Featured recipe

Isijingi

Pumpkin and maize porridge

When the big grey-skinned pumpkins come in at the end of summer, Xhosa grandmothers around Butterworth and Ngcobo stew them down and stir in maize meal to make isijingi, a bright orange porridge that children love and adults secretly do too. It is soft and spoonable, gently sweet from the pumpkin and a little sugar, with the faint corn flavour of the meal underneath. Serve it as a side to beans or a vegetable stew, or eat a bowlful on its own for supper on a cold evening. Watery pumpkin is the classic mistake, so cook the pumpkin until most of its liquid has evaporated before the meal goes in. Chef's tip: use a dense, deep orange pumpkin or butternut, not a watery jack-o'-lantern type, for the sweetest flavour.

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A legacy of the Italian years, bombolino is still part of the morning ritual in Asmara: a warm doughnut rolled in sugar, eaten at a café counter on Harnet Avenue with a small, strong macchiato. Eritrean bombolini are unfilled, either round or ring-shaped, with a pale band around the middle, a feather-light crumb and a hint of lemon in the dough. Bakeries fry them in the early morning and they sell out quickly. At home they make a lovely weekend treat; allow about 1½ hours for the dough to rise and prove. The most common mistake is frying in oil that is too hot, so the outside goes dark while the centre stays doughy; keep it at 170 °C and test the first one. Chef's tip: roll them in sugar while they are still warm, not hot, so the sugar clings without melting.

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55 min

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Kabachkovaya ikraCourgette spread

Late summer at the dacha means a glut of courgettes, and the answer across Russia is this soft orange spread, once sold in glass jars in every Soviet grocery and still made by the potful at home. Courgette, carrot and onion are fried in sunflower oil, stewed with tomato until they collapse, blended and then cooked down again until thick enough to stand on bread. It tastes sweet, mellow and lightly tangy, and is eaten cold on black rye bread, with boiled potatoes or as part of a zakuski spread. A common mistake is stopping too early: if the purée still looks watery it will taste flat, so keep stirring until a spoon leaves a trail across the pan. This is a fridge recipe, not a canning one. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead; the flavour rounds out overnight.

75 min

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BoranoMelted cheese in hot butter

In the hill villages behind Batumi, where cows graze the Adjarian mountains in summer, borano is what a shepherd's family makes when someone drops in: a pan of golden butter, a heap of young cheese melted into it until it turns stretchy and oily, and squares of hot mchadi cornbread to drag through it. It is rich, salty and meant to be shared straight from the pan at the table. A common mistake is using a very hard, dry cheese, which turns grainy and oily instead of stretching. Chef's tip: use clarified butter or ghee so the butter can get really hot without burning, and add the cheese in one layer so it melts evenly. Sulguni and imeruli are often made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian cheese.

15 min

Georgian Snacks & Starters

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Kabab-e-daygiPot-cooked lamb kebab

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120 min

Afghan Meat

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Arroz con dulceCoconut rice pudding

From the start of December to the Three Kings in January, trays of arroz con dulce cool on Puerto Rican kitchen counters, sliced into squares and handed round at parrandas when carollers arrive at the door late at night. Unlike a milky rice pudding, it is cooked in a water steeped with fresh ginger, cinnamon, cloves and star anise, then finished with coconut milk and raisins, so it is fragrant, firm enough to cut and dairy free. The common mistake is adding the sugar too early, which keeps the rice grains hard; sweeten only once they are soft. Chef's tip: soak the rice for an hour first, and it cooks evenly and absorbs the spiced coconut far better.

120 min

Puerto Rican Desserts

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BorșFermented wheat bran sour liquid

Before lemons were common in Moldavian and Wallachian villages, every household kept a crock of borș, the cloudy, tangy liquid that turns a plain soup into a ciorbă. Wheat bran and a little cornmeal are steeped in hot water, seeded with a starter and left to ferment for 3–4 days in total, so although the hands-on work is short, plan a long weekend: the timings shown cover only the first two days of waiting. It is naturally vegan and a staple of the fasting (post) kitchen, where it sours nettle, bean and vegetable ciorbe. Where people go wrong is using a jar that is not properly clean, which lets the wrong microbes win and turns the borș slimy or mouldy. Chef's tip: keep a few spoonfuls of the drained bran, dried, as the starter (huște) for your next batch.

