Featured recipe

Halawet el jibn

Cheese and semolina rolls

Halawet el jibn, 'sweetness of cheese', is the pride of the pastry shops of Homs in Syria and Tripoli in Lebanon, where trays of the pale, stretchy rolls are sold for Eid, weddings and Sunday afternoons. A dough of melted cheese and semolina is stretched thin, wrapped around thick clotted cream (ashta), cut into rolls and soaked in rose syrup. The dough must be worked hot, which makes it the hardest dessert in this collection, but the result is soft, chewy and only lightly sweet. Use mozzarella or akkawi made with vegetarian (microbial) rennet; many supermarket mozzarellas are. Chef's tip: oil your hands and the worktop rather than flouring them; flour toughens the dough and dulls its shine.

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Etli nohutLamb and chickpea stew

Ask anyone in Turkey for the taste of a school lunch or a lokanta set menu and many will say etli nohut with pilav: chickpeas simmered with cubes of lamb, onion, tomato and pepper paste until the sauce is thick and the chickpeas creamy. Spooned over buttery rice with a few pickles alongside, it is cheap, filling and better the next day. Soaking dried chickpeas overnight makes the biggest difference. Common mistake: adding salt and tomato paste before the chickpeas are tender, which keeps them hard. Chef's tip: brown the lamb in batches so it sears instead of stewing in its own juice; that crust flavours the whole pot.

115 min

Turkish Meat

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Empanadas de pescado

Along the coast of Santa Fe, especially during Lent and Holy Week, fishmongers' stalls and riverside kiosks sell fried empanadas filled with sábalo or surubí. The fish is poached, flaked and folded through soft onion and sweet pepper, then sealed in a thin oil-based dough and fried until blistered and crisp. Squeeze lemon over them and eat them warm, with a green salad or just a paper napkin. Any firm white fish works: hake, cod or a farmed catfish. The mistake people make most is skipping the bone check; river fish such as sábalo hide fine bones, so run your fingers through every flake. Chef's tip: keep the filling quite dry and cold before you fill the discs; extra liquid turns to steam in the hot oil and bursts the seams.

90 min

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Etli ekmekThin flatbread with lamb mince

In Konya, etli ekmek is the city's own fast food: dough stretched into a strip almost a metre long and thin as card, spread with hand-chopped lamb or beef, onion, tomato and pepper, baked for a few minutes in a stone oven and cut into squares with a pizza wheel. Unlike lahmacun, the topping is generous and the bread is crisp all the way through. At home, make shorter strips on a hot tray and serve with ayran, lemon and a heap of parsley and onion. Common mistake: piling the topping thick, which keeps the base soft; spread it thin right to the edges. The meat must reach 71 °C. Chef's tip: chop the mince again on a board with the onion and peppers; it spreads thinner and cooks faster.

50 min

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Bacalao al ajoarrieroSalt cod with garlic and pepper

The muleteers who carried goods over the mountain roads into Pamplona, the arrieros, lived on salt cod because it kept for weeks, and the garlicky way they cooked it took their name. Today ajoarriero is ordered in the bars around Pamplona's Plaza del Castillo, especially during San Fermín, and served in small earthenware dishes with bread. The Navarrese version is red with peppers, tomato and dried choricero pepper, and many cooks stir in egg at the end. Chef's tip: taste the cod after soaking and only salt the dish at the very end, if at all.

55 min

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Estupeta de atumShredded tuna salad

Vila Real de Santo António and Tavira grew rich on tuna, and estupeta is what the fishing families made from the salted belly: shredded into threads and tossed with tomato, green pepper and onion in a sharp olive-oil dressing. Today it appears every summer in tascas along the Guadiana as a starter with bread and cold drinks. The traditional salted tuna is cured, not cooked, so it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system; this version uses fresh tuna poached until cooked through, which anyone can eat. Chef's tip: shred the tuna with two forks while it is still warm, as it pulls into finer threads.

30 min

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Estofado de llamaBraised llama stew

Llama herds have grazed the Puna of Jujuy for thousands of years, and in Purmamarca, Tilcara and Humahuaca restaurants now proudly serve their meat to visitors, most often as a slow estofado. The meat is very lean, dark red and mild, a little like venison, and it is braised with onion, red pepper, tomato, cumin, ají molido and a sprig of muña or oregano until tender, then served with Andean potatoes, quinoa or rice. Outside the Andes, llama is sold by a few specialist game and alpaca farms; lean venison or beef topside are the closest substitutes. Treat it like beef and braise it until fork-tender. Because the meat has almost no fat, the common mistake is cooking it at a rolling boil, which makes it dry and stringy: keep the heat low and the lid on. Chef's tip: dust the meat lightly with a little cornflour before browning; it protects the lean pieces and thickens the sauce without making it heavy.

