Featured recipe

Apricot preserve

The apricot is Armenia's national fruit, and in July families in the Ararat Valley villages around Artashat and Masis cook whole ones slowly in syrup so they keep their shape and turn translucent, sometimes slipping a peeled kernel back inside each fruit. The jars come out on winter evenings, served in tiny glass bowls with black tea or coffee. A common mistake is boiling the fruit hard, which breaks it into jam. Chef's tip: cook in short spells, resting the pan overnight between them; the syrup seeps in slowly and the apricots stay whole and glossy. Bitter kernels contain a natural toxin, so use sweet almonds instead.

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Frikandel speciaalSausage with mayo and onion

The frikandel is the snack-bar sausage of the Netherlands, fried from frozen in every cafetaria and eaten at football matches and after a night out: a long, skinless sausage of finely minced meat, and 'speciaal' means split open and topped with mayonnaise, curry ketchup and raw chopped onion. Factory frikandellen use a mix of meats; this homemade version uses beef and pork mince, so it contains pork. A common mistake is skipping the poaching step, so the sausages break up in the fryer. Chef's tip: roll them in cling film and poach first, then chill; they hold their shape and fry crisp in minutes. Minced meat must reach 71 °C.

60 min

Dutch Fast Food

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AluwaRice flour diamond sweets

Pale, smooth and cut into precise little diamonds, aluwa brings a touch of order to the crowded Avurudu sweet tray, and it is often the first sweet children learn to help make because there is no deep-frying involved. Rice flour is roasted until it smells like biscuits, then kneaded with hot sugar syrup, chopped cashews and cardamom into a firm dough, rolled out and cut. The finished sweet is dense, slightly crumbly and not too sweet, with a gentle nuttiness, and it keeps for weeks in a tin to be offered to visitors with tea. The point where it goes wrong is the syrup: too thin and the aluwa never sets, too thick and the dough cracks before you can roll it, so aim for the one-thread stage. Chef's tip: roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper and cut it while it is still warm and pliable; once cold it breaks instead of slicing.

45 min

Sri Lankan Desserts

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Bihari kebabPapaya-marinated beef strips

Migrants from Bihar who settled in Karachi after 1947 brought this kebab with them, and it has become one of the city's signature grills, served from the smoky stalls of Burns Road, Hussainabad and Boat Basin. Thin ribbons of beef are beaten flat, marinated with raw papaya paste to tenderise them, mustard oil, browned onion and a heady spice mix, then threaded onto skewers and grilled fast over coals, finished with a puff of charcoal smoke. They are soft enough to pull apart with your fingers and are eaten with paratha, sliced onion and mint chutney. Leaving the papaya on too long is the risk, because it keeps working and turns the meat mushy; four to six hours in the fridge is plenty. Chef's tip: slice the beef while it is half-frozen, across the grain, and you will get even, paper-thin strips with ease.

40 min

Pakistani Meat

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FrikkadelsFried spiced meatballs

Frikkadels came to Sri Lanka with the Dutch in the 1600s and were reinvented by the Burgher community into small, crumbed, deep-fried meatballs scented with onion, garlic, cinnamon, cloves and dill. They are party food first, piled on platters at Burgher Christmas gatherings, christenings and Colombo club teas, and they are also tucked into lamprais parcels or eaten with a sharp seeni sambol and bread. Good ones are crunchy outside and very juicy within, never dense or dry. The trap to avoid is overworking the mince and skipping the soaked bread, which together make the balls tough. Chef's tip: shape them the size of a walnut and chill them for 30 minutes before crumbing, so the coating sticks and they hold their round shape in the hot oil.

60 min

Sri Lankan Meat

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Maple-glazed ham

At the cabanes à sucre of Quebec in March and April, a smoked pork ham baked in maple syrup is the centrepiece of the long tables, carved alongside pea soup, beans and omelette. At home it is an Easter favourite in the Eastern Townships. The ham is simmered, then glazed and baked, basted again and again until it shines. Check the label: most smoked hams are already cooked and only need heating, while uncooked ones need full cooking. A common mistake is glazing too early, which burns the sugar before the ham is hot. Chef's tip: a splash of cider vinegar in the glaze balances the sweetness.

150 min

Canadian Meat

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Alu kesel curryPlantain turmeric curry

Alu kesel, the grey-skinned cooking plantain whose name means ash banana, is picked green and treated like a vegetable, and this creamy curry is a regular on Kandyan lunch tables and at temple almsgivings, where it fills out the spread cheaply and well. The slices are rubbed with turmeric and salt, fried until golden at the edges, then simmered in coconut milk with unroasted curry powder, fenugreek, cinnamon and pandan, so they turn soft and starchy like potato with a hint of banana sweetness. It sits happily beside parippu, a green mallung and a sharp pickle. Peeling the plantains with dry hands is a messy mistake, because the sap stains skin and knives black; oil your hands and the blade first. Chef's tip: frying the slices before they go into the gravy keeps them in neat pieces; unfried plantain tends to fall apart and thicken the curry into paste.

40 min

Sri Lankan Curries

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Meatball stew

Ragoût de boulettes is a Quebec Christmas Eve and New Year dish, simmered in big pots for the réveillon in the Saguenay and Beauce, often served with pork hocks and boiled potatoes. The meatballs are made from minced pork, gently spiced with cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, and simmered in a gravy thickened with flour toasted dry in a pan until brown. That toasted flour gives the stew its colour and nutty taste. A common mistake is toasting the flour too quickly so it burns; keep the heat moderate and stir constantly. Chef's tip: it tastes even better the next day, so make it ahead and reheat until piping hot.

150 min

Canadian Meat

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Queen Elizabeth cake

Queen Elizabeth cake has been a favourite in Canadian homes and Quebec bakeries since the 1950s, especially around coronations and royal visits, and it still turns up at Montreal family birthdays and Sunday teas. A moist, tender date cake is baked, then covered in a bubbling coconut and brown-sugar topping and put under the grill until it caramelises. It is humble, rich and keeps well for days. A common mistake is walking away from the grill; the topping goes from golden to burnt in under a minute. Chef's tip: soak the dates in boiling water with the bicarbonate so they melt into the crumb.

65 min

Canadian Baking

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Barbadine punchGranadilla milk drink

Barbadine, the giant granadilla, grows on vines over backyard fences across Trinidad and turns up at Sunday lunch blended into a pale, creamy punch. The fruit's soft white flesh and the perfumed seed pulp inside are both used, giving a gentle passion-fruit flavour that milk, nutmeg and a little sugar round out. It is alcohol-free and made for the whole family. A frequent mistake is blending the seeds hard, which cracks them and turns the drink gritty and bitter: pulse the pulp briefly and strain it. Chef's tip: if you can't find barbadine, use the pulp of 6 passion fruit plus 200 g peeled honeydew melon for a similar taste.

15 min

Trinidadian Drinks

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Puffed wheat squares

Puffed wheat squares are the Prairie kids' party treat, made in Alberta and Saskatchewan kitchens for hockey bake sales and lunchboxes since the 1950s. Puffed wheat is stirred into a quick toffee of butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and cocoa, pressed into a pan and cut once set. They are chewy rather than crunchy and very hard to stop eating. A common mistake is boiling the syrup too long, which sets them rock hard; one minute of boiling is enough. Chef's tip: butter your hands, not just the pan, to press the mix down evenly.

15 min

Canadian Baking

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Labrador tea

Labrador tea grows in the bogs and boreal forests right across northern Canada, and Cree, Dene and Inuit families have long dried its leathery, rust-backed leaves for a hot drink on the land and at home. It tastes resinous and piney, a bit like rosemary and eucalyptus, and is often sweetened with a little sugar. The leaves contain natural compounds that are harmful in large amounts, so brew it weak, drink a cup or two, and don't steep it for hours. It is not for pregnant or breastfeeding women. Only pick it if you know the plant well: the poisonous bog laurel grows alongside it; dried leaves from a trusted seller are safest. A common mistake is using a big handful of leaves; one tablespoon makes two cups. Chef's tip: steep below boiling and briefly; a long boil makes it bitter and stronger than you want.