2880 min

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Bossche bolChocolate-dipped cream puff

The Bossche bol is the famous pastry of 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) in North Brabant: a choux bun the size of a tennis ball, filled to bursting with lightly sweetened whipped cream and dipped in glossy dark chocolate. Bakeries like Jan de Groot sell them by the thousand, and you eat it with your hands, leaning over the plate. A common mistake is taking the choux out too early, which makes it collapse. Chef's tip: bake until deep golden, then pierce the base and return to the switched-off oven for 10 minutes to dry out.

60 min

Dutch Baking

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KleinurCardamom twisted doughnuts

Kleinur are the twisted doughnuts of Iceland, fried in big batches and kept in tins for coffee time; Icelandic grandmothers cut the dough into diamonds with a special wheel, slit the centre and pull one end through, so each one twists into a knot. The same pastry is known as klejner in Denmark and klenäter in Sweden, made especially at Christmas. The dough is flavoured with cardamom and enriched with buttermilk. A common mistake is frying at too low a heat, which makes them greasy. Chef's tip: roll the dough thin, about 5 mm, and fry at 175 °C; they puff, brown in a minute and stay light.

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BotvinyaChilled beet leaf and salmon soup

Summer dachas around St Petersburg once waited all year for the young beet tops and sorrel that go into this sharp, ice-cold soup, a grand dish of the old aristocratic table that is also cheap peasant food. Blanched greens are puréed, loosened with bread kvass and studded with cucumber and spring onion; a piece of gently poached salmon is set alongside, with horseradish and lemon. Kvass is lightly fermented and can carry a trace of alcohol: choose one labelled alcohol-free, or use the substitute of sparkling water, a little lemon and rye-bread soaking liquid given in the ingredients. The usual slip is serving it merely cool: it should be properly cold, even with an ice cube in each bowl. Chef's tip: poach the fish the day before so it is thoroughly chilled, and keep the whole soup in the fridge until the minute it goes to the table.

60 min

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BotwinkaYoung beetroot soup

June markets in Kraków and Tarnów are piled with bunches of baby beetroot still wearing their leaves, and those bunches go straight into botwinka. The whole plant is used: the small roots, the rosy stalks and the greens, simmered quickly so the soup stays bright pink and fresh-tasting rather than earthy. It is finished with sour cream, lots of dill and a squeeze of lemon, and often eaten with new potatoes and a halved boiled egg. A common mistake is boiling it for too long, which turns the leaves khaki and dulls the colour. Chef's tip: add the lemon juice before the cream; the acid locks in the ruby colour.

40 min

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JulskinkaChristmas glazed ham

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230 minScandinavian Meat

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BoulouAnise and raisin loaf

After the long Yom Kippur fast, Moroccan families in Beersheba and Dimona break it gently with tea and slices of boulou, a sweet, cake-like bread scented with anise and studded with raisins and walnuts. It keeps well for days, so many cooks bake it before the holiday and it lasts through Sukkot with coffee. The crumb is tight and tender, closer to a sweet brioche than to challah, with a shiny sesame top. People often under-bake it because the crust browns fast; check with a skewer, not by colour. Chef's tip: toast the anise seeds in a dry pan for a minute before adding them, which deepens the liquorice note without making it sharp.

70 min

Israeli Baking

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45 min

Belgian Breakfast & Brunch

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KleijaDate-filled cardamom cookies

Kleija is the pride of Qassim, the farming heartland north of Riyadh, where an entire festival in Buraidah is devoted to these round, stamped cookies filled with date paste and fragrant with cardamom, saffron and a little fennel. They are packed for journeys, offered to guests with Arabic coffee and baked in big batches before Eid. The pastry is short and crumbly with a soft, chewy date centre. A common mistake is overworking the dough after adding ghee, which makes it tough; mix just until it holds. Store them in a tin for a week. Chef's tip: roll the date paste into small balls with damp hands first, so each cookie gets the same amount and seals neatly.

