Featured recipe

Mishti doi

Sweet set yogurt

Mishti doi, 'sweet yogurt', is the classic end to a Bengali meal, sold in Kolkata sweet shops in unglazed clay pots. Milk is simmered until it thickens, sweetened with sugar cooked to a deep caramel, then set overnight with a little live yogurt. The result is thick, creamy and smooth, with a toffee-like sweetness and a gentle tang. Clay pots absorb excess whey, which makes it extra thick, but small glass or ceramic bowls work too. Chef's tip: cool the milk to just warm (about 40°C, comfortable on your little finger) before adding the starter; too hot kills the culture and too cool leaves it runny.

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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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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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Bündner BirnbrotPear and fig loaf

Birnbrot is the Christmas loaf of Graubünden, baked in Chur and the mountain villages in December: a dark, dense filling of dried pears, figs, raisins, walnuts, candied peel and warm spices is wrapped in a thin layer of plain bread dough and baked until the crust is golden. It keeps for weeks and is sliced thin with butter (or without, for a vegan loaf). Many families soak the fruit in pear brandy; this version uses pear juice. A common mistake is a thick bread wrapping, which dries out; the crust should be thin. Chef's tip: soak the dried fruit overnight so it is plump and the filling holds together.

120 min

Swiss Baking

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Bündner GerstensuppeBarley and smoked meat soup

Bündner Gerstensuppe is the soup of every mountain hut and ski restaurant in Graubünden, from Davos to Arosa: pearl barley simmered slowly with leek, carrot, celeriac and cabbage and a piece of smoked pork or air-dried beef until thick and creamy, finished with a splash of cream and chives. This version uses smoked pork shoulder (Rippli), so it contains pork. A common mistake is skipping the soak, so the barley takes far longer and the vegetables turn to mush. Chef's tip: soak the barley overnight and cook the smoked meat in the soup from the start; it seasons the broth. Smoked pork should be heated through to 71 °C.

120 min

Swiss Soups

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BündnerfleischAir-dried beef platter

Bündnerfleisch is the lean beef of Graubünden, salted with mountain herbs, pressed into its square shape and air-dried for months in the cold, dry mountain air around Davos and the Engadine, until it is deep red, tender and intensely savoury. It is sliced paper-thin and served on a wooden board with rye bread, butter, gherkins and pickled onions, often with a glass of something on a mountain terrace. It needs the mountain climate and is bought ready-made, not made at home. As a raw cured meat, it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. A common mistake is slicing it thick, which makes it chewy. Chef's tip: slice it as thin as paper and leave it for 10 minutes at room temperature before serving, so the flavour opens up.

15 min

Swiss Meat

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Buraczki zasmażaneWarm grated beetroot

Sunday lunch in Poland has its trio: potatoes with dill, something from the oven, and a heap of these warm, glossy beets. Cooked beetroot is grated, then warmed through with a quick butter roux that turns it soft and spoonable, and balanced with lemon juice and a little sugar until sweet, sour and earthy at once. It goes with dumplings, eggs, fried cheese or a mushroom cutlet as well as with roasts. Where most people go wrong is adding the lemon too late; acid early keeps the beets ruby red instead of brown. Chef's tip: roast the beetroot whole in foil rather than boiling it for a deeper, sweeter flavour.

30 min

Polish Sides

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BabendaLeafy greens and rice pot

Mossi home cooks on the plateau around Ouagadougou make babenda from whatever leaves the season offers, chopping them and cooking them down with broken rice or millet until soft and porridge-like, then enriching the pot with roasted groundnuts and a spoonful of soumbala. That fermented néré seed paste is the soul of Burkina Faso's kitchens, adding a deep, savoury, slightly funky note, much as a stock would. Sour bissap leaves keep it lively and the peanuts make it creamy and filling. Dried fish often goes in; this version is meat-free and eaten warm from the bowl. Chef's tip: fry the soumbala briefly in hot oil with the onion; it mellows the strong smell and spreads the flavour through the pot.

60 minAfrican Vegetarian

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Zoom-koomGinger tamarind millet drink

Zoom-koom means flour water in Mooré, and in Ouagadougou it is the drink that breaks the fast at iftar during Ramadan and cools people down in the scorching weeks before the rains. Millet gives it body and a soft cereal sweetness, while fresh ginger brings heat and tamarind a sour edge; some sellers add lime or mint. It is cloudy, thick and refreshing, served very cold in small bags or glasses. Raw flour is not safe to drink as it is, so this version toasts the millet first, which also deepens its flavour. Chill for at least an hour before serving. Chef's tip: stir the jug every time you pour, as the millet settles quickly to the bottom.

26 minAfrican Drinks

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Burmese palataLayered flatbread

Indian-Burmese tea shops around Yangon's Sule Pagoda and Mandalay's 84th Street fry palata from early morning until late at night on wide, oiled griddles, the cook stretching each ball of dough until you can see through it before folding it into coils of layers. The bread comes out crisp and blistered outside, soft and chewy within, and it is eaten two ways: sprinkled with sugar as a sweet snack with milky tea, or torn and dipped into a curry or a bowl of split-pea dal. Rushing the rest is where it fails; dough that hasn't relaxed in oil for at least an hour tears when you stretch it, and the layers never form. Chef's tip: once the palata is cooked, scrunch it between your palms while still hot; it breaks the coils apart into flaky layers.

55 min

Burmese Breads & Parathas

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Burus shapikCheese-filled flatbreads

Burus is the soft, crumbly fresh cheese of Hunza, made in summer pastures by heating the buttermilk left after churning until it curdles, and shapik means bread; together they make one of the valley's best-loved meals, a pair of thin wholewheat rounds sealed around a filling of cheese, onion, coriander, mint and green chilli. In Gojal and central Hunza it is cooked on a griddle for family lunch, for guests and for the walk up to the high pastures, and it is eaten hot, brushed with butter, with a cup of salty tea. Overfilling is the beginner's mistake; the dough tears and the filling leaks onto the pan. Chef's tip: crumbled paneer or well-drained cottage cheese works well in place of burus; paneer needs no rennet, but check cottage cheese is labelled vegetarian.

