Featured recipe

Maneštra

Bean, corn and potato soup

Farm kitchens across Istria, in north-west Croatia, keep a pot of maneštra on the stove through the cold months, a soup so thick a spoon nearly stands in it. Beans, sweetcorn and potatoes are its heart; in the villages it is usually cooked with smoked pork ribs or bacon, but this version is meat-free, with smoked paprika and a garlicky parsley and olive oil paste (an olive oil twist on the traditional pešt) to give it depth. Expect a sweet, earthy, creamy soup with soft corn kernels and herby green flecks; eat it with crusty bread and a drizzle of Istrian olive oil. The beans must soak overnight before you begin. A common mistake is serving it thin and brothy, so mash some of the potato against the side of the pot near the end. Chef's tip: maneštra is better the next day; loosen it with a little hot water when you reheat.

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Cattle-keeping families across rural Ethiopia leave fresh milk to thicken in smoked clay pots or gourds, and the result, ergo, is tangier and looser than yoghurt, somewhere between set buttermilk and a soft curd. It is spooned beside a spicy kitfo or wat to calm the heat, eaten for breakfast with bread, or drunk as it is on hot afternoons. The traditional way relies on raw milk souring by itself, which is not safe to copy at home; this version uses pasteurised whole milk with a spoon of live buttermilk or yoghurt as the starter, so the right bacteria do the work. Allow about 24 hours at room temperature for it to set. Chef's tip: keep it somewhere steady at 22–26 °C; too cool and it barely thickens, too warm and it separates into whey and lumps.

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AkpessiPlantain and yam pottage

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50 min

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Inlagd sillPickled herring

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90 min

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ÎnvârtităRolled sweet cheese pastry

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120 min

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Imli aloo bukhara sharbatTamarind and plum cooler

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90 min

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Ilish polaoHilsa fish rice

Monsoon is hilsa season: as the fish run up the Meghna and the boats come back heavy into Chandpur ghat and the Barisal river markets, the richest cooks make ilish polao, a fragrant rice cooked in the oil left from frying the fish and in a light stock from the head and tail. Fried hilsa steaks are tucked into the rice to finish in the steam, so they stay moist and take on the scent of cardamom and bay. It is a dish for the hilsa season and for honoured guests, served with fried onions, a wedge of lime and a green chilli. The usual misjudgement is stirring once the fish is in; the steaks are fragile and fall apart into bones. Chef's tip: keep the oil the fish was fried in, because the whole dish depends on that hilsa-scented fat.

75 min

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Jamaican janga soupCrayfish soup

In the river valleys of Portland, around the Rio Grande, children once caught janga (freshwater crayfish) with baskets in the shallows, and the catch went into a deep red, peppery soup said to give strength. Pumpkin, coco (eddoe) and flour dumplings make it hearty, and scotch bonnet and pimento give it heat and warmth. Buy live crayfish from a fishmonger, or use frozen cooked crayfish tails or large prawns. The common mistake is cooking the shellfish from the start; add it at the end so it stays sweet and tender. Before cooking, discard any live crayfish that are dead, limp or smell bad. Chef's tip: simmer the shells in the broth first for a deeper, sweeter flavour.

75 min

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Jamaican pan chickenOil-drum jerk chicken

After dark on Red Hills Road in Kingston, smoke rises from rows of oil-drum barbecues where vendors grill pan chicken, a peppery jerk-style chicken served wrapped in foil with a slice of hard dough bread and a squeeze of ketchup-based pepper sauce. It is less smoky and sharper than Portland jerk, with plenty of black pepper, scallion and pimento. The common mistake is cooking over flaming coals, which burns the outside before the inside is safe; grill over steady medium heat with the lid down. The chicken is done when the thickest part reaches 74 °C and the juices run clear. Chef's tip: marinate overnight in the fridge and cook the pieces skin-side up first so the fat bastes the meat.

65 min

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ČobanacShepherd's meat stew with paprika

Slavonia, the flat farmland of eastern Croatia, cooks čobanac outdoors in a black cauldron at village fairs and hunting parties, and the smell of paprika drifts across the whole field. Three meats go in, typically beef, pork and venison or wild boar, with mountains of onion, sweet and hot paprika and a few peppers, simmering for hours until the sauce is thick, brick-red and spicy. This dish contains pork. Eat it with crusty bread or polenta. The usual slip is burning the paprika: it turns bitter in seconds, so always take the pot off the heat before stirring it in. Chef's tip: cook it a day ahead; like most stews it tastes deeper the next day.

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Hutki shiraDried fish and aubergine curry

Hutki is what Sylhetis call shutki, sun-dried fish, and a pot of hutki shira, a thin, soupy curry, is pure home cooking from Sylhet, Sunamganj and the haor villages, where fish dried in the dry season feeds families through the rest of the year. The broth is fiery with fresh and dried chilli and full of garlic, softened with chunks of potato, brinjal and sometimes tomato or shatkora, and it is ladled over plenty of plain rice. The smell of the dried fish is strong as it cooks, but it mellows into a deep savoury taste. Skipping the soak is the error that ruins it: unwashed hutki is gritty and far too salty. Buy dried fish from a busy, reputable Asian grocer, and choose pieces that are dry, firm and free of mould. Chef's tip: keep the broth loose; shira should be soupy enough to drown the rice.

