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Sayur lodeh

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

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Bucatini all'amatriciana

Shepherds from Amatrice, a mountain town in northern Lazio, carried guanciale and pecorino up to summer pastures, and once tomatoes arrived from the south the sauce took the shape it has kept ever since. The town still holds a sagra every August, and the dish became a Roman staple through the cooks who moved to the capital. Thick, hollow bucatini catch the sweet-sharp tomato inside and out, while the guanciale gives rich, porky pockets and the chilli a gentle warmth. Locals are firm that onion and garlic do not belong in it; they soften the clean taste of the pork. Chef's tip: lift the browned guanciale out of the pan before the tomatoes go in and return it just before serving, so it keeps its bite instead of turning soft in the sauce.

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Maputo's waterfront restaurants and the beach shacks of Inhambane and Vilanculos are famous for their prawns: big shell-on prawns split down the back, painted with a sauce of piri-piri chilli, garlic, lime and butter and grilled over coals until the shells blister. You eat them with your fingers, sucking the sauce off the shells, with bread or chips. The mistake is overcooking, which turns them rubbery; they need only 2–3 minutes a side. Chef's tip: split the prawns through the shell and remove the dark vein, so the sauce gets right into the flesh.

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