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Arroz con maízRice with sweetcorn

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

45 min

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BramboračkaPotato and mushroom soup

Ask anyone from Bohemia what their grandmother cooked on a cold Saturday and bramboračka comes up first: a thick, earthy potato soup that smells of dried porcini, caraway and marjoram. It is a fixture of pub lunch menus and mountain chalets, ladled out with a slice of dark rye bread. Floury potatoes break down at the edges and thicken the broth, while carrot, parsley root and celeriac add sweetness under the woodland flavour of the mushrooms. This version is fully plant-based, with the roux made in oil. A common mistake is adding the marjoram and garlic at the start, where long boiling dulls them; they go in at the very end, off the heat. Chef's tip: rub the dried marjoram between your palms over the pot to wake up its oils before it drops in.

50 min

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Aloo tukTwice-fried pressed potatoes

Aloo tuk is the crunch on a Sindhi plate, the thing children steal first: small potatoes boiled, fried, squashed flat and fried again until they are craggy and crisp at the edges and fluffy within, then showered with red chilli, tangy amchur and salt. In Sindhi homes from Karachi to Shikarpur they sit beside Sindhi kadhi and rice or dal and bhuga chawal, and they are also served on their own as a teatime snack with green chutney. The most common error is pressing the potatoes while they are still raw-centred or too hot and wet, which makes them tear instead of flatten neatly. Chef's tip: after the first fry let them cool for five minutes, then press each one under a flat-bottomed bowl so it cracks at the edges, since those cracks become the crispest bits. For children, go easy on the chilli and use more amchur.

40 min

Pakistani Snacks & Starters

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Brassói aprópecsenyeFried pork with potato cubes

Despite the name, which points to Brassó (Brașov) in Transylvania, this is a Budapest invention, and it is still one of the most ordered plates in the city's small family restaurants. Small cubes of pork neck or shoulder are fried hard with onion, lots of garlic, marjoram and a little paprika until they are browned and juicy, then tossed with golden, crunchy fried potato cubes. It is a quick, salty, garlicky dish, best with a bowl of pickles or a crisp cucumber salad and a glass of cold mineral water. The usual slip is crowding the pan, so the pork steams grey instead of browning; fry it in two batches. Chef's tip: add half the garlic at the start and the rest in the last minute, so you get both the mellow and the sharp flavour.

45 min

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Bratislavské rožkyWalnut or poppy seed crescents

Bakers in old Pressburg, today's Bratislava, have shaped these little horns for nearly three centuries, and the city still treats them as its own Christmas and wedding pastry. The walnut ones are bent into a horseshoe and the poppy seed ones into a crescent, so you can tell them apart on the plate. The dough is rich and short, almost like a pastry, and the shiny brown top is crazed with fine cracks from a double egg glaze. A common mistake is glazing the second time before the first coat is dry, which leaves a dull, smooth top instead of the famous marbling. Patience is the whole trick: a cool rest after the yolk, then a warm rest after the white. Old recipes add a splash of rum to the walnut filling; this version uses lemon and cinnamon instead. Chef's tip: keep the dough cold and work quickly, so the butter stays in tiny flakes.

150 min

Czech Baking

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Brav u mlijekuLamb slow-cooked in milk

Highland shepherds in northern Montenegro cook young lamb this way when the flocks come down from summer pastures, slowly in a covered pan with milk, garlic and rosemary until the meat comes off the bone and the milk has reduced to a savoury, slightly curdled, golden sauce over the potatoes. It sounds unusual but tastes wonderfully mellow, sweet and garlicky. Serve it with bread and a green salad. The usual slip is cooking it uncovered from the start, so the milk scorches before the lamb is soft. Chef's tip: uncover only for the last half hour, so the top browns while the sauce underneath stays creamy.