50 min

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HusliankaFermented Hutsul milk

High in the Hutsul villages around Verkhovyna and Kosiv, milk was boiled, cooled and left to sour in a wooden keg called a berbenytsia, which held the cultures from the last batch and gave the drink its name and its gentle tang. The result is huslianka: thicker than kefir, smooth like loose yogurt, with a fresh, clean sourness that shepherds drank with mamalyha and new potatoes. Today you will find it bottled at Carpathian markets, but it is easy to make in a glass jar at home. For safety, always start from pasteurised milk, use a scrupulously clean jar and move it to the fridge as soon as it sets. The usual slip is adding the starter while the milk is still hot, which kills the cultures, so cool it to body temperature first. Discard any batch that grows fuzzy or pink mould or smells unpleasant. Chef's tip: keep two spoons of each batch to start the next one; the flavour gets rounder with every round.

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Jiz-biz gets its name from the sound of the pan: lamb heart, liver, kidneys and sweetbreads cut small and fried with potatoes and onions until crisp at the edges. It is a dish of Baku's working cafés and village feast days, made from the parts of the lamb cooked first while the rest is roasting, and finished with sumac and herbs. A common mistake is putting everything in at once; the liver turns grainy before the heart is tender. Chef's tip: fry the potatoes separately until crisp and fold them in at the end, so they keep their crunch. Offal should be cooked until no pink remains, 71 °C.

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Sephardic families of Turkish and Greek origin in Jerusalem's Nachlaot and in Bat Yam tuck eggs into the Shabbat hamin or simmer them alone overnight, and by morning the shells are mahogany and the whites a pale coffee colour. The long, gentle heat turns the yolks creamy and the whites soft and faintly savoury, with none of the sulphur smell of a fast boiled egg. Serve them with bourekas, cucumber salad and grated tomato on Shabbat morning or at a Passover seder. The mistake is letting the pot boil hard, which cracks the shells and makes the whites rubbery. Chef's tip: a tight lid and the lowest oven setting are all you need; top up the water at bedtime so the eggs never go dry.

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Hulbat marakLamb broth with whipped fenugreek

Inside the old walled city of Harar, cooking carries the flavours of centuries of trade with Arabia, and hulbat marak shows it clearly. A light, golden lamb broth, scented with cumin, turmeric and cardamom, is ladled into bowls and topped with a spoonful of hulbat: fenugreek soaked, then whipped with lemon and green chilli into a pale, frothy cream. Torn flatbread goes in to soak up the broth, and the slightly bitter, tangy foam slowly melts into the soup as you eat. It is warming, delicate and not spicy at all. Chef's tip: soak the fenugreek for at least 2 hours and pour off the water; that is what keeps the topping mellow rather than harshly bitter.

120 min

Ethiopian Soups

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HuzarensaladePotato, pickle and egg salad

Huzarensalade, 'hussars' salad', is the potato salad of Dutch birthdays and New Year's Day: diced potato, pickled gherkins, pickled onions, apple and boiled egg bound in mayonnaise, shaped into a mound and decorated with lettuce, tomato, egg and cucumber. It is normally made with cubes of cooked beef; this vegetarian version adds peas and a little extra egg. A common mistake is mixing warm potatoes with mayonnaise, which turns it greasy and loose. Chef's tip: let the potatoes cool completely and add a splash of pickle vinegar first, so they soak up flavour before the mayonnaise goes in.

50 min

Dutch Salads

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Idrijski žlikrofiPotato and chive dumplings

Mercury miners in Idrija, the hill town in western Slovenia, lived on these: thumbnail-sized pasta parcels pinched into a little hat shape with a dimple in the middle and filled with potato, onion, chives and marjoram. They carry EU protected status, and in Idrija they come either with melted butter and crumbs or with bakalca, a slow-cooked lamb sauce; the traditional filling often has a spoon of pork fat or cracklings too. This vegetarian version uses butter throughout. Shaping 150 or so of them is a job for two people and a good chat. A wet filling is the usual downfall: boil the potatoes in their skins and mash them dry, or the dough tears when you pinch it shut. If you add the optional grated hard cheese, choose a vegetarian one, as parmesan-style cheeses use animal rennet. Chef's tip: dry the shaped žlikrofi on a floured cloth for 20 minutes before cooking so they hold their shape.