50 min

Pakistani Breads & Parathas

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BuzaraMussels in garlic and white wine

Summer lunch on the Dalmatian coast often starts with a steaming pot of buzara, especially near Ston, where mussels and oysters are farmed in the bay. Na bijelo, the white style, means mussels opened in olive oil, garlic, parsley and white wine, with a spoon of breadcrumbs thrown in at the end to thicken the juices into a light, garlicky sauce. Serve with plenty of crusty bread for mopping and a bowl for empty shells. The wine cooks off but leaves flavour; for an alcohol-free version use the same amount of fish or vegetable stock with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar. Overcooking is where most people go wrong: pull the pot off as soon as most shells have opened, or the mussels turn rubbery. Chef's tip: shake the pot rather than stirring, so the mussels tumble without breaking their shells.

22 minBalkan Fish

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Accra bananeRipe banana fritters

Morning street corners in Douala smell of frying banana: vendors drop very ripe fruit and flour batter into deep oil and sell accra banane by the paper bag, often with a bowl of bouillie or a plate of beans. Crisp at the edges and soft, sweet and almost custardy inside, these little puffs need nothing more than mashed bananas, flour, sugar and a pinch of nutmeg. Children love them after school, and they are a thrifty way to rescue fruit that has turned black. A frequent slip is using underripe bananas, which give heavy, bland fritters. Chef's tip: use bananas so ripe the skins are mostly black; firmer yellow ones give a dry, bland fritter.

30 min

Cameroonian Snacks & Starters

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Couscous de maïsStiff maize paste

Across the North, from Garoua's riverside neighbourhoods to the Adamawa plateau around Ngaoundéré, the evening meal is usually couscous de maïs: not the steamed grains of North Africa but a stiff, smooth maize paste shaped into domes with a wet calabash. It is eaten with the right hand, dipped into slippery okra sauce, leaf sauces or a tomato and groundnut stew. The flavour is mild and sweet like fresh corn, and the texture firm enough to hold the dent made by your thumb. Use fine maize meal; coarse polenta gives a gritty result. Chef's tip: let the first handful of meal cook undisturbed on the simmering water for a few minutes before stirring; it forms a raft that blends in without lumps.

27 min

Cameroonian Basics

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Kati katiGrilled chicken in palm oil

From Kom country near Bamenda, kati kati is chicken cooked twice: first grilled over open coals until smoky and charred in places, then chopped and simmered briefly in red palm oil with onion and hot pepper until every piece is lacquered. It turns up at celebrations in the North West and in Bamenda chop houses, always with fufu corn and a heap of njama njama. The flavour is smoky, rich and fiery, and the sauce is thick enough to cling, not pool. A charcoal grill gives the best flavour, though a hot oven grill works well. Chef's tip: chop the grilled chicken into small pieces before it goes into the pot, so the palm oil sauce reaches every surface.

75 min

Cameroonian Chicken

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KondreGoat and green plantain stew

For weddings, funerals, the enthronement of a chief or the return of a relative from abroad, the Bamileke of the West Region cook kondre. Chunks of goat are stewed slowly with green plantain, tomato and a fragrant blend of local spices including white pepper, pebe and country onion, until the plantain melts at the edges and thickens the sauce. The result is earthy, peppery and very satisfying, eaten straight from the bowl with nothing else alongside. Beef or lamb can replace goat; pebe and country onion are sold in Cameroonian grocers, with nutmeg and a pinch of clove standing in at a pinch. Marinate the meat in the fridge, never on the counter. Chef's tip: give the goat a full hour on its own before the plantain goes in; the meat needs far longer to soften.

125 min

Cameroonian Meat

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KossamFresh or soured Fulani milk

Fulani herders of the Adamawa plateau measure hospitality in kossam: a calabash of cool milk offered to a guest after a long ride, or sold in Ngaoundéré's markets fresh in the morning and pleasantly soured by afternoon. Fresh kossam is simply creamy whole milk, sometimes sweetened, drunk cold with couscous or on its own as a light meal in the heat of the day. For the tangy soured style, stir two spoonfuls of live plain yoghurt into the milk, leave it somewhere warm for 8–12 hours until thickened, then chill. Traditionally it is made with raw milk; at home, always use pasteurised. Chef's tip: chill the milk for several hours and whisk the sugar in hard just before serving, which gives the light froth you see on calabash-served kossam.

5 min

Cameroonian Drinks

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Mbongo tchobiFish in black spice sauce

The Bassa people of the Littoral, between Douala and Édéa, are famous for mbongo tchobi, fish cooked in a startling jet-black sauce. The colour comes from mbongo, the pods of a wild plant in the ginger family, charred over a flame until black and ground with onion, garlic, ginger and njansang; the taste is smoky, peppery and deeply aromatic rather than burnt. Freshwater fish such as carp or tilapia is traditional, simmered gently in the sauce for family gatherings and in Douala restaurants, with boiled plantain, miondo or rice on the side. If mbongo is hard to find, charred black cardamom with grains of paradise gives a similar smoky warmth. Chef's tip: shake the pan instead of stirring once the fish goes in, so the pieces stay whole.

65 min

Cameroonian Fish

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MintumbaCassava and palm oil leaf parcels

Golden and glossy with red palm oil, mintumba is the richer cousin of bobolo, baked or steamed in leaves in the Centre region and eaten as a snack or alongside sauce, grilled fish or roasted groundnuts. The soured cassava dough is kneaded with oil and a little salt, then wrapped and cooked until it sets into a dense, chewy loaf with a toasty crust where it touched the leaf. Its flavour is tangy, earthy and buttery from the oil. Start with bought fermented cassava paste from an African grocer, or make the dough as for bobolo. Don't wrap the dough loosely; gaps let water in and the parcels turn soggy. Chef's tip: warm the palm oil until just liquid before kneading it in; poured in solid, it streaks the dough instead of colouring it evenly.