10 min

Canadian Drinks

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Bannu pulaoBeef pulao in bone marrow stock

Bannu, a town in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has given its name to one of Pakistan's richest rice dishes, now sold by pulao houses across Peshawar, Islamabad and Karachi with the town's name painted proudly over the door. Its secret is the stock: beef and marrow bones simmered for hours until the liquid turns cloudy and gelatinous, then used to cook long-grain rice so every grain is glossy with beef fat. The rice is served piled up with fist-sized pieces of boiled beef on top, alongside raita and a fresh chilli-tomato salad, at weddings and Friday lunches. Watery rice is the common failure, because the stock is not reduced enough; it must be concentrated, almost like gravy. Chef's tip: let the stock cool and lift off some of the fat, then fry the onions in that fat, so nothing is wasted and the rice tastes of beef throughout.

190 min

Pakistani Rice & Grains

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Three Sisters soup

The Three Sisters, corn, beans and squash planted together in one mound, are the heart of Haudenosaunee farming in what is now southern Ontario and Quebec, and of many other Eastern Woodlands nations. Simmered together, they make a filling, golden autumn soup served at harvest gatherings and at home through the winter. This version uses dried beans and fresh squash for a thick, naturally sweet pot. A common mistake is adding the corn too early, which makes it tough; it goes in for the last 10 minutes. Chef's tip: roast half the squash first for a deeper, nuttier flavour.

70 min

Canadian Soups

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Honey dill sauce

Ask for honey dill anywhere outside Manitoba and you'll get a blank look, but in Winnipeg every pub, burger stand and school canteen serves it with chicken fingers, fries and onion rings. It is simply mayonnaise sweetened with liquid honey and full of fresh dill, and it takes five minutes. It is also good on veggie burgers and baked potatoes. A common mistake is using thick set honey, which won't blend; warm it first. Chef's tip: make it an hour ahead so the dill flavours the whole sauce.

5 min

Canadian Chutneys & Dips

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Sour cream raisin pie

Sour cream raisin pie is a farm-kitchen dessert from the Old Order Mennonite communities of Waterloo County, Ontario, found at the St Jacobs market and at church suppers around Elmira. Plump raisins sit in a tangy sour-cream custard, warm with cinnamon and clove, under a tall cloud of meringue. It is made ahead and served cool, cut in generous wedges. A common mistake is spreading the meringue on a cold filling, which makes it weep; spread it while the filling is hot. Chef's tip: simmer the raisins first so they are soft and juicy instead of chewy in the custard.

75 min

Canadian Desserts

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Wild rice salad

Manoomin, true wild rice, is hand-harvested by canoe by Anishinaabe families on the shallow lakes of northern Ontario and Manitoba in late summer, the grains knocked into the boat with cedar sticks. Its nutty, smoky taste is lovely cold in a salad with dried cranberries, toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds and a light maple vinaigrette, the kind of dish brought to a feast or a summer potluck. Hand-harvested lake rice cooks faster than the black cultivated paddy rice, so check it early. A common mistake is cooking it until it splits wide open and turns mushy. Chef's tip: dress the rice while it is still warm so it drinks in the vinaigrette.

60 min

Canadian Salads

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BagiyaSesame jaggery rice dumplings

When the new rice is harvested in late autumn, Maithil households in Janakpur, Siraha and Saptari steam bagiya, plump spindle-shaped dumplings of rice-flour dough that are offered to the gods, given to married daughters visiting home and eaten warm on cold winter mornings. The smooth, chewy shell hides a sweet centre, here toasted sesame bound with melted jaggery and a pinch of cardamom, though some families use molasses toffee (chaku), grated coconut or sweetened milk solids instead. Plain bagiya are also made and eaten with chutney. A common slip is using cold water for the dough, which makes it crumble and split; it must be made with boiling water. Chef's tip: knead the dough while it is still as hot as your hands can bear, with a little oil on your palms, until it is as smooth as play dough.

60 min

Nepali Indian Sweets

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Chopped liver

Chopped liver is the first course of many Friday-night dinners in Ashkenazi homes from Haifa to Petah Tikva, spread on challah before the soup, and Tel Aviv delis still sell it by weight on Thursdays. Chicken livers are cooked through in schmaltz with a mountain of slowly browned onion, then chopped with hard-boiled egg into a coarse, rich spread that is sweet from the onion and deeply savoury. It is served cool, with challah, crackers or rye bread and a pickled cucumber. People often undercook the livers to keep them soft, but for safety they must have no pink left inside; the onion and schmaltz keep the texture tender anyway. Chef's tip: pulse in short bursts or chop by hand; a smooth purée loses the rustic texture that makes this different from a French pâté.

45 min

Israeli Snacks & Starters

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Puffed maple omelette

A tall, golden puffed omelette arrives on every table at the cabanes à sucre of the Laurentians and the Eastern Townships, sliced into wedges and drowned in fresh maple syrup alongside beans and ham. The eggs are separated, the whites whipped and folded back in, then the omelette starts on the hob and finishes in the oven so it rises like a soufflé. It must go to the table at once, before it sinks. A common mistake is beating the whites until stiff and dry, which makes the omelette grainy. Chef's tip: fold the whites in with a large metal spoon in three goes, keeping as much air as you can.

28 min

Canadian Breakfast & Brunch

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Fricasé de polloChicken stew with olives and raisins

Fricasé de pollo is a family dinner all over Cuba: chicken pieces marinated in sour orange and garlic, browned, then simmered with potatoes, green olives, capers and a few raisins in a light tomato sauce. The sweet-salty balance is what makes it so Cuban. A frequent mistake is skipping the marinade time; even an hour in the fridge seasons the meat right through. Serve with white rice. Chef's tip: add the raisins with the potatoes rather than at the start, so they plump up but don't melt into the sauce.

80 min

Cuban Chicken

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Montreal-style bagels

On Fairmount and St-Viateur streets in Montreal's Mile End the bagel bakeries run all night, rolling dough by hand, boiling it in honey water and baking it on long planks in wood-fired ovens. The result is smaller, sweeter and denser than a New York bagel, with a big hole and a crust thickly coated in sesame. They are eaten warm from the paper bag, plain or with cream cheese. Egg goes into the dough and there is no salt-heavy chew, which is what gives that light sweetness. Chef's tip: bake on the hottest oven setting and on a preheated stone or heavy tray, the closest a home oven gets to the wood fire.

85 min

Canadian Breads & Parathas

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Braised brisket

A slowly braised brisket is the centrepiece of the Rosh Hashanah and Passover table for many Ashkenazi families in Israel, from Ra'anana to Jerusalem's German Colony, often made two days ahead because it slices better and tastes deeper once it has rested in its gravy. The beef sits on a bed of sliced onions with carrots, garlic, tomato paste and a little sugar and vinegar, covered tightly, and cooks for hours until fork-tender, while the onions melt into a rich brown sauce. Serve with potato kugel, tzimmes or mashed potatoes. Slicing it hot and along the grain is the usual mistake: chill it, then cut across the grain into thin slices. Chef's tip: return the slices to the gravy and reheat gently so every piece soaks up the sauce.

260 min

Israeli Meat

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Tahini cookies

Every Israeli bakery and grandmother's biscuit tin has ugiyot tahini, little domed cookies that crumble and melt on the tongue with a deep, toasty sesame flavour. They are baked for Shabbat coffee, for guests dropping by in Haifa or Jerusalem, and as an easy dairy-free sweet to follow a meat meal. This version uses oil rather than butter, so it is vegan. The mistake is baking until they turn golden all over; they firm up as they cool and should leave the oven pale with just-coloured bases. Chef's tip: stir the tahini jar thoroughly first, since the oil separates and a dry spoonful from the bottom makes sandy, dry cookies.