90 minBalkan Pasta & Noodles

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Ciorbă de pește lipoveneascăDelta fish soup

The Lipovans, Russian Old Believers who settled the Danube Delta villages of Jurilovca, Periprava and Mila 23 three centuries ago, cook their fish soup in a cauldron over a fire by the water. A broth is first made from the fish frames and tails with onion and pepper, strained, then the vegetables and thick pieces of several fish go in, usually carp, pike, zander and catfish, so each brings its own texture. The fish is lifted onto a platter and eaten with garlic sauce and mămăligă, while the clear, peppery, tomato-sharp broth is drunk from bowls. Where most cooks go wrong is stirring once the fish is in: it breaks into flakes. Shake the pot instead. Chef's tip: a splash of the cold sauerkraut juice or borș at the end, instead of lemon, gives the sourness Delta cooks prefer.

75 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă de pui cu tarhonChicken soup with tarragon

Tarragon grows in almost every garden in Transylvania, from Saxon villages near Sibiu to the Hungarian towns of Harghita, and it is what makes this chicken soup taste of the region. Pieces of chicken simmer with root vegetables and potato, the pot is soured with a splash of vinegar, and at the end sour cream and a big handful of chopped tarragon go in, giving a pale, creamy broth with a gentle aniseed lift. Unlike the egg-thickened soups of Moldavia, this one stays light and brothy. It is eaten as the first course of a Sunday lunch, with fresh bread and a hot pepper. A common mistake is adding the tarragon too early; long cooking turns it bitter and grey, so stir it in just before serving. Chef's tip: a spoon of tarragon pickled in vinegar, as Transylvanian cooks keep it, does the souring and flavouring in one.

75 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă de hribiPorcini soup

Late summer in the beech and spruce forests of Maramureș sends whole families out with baskets, and the first pot of the season is usually this sour porcini soup. Fresh hribi give it a meaty bite, a handful of dried ones deepen the broth, and a spoon of vinegar plus sour cream turns it into a proper ciorbă: tangy, creamy and smelling of the woods. It is eaten as a first course with a slice of rye bread and a fresh hot pepper on the side, often during the Orthodox fasting weeks in its cream-free form. The usual slip is stirring cold sour cream straight into the pot, where it splits into white flecks; warm it with a ladle of broth first. Chef's tip: keep the soaking water from the dried porcini and pour it in slowly, leaving the last spoonful and its grit behind in the bowl.

45 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă de urziciNettle soup

Around Iași and in the Moldavian hills, the first young nettles of March and April arrive just as the long Easter fast begins, and a green, sour ciorbă de urzici is often the first fresh vegetable dish of the year. It is a vegan post dish: nettle tops, spring onions and a little rice simmered together, then soured with borș until the broth is bright and tangy, with a grassy, spinach-like depth. Wear gloves to pick and wash the nettles and use only the young tops, the first four to six leaves; older, flowering plants turn tough and gritty. The classic error is boiling the nettles for too long, which makes them grey and stringy. Chef's tip: add a handful of chopped lovage with the borș, as it gives the soup its unmistakably Moldavian flavour.

40 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă rădăuțeanăSour chicken soup with garlic

Rădăuți, a small town in Bukovina, gave its name to this soup in the 1970s, when a local restaurant cook began treating chicken the way Romanians treat tripe: a clear broth, soured with vinegar and thickened at the end with egg yolks, sour cream and plenty of garlic. The result is pale gold, velvety and tangy, with tender shreds of chicken; many prefer it to the tripe original, and it is a firm favourite at Suceava wedding lunches and the morning after. Serve it with a fresh hot pepper, extra garlic paste and warm bread. The mistake almost everyone makes once is letting the soup boil after the yolks go in, so they scramble; temper them, then keep the pot hot but below a simmer. Chef's tip: add the vinegar a spoon at a time at the very end; it should taste clearly sour but never vinegary.

90 min

Romanian Soups

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Bela biscuitTwice-baked tea biscuit

Old Chittagong bakeries, some of them in the Chandanpura area for well over a century, still fire their wood ovens for bela biscuit, a pale oval rusk so hard it cracks rather than snaps. It starts as a lightly sweet, enriched yeast dough that is baked once like a bun and then dried for a long time in a cooling oven until crisp right through. In Chittagong homes it comes out at teatime and when guests arrive, and the whole point is the dunk: a few seconds in hot milky tea and it softens into something like buttery bread. The classic slip is pulling the biscuits from the second bake too soon; they feel firm while warm but go chewy overnight if the centre is still damp. Chef's tip: break one open after drying; if the middle is pale and soft, give the tray another 20 minutes.

220 min

Bangladeshi Baking

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Ciorbă de fasole verdeGreen bean soup

High summer in Transylvania means green beans by the basketful, and both Romanian and Hungarian households around Cluj and Târgu Mureș turn them into this pale, creamy, sour soup, which Hungarian cooks call tejfölös zöldbableves. Beans, potato and a little pepper simmer in a light tomato broth that is soured with vinegar, then finished off the heat with sour cream and a fistful of dill, so every spoonful is tangy, silky and fresh. Serve it hot for lunch with good bread, or with mămăligă for a thicker meal. The classic mistake is tipping cold sour cream straight into the boiling pot, where it curdles into flecks; temper it with hot broth first. Chef's tip: add the vinegar gradually and taste, as the soup should be bright but not sharp.

