Featured recipe

Sayur lodeh

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

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Mujaddara

Across the Levant, from Tripoli in northern Lebanon to the villages of the Galilee, mujaddara is the thrifty Friday or Lenten supper that nobody tires of: brown lentils and rice cooked together until soft and earthy, then heaped with a tangle of onions fried until mahogany and crisp. It costs very little, keeps well, and is eaten warm or at room temperature with a cucumber-yogurt salad, plain yogurt for non-vegans, or a sharp cabbage salad. The onions do all the seasoning, so be generous. Chef's tip: fry the onions in batches with room to spare in the pan; crowded onions steam and go soft instead of turning crisp.

60 min

Lebanese Rice & Grains

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Uzbek chuchvara

In Tashkent, chuchvara is the little cousin of manti: dumplings no bigger than a thumbnail, folded around a peppery lamb-and-beef filling and dropped into clear meat broth. Families make them in big batches on a slow weekend, freeze trays of them, and eat bowls through the winter with a spoonful of suzma (strained yogurt) or sour cream and lots of dill. The dough is thin and firm, the filling juicy with grated onion, and the broth light enough to drink. Many home cooks roll the dough too thick, which turns the dumplings stodgy; aim for a sheet you can just see the board through. Chef's tip: freeze the shaped dumplings on a floured tray before bagging them, so they stay separate and cook straight from frozen.

105 min

Uzbek Soups

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Ka'ak (sesame bread)

On the streets of Beirut, vendors push wooden carts stacked with ka'ak, a chewy, sesame-crusted bread shaped like a handbag with a hole for a handle; in Jerusalem's Old City the same bread comes as long oval rings sold by the gate. Buyers ask for it split open and filled with a pinch of za'atar or a wedge of soft white cheese, and eat it on the way to work or school. The crust gets its deep amber colour from a quick dip in sweetened water before the sesame goes on, and the crumb inside stays soft and slightly sweet. Chef's tip: toast the sesame seeds lightly in a dry pan before coating; they stick better once cool and taste nutty rather than raw.

120 min

Lebanese Baking

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Fatteh with chickpeas

Fattet hummus belongs to Damascus, where breakfast restaurants in the old city serve it in deep bowls on Friday mornings, and it has spread to Beirut's Sunday tables too. The name comes from fatt, to break up, for the toasted flatbread at the bottom, which is topped with warm chickpeas in their broth, then a thick, garlicky sauce of yogurt and tahini, and finally sizzling pine nuts in butter or oil with a dust of paprika and cumin. The contrast is the point: crunchy and soft, hot and cool. Assembling it too early is the common mistake, since the bread soaks up the sauce and goes soggy; build it just before eating. Chef's tip: let the yogurt come to room temperature first, so it doesn't cool the chickpeas down too much and the bowl stays warm.

30 min

Lebanese Breakfast & Brunch

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Ful medames

Ful mudammas is breakfast on both sides of the Levant: Cairo's street carts ladle it from huge copper pots at dawn, and in Beirut and Damascus small ful shops serve it on Sunday mornings to queues of families. Small brown fava beans are warmed in their liquid, partly crushed, then dressed at the table with garlic pounded with salt, plenty of lemon and cumin, a pool of olive oil and a heap of chopped tomato and parsley. Scoop it with flatbread and eat it with raw onion wedges, radishes, olives and mint. The mistake most people make is draining the beans and dressing them dry; the cooking liquid is what makes ful creamy, so keep some. Chef's tip: mash only about a third of the beans, so the dish is part silky purée and part whole bean.

20 min

Lebanese Breakfast & Brunch

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Kolokithokeftedes

Kolokithokeftedes are what happens to a glut of courgettes in a Greek summer: grated, squeezed, mixed with feta, spring onion, mint and dill, and fried into crisp little patties. Tavernas serve them as a meze with a bowl of tzatziki, and at home they are a light dinner with salad. Outside they are golden and crunchy; inside they stay soft and herby. Use feta labelled vegetarian. Chef's tip: squeeze the salted courgette until it's almost dry; wet courgette is the usual mistake and makes fritters that spit, soak up oil and fall apart.