25 min

Israeli Baking

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Egg salad guédille

A guédille is the snack-bar sandwich of Quebec, sold at the casse-croûte stands along the St Lawrence and in the Lower Saint-Lawrence towns all summer. A top-split hot-dog bun is buttered and toasted on the flat-top, then stuffed high with shredded iceberg and a soft egg salad. By the sea the same bun is filled with lobster, but the egg guédille is the everyday version kids order with fries. It takes 25 minutes and is just as good for a picnic lunch. A common mistake is filling the buns too early, which turns them soggy. Chef's tip: shred the lettuce very finely and put it under the egg so the bun stays crisp.

25 min

Canadian Fast Food

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FrgályYeast tarts with pear or cheese

At weddings and church fairs in Moravian Wallachia, in the hills around Rožnov and Vsetín, tables are stacked with frgály: yeast tarts as wide as a dinner plate, rolled so thin the filling seems to sit on a crisp, chewy disc. The classic toppings are dried pear mixed with plum butter, sweet tvaroh (Czech quark), or poppy seed, all scattered with a buttery crumble. This recipe makes four, two with each of the first two fillings. Tvaroh is usually set without rennet, but some brands use it, so check the label. The usual slip is leaving the dough thick in the middle, which makes a bready tart; roll right to the edge, about 3 mm thick. Chef's tip: bake on the lowest oven shelf on a hot tray, so the base browns before the filling dries.

150 min

Czech Baking

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Quebec pea soup

In Quebec farmhouses a pot of soupe aux pois went on the back of the wood stove on Saturday and fed the family through the cold weeks; it is still served at sugar shacks and on chilly Sundays from Gaspé to Gatineau. Whole yellow peas break down over three hours into a thick, golden, earthy soup scented with summer savory. The old version is cooked with a slab of salt pork; this pot leaves it out and builds depth with browned onion and a bay leaf instead, so it is vegan. Serve with crusty bread or a ploye. Chef's tip: use whole yellow peas, not split ones; they hold some bite and give the soup its proper rustic body.

200 min

Canadian Soups

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Eggs poached in maple syrup

At Quebec sugar shacks in early spring, the oldest treat of all is an egg cracked straight into a pan of boiling maple syrup, cooked until the white sets into lacy sweet ribbons. Families in the Appalachian regions of Beauce and Chaudière-Appalaches eat it with buttered country bread to mop up the syrup. It is sweet, rich and surprisingly simple. A common mistake is letting the syrup boil hard, which scorches it and turns the eggs rubbery. Chef's tip: use very fresh eggs; their whites hold together and wrap round the yolk instead of spreading.

12 min

Canadian Breakfast & Brunch

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Reform tortaWalnut meringue chocolate cake

Belgrade pastry shops have sold reform torta since the early twentieth century, and it is still the cake Serbian families bring out for birthdays, weddings and the slava. Three thin layers of walnut meringue, crisp at the edge and chewy inside, are stacked with a dense chocolate butter cream made with egg yolks cooked over steam until thick. It is very rich, so cut thin slices and serve with strong coffee. The usual slip is beating the butter into a chocolate mixture that is still warm, which melts it and splits the cream; let it cool to room temperature first. Chef's tip: assemble the cake the day before; overnight in the fridge the meringue softens a little and the cake slices cleanly with a hot knife.

150 minBalkan Baking

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Flapper pie

Flapper pie is the "Prairie pie" of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, served in small-town cafés and at fall suppers from Moose Jaw to Brandon since the 1920s, when graham crumbs, milk and eggs were what the farm pantry always had. A crunchy cinnamon graham base holds a soft vanilla custard topped with meringue and more crumbs. It is best eaten the day it is made, slightly chilled. A common mistake is pouring a lumpy custard; whisk without stopping and strain it if needed. Chef's tip: save a few spoonfuls of the crumb mix to scatter on the meringue, which is the pie's signature look.

60 min

Canadian Desserts

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Cheese blintzes

Cheese blintzes are the star of Shavuot breakfasts in Ashkenazi homes across Israel, and Jerusalem dairy cafés have served them for generations with soured cream and berry sauce. Thin crêpes, cooked on one side only, are wrapped around sweetened farmer cheese with lemon and vanilla, then fried in butter until crisp and golden outside and creamy within. Serve two per person with soured cream and a spoon of cherry or blueberry compote. Farmer cheese is usually rennet-free, but check the label and choose a vegetarian one. A common mistake is a wet filling: drain the cheese well or it leaks and the blintzes burst in the pan. Chef's tip: fill on the cooked side, so the pale raw side ends up outside and browns properly in the final fry.

55 min

Israeli Breakfast & Brunch

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Coconut macaroons

Coconut macaroons are the Passover biscuit in Israel: every supermarket stacks them high before the holiday, but homemade ones from a Haifa or Jerusalem kitchen are far better, crisp and golden on the outside and moist and chewy inside. They need just desiccated coconut, egg whites, sugar and vanilla, with no flour or leavening, so they suit the Passover rules and are naturally gluten free and dairy free. Dip the bases in dark chocolate if you like. The common mistake is baking them on a hot tray straight from a previous batch, which burns the bases before the tops colour. Chef's tip: let the mixture rest for 15 minutes so the coconut soaks up the whites and the mounds hold their shape.

40 min

Israeli Baking

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Flourless chocolate cake

In Israel this dense chocolate cake is the dessert of the Passover seder in countless homes, from Tel Aviv flats to kibbutz dining halls, because it needs no flour and only rises on whisked eggs. Dark chocolate, eggs, ground almonds and a little butter bake into a cake with a thin, crackled top and a deep, fudgy middle, rich enough to serve in slim slices with berries or whipped cream. Made with oil instead of butter, it can follow a meat meal. The common mistake is overbaking: take it out while the centre still wobbles slightly, as it sets as it cools. Chef's tip: fold the whites into the chocolate in three goes, the first one roughly, to loosen it, then the rest gently to keep the air.

60 min

Israeli Baking

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Frankincense water

Around Salalah in Oman's Dhofar region, where the frankincense trees grow on the dry hills behind the coast, many households drop a few tears of resin into a jug of water at night and sip it the next day, believing it settles the stomach. The water turns faintly milky and tastes cool, piney and slightly bitter. It is drunk at room temperature, in small glasses, often in the morning. Use only food-grade Boswellia sacra resin sold for eating (the pale hojari grade is best), never incense blends, and do not drink it if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or without asking a doctor if you take regular medication. The mistake is using too much resin, which makes it unpleasantly bitter. Chef's tip: rinse the tears in a sieve first to wash off dust and resin powder, and the water will be clearer and gentler.

10 minGulf Arabian Drinks

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Lao iced coffee

High on the Bolaven Plateau above Pakse, the coffee towns around Paksong grow most of Laos's beans, and roadside stalls there brew them dark and strong through a long cloth sock, all day long. Ordered cold, it arrives as a glass of ice with a thick layer of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom, the black coffee poured over and stirred to a caramel brown, often with a free cup of weak tea to sip afterwards. It is bitter-sweet, chocolatey and much richer than a café latte, made for hot afternoons on the plateau or a morning stop in Pakse. A French press or a fine sieve lined with a paper filter stands in for the cloth sock. Pouring hot coffee straight onto ice before adding the milk is where it goes flat: the condensed milk won't dissolve in cold coffee and sinks in a gluey lump. Chef's tip: stir the condensed milk into the hot coffee first, then pour over the ice.

10 min

Lao Drinks

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FrenaShabbat flatbread

In Moroccan-Jewish homes from Ashdod to Kiryat Shmona, frena comes out of the oven on Friday afternoon and sits on the Shabbat table beside a dozen little salads: carrots with cumin, matbucha, beetroot, roasted peppers. The dough is wet and soft, pressed into a pan pooled with olive oil, so the base fries as it bakes and turns crackly while the inside stays airy and chewy. It is torn, never sliced, and dragged through the salads. The usual mistake is adding flour until the dough feels easy to handle; a stiff dough gives a dense, bready frena. Chef's tip: dimple the risen dough hard with oiled fingers right down to the pan, so the oil rises into the pockets and every bite has a crisp edge.