40 min

Romanian Soups

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Htamin jinSour rice with fish

On the floating gardens and stilt-house kitchens of Inle Lake, the Intha make htamin jin to take out on the boats or to sell at the rotating five-day markets around the shore. Warm rice coloured with turmeric is kneaded by hand with flaked lake fish and tomatoes cooked down in garlic oil, then pressed into soft, tangy balls the size of a fist. It is eaten at room temperature, dressed with more garlic oil and crispy garlic, with fried dried chillies, whole raw garlic cloves and garlic chives on the side for crunch. Many cooks use firm, day-old rice, which never binds and crumbles apart; use freshly cooked rice that is a touch soft and still warm. Chef's tip: wear a food-safe glove and knead like dough for a full couple of minutes; the more you work it, the smoother and more evenly sour each ball becomes.

45 min

Burmese Rice & Grains

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Huevos a la habaneraBaked eggs with peppers and peas

Old Havana households bake eggs this way for a late Sunday breakfast or a light supper, cracking them into a bed of slow-cooked onion, green pepper and tomato and scattering peas and grated cheese over the top. The whites set softly in the steam of the sofrito while the yolks stay rich and loose, ready for mopping up with toasted Cuban bread. A frequent mistake is baking until the yolks turn chalky; take the dish out while the yolks still wobble. Many hard cheeses are made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian Gouda-style or Cheddar-style cheese if you need to. Chef's tip: make little wells in the sofrito with the back of a spoon so each egg sits in its own nest and doesn't spread.

35 min

Cuban Breakfast & Brunch

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Iftari chhola bhunaDry-fried spiced chickpeas

An hour before sunset during Ramadan, the pavement of Chawkbazar disappears under trays of iftar food, and the one thing every family buys or makes is a bowl of chhola bhuna. It is chickpeas fried down with onion, ginger, garlic and cumin until almost dry, so each one is coated in a thick, dark masala rather than swimming in gravy. On the iftar plate it sits beside piyaju, beguni, muri and dates, and many people toss it with puffed rice, chopped onion and mustard oil into a quick muri makha. A frequent error is adding the chickpeas while the onions are still pale, which leaves the dish flat and sweet instead of deep and savoury. Chef's tip: finish with a pinch of bhaja moshla, dry-roasted cumin, coriander and chilli ground together, for the smoky taste of the street version.

65 min

Bangladeshi Curries

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Chwee kuehSteamed rice cakes with preserved radish

Breakfast queues at Tiong Bahru Market and Ghim Moh hawker centre move fast because chwee kueh is sold by the plateful: four or six flat white rice cakes, each with a shallow dimple holding a spoonful of glossy chye poh, fried preserved radish that is sweet, salty and a little crunchy. The cakes are just set, soft and slightly wobbly, and they are scooped from the moulds with a flat blade and eaten with a dab of sharp red chilli and a cup of kopi. Hawker chye poh is normally simply radish, garlic, oil and sugar, and this version keeps it that way, with no dried shrimp and no shrimp paste in the chilli. The usual mistake is trying to unmould the cakes while they are still warm; hot batter tears and sticks, so let them cool fully in their cups. Chef's tip: heat the empty, oiled moulds in the steamer for 3 minutes before you pour; the hot metal sets the bottom at once and gives you the classic dip in the middle.

60 min

Singaporean Breakfast & Brunch

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ChvishtariCornmeal and cheese cakes

Chvishtari belongs to the high villages of Svaneti, around Mestia and Ushguli, where cornmeal and cheese are the winter larder: a stiff cornmeal dough is worked with lots of grated sulguni, shaped into flat cakes and fried or baked so the cheese bubbles out and crisps at the edges. Svan families eat them hot with tea or with a bowl of lobio. A common mistake is using too little cheese; it is the cheese that binds the cornmeal, and a lean dough falls apart in the pan. Chef's tip: wet your hands when shaping, so the dough doesn't stick and the cakes stay smooth. Sulguni is usually made with animal rennet; use a vegetarian cheese.

35 min

Georgian Breads & Parathas

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CicvaraKajmak and cornmeal porridge

Shepherds' huts on the Durmitor and Sinjajevina plateaus in northern Montenegro gave the Balkans cicvara, a dish of kajmak and young cheese melted slowly with cornmeal until it turns rich, golden and stretchy and butter seeps out at the edges. It is stirred and eaten hot, often at breakfast after early milking, with a cup of cold sour milk or plain yogurt to cut the richness. Young cheese for this is fresh and mild; most is made with rennet, so look for one with vegetarian rennet if you need to, and use clotted cream if you can't get kajmak. A common mistake is turning up the heat to hurry it, which burns the bottom and makes the cheese seize into rubbery lumps. Chef's tip: stir with a wooden spoon in figure-of-eight strokes and keep going until a thread of cheese stretches as you lift it.