40 min

Greek Snacks & Starters

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Ajiaco santafereño

On cold, drizzly afternoons in Bogotá, high up in the Andes, families sit down to ajiaco: a thick chicken soup made with three kinds of potato. Small yellow papas criollas melt away and thicken the broth, while waxy and floury potatoes keep some bite. Guascas, a dried herb with a grassy, artichoke-like taste, gives the soup its unmistakable flavour, and each bowl comes with corn on the cob, a spoon of cream, capers and slices of avocado to add at the table. A frequent mistake is adding all the potatoes at once; the papas criollas go in first so they can dissolve, the firmer ones later. Chef's tip: if you can't find guascas in a Latin shop, use a mix of dried oregano and a little dried thyme; the soup will still be good, just less Bogotá.

100 min

Colombian Soups

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Man'oushe jibneh

On the street corners of Beirut and Tripoli the cheese man'oushe, bi jibneh, is the one children queue for: the same soft bakery dough as the za'atar kind but covered with salty white akkawi cheese mixed with stretchy mozzarella and a scatter of nigella seeds, baked until the cheese bubbles and freckles brown. It is a weekend breakfast and an after-school snack, eaten folded with a few slices of tomato and a sprig of mint. Akkawi is very salty, and the usual mistake is to use it straight from the packet, which makes the bread almost inedible; soak it first. Check the label for a vegetarian (microbial) rennet; many supermarket mozzarellas and some halloumis use it, and halloumi works if you can't find akkawi. Chef's tip: grate the cheese coarsely and keep a 1 cm bare rim, so the edge puffs up into a crisp border that holds the melted cheese in.

90 min

Lebanese Breads & Parathas

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Sándwich cubano

This is a pork sandwich. The Cubano was the lunch of cigar workers going between Havana and Tampa, and Miami's Little Havana cafés still press it to order on a hot plancha. Soft Cuban bread is layered with mojo roast pork, boiled ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles and yellow mustard, then flattened and toasted until the cheese melts and the crust shatters. It is the best use of leftover lechón asado. Drink it with a café cubano. The usual mistake is pressing on too high a heat, which burns the bread before the middle is hot. Chef's tip: butter the outside of the bread, not the inside, and weigh it down with a heavy pan so it crisps evenly.

20 min

Cuban Fast Food

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Man'oushe za'atar

Ask anyone from Beirut what breakfast is and the answer is often man'oushe bi za'atar: a round of soft dough pressed with fingertips, spread with a paste of za'atar and olive oil and baked in the corner bakery's hot oven, then folded in paper and eaten on the way to school or work. At home it is rolled around sliced tomato, cucumber, olives and fresh mint. The most common mistake is too little oil in the topping, which leaves the za'atar dry and dusty, or baking it too long so the herbs scorch and turn bitter; the paste should be loose and spreadable and the bread pulled out once the rim is just golden. Chef's tip: get the oven and tray properly hot, at its highest setting for 20 minutes, so the dough puffs and blisters before the topping has time to burn.

90 min

Lebanese Breads & Parathas

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Arroz con pollo cubano

Cuban arroz con pollo is the one-pot Sunday lunch of the island, and every abuela in Santiago or Havana has her own way with it. Chicken pieces are browned, then the rice cooks right in the pot with sofrito, a pinch of saffron (or bijol, the annatto colouring most Cuban kitchens use) and stock until each grain is golden and moist, almost creamy. Peas and roasted red peppers go on top at the end. It is eaten with fried ripe plantain and a green salad. Many versions add a splash of beer to the pot; this one uses chicken stock only, so it is alcohol-free. The usual mistake is stirring the rice once it is covered, which breaks the grains and makes it gluey. Chef's tip: let the pot rest off the heat with the lid on for 10 minutes before serving, so the rice finishes softening in its own steam.

75 min

Cuban Chicken

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Lechón asado

This is a pork dish. In Cuba a whole pig is roasted for Nochebuena, Christmas Eve, and for big family parties, often in a pit in the yard; at home in Miami or Havana the same flavour comes from a pork shoulder soaked overnight in mojo, the sour-orange, garlic and oregano marinade. The meat roasts slowly until it pulls apart, and the skin turns to crackling. Serve it with moros y cristianos, yuca con mojo and a squeeze of lime. A common mistake is leaving the shoulder in the marinade on the kitchen counter: it must always marinate in the fridge. Chef's tip: if you can't find sour (Seville) oranges, mix two parts orange juice with one part lime juice for the same sharp edge.