80 min

Cameroonian Basics

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MiondoSoured cassava sticks

Douala's Duala families wrap their cassava dough into slim sticks no thicker than a finger, and bundles of miondo tied with string are stacked at every market from Akwa to New Bell. The roots are soaked for several days until they soften and sour, then ground smooth, drained, rolled, wrapped in leaves and boiled until firm and slightly translucent. The result is chewy, gently tangy and neutral enough to soak up ndolé, grilled fish or a fiery pepper sauce, and peeling back the leaf is part of the pleasure. Plan ahead: the soaking takes 3–4 days and the draining a few hours more, though the hands-on work is about an hour. Chef's tip: roll the sticks no thicker than your little finger so they cook through evenly; fat ones stay pasty in the middle.

150 min

Cameroonian Basics

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Njama njama and fufu cornHuckleberry leaves with corn fufu

Every chop house in Bamenda has its own pot of njama njama, the bitter-sweet huckleberry leaf that grows in Grassfields gardens, served next to a smooth white dome of fufu corn. The leaves are boiled briefly to tame their bitterness, squeezed and then stir-fried with onion, tomato and pepper until tender and glossy. Pinch off some fufu, press a dent into it with your thumb and use it to scoop up the greens; at home, grilled chicken or kati kati often joins the plate. Frozen huckleberry leaves are sold in African grocers, and spinach with a little kale is a fair stand-in. Avoid skipping the blanching of the huckleberry leaves; unblanched they stay bitter. Chef's tip: squeeze the blanched leaves hard by the handful; leftover water dilutes the tomato base and makes the greens soggy.

50 min

Cameroonian Vegetarian

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NkuiOkra and spice draw soup

Bamileke families in the West Region cook nkui for celebrations, and it is also a traditional food for new mothers in the weeks after a birth. Bark from the nkui shrub is steeped and squeezed until the water turns long and slippery, then simmered with a peppery blend of local spices and finished with okra for an even stronger draw. The soup is thin, silky and warming rather than rich, with a woody, citrusy heat. Lift it with a ball of fufu corn and let the strands trail from your fingers. Look for the bark and the spice mix in Cameroonian grocers; grated okra alone gives a lighter but similar draw. The usual mistake is boiling the soup hard after whisking; it loses its draw. Keep it at a bare simmer. Chef's tip: whip the soup hard with a whisk right after adding the potash; the beating is what builds the stretchy strands.

60 min

Cameroonian Soups

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Sweet okokGnetum leaves with groundnut paste

Okok leaves come from a wild forest vine, and in the Centre region market women sit shaving them into hair-fine ribbons with razor-sharp knives so cooks can take them home ready to use. The Beti way is to cook them with plenty of freshly ground groundnuts and, in the version many people grew up on, a spoonful of sugar, which turns the pot into a thick, nutty, gently sweet green stew. Expect a pleasant chew from the leaves and a creamy body from the peanuts; there is no palm oil here at all. Serve it with slices of bobolo or boiled cassava for a classic Yaoundé lunch. The usual mistake is adding the groundnut paste too early and not stirring, so it scorches on the base. Chef's tip: wash the shredded leaves in at least three changes of water, rubbing them between your hands, to remove the fine grit that collects in the ribbons.

90 min

Cameroonian Vegetarian

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CaricolesWhelks in celery broth

Caricoles are the whelks sold hot in paper cups from street carts in Brussels, at the Marolles flea market, the Place Sainte-Catherine and the Christmas market: the sea snails are simmered for an hour in a peppery broth with celery, onion, thyme, bay and a lot of black pepper and chilli, and you pick them out with a toothpick and drink the broth. Buy whelks live or freshly cooked from a fishmonger. Live whelks should be tightly closed inside their shells or retract when touched; throw away any that smell bad or have broken shells, and any that stay open and limp after cooking. A common mistake is skipping the purge, which leaves them gritty. Chef's tip: soak live whelks in salted cold water for an hour and rinse them several times, then start them in cold broth so they don't toughen.

90 min

Belgian Fish

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Cârnați de PleșcoiGarlic and chilli mutton sausages

The village of Pleșcoi, in the hills above Buzău, is so proud of its sausages that roadside inns there sell them by the metre: dark red, fiery with chilli and heavy with garlic, made from mutton with a little beef and no pork in the meat. Traditionally they are smoked and air-dried; this home version is a fresh sausage, rested overnight in the fridge for the flavours to settle, then grilled until cooked right through. The casings are usually sheep's casings, but if you buy hog casings they are pork, so check what your butcher sells you. Snappy outside and juicy within, they are eaten straight off the grill with sharp mustard, bread and pickled vegetables. Where people tend to go wrong is letting the meat warm up while mixing; keep everything fridge-cold so the fat does not smear. Chef's tip: fry a small spoonful of the mix before you fill the casings and taste it for salt and chilli; once stuffed, you cannot adjust.

240 min

Romanian Meat

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Carne con papasBeef and potato stew

Carne con papas is the weeknight stew of countless Cuban homes, from Santa Clara to Havana: chunks of beef simmered in a tomato sofrito with cumin and oregano, then potatoes and green olives added until the sauce turns thick and savoury. It is served with white rice and perhaps a few slices of avocado. Many cooks add potatoes at the start and end up with mush; they go in for the last 30 minutes. Chef's tip: brown the beef well in two batches; that dark crust is where most of the flavour in the sauce comes from.

110 min

Cuban Meat

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Cascos de guayaba con quesoGuava shells with white cheese

On Cuban tables from Havana to Pinar del Río, the most loved dessert is also one of the simplest: guava halves, scooped of their seeds and simmered in syrup until glossy and tender, served beside a slab of salty white cheese. The sweet, perfumed fruit and the sharp cheese balance each other perfectly. Cooks often overcook the shells until they fall apart; they should still hold their cup shape. Queso blanco and cream cheese are usually made with animal rennet or microbial enzymes depending on the maker, so check the label and choose a vegetarian one if needed. Chef's tip: simmer the scooped-out seeds and pulp in a little water, sieve them and add that purée to the syrup, which gives it a deep pink colour and real guava flavour.

85 min

Cuban Desserts

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Casse-croûte tunisienTuna baguette sandwich

From train-station kiosks in Tunis to beach stalls at Hammamet, the casse-croûte is the sandwich everyone grabs: a baguette slit open, painted with harissa and packed with tuna, mechouia (a grilled pepper and tomato salad), boiled egg, diced potato, olives and a few capers. It is messy, spicy and filling, with smoky peppers against the rich tuna and the soft, starchy potato. This version makes a quick pan-charred mechouia while the eggs and potatoes cook. Chef's tip: let the potatoes and eggs cool before they go in; adding them hot steams the bread and turns it soggy, a common mistake at home.