30 minBalkan Rice & Grains

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Dambun namaSpiced shredded beef floss

During Ramadan and Eid in Kano, Kaduna and Maiduguri, tins of dambun nama appear on every table: beef boiled tender with onion and ginger, pounded in a mortar until it falls into fine threads, then fried slowly with onion and spices until it is dry, fluffy and golden. It keeps well, which is why it was made before long journeys, and it is eaten as a snack, with rice or tucked into bread. The texture should be like soft wool, not crunchy crumbs. Because the meat is fully cooked before drying, it is safe; store it in the fridge. Chef's tip: let the boiled beef steam dry for ten minutes before pounding, as wet meat clumps in the pan instead of separating into threads, which is the usual mistake.

130 min

Nigerian Meat

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Chunga pithaBamboo-roasted sticky rice

On cold winter nights in Sylhet and Moulvibazar, especially among the Manipuri and Khasi villages near the hills, sticky binni rice is packed into green sections of dolu bamboo with milk, sugar and coconut, plugged with straw and pushed into the embers of a fire. As the bamboo blackens the rice steams inside, and when the tube is split open it slides out as a smooth, glossy log, sweet, milky and faintly smoky. Families eat it hot, sliced into rounds, sometimes with a curl of date-palm jaggery or with fish curry for a savoury contrast. Fresh bamboo is hard to find outside Bangladesh, so this recipe also gives a banana-leaf and foil method that works under a hot grill. Underfilled tubes are the classic misstep: the rice needs room to swell but should be packed to about three-quarters full. Chef's tip: soak the rice for at least 4 hours so it cooks evenly before the outside scorches.

60 min

Bangladeshi Rice & Grains

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Hong Kong borschtTomato beef and cabbage soup

Order a set lunch at a Hong Kong cha chaan teng and the waiter will ask "red or white?": red is lo sung tong, the diner's tomato version of borscht, brought to the city by Russians who arrived from Shanghai in the 1940s. It has no beetroot at all; instead, beef shin, cabbage, potato, carrot, onion and celery simmer with fresh tomatoes and a spoonful of ketchup into a thick, sweet-sour, brick-red soup. It comes with buttered toast or a bun before a plate of baked rice or spaghetti, and makes a filling meal by itself on a rainy day. A typical slip is adding all the vegetables at once, so the cabbage turns to mush before the beef is tender; add them in stages. Chef's tip: fry the tomato paste and ketchup until they darken before adding water, which gives the soup its deep red colour.

90 min

Hong Kong Soups

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BichakPumpkin-filled half-moon pastries

Across northern Afghanistan, around Mazar, Kunduz and Shibirghan, the autumn pumpkin harvest is turned into bichak, plump half-moon pastries that show the region's Uzbek and Turkmen neighbours in their name and shape. A soft, thin wheat dough wraps a filling of grated pumpkin and onion seasoned only with salt, black pepper and a little chilli, which bakes into something sweet, savoury and juicy, best eaten warm with a glass of tea or alongside a bowl of yogurt. Some families bake them, others fry them in a wok of oil; this version bakes them. The filling must not be wet, or the bottoms go soggy and the seams burst, so squeeze the grated pumpkin hard before mixing. Chef's tip: grate the onion finely too, so it melts into the pumpkin instead of staying in crunchy pieces.

55 min

Afghan Snacks & Starters

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ĆimburEggs cooked on sweet onion

Bosnian home cooks make ćimbur when there are eggs, onions and not much else, and it is a favourite weekend breakfast, or a quick sehur before dawn during Ramadan. Lots of sliced onion is cooked gently in butter until meltingly soft and sweet, then eggs are cracked into little hollows and covered until the whites set, so you scoop up runny yolk, silky onion and a dusting of paprika with warm bread or somun. A bowl of plain yogurt on the side is common. A common mistake is rushing the onions over a high heat, so they scorch on the edges while staying crunchy inside; patience over a medium-low flame is what makes the dish. Chef's tip: if the onions start to catch before they are soft, add a splash of water and keep going.

20 minBalkan Breakfast & Brunch

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Bingka ubiBaked cassava cake

Golden-brown slabs of bingka ubi are cut from big trays at Malay and Peranakan kueh stalls in Singapore and taken home for tea, or baked at home for Hari Raya when there is a crowd to feed. Freshly grated cassava, coconut milk, eggs and sugar bake into a dense, chewy, slightly sticky cake with a custardy centre and a caramelised, almost leathery top, scented with pandan. It needs nothing with it but a cup of strong tea or kopi. Cassava must always be fully cooked and never eaten raw; buy it fresh from a trusted greengrocer, peel off every bit of the thick skin and pink layer, or use frozen grated cassava, which is already prepared. The usual mistake is pressing out all the cassava's liquid and adding too little coconut milk, which bakes it dry and rubbery. Chef's tip: finish under the grill for the last few minutes for the dark, blistered top, then cool fully before cutting so the slices hold.

