiery ones on a wedding or festival spread and is just as welcome on a weekday with rice. Chef's tip: use a generous spoon of good turmeric; the gravy should glow a deep gold, and the milk mellows any rawness.

40 min

Indian Curries

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Wonton noodle soup

Small, steamy noodle shops all over Hong Kong sell this bowl from breakfast until late at night, often from a counter facing the street. Plump wontons, mostly prawn with a little pork, sit under a nest of thin, springy egg noodles in a clear, savoury broth fragrant with dried shrimp and ginger. The bowl is small and meant to be eaten fast, before the noodles soften, with a spoonful of chilli oil and a side of blanched greens. Shop wrappers make the wontons manageable on a weeknight. Chef's tip: put the wontons in the bowl first and the noodles on top, as Hong Kong cooks do, so the noodles sit above the broth and keep their bite.

60 min

Chinese Soups

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Kway chap

Breakfast in Shantou and Chaozhou often means a steaming bowl of kway chap from a market stall: squares of rice sheet simmered until soft and silky in a dark, gently spiced broth, with braised pork belly, tofu and eggs on the side. Teochew emigrants carried it to Singapore, where it became a hawker centre favourite, but the original is simpler, cheaper and very comforting on a cool morning. The broth tastes of soy, star anise and cinnamon, slightly sweet, and the rice sheets drink it up. Eat it with chilli vinegar, pickled mustard greens and plenty of white pepper. Chef's tip: braise the pork the night before; the flavours settle and you can lift the hardened fat off the top.

60 min

Chinese Soups

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Typhoon shelter crab

Typhoon shelter crab comes from the boat people of Causeway Bay, who cooked for visitors on sampans moored in the harbour's storm shelters, and Hong Kong restaurants still serve it piled under a golden mountain of fried garlic. Crab pieces are dusted in starch and fried, then tossed in a wok with a huge amount of crisp garlic, dried chilli, fermented black beans and spring onion. Chef's tip: fry the garlic slowly over a medium heat; it should turn golden and crunchy, never dark, or it tastes bitter.

55 min

Hong Kong Fish

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Makrout el louz

Makrout el louz are the elegant almond sweets of Algiers and Constantine, piled on silver trays for weddings, Eid and engagement visits. Unlike fried, date-filled makroudh, they are baked: a paste of ground almonds, sugar, egg and lemon zest is cut into diamonds, baked pale, then dipped in a light syrup and rolled in icing sugar so they look frosted. Chef's tip: bake them only until firm and barely coloured underneath; brown edges harden and stop the syrup soaking in.

45 min

Algerian Baking

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Pelamushi

Pelamushi is the spoonable cousin of churchkhela: the same thickened grape must, tatara, poured into bowls instead of over walnuts and left to set into a soft, wobbly pudding. In Kakheti it is made in harvest season with fresh must straight from the press, and in Imereti it is often thickened with cornmeal instead of wheat flour. It is served chilled with chopped walnuts, and it is a favourite Lenten dessert because it needs no egg or dairy. A common mistake is adding the flour straight to hot juice, which makes lumps that never cook out; always mix it with cold juice first. Chef's tip: stop cooking when the pudding plops thickly from the spoon; it firms up a lot as it cools.

30 min

Georgian Desserts

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Rechta with vegetable sauce

Rechta is the dish of Algiers and Blida for Mouloud, Ashura and the first day of the new year: thin, square-cut fresh noodles steamed in a couscoussier like couscous, then drenched in a pale, cinnamon-scented white sauce of turnips, courgette and chickpeas. It is usually made with chicken; this vegetable version keeps the gentle, peppery broth. Dried rechta is sold in North African shops; very thin dried egg-free noodles work too. Chef's tip: steam the noodles twice and rub them with oil in between, so they stay separate and silky.

70 min

Algerian Pasta & Noodles

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Churchkhela

Churchkhela are the candle-shaped sweets you see hanging in bunches at every Georgian market, but they are made at home during rtveli, the grape harvest in Kakheti in September and October. Walnuts are threaded on a string and dipped again and again in tatara, fresh grape must thickened with flour, then hung up to dry for a week, until firm and chewy outside and tender within. They are eaten at New Year and kept for months. A common mistake is a tatara that is too thin, which slides off the nuts; it should coat the back of a spoon thickly and fall in ribbons. Chef's tip: let each coat set for 10–15 minutes before the next dip; three or four thin coats look and keep better than one thick one.

120 min

Georgian Desserts

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Chicken tagine with preserved lemon & olives

Few dishes say Fez quite like djaj mqualli, the golden chicken that turns up at family lunches, weddings and Friday tables across the old medina. The chicken simmers slowly in its own juices with grated onion, ginger and saffron until the meat slips off the bone and the onions melt into a thick, glossy, yellow sauce. Salty-sour preserved lemon and bright green olives go in near the end, cutting through the richness. Mop it up with crusty bread, or spoon it over plain couscous for a weekday dinner. Chef's tip: grate the onion rather than chopping it; it dissolves completely and gives the sauce its body without any flour.

75 min

Moroccan Chicken

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Tkemali

Tkemali is Georgia's table sauce, made in Samegrelo, Guria and Imereti from sour cherry plums. Green tkemali comes from unripe plums in late spring; the red one is made at the end of summer, when the plums colour and every family cooks a big pot to bottle for the winter. It goes with almost everything: boiled potatoes, beans, fried courgettes, mchadi and cheese. Traditionally it is flavoured with ombalo (pennyroyal), which is hard to buy, so dried mint stands in here. A common mistake is boiling the herbs and garlic for too long, which turns the sauce dull and brown; they go in only for the last few minutes. Chef's tip: if your plums are sweet supermarket ones, add a squeeze of lemon; tkemali should be properly sour.

40 min

Georgian Chutneys & Dips

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Vegetable chorba frik

Chorba frik is the soup that breaks the fast in Algerian homes every evening of Ramadan, from Algiers to Constantine, and it is just as common in Libya as shorba. Frik is young green wheat, roasted and cracked, which gives the tomato broth a smoky, nutty depth. It usually cooks with lamb; here chickpeas, celery and courgette carry it. Serve with lemon wedges and bread. Chef's tip: add the frik only once the broth is boiling and stir for the first minute, or it sinks and sticks.

65 min

Algerian Soups

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