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BreudherBurgher Christmas loaf

On Christmas morning in Dutch Burgher homes from Colombo to Galle, the breakfast table holds a tall, fluted breudher, the island's take on the Dutch Christmas loaf, sliced thick, spread with butter and topped with a slice of Edam. The dough is enriched with plenty of butter, eggs and sugar and studded with raisins, and the crumb is soft, golden and slightly sweet, closer to brioche than to bread. Old recipes leavened it with fermented palm toddy; this version uses ordinary yeast, so there is no alcohol. Edam is normally made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian Edam or Gouda if that matters to you. The most frequent failure is an impatient rise, which gives a heavy, close loaf, because butter-rich dough moves slowly; wait until it has truly doubled. Chef's tip: work the butter in a little at a time only after the dough has been kneaded smooth, and it will turn silky and elastic instead of greasy.

85 min

Sri Lankan Baking

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KjötsúpaLamb and root vegetable soup

Kjötsúpa is the soup every Icelander grew up on, simmered from bony lamb shoulder with swede, potatoes, carrots, onion and a handful of rolled oats or rice to thicken it. Icelandic lamb is free-grazing and flavourful, and on the first day of winter in late October, Kjötsúpudagurinn, free soup is ladled out on Skólavörðustígur in Reykjavík. A common mistake is skimming too little at the start, which leaves a greasy, cloudy soup. Chef's tip: serve the meat on a plate beside the soup, as many Icelandic families do, so everyone can pull it from the bone.

120 minScandinavian Soups

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JoulutorttuPrune jam pastry stars

Joulutortut, the star-shaped Christmas tarts of Finland, appear in every home and café in December, piled on plates with glögi: squares of puff pastry cut at the corners and folded into a pinwheel around a spoon of thick prune jam, baked golden and dusted with icing sugar. A common mistake is using thin, runny jam, which bubbles out and burns. Chef's tip: cook the prune jam until very thick, and press the folded points down firmly with a dab of water so the stars don't spring open in the oven.

40 minScandinavian Baking

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JonjoliPickled bladdernut flowers

Jonjoli are the clustered flower buds of the bladdernut shrub, picked in May across Imereti and pickled in brine, and a bowl of them dressed with onion and oil appears on almost every Georgian table, from Kutaisi kitchens to Tbilisi restaurants. They taste sour, a little like capers crossed with olives, and cut through rich cheese bread and grilled meat. Jars are sold in Georgian and Russian shops, and the home pickling takes weeks, so this recipe starts from a jar. A common mistake is serving them straight from the jar; they need rinsing and a short soak, or the brine overwhelms everything. Chef's tip: dress them at least 30 minutes ahead so the onion softens and its sharpness balances the sour stalks.

15 min

Georgian Sides

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Kittitian goat waterPeppery goat stew

Goat water is what St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat serve at weddings, village fêtes and every Saturday cookshop: a thick, dark, peppery goat stew-soup flavoured with cloves, thyme, tomato and a heap of hot pepper, thickened with flour and studded with breadfruit, green papaya or dumplings. On Montserrat it is the national dish and comes with crusty bread rolls. The common mistake is thinning it out; despite the name, true goat water should coat a spoon. Ask your butcher to chop bone-in goat into small pieces. Chef's tip: brown a spoonful of flour in the pot before adding the liquid; it gives the gravy its deep colour and nutty taste.

180 minCaribbean Soups

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Amala ko acharGooseberry pickle

Amala trees grow wild across the Chure hills and the lower valleys of Nepal, and in winter the hard, translucent green gooseberries are piled high in vegetable markets in Kathmandu, Hetauda and Butwal, prized as a source of vitamin C during the cold months. Steamed until they split into neat segments, then mixed with chilli, turmeric, fenugreek and hot mustard oil, they make a pickle that is crunchy, astringent, sour and spicy all at once, with a lingering sweetness that comes up after each bite. A spoonful goes alongside dal bhat or with a plain bowl of rice porridge when someone is unwell. The trap to avoid is steaming the berries too long, which turns them mushy and dull. Chef's tip: stop as soon as the first cracks appear on the skins; the segments should pull off the stone easily but still have a firm bite.