80 min

Singaporean Desserts

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Erdélyi fatányérosMixed grill platter

The name means 'wooden plate', and that is how this Transylvanian-Hungarian feast is brought to the table in Cluj and Târgu Mureș restaurants: a big board heaped with fried potatoes and topped with grilled pork chops, veal escalopes and crisp smoked bacon, surrounded by pickled cucumbers, peppers and red cabbage. It is meant for sharing, two or four people picking from one board, and it smells of garlic, marjoram and smoke. The pork and bacon make this very much a pork dish, balanced by the sharp pickles. Where people most often go wrong is grilling everything at once; cook the bacon first and use its fat for the meat, so nothing dries out while waiting. Chef's tip: score the edge of each pork chop through the fat every 2 cm; it stops the chops curling up in the pan and cooking unevenly.

60 min

Romanian Meat

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Houbový kubaBarley and mushroom bake

On Štědrý den, the Czech Christmas Eve, many families kept a meat-free fast until the evening carp, and houbový kuba was what filled the gap at lunch. Village cooks in Bohemia baked pearl barley with mushrooms picked and dried in autumn, plenty of garlic and marjoram, until the top went crunchy. The inside stays moist and chewy, almost like a mushroom risotto, while the edges crisp. It used to be made with lard; this version uses oil and is fully plant-based. Serve it on its own with sauerkraut or a sharp pickled salad, or as a side to roast vegetables. A common mistake is boiling the barley until soft right through, which turns the bake to paste; it should still have a little bite before it goes in the oven. Chef's tip: save the mushroom soaking water and cook the barley in it, for flavour all the way through.

75 min

Czech Rice & Grains

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Ilish dim bhunaFried hilsa roe

Early in the hilsa season the female fish carry a pair of large, golden roe sacs, and in Barisal kitchens nobody would dream of wasting them. Ilish dim bhuna is the quick and greedy way to cook them: the roe is fried with lots of onion, turmeric and green chilli until it breaks into soft, rich, slightly grainy crumbs, a little like a savoury fish scramble. It is eaten as a side dish with plain rice and dal, often on the same day the fish itself is cooked in mustard. Roe spoils quickly, so buy it bright and fresh-smelling with the fish and cook it the same day. Many cooks stir the roe too early and too hard, turning it into paste; let it set first. Chef's tip: steam the roe sacs for 3 minutes before frying, so they firm up and break into neat crumbs.

25 min

Bangladeshi Fish

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KalkanFried turbot steaks

Turbot season on the Bulgarian Black Sea is short and strictly controlled, so in spring locals in Burgas and Balchik queue at the fish market for kalkan, the flat, diamond-shaped fish with firm, sweet white flesh. Seaside restaurants cut it across the bone into thick steaks, dust them with flour and fry them in sunflower oil until the skin is crisp and the flesh pearly, then serve them simply with lemon and a crunchy salad of shredded cabbage and carrot dressed with vinegar. Brill or halibut steaks work the same way if turbot is out of reach. A common mistake is turning the fish too soon, which tears the crust; leave it until it releases from the pan by itself. Chef's tip: score the dark skin twice so the steaks stay flat and cook evenly.

30 min

Bulgarian Fish

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MutanjanSweet coloured rice with candied fruit

If zarda is the everyday celebration rice, mutanjan is its showy older sibling: the grains are dyed in three or four colours, layered with khoya, tutti frutti, nuts and small milk sweets, and steamed so that a spoonful looks like confetti. It is a Lucknowi and old Delhi tradition that came to Karachi with the families who migrated in 1947, and it still turns up at nikah dinners and on Shab-e-Barat in Karachi and Hyderabad, as well as in the old mithai shops of Lahore. The texture should be soft, sticky-sweet and rich with ghee, the flavour heady with cardamom and kewra. The thing that ruins it most often is stirring the coloured rice together, which blurs the colours into a muddy brown. Chef's tip: colour the rice in separate bowls, layer it in the pot without mixing, and only fold it once, very lightly, after the dum.

85 min

Pakistani Desserts

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ChoregBraided Easter bread

Choreg is baked in Armenian homes for Easter from Yerevan to Beirut, Marseille and Los Angeles: soft, slightly sweet braided loaves scented with mahleb, the ground kernel of a wild cherry, glazed with egg and scattered with nigella or sesame seeds. Families bake big batches on Holy Saturday and share them with neighbours after church. A common mistake is adding too much flour to a sticky dough, which makes dry, heavy bread. Chef's tip: let the dough rise slowly, even overnight in the fridge; the flavour develops and the cold dough is easy to braid.