120 min

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Hamsi tavaFried anchovies

When the first winter storms push shoals of anchovy along the coast, fish markets from Samsun to Hopa are heaped with silver hamsi and the whole region seems to smell of frying. Hamsi tava is the simplest way to eat them: heads off, butterflied, dusted in cornmeal and laid in a hot pan in a neat circle, then flipped like a cake. They come out crisp outside and soft and sweet within, with red onion, rocket, lemon and cornbread alongside. Common mistake: crowding the pan, which steams the fish and leaves the coating soggy. Cook until the flesh is opaque and flakes from the backbone. Chef's tip: shake off every bit of loose cornmeal; a thin coat is what stays crunchy.

30 min

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Empanadas cordobesas

Sweet and salty is the whole point here. Córdoba's empanadas hold a filling of beef, onion, a little potato, raisins and olives, and the moment they come out of the fryer they get a sprinkle of sugar that melts into the crackly crust. They turn up at birthday parties, school fundraisers and the patriotic holidays of 25 May and 9 July, often next to a bowl of locro. If the sugar on top sounds odd, try one: the contrast with the cumin and paprika is the local hallmark. The error that ruins them is frying in oil that isn't hot enough, which leaves them pale and greasy; keep it at 175 °C. Chef's tip: dust with sugar within seconds of draining, while the surface is still glistening, or it won't stick.

90 min

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Estocaficada (stockfish niçois)Dried cod stew with tomato

Estocaficada is the old winter dish of Nice's port and old town, where Norwegian stockfish arrived in exchange for olive oil and wine centuries ago; it is still cooked for family Friday lunches and at the city's food festivals. Air-dried cod is rehydrated and stewed slowly with tomatoes, onions, peppers, black olives and potatoes, giving a rich, rust-red stew with a deep, almost meaty flavour. True stockfish is hard to find outside specialist shops and needs 4–5 days of soaking, so this recipe uses salt cod, which is easier and gives a gentler result; the note explains both. Serve in deep plates with crusty bread for the sauce. Chef's tip: add the cod at the end and keep it at a gentle simmer so it stays in juicy flakes rather than turning rubbery.

105 min

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EsterházytorteAlmond meringue layer cake

Named after a Hungarian noble family and claimed by both Budapest and Vienna, this torte is a showpiece of Viennese pastry shops, where it sits in the glass counter beside richer chocolate cakes. Five or six crisp-chewy almond meringue layers are stacked with a vanilla custard buttercream, then topped with white icing and the famous feathered chocolate lines. It has no flour at all, so it suits gluten-free guests. A common mistake is baking the layers too pale; they should be light golden, or they go soft and sticky in the cream. Chef's tip: draw the circles on baking paper first and spread the meringue to the line with a palette knife, so every layer matches.

140 min

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Estamboli poloTomato rice with potatoes

In Tehran flats, estamboli polo is the weeknight rice that turns up when the fridge holds little more than tomatoes and potatoes, and children ask for it by name. Basmati is par-boiled, then layered back into the pot with a turmeric-and-tomato sauce and cubes of fried potato, and steamed under a cloth-wrapped lid until each grain is separate and orange-tinged. The bottom turns into a golden, crunchy tahdig that everyone fights over. Serve it with mast-o khiar, a plate of fresh herbs and torshi. A common mistake is stirring the tomato sauce through boiling rice, which makes it sticky; layer it instead and let the steam do the work. Chef's tip: lay thin potato slices on the base of the pot for the tahdig; they crisp evenly and lift out in one piece.

75 min

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EsqueixadaShredded salt cod salad

Esqueixada, from esqueixar, to tear, is the summer starter of Barcelona's old taverns: salt cod that has been soaked, shredded by hand and dressed with tomato, peppers, onion and black olives. Traditionally the cod is never cooked, only desalted, so it stays translucent and firm; raw cured fish is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. The safer version, given in the steps, poaches the cod gently first, and this is the one to choose whenever in doubt. Chef's tip: tear the cod with your fingers along its natural flakes; a knife makes it mushy and you lose the pleasing chew.