25 min

Tunisian Fast Food

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Dominican catibíasBeef-filled cassava turnovers

Catibías are the cassava cousins of empanadas, made in Dominican kitchens and sold at frituras stands in the Cibao and along the Malecón as an afternoon snack. Boiled cassava is mashed with oil and a touch of anise into a smooth, pliable dough, folded around seasoned beef mince and fried until the outside is crisp and blistered and the inside chewy. Because there is no wheat, they are naturally gluten free. The common mistake is letting the cassava cool before mashing; it becomes stringy and won't come together, so mash it hot. Chef's tip: pull out the woody fibre in the middle of each cassava piece after boiling, or the dough will tear.

75 min

Puerto Rican Snacks & Starters

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CepelinaiMeat-filled potato dumplings

Cepelinai, named after the Zeppelin airships they resemble, are Lithuania's national dish: big oval dumplings of grated raw and boiled potato wrapped around seasoned minced pork, simmered until glossy and served with a sauce of sour cream and fried bacon bits and onion. This dish contains pork. Families in Kaunas and Vilnius make them on weekends and holidays; curd cheese or mushroom fillings are common vegetarian versions. A common mistake is skipping the potato starch; it is what holds the dumplings together. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated potato very dry and stir back the starch that settles from the liquid. Minced pork must reach 71 °C.

100 minBaltic Meat

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ČesnicaChristmas bread with a coin

On Serbian Orthodox Christmas morning, 7 January, the family stands around the table and breaks the česnica between them, turning the round loaf three times before everyone pulls off a piece. Whoever finds the coin hidden in the bread is said to have luck for the year. Recipes vary from flaky layered pies to this soft, slightly sweet yeasted loaf with a twisted rope round its edge, lovely with kajmak, cheese and the rest of the Christmas spread. Wrap the coin well and tell everyone before they bite, and keep an eye on small children, as a coin is a choking risk. The usual slip is rushing the rise in a cold kitchen, which gives a dense, heavy crumb; find a warm spot and wait until the dough has truly doubled. Chef's tip: brush the hot loaf with a little oil as it leaves the oven for a soft, shiny crust.

120 minBalkan Breads & Parathas

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Cha traop dotCharred aubergine with minced pork

Long purple aubergines blackened right on the coals or gas flame are a weeknight staple in Phnom Penh homes and in the rice-and-curry shops where office workers eat lunch from a row of pots. Once peeled, the flesh is soft, silky and deeply smoky; it is laid on a plate, topped with minced pork fried with garlic and fish sauce, then drizzled with hot spring onion oil and a sweet-salty lime dressing. Eaten with plenty of jasmine rice, it is gentle enough for children and rich enough to feel like a treat. A typical mistake is pulling the aubergines off the heat when the skin is only scorched in patches, which leaves hard, bland flesh inside. Chef's tip: char them until they slump completely flat and the skin cracks all over, then rest them in a covered bowl for 5 minutes so the skin slips off in one go.

35 min

Cambodian Meat

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Chadon beni chutneyCulantro chutney

Every doubles man on the Curepe corner and every pholourie stall at a south Trinidad fair has a bottle of this bright green sauce, made from chadon beni (culantro), garlic, hot pepper and lime. It is thin, sharp and grassy, and goes on doubles, pholourie, saheena and fried fish. The common mistake is blending it too far ahead without enough acid, so it turns dull khaki within hours. Coriander can stand in, though the flavour is softer. Chef's tip: blend with ice-cold water and add the lime last; the cold keeps the green vivid.

10 min

Trinidadian Chutneys & Dips

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ChainakiTeapot lamb with split peas

In the teahouses of northern and central Afghanistan, from Mazar to the Salang road, every traveller who orders chainaki gets his own small metal teapot packed with lamb, onion, split peas and water, set in the embers beside the samovar from morning until lunch. When it is ready, the broth is poured off over torn naan in a bowl and the soft meat eaten after, with raw onion and green chilli. The taste is simple and pure: clean lamb, sweet onion, a little turmeric and pepper. Rushing it on a high flame toughens the meat and boils the broth cloudy, so the heat should be so low that the liquid only trembles. Chef's tip: a small heavy lidded casserole in a low oven gives exactly the same result as the teapot, with no risk of it boiling dry.

165 min

Afghan Meat

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ChakapuliLamb with tarragon and sour plums

Chakapuli is the Easter dish of Kakheti, cooked when the first tarragon shoots and hard green tkemali plums appear in April: young lamb is stewed in Kakhetian white wine with heaps of tarragon, spring onion and coriander until the broth turns bright green and sour. It is eaten from deep bowls with shoti bread to soak up the juices. The recipe uses white wine, as it is traditionally made; for an alcohol-free pot, use the swap in the ingredient note. A common mistake is putting in all the herbs at the start, which turns them grey; half go in at the end for freshness. Chef's tip: if you can't find sour green plums, a squeeze of lemon and a spoon of tkemali sauce give the same tartness.

120 min

Georgian Meat

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ChakuMolasses toffee with nuts

The towns of the Kathmandu Valley smell of hot molasses in early January, as Newar confectioners in Bhaktapur, Thimi and Patan boil sugarcane syrup down into chaku, a dark, glossy toffee that is pulled until it turns light and chewy and then mixed with ghee, cashews, coconut and sesame. On Ghyo Chaku Sanlhu, the Newar name for Maghe Sankranti, it is eaten with ghee and boiled yams to warm the body, and pieces are wrapped and sent to married daughters. At home it is easiest to start from good jaggery. Pulling it off the heat too early is the classic failure, leaving a runny mess that will never set. Chef's tip: once it reaches the hard-ball stage, let the toffee cool on a greased tray just until you can handle it, then stretch and fold it with greased hands for a few minutes until it turns from dark brown to golden and chewy.