45 min

Israeli Breads & Parathas

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Fries suikerbroodCinnamon sugar bread

Fries suikerbrood, sûkerbôle in Frisian, is the bread Frisian families bring when a baby is born: a soft white loaf filled with large sugar nibs and cinnamon, so that as it bakes the sugar melts into sticky, crunchy pockets. Leeuwarden bakeries sell it every day, sliced and buttered with coffee. A common mistake is using fine sugar, which dissolves completely; it must be the big pearl sugar nibs. Chef's tip: knead in the sugar only at the end and gently, and bake the loaf in a tin so the melting sugar caramelises against the sides.

80 min

Dutch Baking

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Fritaja sa šparogamaWild asparagus scrambled eggs

Come April, families across Istria and the Kvarner coast of Croatia walk the hedgerows picking thin, dark wild asparagus, and the first bunch nearly always becomes fritaja. Despite the name it is softer than an omelette: the spears are fried in olive oil, then beaten eggs are stirred through until they set in loose, creamy curds. Wild asparagus tastes greener and slightly bitter, which is lovely against the rich egg; thin garden asparagus works if you can't forage. Eat it for breakfast or a light supper with crusty bread and a glass of cold water or fresh juice. The usual slip is cooking the eggs hard and dry; stir gently over a low heat and stop while they still look moist. Chef's tip: snap each spear and keep only the part that breaks cleanly; the woody ends never soften.

20 minBalkan Breakfast & Brunch

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Gammeldags æblekageLayered apple compote dessert

'Old-fashioned apple cake' is not a cake at all but a Danish trifle, made on autumn weekends when the apple trees are heavy: tart apple compote layered in a glass bowl with breadcrumbs or crushed macaroons toasted in butter and sugar, topped with whipped cream and a few dots of redcurrant jelly. The crumbs stay crunchy against the soft fruit. A common mistake is assembling it hours ahead, which turns the crumbs soggy. Chef's tip: toast the crumbs until deep golden and crisp, and assemble within an hour of serving.

45 minScandinavian Desserts

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GogalFlaky fennel and turmeric pastry

Gogal is baked for Novruz, the spring new year on 20 March, in kitchens all over Baku and the Absheron villages, beside shekerbura and pakhlava on the festive tray. A soft dough is rolled thin, brushed with butter mixed with ground fennel, turmeric and salt, then rolled, coiled and flattened again so it bakes into crisp, savoury, golden layers. A common mistake is using cold, hard butter for the spread; it tears the dough. Chef's tip: let the coiled pastries rest before flattening so the layers relax and stay distinct in the oven.

90 min

Azerbaijani Baking

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Khmer green mango salad with crispy dried fish

Sharp enough to make you wince and then reach for more, nhoam svay is the salad sold from glass-fronted carts around Siem Reap's Old Market and packed for weekend picnics at the West Baray reservoir. Hard green mango is cut into fine strands and tossed with shallots, mint and a dressing of lime, fish sauce and palm sugar, then topped with crunchy roasted peanuts and flakes of salty dried fish fried until crisp. It is eaten as a snack on its own or as a fresh, sour side to grilled meat and rice. Many people dress it too early, which draws water out of the mango and leaves a limp, watery salad. Chef's tip: fry the dried fish slowly until it shatters, then crumble it over at the very last moment; for a vegetarian version, leave it out and use soy sauce in place of the fish sauce.

20 min

Cambodian Salads

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Khmer pickled vegetables

Cambodian cooks keep a jar of chrouk in the fridge the way others keep ketchup. These quick pickles of green papaya, carrot, cucumber and a little ginger come on the side of broken-rice breakfasts in Phnom Penh, with grilled food at night markets and tucked into num pang baguettes, adding crunch and a sweet-sour snap to anything rich or smoky. The brine is simply rice vinegar, sugar and salt, which keeps the vegetables pale and crisp. Pouring the brine on boiling hot is the classic slip: it softens the cucumber and dulls the colours. Chef's tip: salt the papaya and carrot for 15 minutes and squeeze them before jarring; they stay crunchy for a week instead of turning floppy by day two.

25 min

Cambodian Sides

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Kep crab with green Kampot pepper

This is the dish people travel to the seaside town of Kep for: at the crab market, women haul baskets of blue swimmer crabs out of the water, and the wooden restaurants behind them stir-fry the catch for lunch with whole sprigs of green peppercorns picked that week in the Kampot hills. Fresh green pepper is juicy and aromatic rather than fiery, popping between the teeth with a bright, almost citrusy heat, and it clings to the sweet crab meat along with garlic and a light, salty-sweet sauce. Eat it with your hands, with rice and a saucer of salt, pepper and lime. Overcooking is the usual failure: crab left in the wok too long turns dry and stringy. Chef's tip: buy crabs already killed and cleaned by the fishmonger, or frozen cut crab, and throw out any piece that smells off; cook just until the shells turn bright orange and the meat is opaque right through.

30 min

Cambodian Fish

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Trey aing (grilled fish with lemongrass)

Around Siem Reap and the floating villages of the Tonlé Sap, weekend outings mean a bamboo picnic hut by the water and a whole fish grilled over charcoal in a wire basket. The fish is stuffed and rubbed with lemongrass, garlic and salt, so the skin blisters and smokes while the white flesh stays moist; diners pull off flakes and wrap them in lettuce with mint, basil, sliced cucumber and sour green mango, then dunk the parcel in a garlicky lime dip with crushed peanuts. Snakehead or tilapia are the usual fish, but sea bass or bream are excellent. Turning the fish too soon is the classic misstep; the skin tears and sticks to the grill. Chef's tip: oil the fish and the basket well, then leave it alone until the underside releases by itself, about 10 minutes.

45 min

Cambodian Fish

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FlijaLayered batter pie

Flija is the dish of long summer afternoons in Kosovo, from the Rugova valley to the villages around Prizren, when friends gather and take turns tending the saç, a domed iron lid heaped with embers. Thin batter is painted onto a round tray in spokes, cooked under the heat, brushed with a mix of sour cream and yogurt, then painted again, until 15 or more layers have built up over a couple of hours. Cut into wedges, it is chewy, buttery and lightly scorched, served with honey, white cheese, pickled peppers or a bowl of yogurt. At home, a very hot oven grill stands in for the saç. The most frequent mistake is crowding the batter: each spoke must leave a finger-wide gap for the next layer to fill, or the pie becomes a thick, gummy pancake. Chef's tip: keep the batter as thin as single cream, and whisk in a spoonful of water whenever it thickens as it stands.

240 minBalkan Baking

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Burmese pork curry

Glistening under a layer of brick-red oil, pork curry sits at the front of every Yangon htamin zain, the rice-and-curry shops where office workers queue at lunchtime and point at pots. Chunks of pork belly and shoulder are cooked very slowly in a paste of onion, garlic and ginger until the meat is spoon-tender, the fat has melted into the sauce and the oil floats free on top. It tastes savoury and gently sweet rather than fiery, and arrives with plain rice, a sour leaf soup, boiled vegetables and a dish of fish-paste dip. People often fry the onion paste too fast; it scorches before the water has cooked out and the curry turns bitter, so keep the heat at a steady medium. Chef's tip: the curry tastes even better the next day, when the pork has soaked up the sauce; lift off a little of the oil before reheating if you prefer it leaner.

120 min

Burmese Curries

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Lao fish soup with dill

Restaurants on stilts over the Mekong at Pakse, where the Xe Don river joins it, serve tom pa at lunch in big communal bowls, and southern Lao families make it at home whenever the market has fresh river fish. Chunks of fish poach gently in a clear broth fragrant with lemongrass, galangal and lime leaf, soured with tomato and lime and finished with a generous fistful of dill, an herb Lao cooks use far more than their neighbours. The result is light, tangy and aromatic, with soft fish and a whisper of chilli heat; spoon it over sticky rice or sip it between mouthfuls of jeow. Boiling hard once the fish goes in is the mistake to watch, as the pieces break up and the broth turns cloudy. Chef's tip: add the dill only when the pot is off the heat, so it stays green and sweet.