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Akçaabat köftesiGarlicky beef meatballs

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37 min

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AbaráSteamed black-eyed pea parcels

Abará is the steamed sister of acarajé, sold from the same wooden trays by the baianas in white lace who set up on the corners of Salvador's Pelourinho, Rio Vermelho and the Barra seafront. The batter is identical, black-eyed peas skinned and ground with onion and dried shrimp, but instead of hitting hot dendê it is wrapped in banana leaf and steamed, so it comes out soft, dense and sunset-orange, tasting of palm oil, sea and pulses. Baianas split it open and fill it with vatapá, caruru, vinagrete and a few whole shrimp; at home it is lovely with just a spoonful of pepper sauce. Plan ahead: the peas need soaking overnight. The usual mistake is leaving the skins on, which makes the parcels grey, gritty and heavy. For a vegetarian version, leave out the shrimp and add a pinch more salt. Chef's tip: beat the paste hard with a wooden spoon for a few minutes before wrapping; the air you work in is what keeps abará light rather than rubbery.

90 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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Espinacs a la catalanaSpinach with raisins and pine nuts

This dish carries the sweet-and-savoury taste of medieval Catalan cooking: spinach wilted with plump raisins and toasted pine nuts, sometimes with a little pork fat or anchovy, though olive oil is just as traditional. Families cook it in spring and autumn as a side for fish or chicken, or as a light first course before the main. It takes ten minutes. Chef's tip: soak the raisins in warm water first so they swell and burst sweetly, instead of turning hard in the hot pan.

20 min

Spanish Sides

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Handkäs mit MusikMarinated sour-milk cheese

Handkäs mit Musik is the bar snack of Frankfurt's Sachsenhausen cider taverns, where it is served on a small plate beside a glass of apple wine; apple juice or a sour apple spritzer is the alcohol-free match. Handkäse is a small, firm, low-fat sour-milk cheese, ripened until it turns glassy and translucent at the edge, and the 'music' is the marinade of onion, vinegar, oil and caraway it soaks in. It is eaten with a knife and fork on buttered rye bread. Most Handkäse is made without rennet, using acid alone, but check the label if you are strict. A common mistake is serving it straight away: the cheese needs at least an hour in the marinade. Chef's tip: choose a cheese that is still chalky white in the very middle, which gives a mix of creamy and fresh textures.

15 min

German Snacks & Starters

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Summer pudding

Summer pudding is the high-summer pudding of English country gardens, made when redcurrants, raspberries and blackcurrants ripen together in July. Slices of day-old white bread line a basin and soak up the juices of lightly cooked berries overnight, turning a deep crimson and setting into a dome. Serve with cream (or a plant cream for a vegan pudding). Chef's tip: keep back a few spoonfuls of juice to paint over any white patches after turning it out.

30 min

British Desserts

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Rollmops

Rollmops are the pickled herring rolls of the North Sea and Baltic coasts, pinned with a wooden pick around gherkin and onion and kept in a jar of spiced vinegar; in Berlin and Hamburg they are the classic morning-after breakfast and a fixture of New Year's Day tables. Making them at home takes a week of fridge time but very little work. Because the fish is never cooked, use herring that has been frozen at −20 °C for at least 24 hours (most fresh 'sashimi-grade' or commercially frozen fillets qualify; ask your fishmonger), and keep everything chilled. Rollmops are not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: let the jars rest a full five days; the vinegar needs that long to firm the flesh and soften the tiny bones.

60 min

German Fish

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Eton mess

Eton mess is served at Eton College's cricket match against Harrow each June, and it has become the English summer pudding for picnics and garden parties when strawberries are at their best. Crushed meringue, whipped cream and macerated strawberries are folded together at the last moment, so you get crunch, cream and juice in every spoonful. Chef's tip: fold it together just before serving; if it sits, the meringue dissolves into the cream.

20 min

British Desserts

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EisbeinCured pork knuckle

Eisbein is old Berlin pub food, the cured pork knuckle served in Kneipen across the city with a mound of yellow pease pudding (Erbspüree) and sauerkraut, and it is especially popular in the cold months. Unlike the Bavarian roast Haxe, this pork knuckle is pickled in brine by the butcher and then simmered slowly, so the meat turns pink, tender and gently salty and the rind stays soft. Order a cured ("gepökelt") knuckle from a German or Polish butcher. Chef's tip: soak the knuckle in cold water for a few hours first if your butcher's cure is strong; taste a little of the simmering water after 30 minutes and change it if it is very salty.

180 min

German Meat

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Espetada madeirenseGarlic and bay beef skewers

In Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, on the hillsides above Funchal, the September wine harvest ends with espetada: big cubes of beef rubbed with garlic, salt and crushed bay, threaded onto bay branches and roasted over a wood fire. Restaurants hang the long skewers from hooks above the table, so everyone slides off their own pieces. It is eaten with bolo do caco, milho frito and a salad. Chef's tip: cut the beef into large 4 cm cubes, which stay juicy in the middle while the outside chars.