45 min

Nepali Indian Sweets

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ChalopCold yogurt and cucumber soup

When Tashkent summers reach 40 °C, families eat chalop: chilled katyk or suzma loosened with cold water and filled with diced cucumber, radish and a pile of fresh dill, coriander, basil and spring onion. It is served in bowls with torn non bread, alongside plov or grilled shashlik, and some like a little ice in it. A common mistake is using thin, runny yogurt, which makes the soup watery; start with a thick yogurt and thin it to taste. Chef's tip: salt the cucumbers lightly and leave for 5 minutes before adding them, so they season through and stay crisp.

15 min

Uzbek Soups

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ChamiFresh curd cheese

Chami was once made in Emirati desert and coastal homes from the laban left after churning butter, heated until it split into soft, tangy curds. It is still the cheese of a traditional UAE breakfast, spooned next to chebab, dates and a cup of sweet tea, and it tastes like a mild, slightly sour cottage cheese with a crumbly-creamy texture. Because the curds form from the natural acidity of the cultured milk and gentle heat, no rennet is used, so it suits vegetarians. Boiling it hard is the mistake to avoid: the curds turn rubbery and squeaky instead of soft. Chef's tip: stir in a pinch of turmeric or cardamom at the end, as some families do, for a golden colour and a faint perfume.

60 minGulf Arabian Basics

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Chana daal halwaSplit chickpea halwa

This is the halwa of family gatherings on cold winter evenings and of Shab-e-Barat, when households in Karachi, Lahore and Multan cook trays of sweets to share with neighbours, and among them all it is the one that rewards hard work most. Split chickpeas are soaked overnight, simmered soft in milk, ground to a paste and then fried in ghee for the best part of an hour, until the raw beany taste is replaced by a deep, toasty, almost caramel flavour and a soft, slightly grainy texture. Cardamom, a little khoya and plenty of almonds and pistachios finish it, and it is eaten warm, or pressed into a tray and cut. It keeps well, so many families make a large pot. The fault that most often spoils it is adding the sugar before the dal paste has been fried long enough, which leaves it pasty and heavy. Chef's tip: stir until the paste turns golden and smells like roasted nuts and the ghee begins to seep out again, and only then add the sugar.

90 min

Pakistani Indian Sweets

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ChanakhiLamb and aubergine clay pot

In Tbilisi homes and restaurants chanakhi arrives in its own small clay pot, the lid lifted at the table to release a cloud of steam smelling of lamb, tomato, basil and garlic. Lamb, potato, aubergine, onion and tomato are layered raw with herbs and left to cook slowly in their own juices, so the vegetables soak up the lamb fat and the meat goes spoon-soft. A common mistake is adding too much water; the vegetables release plenty, and a watery pot tastes flat. Chef's tip: put a tomato slice on top of each pot as a lid of its own, which bastes everything below as it melts.

150 min

Georgian Meat

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Changhua ba-wanPork-filled starch dumplings

Changhua's old market streets are lined with shops whose woks are full of these dumplings sitting in warm oil, ready to be split open, sauced and eaten as a mid-morning or afternoon snack. The wobbly, translucent skin of sweet potato starch is chewy and slightly sticky, wrapped around a savoury filling of marinated pork, bamboo shoot and shiitake, and the whole thing is drenched in a sweet pink-brown sauce with garlic and coriander. The trickiest part is the wrapper: a dough made only of raw starch cracks and turns gluey, so cook part of it into a paste first. Make it gluten-free by using tamari or gluten-free soy sauce, as here. Chef's tip: oil the saucers well and keep your fingers wet when shaping; the starch dough is sticky, and water lets you smooth it into neat domes.

90 min

Taiwanese Snacks & Starters

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ChapshuroMeat-filled griddled bread pies

Climb up to Karimabad in Hunza or wander Gilgit's bazaar in the evening and you will smell chapshuro before you see it: round pies of thin wholewheat dough wrapped around raw spiced mince, onion, green chilli and coriander, cooked slowly on a griddle until the crust crisps and the meat inside steams in its own juices. They are cut into wedges like a pizza and eaten hot as a snack or a light lunch, with green tea or apricot juice, and every family has its own level of chilli. The difficulty is heat control: too hot and the crust burns before the filling is cooked through. Use a medium-low flame and turn often. Chef's tip: press the pie flat with your palm once it is on the griddle, so the filling forms a thin, even layer that cooks right through.

65 min

Pakistani Snacks & Starters

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Charmoula sfaxienneSweet-sour onion and raisin sauce

The first meal after Ramadan in Sfax is unlike anywhere else: on the morning of Eid al-Fitr, families eat salted dried fish with charmoula, a thick, almost black sauce of onions and raisins cooked for hours in olive oil with black pepper, cinnamon and cloves. It is sweet, sour and spicy at once, glossy like a chutney, and its strong flavour is meant to wake up a stomach that has fasted for a month. Fish lovers serve it with salted fish; this vegetarian version is lovely with roast vegetables, hard-boiled eggs or simply bread. It keeps for weeks. Chef's tip: cook the onions down slowly until they collapse and caramelise before adding the raisins; hurrying gives a sharp, raw-tasting sauce.

180 min

Tunisian Chutneys & Dips

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CharosetApple and walnut paste

At the Passover seder, Israeli families from Ashkenazi and Sephardic backgrounds alike set out charoset, a sweet brown paste that recalls the mortar the Israelites used as slaves in Egypt. This is the Ashkenazi style: chopped apples and walnuts with cinnamon and sweet red grape juice, coarse and crunchy; Sephardic tables more often blend dates, almonds and dried fruit. Many families use sweet red wine; this recipe is alcohol free, and if you do add wine it is for adults only. It is eaten on matzo with bitter herbs, and leftovers are great on yogurt. The common mistake is pulsing it to a purée: it should keep texture, like rough mortar. Chef's tip: chop the apple last and mix it with the juice at once so it doesn't brown.

15 min

Israeli Chutneys & Dips

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ChäschüechliCheese tartlets

Chäschüechli are the small, warm cheese tartlets of central Switzerland, sold in bakeries in Lucerne and Zug and eaten as a quick lunch with a salad or as a snack at a Fasnacht carnival stand: a crisp shortcrust case filled with a savoury custard of grated mountain cheese, cream, egg and a pinch of nutmeg, baked until puffed and golden. A common mistake is filling the cases to the brim; the custard puffs and spills over. Chef's tip: bake them on the lowest shelf so the bases crisp before the filling sets. Gruyère and Appenzeller are made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian Swiss-style cheese.