30 min

Nepali Chutneys & Dips

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Jókai bablevesSmoky bean soup with pork

Mór Jókai, the nineteenth-century novelist, is said to have ordered this bean soup so often in his favourite Balatonfüred restaurant that it was named after him, and it is now a fixture of Budapest lunch menus and workers' canteens. This is a pork soup through and through: a smoked pork knuckle simmers with dried beans and roots until the meat falls apart, and slices of smoked pork sausage go in at the end. A paprika roux gives colour, a swirl of sour cream and a dash of vinegar add tang, and tiny pinched csipetke noodles make it a full meal with a slice of bread. Soak the beans overnight first. A common mistake is salting early; the smoked knuckle is salty, so taste only at the end. Chef's tip: simmer the knuckle for 30 minutes on its own first and taste the water; if it is very salty, throw it away and start again with fresh water.

150 min

Hungarian Soups

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Brunede kartoflerCaramelised small potatoes

No Danish Christmas Eve dinner is complete without brunede kartofler beside the roast pork or duck: small boiled potatoes rolled in golden caramel and butter until they are glossy, sweet and salty. Families boil the potatoes the day before so they are firm and dry. A common mistake is adding wet potatoes to the caramel; it seizes and splatters. Chef's tip: melt the sugar alone until amber, then add the butter, and roll cold, dry potatoes in it over a medium heat until coated.

40 minScandinavian Sides

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BrunsvigerBrown sugar butter cake

Brunsviger is the cake of Funen, the island between Jutland and Zealand: a soft, light yeast dough baked in a tray and covered with brown sugar and butter that melts into sticky, bubbling pools in dimples you press into the top. It is the classic birthday cake at Danish schools and offices, cut into squares and eaten warm with coffee. A common mistake is spreading the topping on cold dough; it slides off. Chef's tip: press deep holes into the risen dough with your finger so the topping collects in pools of caramel.

55 minScandinavian Baking

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BublaninaCherry sponge traybake

Czech grandmothers make bublanina the moment cherries ripen in June, and again with apricots or plums later in summer, baking it in a big tray for afternoon coffee in the garden. The name comes from the bubbles that form as the fruit sinks into the batter. It is a light, buttery sponge, golden at the edges, with pockets of juicy, sharp fruit and a snowfall of icing sugar on top; children love it warm. A common mistake is folding in the flour too hard, which knocks out the air and makes a tough cake; mix until just combined. Pitted fruit is easiest for little eaters. Chef's tip: toss the fruit in a spoon of flour before scattering it over, so it sits in the sponge instead of sinking to the bottom.

50 min

Czech Baking

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Bubur pulut hitamBlack glutinous rice porridge

Deep purple-black and gently sweet, bubur pulut hitam is ladled warm from big pots at dessert stalls in Singapore's hawker centres, from Old Airport Road to Tekka, and Malay families cook it for breaking the fast during Ramadan or for a rainy-afternoon treat. Black glutinous rice is simmered slowly with pandan until the grains burst and thicken the liquid, then sweetened with gula melaka, so the porridge is creamy, nutty and a little chewy. A swirl of salted coconut cream goes on top just before serving, and the salt is what makes it taste complete. The usual mistake is skipping the soak; unsoaked black rice stays hard at the centre however long you cook it, so soak it for at least 4 hours or overnight before you start. Chef's tip: add the palm sugar only once the grains are fully soft, because sugar firms the rice and stops it breaking down.

75 min

Singaporean Desserts

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JidášeEaster honey buns

Maundy Thursday, "Green Thursday" in Czech, is the day for jidáše, sweet yeasted buns rolled into ropes and coiled into spirals or loose knots to recall the rope of Judas, which gives them their name. Families in Bohemia and Moravia bake them for breakfast that morning and brush them, still hot, with honey; eating one was once said to bring health for the year. They are soft and fluffy, lightly scented with lemon, with a sticky, shiny top. A common mistake is brushing the honey on cold buns, where it just sits; warm the honey and glaze them straight from the oven so it soaks in. Honey is not suitable for babies under one year old. Chef's tip: roll the ropes thinner than you think, about finger thickness; they double as they prove.