70 min

Armenian Baking

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Hobotnica ispod pekeBell-roasted octopus and potatoes

Order octopus under the peka in a Dalmatian konoba on Korčula or Hvar and you will often be asked to ring ahead, because it cooks for hours under an iron bell buried in embers. Octopus, potatoes, onion, garlic, rosemary and lots of olive oil steam in their own juices, then crisp at the edges, so the octopus becomes tender and sweet and the potatoes soak up the pink, briny juices. At home, a heavy cast-iron casserole in a hot oven does the job; many cooks add a splash of white wine, but this version needs none. Bring it to the table in the pot with bread and a green salad. Adding water is the usual slip, as the octopus releases plenty of liquid and extra just boils it. Chef's tip: buy frozen octopus, or freeze fresh for a couple of days, as the freezing tenderises it; thaw it overnight in the fridge.

120 minBalkan Fish

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ChokladbollarNo-bake chocolate oat balls

Chokladbollar are the first thing Swedish children learn to make: oats, butter, sugar and cocoa mashed together by hand, rolled into balls and coated in desiccated coconut or pearl sugar, then chilled. They sit in every café cabinet in Sweden for fika, and grown-ups add a spoon of strong coffee to the mix. This version uses milk, with coffee as an option for adults. A common mistake is using soft, melted butter, which makes a greasy mix that won't roll. Chef's tip: use butter at cool room temperature and chill the mix for 20 minutes before rolling.

20 minScandinavian Desserts

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ChomlekClay-pot beef with vegetables

Rhodope housewives once set the chomlek pot in the embers of the hearth in the morning and came back from the fields at dusk to a supper that had cooked itself. Chunks of beef, or pork in some villages, go into the pot with whole small onions, carrots, potatoes, garlic and tomato, seasoned with paprika, allspice, black pepper, bay and savory. Hours of gentle heat make the beef spoon-tender and turn the onions sweet and jammy in a thick red gravy. It is a whole meal in one pot; add pickles or a cabbage salad on the side. Many old recipes pour in a glass of red wine; here a spoon of red wine vinegar gives the same lift with no alcohol. A common mistake is browning in a crowded pan, which leaves the gravy pale, so brown the beef in batches until dark. Chef's tip: soak the small onions in boiling water for two minutes and the skins slip right off.

185 min

Bulgarian Meat

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HjónabandssælaOat crumble rhubarb cake

Hjónabandssæla means 'marital bliss', and every Icelandic home has a version: an oat and butter crumble pressed into a tin, spread with rhubarb jam, topped with more crumble and baked until golden. It is the cake for unexpected guests, because everything is in the cupboard, and rhubarb grows in nearly every Icelandic garden. A common mistake is pressing the top layer down hard, which makes it dense; scatter it loosely. Chef's tip: use a tart homemade rhubarb jam if you can; its sourness balances the sweet, buttery oats.

55 minScandinavian Baking

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ChlebíčkyOpen sandwiches

Prague's lahůdky delicatessens have sold chlebíčky since the early twentieth century, and these little open sandwiches are still the first thing laid out for office celebrations, birthdays and New Year's Eve. Diagonal slices of soft white veka bread are spread with potato salad, then decorated with a rolled slice of cooked pork ham, half a hard-boiled egg, cheese, gherkin and a dot of mayonnaise, so each one looks like a small, neat picture. They are creamy, salty and fresh at once. A common mistake is assembling hours ahead on soft bread, which goes soggy; build them no more than an hour before serving and keep them in the fridge, never out for more than 2 hours. Boil the eggs until the yolks are firm. For a meat-free tray, skip the ham and double the egg and cheese. Chef's tip: a firm, day-old baguette slices more cleanly than fresh bread.

30 min

Czech Snacks & Starters

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Antiguan chop upMashed aubergine, okra and spinach

Antigua's national plate pairs fungee, a cornmeal and okra loaf, with pepperpot, and on the side there is often chop up: aubergine, okra and spinach cooked down with onion, garlic and thyme, then mashed to a soft, green-flecked purée. It is gentle, savoury and silky, and some cooks add butter or salted meat; this version is vegan and uses coconut oil. The mistake to avoid is stirring the okra too much early on, which makes it slimy; let it soften undisturbed, then mash. Chef's tip: a squeeze of lime at the end lifts the flavour and calms any okra stickiness.

45 minCaribbean Vegetarian

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Antiguan ducanaSweet potato coconut dumplings

In Antigua, ducana turns up beside saltfish and chop up on Saturday plates and at Independence celebrations in November, little leaf-wrapped parcels of grated sweet potato and coconut with sugar, raisins and spice, boiled until set. It cuts through the salty fish with a soft, sticky sweetness. Many cooks add a little flour; this version keeps to sweet potato and coconut and is gluten free. The common mistake is wrapping the parcels loosely, so water seeps in and they turn mushy. Chef's tip: grate the sweet potato finely on the small holes and the ducana will hold together without any flour.