55 min

Swiss Snacks & Starters

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CheburekiFried lamb pastry half-moons

Çiberek, as Crimean Tatars call them, are the great beach and roadside food of Crimea, from Bakhchysarai to Yevpatoria, and Crimean Tatar cafés in Kyiv and Lviv still fry them to order. A thin, blistered pastry, crisp at the edges, holds a filling of minced lamb, grated onion, black pepper and herbs that turns into a rich, peppery broth as it cooks; bite carefully, as it is meant to be juicy. Eat them hot from paper with a glass of ayran or a tomato salad. The mistake most home cooks make is leaving air pockets when sealing, so the pastry bursts and spits in the oil. Some cooks add a splash of vodka to the dough for extra blisters; this version uses none. Chef's tip: stir a few spoons of ice-cold water into the meat until it is almost sloppy; that water becomes the broth that makes a good chebureki.

75 min

Ukrainian Fast Food

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Cheeni parathaSugar paratha

Every Punjabi grandmother has a version of this, usually made from the last ball of dough after the family's parathas are done: sugar sprinkled over ghee, folded inside and rolled out, then cooked until the sugar melts into sticky, caramelised seams. In villages around Sargodha and Faisalabad it is the treat a child gets dunked into a mug of sweet milky tea before school, and in winter it is sometimes made with jaggery instead. The outside should be crisp and blistered, the inside layered and chewy with pockets of melted sugar. The trap is too hot a tawa: the sugar bursts through and burns before the dough has cooked. Chef's tip: seal the edges well when you fold, keep the heat medium, and wipe the tawa between parathas so any escaped sugar does not scorch the next one.

20 min

Pakistani Breakfast & Brunch

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Chek k'tisBanana and tapioca in coconut milk

Ask for something sweet at a Phnom Penh dessert cart on a rainy-season afternoon and you may be handed a warm cup of chek k'tis: chunks of small, tart-sweet bananas bobbing in coconut milk with clear, chewy tapioca pearls. The coconut milk is sweetened with palm sugar and seasoned with a good pinch of salt, which makes it taste rich rather than cloying, and a knot of pandan gives it a grassy vanilla scent. It is also cooked at home as an offering-day treat and eaten warm or at room temperature. The usual error is using very ripe, spotty bananas, which melt into grey sludge; firm, just-yellow fruit holds its shape and blushes pink as it cooks. Chef's tip: let the coconut milk only shiver, never boil hard, or it splits and turns oily.

30 min

Cambodian Desserts

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Dominican chenchénCracked corn pilaf

In the south-west of the Dominican Republic, around Barahona and San Juan de la Maguana, chenchén is what goes under the Sunday chivo guisado instead of rice. Cracked dried corn is cooked with coconut milk, onion, garlic, a stick of cinnamon and a little butter until the grains swell and turn fluffy and tender with a gentle sweetness. Here it is served as a side for vegetarian stews or with beans. The common mistake is stirring it constantly like polenta; it should be left covered to steam so the grains stay separate. Chef's tip: toast the cracked corn in the butter for a couple of minutes before adding liquid for a nuttier flavour.

50 min

Puerto Rican Rice & Grains

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Cheremsha saladWild garlic salad

Late April in Novosibirsk and Tomsk brings bunches of cheremsha to every market stall and roadside bucket: the first green vitamins after a long Siberian winter. The broad leaves and juicy stems of wild garlic taste of sweet, mild garlic with a peppery bite, and Siberians eat them simply, chopped with salt and fragrant unrefined sunflower oil, beside boiled potatoes and black bread. Some cooks add chopped egg or sour cream; this vegan version sticks to oil, with cucumber for crunch. Forage only with someone who knows the plant, or buy it: wild garlic has poisonous lookalikes such as lily of the valley, and real leaves smell strongly of garlic when crushed. Where most people go wrong is dressing it too early, so the leaves wilt and weep. Chef's tip: salt the chopped stems first and rub them for a few seconds; it softens their bite and draws out juice that becomes part of the dressing.

15 min

Russian Salads

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ChevermeSlow-roast lamb

At summer festivals in the Rhodope villages around Smolyan and Chepelare, lamb for cheverme is turned slowly on a spit over beech embers for hours until the outside crackles and the meat slides off the bone, and the carved meat is shared with bread and spring onions. Few home cooks have a spit or a fire pit, so this recipe brings the same idea to a bone-in lamb shoulder or leg: rubbed simply with salt, savory, black pepper, garlic and oil, then roasted low and slow in the oven or in a covered barbecue over indirect heat. The result is crisp-edged, juicy and tender enough to pull apart with a spoon. Serve with spring onions, radishes, a tomato and cucumber salad and bread. The usual slip is too much heat, which tightens the meat instead of melting it. Chef's tip: cheverme is always well done; cook until a probe in the thickest part reads about 90 °C and the bone wiggles loose.

330 min

Bulgarian Meat

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Chhit rutiLacy rice flour flatbread

Chhit means a splash or a sprinkle, and that is exactly how this Chittagong bread is made: the cook dips her fingers in a thin rice batter and flicks it across a hot pan in criss-cross lines until it forms a fragile net. It cooks in seconds, is folded into a soft lacy square and stacked under a cloth, and comes out at Eid breakfasts, winter weddings and mezban-season family meals. Chittagonian households usually eat it with a dark beef kala bhuna or duck curry, but it is just as good with a vegetable korma, chhola bhuna or a sweet dish of milk and jaggery. If the batter is too thick it falls in blobs rather than threads, so it should run off your fingers like single cream. Chef's tip: wipe the pan with an oiled cloth between each ruti so the lace lifts cleanly without tearing.