35 min

Portuguese Meat

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ChiflesPlantain chips

Bags of chifles hang from every shop door in Piura and Sullana, and on the northern coast they come alongside almost everything: ceviche, seco, a cold drink at the beach. They are green plantains sliced paper-thin, lengthwise or in rounds, fried until glassy and crisp, then salted. The flavour is starchy and lightly nutty, the crunch is louder than a potato crisp, and they keep for days in a tin. Getting the slices even is what matters most: thick and thin slices fry at different speeds, and the thick ones end up leathery while the thin ones burn, so use a mandoline set to 1–2 mm. Use firm, fully green plantains; any yellow means sugar, which browns too fast. Chef's tip: soak the slices in salted water for 10 minutes, then dry them completely before frying; they crisp more evenly and stay pale gold.

30 min

Peruvian Snacks & Starters

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EsparregadoGarlic puréed greens

Fried fish in a Lisbon casa de pasto often comes with a spoonful of soft, dark green esparregado on the side, and the roast lamb at Easter lunch in the Ribatejo does too. Cooks use whatever leaves are in season: turnip tops in winter, spinach the rest of the year, sometimes a handful of wild asparagus. The greens are cooked, chopped very fine and stirred into garlic-scented olive oil with a little flour until creamy, then lifted with a dash of vinegar. It is good with fried cuttlefish, grilled sardines or a fried egg. A common mistake is skipping the squeeze; wet greens make a watery purée, so press out as much water as you can. Chef's tip: squeeze the cooked greens really hard before chopping; watery greens give a thin, grey purée.

25 min

Portuguese Sides

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Espárragos trigueros esparragadosWild asparagus with fried bread

From March to May, families around Granada and Córdoba walk the field edges gathering thin, bitter wild asparagus, and the classic way to cook the haul is esparragados: simmered in a sauce of pounded fried bread, garlic, cumin and paprika, with an egg poached on top. Thin green asparagus from the shop works well too. The sauce should be thick enough to hold the egg. Chef's tip: pound the bread and garlic while still warm from the pan; they break down into a smooth paste far more easily.

40 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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Espada com bananaFried scabbardfish with banana

The long, black, sharp-toothed espada is caught at great depth off Madeira at night, and the Funchal fish market sells it every morning. Its white, tender fillets are eaten everywhere on the island, most famously dipped in egg and fried, then crowned with slices of the small, sweet local banana fried in butter. Black scabbardfish is hard to find elsewhere; hake, ling or cod fillets work well. Chef's tip: pat the fish completely dry before flouring it, so the egg coating clings and fries crisp.

35 min

Portuguese Fish

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Sweet-sour pickled pumpkin

When the pumpkin harvest peaks in October, from the Rhineland to Saxony, German kitchens turn the firm orange flesh into Süß-sauer eingelegter Kürbis, golden cubes preserved in sweet spiced vinegar. Through the winter they come out of the cellar to sit beside roast dinners, game, cheese boards and cold cuts, or a simple plate of potatoes and quark. Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and a little lemon peel make them taste of Christmas. The mistake is using a watery carving pumpkin, which falls apart; choose a dense one such as Hokkaido or butternut. Chef's tip: steep the raw cubes in the cold vinegar overnight before cooking; it firms them so they stay in neat, glassy cubes.

60 min

German Sides

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Westphalian pumpernickel

Real pumpernickel comes from Westphalia, where bakers in towns like Soest once left loaves in the cooling bread oven overnight, and it is still sliced paper-thin for breakfast with butter, quark and radishes or with a sharp cheese. There is no colouring and no molasses here: the near-black colour and the malty sweetness come only from cracked rye cooked for many hours in steam at a low heat. The crumb is moist, dense and slightly sticky, and the loaf keeps for over a week wrapped in cloth. A common mistake is slicing it on the day it comes out of the tin; it needs a full day to settle or it tears into gummy crumbs. Chef's tip: wrap the tin tightly in two layers of foil and stand it in a roasting tray of hot water, because a dry loaf turns hard instead of dark and sweet.