145 min

Czech Baking

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AmandineChocolate sponge cakes

Every Bucharest cofetărie keeps a tray of amandine in the glass case, neat dark oblongs that generations of schoolchildren have bought with their pocket money. Despite the almond-sounding name there are no almonds in them: a cocoa sponge is split, soaked with a cocoa syrup, sandwiched with a rich chocolate custard buttercream and coated in a shiny ganache. Bakeries traditionally add rum to the syrup; this version is alcohol-free and uses vanilla and orange zest instead, though you can add 2 tablespoons of rum if you like. A common mistake is soaking the sponge while the syrup is still hot, which turns it to mush; both should be cool. Chef's tip: chill the filled cake until really firm before glazing and cutting, and wipe the knife hot between each cut for clean edges.

155 min

Romanian Baking

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Jhinuk pithaShell-shaped coconut rice pitha

Jhinuk is the Bengali word for a freshwater mussel shell, and these little ridged, curled pithas look exactly like the shells children pick from village ponds in winter. Small balls of rice dough enriched with grated coconut are pressed against the back of a fork or a comb and rolled so they curl up with fine grooves on the outside, then fried crisp and tossed in a thick cardamom syrup that dries into a thin, frosty sugar coat. Across Bangladesh they are made in the cold months and around Poush Sankranti, piled on a plate for guests with tea, and they keep well in a tin. A thin syrup leaves them soggy instead of glazed, which is where most batches disappoint; it must be boiled until it threads between your fingers. Chef's tip: keep the dough balls under a damp cloth while you shape, so the edges don't crack as they curl.

60 min

Bangladeshi Indian Sweets

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Jeow somSweet-sour chilli sauce

Grilled food in Laos rarely leaves the stall without a little bag of jeow som, the thin, sour-sweet sauce that every street grill from Vientiane's riverside to small-town bus stations ladles out beside the skewers. Unlike the pounded jeows, it is pourable: lime juice, garlic and raw chilli in a light, sweet-salty syrup, sharp enough to cut through anything charred. Dip grilled tofu, corn, aubergine or sticky rice into it, or spoon it over a plate of steamed vegetables. Stall versions lean on fish sauce; salt and tamari keep this one vegetarian. Tipping granulated sugar straight into cold lime juice is the usual fault, since it never fully dissolves and the sauce tastes gritty and unbalanced. Chef's tip: let the sauce sit for 15 minutes before serving so the garlic and chilli mellow into the lime.

10 min

Lao Chutneys & Dips

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BulzPolenta balls with sheep's cheese

Shepherds in the Apuseni mountains and the sheepfolds above Sibiu made bulz from what they had in the hut: stiff mămăligă pressed in the hand around a lump of salty sheep's cheese, then pushed into the embers until the outside crisped and the cheese melted. At home it bakes in the oven and comes out with a golden shell and a molten, tangy middle, usually with a spoon of sour cream and sometimes a fried egg on top. Telemea, brânză de burduf and caș are often made with animal rennet, so for a vegetarian bulz use a feta-style or other salty white cheese labelled vegetarian. The usual slip is cooking the mămăligă too soft, so the balls slump and leak; it should be thick enough to hold a wooden spoon upright. Chef's tip: wet your hands with cold water before shaping so the hot cornmeal does not stick.

45 min

Romanian Vegetarian

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Jeow mak phetRoasted chilli dip

Of all the jeows on a Lao table, this is the most basic and most loved, roasted fresh chillies, garlic and shallots pounded together and eaten with sticky rice at almost every meal, from farm lunches in the rice fields to Vientiane office canteens. Made with long green chillies, as here, it is bright, grassy and more fragrant than fierce, with sweetness from the softened shallot; swap some for bird's eye chillies if you want it hotter. Serve it with sticky rice, boiled pumpkin shoots, steamed vegetables, eggs or grilled tofu. Charring the chillies to carbon is the trap, and burnt skins turn the whole jeow bitter. Fish sauce is the usual seasoning; this version uses salt and a little tamari to stay vegetarian. Chef's tip: wear gloves when peeling hot roasted chillies, and keep your hands away from your eyes for the next hour.

20 min

Lao Chutneys & Dips

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