40 min

Bangladeshi Breads & Parathas

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Chiayi turkey riceShredded turkey rice

Chiayi, in the south-central plains, is the town that put turkey on Taiwan's lunch tables: every few streets there is a shop selling small bowls of hot rice heaped with pulled turkey, drizzled with golden turkey-fat shallot oil and a sweet soy sauce, eaten with a yellow pickled radish and a bowl of clear soup. It is lunch, a late breakfast and a midnight bite. The meat should be moist and pull into soft strands, the rice glossy rather than wet. The usual error is boiling the turkey hard, which leaves it dry and stringy; poach it gently and let it cool in the liquid. Chef's tip: render the turkey skin and fat slowly to fry the shallots, so the oil tastes of the bird; use chicken fat or neutral oil if your turkey is lean.

40 min

Taiwanese Rice & Grains

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ChikhirtmaChicken and egg yolk soup

Chikhirtma is Tbilisi's comfort soup, the bowl you are given when you are ill or after a long night at a supra: a golden chicken broth with a lot of slowly fried onion, thickened with flour-free egg yolks beaten with a little vinegar, so it turns silky and pale and tastes gently sour. Coriander and a pinch of saffron or marigold finish it. A common mistake is pouring the yolks into boiling broth, which scrambles them into threads. Chef's tip: temper the yolks with a few ladles of hot broth first and keep the soup below a simmer once they go in; it thickens like custard. Chicken must reach 74 °C before you shred it.

90 min

Georgian Soups

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Chiktay aransòShredded smoked herring with peppers

Chiktay is a breakfast and snack dish from Haitian homes and street stalls: smoked herring shredded very finely, then tossed with onion, sweet peppers, garlic, hot pepper and lime in hot oil, served with boiled plantain, bread or cassava bread. It is salty, smoky, sharp and fiery, so a little goes a long way. The common mistake is skipping the soaking, which leaves the dish too salty to enjoy; two quick soaks in boiling water fix that. Pick out the fine bones carefully if your herring isn't boneless. Chef's tip: shred the soaked herring with two forks until it looks like fluffy threads; it absorbs the dressing far better.

30 min

Haitian Fish

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Chilindrón de chivoGoat stew with tomato and peppers

In Oriente, the eastern provinces around Santiago and Holguín, chilindrón de chivo is the dish for a farm celebration: goat marinated in sour orange and garlic, then stewed in a thick sauce of tomato, sweet peppers, cumin, oregano and dry wine until it is tender enough to pull from the bone. It is served with congrí or white rice and yuca. The wine is cooked for a long time; for an alcohol-free stew use stock with a tablespoon of vinegar. Goat is lean and becomes stringy if boiled hard, which is the most common mistake, so keep it at a gentle bubble. Chef's tip: marinate overnight in the fridge; it softens the strong goat flavour and seasons the meat to the bone.

190 min

Cuban Meat

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Dominican chimi burgerBurger with cabbage and mayo-ketchup

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

30 min

Puerto Rican Fast Food

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Chingri bhortaDry-fried shrimp mash

Chingri bhorta is the bhorta most likely to win over newcomers: tiny fresh shrimp, the kind sold by the heap in every bazar, dry-fried until pink and toasty, then mashed by hand with raw onion, green chilli, coriander and a trickle of pungent mustard oil. It is sweet from the shrimp, sharp from the onion and hot from the chilli, and it is eaten in small balls with hot rice, often alongside aloo bhorta and begun bhorta. It takes less than half an hour and works perfectly well with frozen small prawns. A typical error is adding oil to the pan, which stews the shrimp instead of toasting them; dry heat brings out their sweetness. Chef's tip: rub the mash with your fingertips rather than a blender, so it stays rough and the onion keeps its crunch.

22 min

Bangladeshi Chutneys & Dips

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ChirbuliEggs in tomato walnut sauce

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

25 min

Georgian Breakfast & Brunch

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Chitoi pithaSpongy rice flour cakes

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

50 min

Bangladeshi Breakfast & Brunch

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Chiu chow fun guoPork and peanut dumplings

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

90 min

Hong Kong Snacks & Starters

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ChlebíčkyOpen sandwiches

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

30 min

Czech Snacks & Starters

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ChomlekClay-pot beef with vegetables

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

185 min

Bulgarian Meat

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ChokladbollarNo-bake chocolate oat balls

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

20 minScandinavian Desserts

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ChoregBraided Easter bread

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

70 min

Armenian Baking

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ChrainHorseradish and beetroot relish

On the seder table and beside Shabbat gefilte fish, Ashkenazi families in Israel set out a bowl of chrain, a magenta relish of freshly grated horseradish and cooked beetroot. Its heat goes straight up the nose and clears the head, softened by the earthy sweetness of beet, a pinch of sugar and sharp vinegar. It keeps for weeks in the fridge and also livens up roast vegetables, boiled potatoes and egg salad. The common mistake is grating horseradish in a closed room with your face over the bowl: its fumes sting the eyes badly. Chef's tip: add the vinegar straight after grating, it fixes the heat at its peak; the longer grated horseradish sits without acid, the milder and more bitter it becomes.

20 min

Israeli Chutneys & Dips

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ChremslachMatzo meal fritters

Chremslach are a Galician and Polish Passover sweet still fried in Ashkenazi kitchens in Haifa and Jerusalem during the holiday week, often eaten as a dessert after the seder leftovers or for a festive breakfast. Matzo meal is mixed with eggs, sugar, raisins, chopped almonds and cinnamon into a thick batter, then dropped into hot oil in spoonfuls to make small, puffy fritters, crisp outside and soft inside. Serve them warm, dusted with sugar or drizzled with honey. The common mistake is frying straight away: the matzo meal needs 15 minutes to swell, or the fritters fall apart in the oil. Chef's tip: wet your spoon between fritters so the sticky batter slides off cleanly.

35 min

Israeli Desserts

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Chuijhal mangshoBeef with chuijhal spice

Few ingredients say Khulna, Jessore and Satkhira like chuijhal, the thick stem and root of a pepper vine that climbs trees in the southwestern districts; chopped into chunks and cooked with meat, it gives a heat that is fragrant, woody and peppery rather than sharp. Roadside hotels between Khulna and Bagerhat are famous for their chuijhal mutton and beef, eaten with plain rice or soft chapatis, and the softened chunks of chuijhal are chewed for their juice at the end. In the UK some Bangladeshi grocers sell it frozen; if you cannot find it, long pepper and black pepper give a fair impression, though not the same aroma. The usual mistake is adding the chuijhal at the start, which cooks out its perfume; it goes in for the last half hour. Chef's tip: peel the tough outer skin from thicker stems, and split them lengthways so the flavour comes out.