75 minCaribbean Desserts

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Smoked kutumHot-smoked white fish

Kutum, the Caspian white fish, is the favourite catch of the Azerbaijani coast from Lankaran to Baku, and in spring fishermen's families salt it and hang it in smoke so it keeps for weeks. The traditional cold-smoked fish is not cooked by the smoke; this home version is hot-smoked instead, so the fish is cooked right through, which is safer. Use kutum, mullet, sea bass or trout. A common mistake is putting wet fish into the smoker; the smoke cannot stick and it tastes steamed. Chef's tip: let the salted fish dry, uncovered, in the fridge for a few hours until the surface feels tacky, which gives a glossy golden skin. Eat it with greens, fresh herbs and bread.

120 min

Azerbaijani Fish

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Hoilo garmaGreens with dough pieces

In early spring the first wild greens appear on the terraces of Hunza before anything else is ready, and families gather them for hoilo garma, a thick, warming pot of chopped greens cooked with small pieces of wholewheat dough pinched off by hand. The dough pieces turn soft and slightly chewy, almost like dumplings, and the greens melt into a glossy, savoury mass enriched at the end with butter and a little apricot-kernel oil. It is a one-pot lunch eaten from a shared dish with the fingers or a spoon, often with salty tea. Rolling the dough pieces too thick is the common error; they stay doughy in the middle. Chef's tip: spinach is the easiest choice, but a handful of dill, spring onion or chard makes it closer to the mix of wild greens used in the valley.

45 min

Pakistani Vegetarian

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Chitoi pithaSpongy rice flour cakes

As soon as the cold arrives in December, women set up clay stoves on the pavements of Dhaka, Mymensingh and every district town, and chitoi pitha is what they sell: round, white rice cakes steamed and baked in small covered clay moulds, smooth and slightly crisp underneath and full of tiny holes on top. Winter evenings are spent queuing for them, and they are eaten hot with a row of bhortas, mustard, coriander, garlic or dried fish, or with duck curry. At home, leftover chitoi is soaked overnight in milk sweetened with date-palm jaggery to make dudh chitoi for breakfast. A batter that is too thin gives flat, dense cakes; it should be like a thick pancake batter. Chef's tip: blend a spoonful of cooked rice into the batter, which keeps the pitha soft and spongy even after it cools.

50 min

Bangladeshi Breakfast & Brunch

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Chiu chow fun guoPork and peanut dumplings

Chiu Chow families who settled around Sheung Wan and Kowloon City brought these chubby half-moon dumplings with them, and Hong Kong teahouses still steam them in bamboo baskets for the morning crowd. The wrapper is a mix of wheat and tapioca starch that turns translucent and slightly elastic, so you can see the filling inside: minced pork, crunchy roasted peanuts, garlic chives, salty preserved radish and a little dried shrimp. Each bite is chewy, savoury and crunchy at once. Dab them with chilli oil or a little Chiu Chow chilli sauce. People often roll the dough too thin, then it tears as it steams; aim for 2 mm and keep it under a damp cloth while you work. Chef's tip: toast the peanuts yourself and add them at the very end so they stay crunchy.

90 min

Hong Kong Snacks & Starters

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HilbetLentil and fenugreek paste

Hilbet is one of the dishes that tells you you are in Eritrea rather than Ethiopia. Asmara households make it in big bowls for Lent and the other fasting days and serve it cold, swirled with a ribbon of red berbere oil, as part of a spread on injera. Fenugreek soaked and beaten with water turns pale and foamy, much like whipped egg white, and folding it into puréed lentils or broad-bean flour gives a dip that is fluffy, faintly bitter, garlicky and creamy. Market stalls sell a ready-mixed hilbet flour; this home version uses red lentils, which are easy to find. Chef's tip: beat the soaked fenugreek with an electric whisk for a full 5 minutes; that long whipping is what makes hilbet light instead of dense.

50 min

Eritrean Chutneys & Dips

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ChirbuliEggs in tomato walnut sauce

Families in Batumi and the coastal villages of Adjara make chirbuli for slow weekend breakfasts: onions and ripe tomatoes stewed with a spoon of crushed walnuts and plenty of herbs, with eggs cracked into the sauce and cooked until just set, so the yolks run into it. It is a cousin of shakshuka with a Georgian walnut richness, eaten with bread to wipe up the plate. A common mistake is putting the lid on and walking away; the yolks overcook and go chalky in a minute. Chef's tip: grind the walnuts with garlic and coriander seed first, so they melt into the sauce instead of staying gritty.

25 min

Georgian Breakfast & Brunch

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Dominican chimi burgerBurger with cabbage and mayo-ketchup

After dark in Santo Domingo, chimichurri carts (the "chimi" trucks) fire up griddles on street corners and sell these big, messy burgers into the small hours. A garlicky, oregano-seasoned beef patty, sometimes mixed with pork, is griddled and piled into a soft roll with lots of shredded cabbage, onion, tomato and the pink mayo-ketchup sauce. The common mistake is pressing the patty while it cooks, squeezing out the juices; flip it once and leave it. Cook the mince to 71 °C in the centre. Chef's tip: dress the shredded cabbage with a little of the sauce and lime first, so it softens slightly and stays in the bun.

30 min

Puerto Rican Fast Food

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