30 min

Lao Soups

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Burmese pea fried rice

Ask almost anyone from Yangon what they ate for breakfast as a child and the answer is often this: last night's rice, fried in a hot wok with soft boiled peas and plenty of onion, eaten before school with a glass of hot green tea. It is pale, gently savoury and comforting rather than spicy, with the peas bursting creamy against slightly crisp grains of rice. Families add a few slices of cucumber on the side and a spoon of crispy onions, and some cooks toss in a pinch of turmeric for colour. The usual error is using freshly cooked rice, which clumps and steams instead of frying. Chef's tip: crumble the cold rice with damp hands before it goes in the wok, so every grain hits the hot oil separately.

20 min

Burmese Breakfast & Brunch

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Khmer red chicken curry

When a Cambodian family celebrates (a wedding, Khmer New Year, the Pchum Ben days in autumn), a big pot of red curry is usually on the stove, and in Phnom Penh it is just as likely to be eaten for breakfast from a street stall with a crusty baguette for mopping. It is a gentle, fragrant curry rather than a fiery one: chicken on the bone simmered in coconut milk with a red kroeung of dried chillies, lemongrass and galangal, plus chunks of sweet potato, aubergine and long beans that soak up the orange-tinged sauce. Dropping all the vegetables in at once is the error to avoid; the aubergine collapses before the sweet potato is cooked. Chef's tip: make it a few hours ahead or the day before, as the flavours deepen and the sauce settles into a silky, spoonable gravy.

75 min

Cambodian Curries

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FlødebollerChocolate marshmallow wafer treats

Flødeboller, 'cream buns', are Denmark's favourite party sweet: a soft, fluffy meringue foam piped onto a thin wafer or marzipan base and dipped in dark chocolate, so it bites like a cloud in a crisp shell. Children take them to school on birthdays, and Copenhagen chocolatiers make fancy versions with liquorice or raspberry. This version uses a cooked sugar-syrup meringue, so the egg whites are heated safely. A common mistake is dipping warm foam into chocolate; it melts and slides. Chef's tip: chill the piped foam well, then pour the chocolate over rather than dipping, which is easier and gives a smooth shell. For gluten free, use marzipan bases.

80 minScandinavian Desserts

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Kyay oh

Served bubbling in a small brass pot, which is what kyay oh means, this Chinese-Burmese soup fills the late-night noodle shops of Yangon's Chinatown and the busy breakfast places of Mandalay. A clear, peppery pork broth carries thin rice noodles, springy hand-rolled pork balls, sliced pork, tender greens and an egg cracked in at the last moment so it poaches in the pot. Garlic oil, white pepper and a side of vinegar with chopped chilli keep each spoonful sharp and warming. The pitfall is boiling the broth hard once the pork balls are in; they toughen and the soup turns cloudy, so keep it at a gentle bubble. Chef's tip: slap the pork mince against the bowl for a minute before shaping; it gives the balls their bouncy, almost crunchy texture.

60 min

Burmese Soups

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Burmese gourd fritters

Afternoon fry stalls along the lanes of downtown Yangon sell these by the paper cone, golden sticks of bottle gourd still crackling from the wok, and they are the fritter most people choose to dunk into a breakfast bowl of mohinga. Inside the thin rice-flour shell, the gourd steams until soft and almost juicy, mild and slightly sweet against the crunchy, salty coating. A tangy tamarind sauce with garlic and chilli is the usual partner. The classic failure is a thick, gluey batter that hides the vegetable and goes chewy within minutes; it should be as thin as single cream. Chef's tip: add a few drops of lime juice and ice-cold water to the batter just before frying; the cold keeps the coating light and crisp.

30 min

Burmese Snacks & Starters

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Salted egg chicken

Zi char stalls, the cook-to-order kitchens at the back of Singapore's coffee shops, made salted egg yolk sauce famous with crab and prawns, and the chicken version has become a dinner-table favourite with families who order three or four dishes to share with rice. Crisp, double-fried pieces of thigh are tossed through a sandy, frothy sauce of salted duck egg yolks foamed in butter with curry leaves and bird's eye chilli, so every nook is coated in something rich, savoury and faintly sweet. Serve it straight away with plain rice and a simple stir-fried green vegetable to balance the richness. The most common mistake is adding the yolks to butter that is too hot: they scorch, turn grainy and never foam. Chef's tip: mash the steamed yolks through a sieve while they are still warm, so they melt into a smooth, frothy coating.

45 min

Singaporean Chicken

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Hainanese curry rice

Late-night and early-morning crowds in Tiong Bahru, Beo Crescent and Jalan Besar know the drill at a Hainanese curry rice stall: point at what you want, then ask for it "banjir", flooded. A plate of white rice disappears under two gravies, a mild, coconut-rich curry with soft potato and chicken, and a dark, five-spice braising sauce, then gets topped with crumbed fried pork chop, braised cabbage and a runny-edged fried egg. It is messy, comforting and salty-sweet, and leftovers taste even better the next day. The usual mistake is a thin, watery curry; it should be thick enough to cling to the rice, so let the potatoes break down a little and reduce the gravy well. Chef's tip: crush cream crackers rather than using breadcrumbs for the pork chop, as the old Hainanese cooks do; they fry up shatteringly crisp and stay that way under the gravy.

70 min

Singaporean Rice & Grains

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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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Teochew fish soup

Office workers in the CBD form long lunch queues for a dish that looks almost plain: a bowl of clear, sweet broth with thick slices of batang (Spanish mackerel), wedges of tomato, silken tofu, lettuce and a little salted vegetable, served with rice or thick rice noodles. Good stalls simmer fish bones for hours, but at home a well-flavoured stock and plenty of ginger get you close in half an hour. The fish should be just set and springy, the broth light, gently tangy from tomato and savoury from fish sauce. Most home versions go wrong by boiling the slices hard, which breaks them up and turns them chalky; they need only a few minutes at a gentle simmer. Chef's tip: toss the fish slices with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of tapioca starch before cooking, which keeps them silky and stops them falling apart.

30 min

Singaporean Soups

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Singapore-style fried vermicelli

Despite the name, nobody in Singapore grew up on this: sing chau chau mai was invented in Hong Kong's cha chaan teng and Cantonese kitchens, where a little curry powder and a hot wok turn thin rice vermicelli golden-yellow. It is tossed with strips of char siu (Cantonese barbecued pork), prawns, egg ribbons, peppers, onion and bean sprouts, and comes out dry, springy and fragrant with a gentle curry warmth. Diners order it for lunch with a glass of iced lemon tea. A classic misstep is soaking the vermicelli too long in hot water, so it breaks into short, mushy bits in the wok; soak it in cold water until just pliable. Chef's tip: toast the curry powder in the oil for a few seconds before the noodles go in, so it tastes rounded rather than raw and dusty.

25 min

Hong Kong Pasta & Noodles

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Gu lou yuk (Cantonese sweet and sour pork)

Ask a Hong Kong family what they order at a dai pai dong for the children, and gu lou yuk is near the top: nuggets of pork shoulder fried twice until shatteringly crisp, then tossed at the last moment with pineapple, green and red pepper and onion in a shiny, tangy, scarlet sauce. Cantonese cooks in Guangzhou and Hong Kong have made it for well over a century, and it is a fixture of wedding banquets and takeaway menus worldwide. Eat it fresh with steamed rice while the coating still crunches. A common pitfall is simmering the pork in the sauce, which turns the crust soggy within a minute; thicken the sauce first, then toss for a few seconds only. Chef's tip: the second, hotter fry is what makes it crisp, so don't skip it.

45 min

Hong Kong Meat

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Kampot pepper and lime dip

Every table in Kampot and along the crab-shack pier at Kep gets a saucer of tuk mrech, and diners mix their own: a heap of salt, a spoonful of freshly cracked local pepper and a squeeze of lime. It is sharp, salty and floral-hot, with none of the sweetness of most Khmer dips, and it is meant for dragging grilled corn, griddled tofu, fried eggs or a pepper crab through. Kampot pepper carries a protected geographical indication and tastes fruity and resinous rather than just hot; any good whole black peppercorns work, but pre-ground pepper does not. People often get it wrong by grinding the pepper to dust, which turns the dip muddy and bitter, or by mixing it hours ahead so the lime goes flat. Chef's tip: warm the peppercorns in a dry pan for a minute before cracking them, and squeeze the lime straight into the saucer at the table so it stays fresh and zingy.