135 min

Bangladeshi Meat

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Chunga pithaBamboo-roasted sticky rice

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

60 min

Bangladeshi Rice & Grains

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ChvishtariCornmeal and cheese cakes

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

35 min

Georgian Breads & Parathas

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Chwee kuehSteamed rice cakes with preserved radish

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

60 min

Singaporean Breakfast & Brunch

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CicvaraKajmak and cornmeal porridge

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

30 minBalkan Rice & Grains

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ĆimburEggs cooked on sweet onion

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

20 minBalkan Breakfast & Brunch

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Ciorbă de fasole verdeGreen bean soup

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

40 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă de hribiPorcini soup

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

45 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă de pește lipoveneascăDelta fish soup

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

75 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă de pui cu tarhonChicken soup with tarragon

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

75 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă de urziciNettle soup

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

40 min

Romanian Soups

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Ciorbă rădăuțeanăSour chicken soup with garlic

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

90 min

Romanian Soups

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Jiz-bizFried lamb offal and potatoes

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

60 min

Azerbaijani Meat

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ČobanacShepherd's meat stew with paprika

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

180 minBalkan Meat

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Čočka na kyseloSour lentils with fried egg

Brown lentils, a good splash of vinegar and a crisp-edged fried egg on top: čočka na kyselo is the Czech school-canteen and workers' lunch that people grow nostalgic about. Bohemian families also eat lentils around New Year, when the small round seeds stand for coins. The lentils are cooked soft, bound in a light roux with fried onion and finished sour and a touch sweet, then served with a sliced pickled gherkin and fresh bread. The texture should be spoonable, not soupy and not stiff. Where most cooks slip up is adding the vinegar too early: acid keeps lentils firm, so they stay hard however long you cook them. Season at the end instead. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of mustard stirred in with the vinegar rounds out the sourness without making it taste of mustard.

50 min

Czech Curries

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CougnouChristmas brioche

Cougnou, also called cougnolle or bommetje, is the Christmas bread of Wallonia, given to children on Christmas morning: a soft brioche shaped like the infant Jesus in swaddling clothes, with a little clay or sugar medallion pressed into the middle, eaten with hot chocolate. Bakeries in Namur and Charleroi make them from early December. A common mistake is shaping them too small, which dries them in the oven. Chef's tip: make three balls, one large for the body and two small for the head and feet, pressed together tightly so they bake as one.

65 min

Belgian Baking

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Couque de DinantHard honey biscuit

Couques de Dinant are the famously hard honey biscuits of Dinant on the Meuse, made only of flour and honey, pressed into carved wooden moulds showing castles, animals and the town's skyline, and baked so hot that the honey caramelises into a very hard, glossy biscuit. Dinant bakers say they keep for years; locals let a piece melt slowly in the mouth rather than biting. Honey is traditional; golden syrup makes a vegan version. A common mistake is a soft dough; it must be stiff enough to hold the mould's detail. Chef's tip: dust the mould with flour, press hard and tap the dough out sharply.

60 min

Belgian Baking

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CovrigiRomanian pretzel rings

Morning commuters in Bucharest buy them hot from a hole-in-the-wall covrigărie, a paper bag of rings still warm enough to fog the glass; in Buzău, the town most proud of them, people swear by the thin twisted kind. Covrigi are a lean yeast dough with no egg or milk, so they are eaten through the fasting seasons too. Each ring is dipped briefly in boiling soda water, scattered with coarse salt and seeds, then baked until shiny and chewy with a crisp crust. A common mistake is leaving them in the water bath too long, which wrinkles the surface; 20–30 seconds is plenty. Serve them on their own, with a glass of ayran-style yogurt drink or with soup. Chef's tip: shape the rings on a dry, unfloured worktop, as a little grip makes the ropes easier to roll thin and even.

90 min

Romanian Breads & Parathas

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CramiqueRaisin brioche

Cramique is the Sunday breakfast loaf of Brussels and Wallonia: a soft, golden brioche packed with raisins, bought from the bakery on Sunday morning and sliced thickly with salted butter. Its sister, craquelin, swaps the raisins for pearl sugar. A common mistake is adding the raisins at the start of kneading, which tears the gluten and turns the dough grey. Chef's tip: soak the raisins in warm tea for 20 minutes, then knead them in only at the end, gently.

75 min

Belgian Baking

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Croûte au fromageWine-soaked bread with Gruyère

Croûte au fromage is the après-ski supper of Valais and Vaud, served in mountain restaurants from Verbier to Zermatt in sizzling dishes: thick slices of stale bread sprinkled with white wine, rubbed with garlic, heaped with grated Gruyère and baked until bubbling, often with a fried egg on top. This recipe uses white wine, as it traditionally does; for an alcohol-free version, use the swap in the ingredient note. Gruyère is made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian Swiss-style cheese. A common mistake is soaking the bread with too much wine, which makes it soggy. Chef's tip: toast the bread first, then sprinkle, so it stays crisp underneath and soft on top.

25 min

Swiss Vegetarian

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Csabai kolbászPaprika pork sausage

Every October the town of Békéscsaba holds a sausage festival where teams grind, season and stuff pork by hand, and the town's name is on Hungary's most famous paprika sausage. The real csabai is smoked over beech and then air-dried for weeks; curing like that needs curing salt, careful temperature and humidity control and a lot of experience, so this recipe makes the same spicy pork mixture as a fresh sausage that is cooked through to 71 °C and never eaten raw. It is fiery, garlicky and deep red from sweet and hot paprika with a warm hint of caraway, and is excellent grilled or pan-fried, with mustard, fresh bread, pickled peppers and raw onion. The usual slip is letting the meat get warm while you work, which smears the fat and gives a dry, crumbly sausage; keep everything ice cold. Chef's tip: fry a small test patty before stuffing to check the salt and heat.

240 min

Hungarian Meat

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