330 min

Cuban Meat

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Pumpkin kibbeh

Kibbet laqteen is the Lenten kibbeh of Lebanon's Christian villages, made in the weeks before Easter when meat is off the table: roasted pumpkin is kneaded with fine bulgur, onion and warm spices into a soft dough, which is pressed in layers around a filling of caramelised onion, chickpeas, spinach and walnuts, then baked in a round tray. It is cut into diamonds and eaten warm or cold, often with a plate of pickles and a bowl of salad. The common slip is a wet pumpkin, which makes the dough too sticky to spread; roast the pumpkin rather than boiling it. Chef's tip: score a deep diamond pattern before baking and pour oil into the cuts, so every piece comes out with crisp edges.

75 min

Lebanese Vegetarian

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Ropa vieja

Ropa vieja means 'old clothes', after the ragged strands the beef falls into, and it is the dish Cubans name first when asked about home cooking. Families in Havana and Camagüey make a big pot on a weekend: flank steak is simmered until soft, pulled into threads and then stewed again in a sofrito of peppers, onion, tomato, cumin and green olives. It is eaten with white rice, black beans and fried ripe plantain, and it tastes even better reheated the next day. The common mistake is cutting the beef across the grain before cooking; leave it whole so it shreds into long strands. Chef's tip: keep the cooking liquid from the first simmer and use it instead of water in the sauce, because it carries most of the beefy flavour.

190 min

Cuban Meat

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Bifana

Lisbon's standing-room snack bars, from the Baixa to the stalls outside football grounds, sell bifanas all day: thin pork steaks simmered in a garlicky, bay-scented sauce and pushed into a soft papo-seco roll with a smear of mustard. It's a pork sandwich, and the pork is traditionally marinated in white wine; for an alcohol-free version use chicken stock with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar. It makes a quick lunch or a late snack. Chef's tip: dip the cut side of the roll into the pan juices before filling it; that's how the bars make them so juicy.

25 min

Portuguese Fast Food

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Fatayer bi sabanekh

Every Lebanese bakery, or furn, sells fatayer bi sabanekh warm from the oven in the morning: soft three-cornered pies filled with spinach that has been salted and squeezed, then mixed with onion, sumac, lemon and olive oil until it is tart enough to make you pucker. They go into school lunch boxes, onto picnic blankets and onto every buffet at Lebanese parties, and they freeze well. The usual problem is a filling that leaks and makes the pies burst open; wring out the spinach hard and seal the seams firmly so they stay closed in the oven. Chef's tip: let the sumac, lemon and onion sit together for ten minutes before adding the spinach so the onion softens and loses its raw bite.

63 min

Lebanese Snacks & Starters

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Bandeja paisa

Bandeja paisa is the farmhouse feast of Antioquia and the coffee region around Medellín, served on an oval platter so big it barely fits on the table. This is a pork dish: crisp chicharrón (fried pork belly) and chorizo sit next to red beans, white rice, seasoned minced beef, a fried egg, ripe plantain, a small arepa and avocado. Paisas eat it for a long Sunday lunch, and restaurants in Medellín serve it every day. It looks like a lot of work, but most parts can be made ahead and finished together. The mistake most people make is frying the pork belly too hot from the start; it needs to simmer in its own fat first, or the outside burns before the inside turns tender. Chef's tip: cook the beans a day ahead; they thicken and taste better, and the day itself is then only frying.

190 min

Colombian Meat

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Uzbek lamb shashlik

Walk past any chaikhana (teahouse) in Samarkand or Bukhara in the evening and you will smell shashlik: chunks of lamb, threaded with little cubes of tail fat, grilled over charcoal and fanned with a piece of cardboard. They arrive on long flat skewers with a heap of raw onion soaked in vinegar, a round of non bread and green tea. The marinade is simple, just onion, cumin, black pepper and salt, so the flavour comes from good lamb and real fire. The usual slip is to pack the meat tightly on the skewer, which steams the middle instead of searing it; leave a little gap between pieces. Chef's tip: grate the onion for the marinade rather than slicing it; the juice tenderises the lamb in a few hours.

40 min

Uzbek Meat

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