6 min

Cambodian Chutneys & Dips

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KletskoppenLacy almond biscuits

Kletskoppen are the lacy, crackly biscuits of Bruges, sold in the old city's bakeries and served with coffee in the cafés around the Markt: brown sugar, butter and chopped almonds with very little flour (this version uses none), baked until they spread into thin, see-through, toffee-flavoured lace. A common mistake is putting them too close on the tray; they spread enormously and join up. Chef's tip: let them cool for a minute on the tray before lifting, and drape them over a rolling pin while still warm if you want curved tuiles.

30 min

Belgian Baking

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FlatkökurRye flatbread

Flatkökur are round, flat rye breads that Icelanders char straight on the hot plate of the stove, or over a gas flame, until they are speckled black and smoky; they are eaten buttered, with smoked lamb (hangikjöt) or cheese, at every Christmas and confirmation and in lunchboxes all year. The dough is made with boiling water so it is soft and easy to roll. A common mistake is letting the dough cool before rolling; scalded rye dough stiffens and cracks. Chef's tip: roll it while warm and prick all over with a fork so it stays flat as it chars.

30 minScandinavian Breads & Parathas

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FlódniFour-layer poppy seed and fruit pastry

Four stripes of filling, black poppy seed, golden apple, nutty walnut and dark plum jam, stacked between thin sheets of shortcrust: that is flódni, the Hungarian-Jewish pastry of Budapest's old Jewish quarter around Kazinczy and Dob streets. Jewish families bake it for Purim and Hanukkah, and the bakeries of the seventh district sell it by the slab all year. Each cut slice should be moist, dense and not too sweet, best with a glass of tea or black coffee. Many families make the dough with a little sweet white wine and use margarine so it can follow a meat meal; this version keeps it alcohol-free with grape juice, and you can swap the butter for a firm baking margarine to make it dairy-free. The usual slip is rolling the sheets too thick, so the pastry swamps the fillings; each one should be barely 3 mm. Chef's tip: bake it a day ahead and slice it cold with a hot, wet knife, because the layers settle overnight and cut cleanly.

150 min

Hungarian Baking

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White cut chicken with ginger-scallion oil

No Cantonese celebration in Hong Kong or Guangdong is complete without a plate of baak chit gai: at Lunar New Year, weddings and ancestor offerings, the whole chicken stands for family togetherness. It is the purest of the poached dishes, with pale, springy skin, a thin layer of jelly beneath it from the ice-water plunge, and smooth, juicy meat, all lifted by a dipping bowl of ginger and spring onion sizzled with hot oil and salt. Serve it at room temperature with rice cooked in the poaching stock. Old-style cooks leave it pink at the bone, but here the chicken is always cooked until the thickest part of the thigh reads 74 °C. The biggest error is boiling hard, which splits the skin; the water should only shiver. Chef's tip: grate the ginger finely and squeeze out a little of its juice, or the oil turns watery and bitter.

75 min

Hong Kong Chicken

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Cantonese roast goose

Drive out along the coast road to Sham Tseng in the New Territories and the restaurants there have been roasting geese for generations; Hong Kongers make the trip for a plate of it with lai fun noodles, or order a half goose for a family dinner. The skin is thin, crisp and deep mahogany, the meat dark, rich and juicy, scented from the inside with five-spice, bean paste and garlic. Sour plum sauce cuts through the fat. This home version uses an oven-ready goose (head already removed, as it is sold), dried overnight and roasted in a domestic oven. A frequent slip is roasting a goose straight from the wrapper: without its overnight drying and a glaze, the skin stays leathery. Chef's tip: pour off the rendered fat as it collects; it is superb for roasting potatoes or frying rice.

180 min

Hong Kong Meat

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Steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce

Small saucers of pork spare ribs, chopped into bite-sized chunks and glistening with fermented black bean and garlic, come out of every Hong Kong teahouse steamer from dawn until lunch. Done right, the meat is plump and tender, slips off the little bone with your chopsticks, and sits in a salty, garlicky, faintly sweet juice that is wonderful spooned over rice. At home it makes an easy weeknight dish with rice and some blanched choi sum. The mistake to avoid is skipping the rinse: soak the ribs in cold water first to draw out the blood, otherwise the sauce turns grey and murky. Chef's tip: ask the butcher to chop the ribs into 3 cm pieces across the bone, and add a little potato starch to the marinade, which gives the teahouse silky coating.

40 min

Hong Kong Meat

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Bean curd skin rolls with oyster sauce

A tea-house regular, fu pei guen arrive at Hong Kong dim sum tables in small steamer dishes, sitting in a pool of dark, glossy oyster sauce gravy. The bean curd skin is fried first, so it blisters and wrinkles, then it is braised until it turns soft and silky and soaks up the sauce, while the pork, bamboo shoot and mushroom filling inside stays juicy. The flavour is savoury and gently sweet, best with rice or between har gow and siu mai at Sunday yum cha. A splash of Shaoxing rice wine seasons the filling; there is an alcohol-free swap in the list. Where most home cooks go wrong is soaking the dried bean curd sheets in water, which turns them to rags; wipe them with a damp cloth instead so they just become supple. Chef's tip: make the rolls a day ahead, fry them, and braise them just before serving.

60 min

Hong Kong Snacks & Starters

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Pe pyot (boiled yellow peas)

Before the city wakes, pe pyot sellers pedal through Yangon's townships calling out from bicycle baskets of warm, steaming peas, scooping portions into leaf parcels for families to eat with fried rice, flatbreads or toasted naan. Dried yellow or white peas are soaked overnight and simmered until creamy inside but still whole, then seasoned simply with salt and a spoon of oil fried with shallots. The flavour is mellow, earthy and slightly sweet, and the texture is soft and fluffy, like a good baked potato. Too much bicarbonate of soda is the common slip: a pinch softens the skins, but more turns the peas to soapy mush. Chef's tip: make a double batch; pe pyot keeps for three days in the fridge and turns tomorrow's leftover rice into pea fried rice.

60 min

Burmese Breakfast & Brunch

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Pandan chiffon cake

No Singapore birthday table, office tea or visit to grandma's feels complete without a pandan chiffon cake, the pale green ring sold whole at heritage bakeries and neighbourhood confectioners and carried home in a box, and travellers fly home with one in their hand luggage. The crumb is cottony and springy, moist from coconut milk, and the flavour comes from juice squeezed from blended pandan leaves: grassy, vanilla-like and faintly nutty. It is served plain, in tall wedges, with kopi or tea. The usual mistake is greasing the tube pan; a chiffon needs to cling to bare metal to climb, and cooling it upside down is what keeps it tall. Chef's tip: beat the egg whites only to firm, glossy peaks that curl over at the tip; stiff, dry whites won't fold in smoothly and leave white streaks and holes.

80 min

Singaporean Baking

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Steamed scallops with garlic and glass noodles

At the seafood stalls of Sai Kung and Lei Yue Mun, diners pick shellfish from the tanks and the kitchen sends them back in minutes: scallops on the half shell, each sitting on a nest of glass noodles under a heap of garlic, half fried golden and half left raw, steamed just until the scallop turns opaque, then finished with a splash of soy and a hiss of hot oil over spring onions. The noodles soak up all the sweet juices, the scallop is soft and barely firm, and the garlic is both mellow and sharp. Serve one or two each as a starter. Use only very fresh scallops: discard any that smell off or have cracked or broken shells. Most people overcook them; a large scallop needs only 5 to 6 minutes. Chef's tip: frying half the garlic and keeping half raw is the restaurant trick for deep, rounded garlic flavour.

25 min

Hong Kong Fish

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Wu gok (crispy taro dumplings)

Few dim sum crack like wu gok: the shell of mashed taro puffs in the fryer into a golden, honeycomb lace so delicate it shatters at a touch, giving way to a soft, nutty taro layer and a juicy filling of diced pork, shiitake and oyster sauce. Hong Kong teahouses fry them to order through the morning and they are a must at Lunar New Year banquets. Eat them straight away, with a pot of jasmine tea to cut the richness. Lard is the traditional fat in the taro dough; vegetable shortening works too. The classic failure is oil that is too cool or too hot: below about 170 °C the dumplings fall apart, above 190 °C they brown before the lace forms. Chef's tip: chill the shaped dumplings for half an hour so the dough is firm and the lace blooms evenly.

90 min

Hong Kong Snacks & Starters

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Shan pickled mustard greens

Jars of sour, olive-gold mustard greens sit on every noodle stall in Shan State, from Kengtung to the five-day markets around Inle Lake, and families keep a crock going through the cool season. The greens are wilted, rubbed with salt and packed under cloudy water saved from rinsing rice; its starch feeds the natural fermentation, and after a few days the leaves turn crunchy, tangy and pleasantly funky. A spoonful goes on top of Shan noodles, beside sticky rice, into soups, or stir-fried with garlic and chilli as a side dish. Leaves poking above the brine are the main thing that goes wrong, since that is where mould starts; keep everything pressed under the liquid. Chef's tip: use the cloudiest rice water from the first rinse, and add a spoon of cooked rice to get the souring going faster.

30 min

Burmese Sides

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Almond tea

Despite the name, there's no tea in hang yan cha, and almonds play no part either: Hong Kong's version is ground from sweet apricot kernels, the 'southern almonds' sold loose in Chinese herbal shops. Old-style dessert shops in Yau Ma Tei and Sheung Wan ladle it hot from big pots after dinner, sometimes with a black sesame swirl, and grandmothers make it for coughs in the dry winter months. It is pale, creamy and smooth as single cream, with a perfumed, marzipan-like aroma and a gentle sweetness from rock sugar. A grainy texture comes from skipping the straining, so press the blended mixture through muslin. Chef's tip: stir constantly once it's on the heat; the rice starch catches on the bottom of the pan within seconds and gives the whole pot a scorched taste.

50 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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Burmese pennywort salad

Myin khwa, 'horse's hoof', is the Burmese name for pennywort, after the shape of its round leaves, and Mandalay grandmothers swear by a plate of it to cool the body during the hot months before the monsoon. The fresh leaves are slightly bitter and grassy, a little like watercress, and they are tossed by hand with toasted chickpea flour, crushed peanuts, crunchy fried garlic and its oil, lime juice, tomato and sliced onion. The salad is served as a side to rich curries, where its clean sourness cuts through the oil. Wet leaves ruin it: the dressing slides off and turns watery, so dry them completely after washing. Chef's tip: look for pennywort sold as gotu kola at Asian and Sri Lankan grocers; young watercress makes a fair stand-in.

20 min

Burmese Salads

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Bayagyaw (split pea fritters)

Every Yangon tea shop worth its sweet milky tea keeps a tray of these by the counter from dawn, and hawkers sell them by the bag at bus stops. Soaked yellow split peas are ground until coarse, mixed with sliced onion, chilli and a spoon of rice flour, then dropped into hot oil as thin, ragged patties that fry up shatteringly crisp at the edges and nutty in the middle. People snap them into bowls of mohinga, crumble them over noodle and rice salads, or eat them plain with a sharp chilli-garlic vinegar. Blending the peas to a smooth paste is the trap: you lose the gritty texture that makes them crunch and the fritters turn dense. Chef's tip: soak the peas the night before, and fry a test fritter first; if it falls apart, stir in another spoon of rice flour.

40 min

Burmese Snacks & Starters

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FlæskestegRoast pork with crackling

Flæskesteg is the Danish Christmas Eve roast: a pork loin or belly with its rind scored deep, rubbed with salt and bay, and roasted until the crackling puffs into crisp, golden ridges. This is a pork dish. It is served with brunede kartofler, red cabbage, plain boiled potatoes and gravy, and the crackling is the prize everyone fights over. A common mistake is scoring the rind too shallow or not all the way across, so it cracks unevenly. Chef's tip: start the joint rind-down in a little boiling water for 20 minutes, which softens the rind, then turn it up and roast; it crackles evenly. Whole pork joints are safe at 63 °C followed by a 15-minute rest.

140 minScandinavian Meat

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Singapore curry puff

Spiral curry puffs are a tea-time thing in Singapore, picked up warm in paper bags from Malay kueh stalls at Geylang Serai, from heritage bakeries in Tiong Bahru, or eaten at the 4 pm break with teh tarik. The pastry is the point: two doughs rolled together into a log, sliced, and rolled out so that the cut edge shows tight spirals that shatter into crisp layers when fried. Inside is a soft, peppery filling of potato and onion cooked with curry powder and curry leaves. Shops also sell versions with chicken and a wedge of hard-boiled egg; this one keeps to potato and uses vegetable shortening so the pastry stays dairy-free. The usual mistake is frying in oil that is too hot, which browns the outside while the inner layers stay doughy; a steady medium heat lets the spirals open. Chef's tip: let the filling cool completely and keep it fairly dry, or steam from the potato will burst the seams in the oil.

100 min

Singaporean Snacks & Starters

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Steamed custard buns (lau sa bao)

Tear one open at a Hong Kong yum cha table and a stream of golden, buttery custard runs out, which is exactly why the name means 'flowing sand'. The filling is sweet and salty at once, grainy with mashed salted duck egg yolk and rich with butter and milk powder, wrapped in a snow-white, cotton-soft bun. Teahouses from Central to Mong Kok bring them out in bamboo baskets of three, usually near the end of the meal with a pot of pu'er or chrysanthemum tea. Most failures happen when the filling goes into the dough soft: it smears, leaks through the seams and never turns runny inside. Chef's tip: freeze the filling balls until rock hard before wrapping, then serve the buns within a few minutes of steaming, while the butter is still liquid.

120 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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African chicken (Macanese galinha africana)

Macau restaurants have served galinha africana since the 1940s, and the story most often told is that a hotel chef in the city created it from spices that Portuguese sailors brought back from Mozambique and Angola. Today it is a signature at Macanese and Portuguese restaurants from Taipa village to Coloane, eaten at long weekend lunches with rice or crusty bread. Chicken pieces are marinated, grilled until charred, then baked under a thick, brick-coloured sauce of ground peanuts, coconut milk, chilli, paprika, garlic and onion that is rich, nutty and quietly fiery. It is often made with a pale, timid sauce; cook the onion, garlic and paprika slowly until really deep red before the coconut goes in. Chef's tip: marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge so the garlic and chilli reach the bone.

75 min

Macanese Chicken

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Red bean soup

Hong Kong Cantonese restaurants often send out a small bowl of hung dau sa on the house at the end of a banquet dinner, and dessert shops in Mong Kok serve it hot in winter and chilled with ice in summer. Long simmering breaks the adzuki beans down into a thick, velvety soup, part smooth and part whole beans, scented with the faintly bitter citrus of aged tangerine peel and sweetened with clean-tasting rock sugar. Some add a spoonful of coconut milk, lotus seeds or little glutinous rice balls. Adding the sugar too early is the common misstep, because it keeps the bean skins tough so they never collapse. Chef's tip: soak the beans, then freeze them in their soaking water for a few hours; the ice crystals crack the skins and halve the simmering time.

120 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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BidosReindeer stew

Bidos is the festive stew of the Sámi, the reindeer-herding people of the far north of Norway, Sweden and Finland: reindeer meat simmered slowly in a clear broth with potatoes and carrots, seasoned only with salt and pepper so the gamey meat shines. It is served at Sámi weddings and confirmations, and at Easter festivals in Kautokeino and Karasjok. Reindeer is sold frozen in Nordic shops; beef chuck or venison works too. A common mistake is adding the potatoes at the start, so they fall apart before the meat is tender. Chef's tip: thicken the broth only lightly with a spoon of flour if you like; traditionally it is clear and thin.

150 minScandinavian Curries

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Flaki po warszawskuBeef tripe soup

Warsaw's old milk bars and wedding receptions share one great soup: flaki, a peppery tripe broth scented with marjoram, nutmeg and ginger, served piping hot, traditionally late at night to revive tired guests. The Warsaw version adds tender beef meatballs (pulpety) and plenty of julienned root vegetables, so it is heartier than the plain flaki of other regions. Tripe has a soft, slightly chewy bite and soaks up the warm spices. Buy cleaned, blanched beef tripe from a butcher. A mistake that ruins many pots is skipping the first blanching: without it the soup smells strongly and never tastes clean. Make it a day ahead if you can; it improves overnight. Chef's tip: add the marjoram twice, a spoon during cooking and a generous pinch rubbed between your palms just before serving, which is what gives Warsaw flaki its signature smell.

240 min

Polish Soups

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Flamiche dinantaiseStrong cheese tart

The flamiche of Dinant is eaten only one way: straight from the oven, so hot it burns the fingers, as the townspeople say. It is a rich, wobbly tart of strong fresh boulette or Herve-style cheese beaten with eggs and plenty of butter on a thin yeasted base, and Dinant's 'Confrérie de la Flamiche' still holds an annual tasting. Boulette and Herve cheeses are usually made with animal rennet; a strong vegetarian soft cheese mixed with fromage frais works. A common mistake is letting it cool; it sets and loses its creaminess. Chef's tip: serve it the moment the top puffs and turns golden.

60 min

Belgian Vegetarian

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Flygande JacobChicken, banana and bacon bake

Flygande Jacob, 'flying Jacob', was invented in 1976 by Ove Jacobsson, an air-freight worker, and the recipe appeared in a Swedish magazine; within years it was one of the most-made party dishes in Sweden. Cooked chicken is mixed with whipped cream and chilli sauce, layered with sliced banana, baked, then topped with crisp bacon and salted peanuts and served with rice. This dish contains pork, in the bacon. It is sweet, salty and creamy, and gloriously retro. A common mistake is using raw chicken, which leaks juice and makes the sauce thin. Chef's tip: use roast chicken from the day before; it must already be cooked to 74 °C.

45 minScandinavian Chicken

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Ginger scallion sauce

Every Hong Kong siu mei shop keeps a tub of this pale green relish beside the chopping block, spooned next to white-cut poached chicken over rice or tossed through plain lo mein at late-night dai pai dong stalls. Smoking-hot oil is poured over raw ginger and spring onion, and the sizzle softens their bite into a sweet, salty, fragrant sauce with a gentle heat from the ginger. It is just as good with steamed tofu, plain congee, poached fish or a bowl of rice on its own. Many home cooks blitz everything in a food processor, which bruises the spring onions into a watery paste; chop them by hand instead. Chef's tip: pour the oil while it is properly hot, shimmering and just starting to smoke, so you hear a loud crackle; lukewarm oil leaves the sauce raw and greasy.

10 min

Hong Kong Chutneys & Dips

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Sesame balls (jin deui)

No Hong Kong Lunar New Year feels complete without a plate of jin deui, though dim sum restaurants serve these golden globes every day of the year with morning tea. Each one is a thin, crackly shell of fried glutinous rice dough wrapped in toasted sesame seeds, hollow and chewy inside around a spoonful of red bean or lotus seed paste. They are best eaten within minutes of frying, alongside a pot of tea, when the shell still shatters and the seeds smell nutty. Dropping the balls into very hot oil is the classic error: the seeds scorch before the dough expands, and the balls can burst. Chef's tip: start them in moderately hot oil and keep gently pressing them against the side of the pan with a slotted spoon, which makes them swell and turn hollow.

60 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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Filets de percheFried perch fillets

Filets de perche are the signature dish of the lakeside restaurants around Lake Geneva, from Geneva to Lausanne and Montreux: small, delicate perch fillets dusted with flour, fried quickly in butter until golden, and served with lemon, tartare sauce, a pile of fries and a green salad on a summer terrace. Lake perch is scarce today; ask for responsibly sourced perch or use small fillets of pike-perch or another delicate white fish. A common mistake is crowding the pan, which steams the thin fillets. Chef's tip: fry in batches in foaming butter for just a minute or so a side; the fish is done when opaque and it flakes.

25 min

Swiss Fish

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Water chestnut cake

Dim sum halls across Hong Kong lay out amber squares of water chestnut cake on small plates, and every Lunar New Year home kitchens steam a tray to give away to visitors. Set from water chestnut starch and brown slab sugar, the cake is translucent and gently chewy, flecked with pieces of fresh water chestnut that stay crisp and juicy. It is eaten cold and wobbly in summer, or sliced and pan-fried until the outside forms a caramel crust with a soft centre, with a cup of jasmine or oolong tea. A frequent problem is a lumpy, cloudy cake, which comes from pouring the hot syrup into the starch all at once without stirring. Chef's tip: let the cake set completely, ideally overnight in the fridge, before slicing with a knife dipped in water.

65 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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Siu yuk (Cantonese crispy roast pork belly)

Hanging in the window of every Hong Kong siu mei shop beside the char siu and roast goose, siu yuk is a slab of pork belly whose skin has been roasted into a glassy, bubbled crackling that crunches loudly over juicy, five-spice-seasoned layers of meat and fat. Shops chop it into cubes for rice boxes at lunch, and whole slabs are carried to temples and family altars at Ching Ming and on festival days. Serve it with English-style mustard and a dish of sugar for dipping, plus rice and greens. The usual error is a damp skin: any moisture left on it steams instead of crackles, so the belly must dry uncovered in the fridge overnight. Chef's tip: prick the skin all over with a sharp skewer until it looks like sandpaper; those tiny holes are where the blisters start.

150 min

Hong Kong Meat

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Tainan beef soup

Before dawn in Tainan, workers and night owls fill steamy shops near the slaughterhouse districts for bowls of fresh local beef sliced paper-thin and blanched by a ladle of boiling broth, eaten with rice and a saucer of soy and ginger as a sunrise breakfast. The meat is tender and rosy, the broth clean, sweet and beefy. Traditionally the slices are barely cooked; this recipe gives a safer 30-second dip in simmering broth and a fully cooked option. The pink version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. People often cut the beef too thick, so it toughens before it cooks through; firm it in the freezer and slice it as thin as you can. Chef's tip: bring the broth to a hard, rolling boil right before every ladle; a broth that has dropped off the boil never cooks the beef evenly.

30 min

Taiwanese Soups

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Mango pudding

Wobbling out of fish-shaped moulds at the end of a Hong Kong dim sum lunch, mango pudding is just as popular in small cups from dessert chains, which sell it through the sticky summer months when Philippine and Thai mangoes flood the markets. It's smooth, creamy and full of fruit, with pieces of fresh mango through it and a drizzle of cold evaporated milk on top. Restaurants usually set it with gelatine; this version uses agar, which keeps it vegetarian and sets slightly firmer and cleaner. The problem with agar is impatience: it begins to set below about 40 °C, so cold purée added too slowly turns into lumpy strands. Chef's tip: warm the mango purée before you mix it in, then whisk briskly and pour into the moulds right away.

30 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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Ginger milk curd

Born in the Pearl River Delta town of Shawan in Panyu, Guangdong, ginger milk curd crossed the border to become a favourite of Hong Kong dessert parlours in Jordan and Causeway Bay, ordered hot on a winter night. There's no setting agent: an enzyme in fresh ginger juice curdles hot milk within minutes into a trembling, spoonable custard that's sweet, creamy and warming, with a peppery ginger kick. It is eaten straight from the bowl while still warm, with nothing alongside. Long-life UHT milk is the classic mistake, since its proteins have been changed by the high heat and it simply won't set; use fresh pasteurised whole cow's milk. Chef's tip: use mature, fibrous ginger rather than young pink-tipped ginger, and heat the milk to 70–75 °C, measured with a thermometer.

15 min

Hong Kong Desserts

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