1440 min

German Breads & Parathas

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EshkenehOnion, fenugreek and egg soup

Eshkeneh is the soup of the cold north-west, cooked in Tabriz kitchens on winter evenings when there is little in the house but onions, eggs and dried fenugreek. The onions are fried very slowly until sweet and brown, a spoon of flour and turmeric thickens the broth, and eggs are dropped in to poach at the end; a little sour from lemon or dried sour cherries balances it. Azerbaijani families crumble barbari or lavash into their bowls so the bread soaks up the broth. A common mistake is rushing the onions, which leaves the soup thin and harsh rather than mellow and golden. Chef's tip: add the dried fenugreek with the flour, not before, because it scorches quickly and turns bitter.

30 min

Persian Soups

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Chile con queso norteñoRoasted chilli with melted cheese

In Ciudad Chihuahua and the farming towns of the Sierra, chile con queso is not the runny orange dip of Texas bars but a skillet of roasted long green chillies, onion and tomato with mild Chihuahua cheese melted through it, scooped up with flour tortillas at a carne-asada Sunday or eaten as a main with beans. Chihuahua cheese, also called queso menonita after the Mennonite farmers who make it, is like a mild, buttery cheddar. Chef's tip: steam the roasted chillies in a covered bowl; the skins then slide off in one go.

30 min

Mexican Chutneys & Dips

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EsgarraetRoast pepper and salt cod salad

Esgarraet means "torn", and that is the whole technique: red peppers are roasted until soft and sweet, then pulled into strips by hand and layered with shredded salt cod, garlic and plenty of olive oil. Valencia's bars put it out as a tapa with crusty bread, and families make a big dish of it to pick at before a summer paella. Traditionally the cod is only desalted, not cooked, which means it is raw cured fish. That version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system; this recipe gently poaches the cod first, which keeps it tender and makes it safe for everyone. A common mistake is rinsing the roast peppers under the tap to peel them; you wash away the sweet juices. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead; the peppers and cod drink up the garlicky oil overnight.

70 min

Spanish Snacks & Starters

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EscribanoCrushed potato salad with rocoto

Mid-morning in Arequipa's traditional picanterías, before the big plates come out, regulars order escribano: a bowl of warm yellow potato crushed with a fork and drenched in rocoto, ripe tomato, vinegar and oil. Local lore says it was a snack for the court clerks (escribanos) who worked nearby, and it is still eaten as a sharp, spicy wake-up with a glass of chicha or a soft drink. The texture should be rough and juicy, somewhere between a salad and a mash, with the red chilli bright against the potato. Don't purée it: overworked potato goes gluey and loses the chunks that hold the dressing. Rocoto is fiercely hot, so start with half and taste. Serve it alone with crusty bread, or beside fried cheese or grilled vegetables. Chef's tip: dress the potatoes the moment they are drained and peeled, while they are steaming, so they drink in the vinegar.

35 min

Peruvian Salads

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Escargots de BourgogneSnails in garlic parsley butter

Burgundy snails in green garlic butter are the festive starter of the Côte-d'Or, eaten at Christmas and New Year all over France and in Paris brasseries year round, served by the dozen in dimpled dishes. The snails themselves taste mild and earthy and have a pleasantly firm bite; the real attraction is the sizzling butter packed with garlic, shallot and parsley, mopped up with bread. Live snails need days of preparation, so this recipe uses ready-prepared tinned or jarred snails, with clean shells or snail dishes bought separately. Chef's tip: make the butter a day ahead so the garlic flavour deepens, and pack the shells well so the butter seals the snail in.

35 min

French Snacks & Starters

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Hamburger PannfischFish and potatoes in mustard sauce

Pannfisch began as the thrifty Monday supper of Hamburg's harbour families, made from the odds and ends of the weekend's fish and the cold potatoes from Sunday. Chunks of white fish are fried golden and laid over crisp Bratkartoffeln, with a creamy mustard sauce poured round, and today it is a fixture of the fish restaurants along the Elbe. Use whatever firm white fish is good: cod, saithe, haddock or plaice. Chef's tip: boil the potatoes the day before and chill them; cold potatoes fry crisp instead of breaking up.

45 min

German Fish

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Linzer Torte

Linz, the Danube city in Upper Austria, has baked this tart for centuries, and it still fills bakery windows there all year, with extra demand in Advent. It is closer to a soft, crumbly nut biscuit than a pastry: ground hazelnuts, butter, cinnamon and cloves are pressed into the tin, filled with tart redcurrant jam and topped with a lattice. Serve a thin slice with coffee or tea. A common mistake is eating it on the day it is baked; it is much better after two or three days, when the jam soaks into the crumb. Chef's tip: chill the lattice strips on a tray before lifting them on, and they will not tear.

85 min

Austrian Baking

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EscalivadaRoasted aubergine, pepper and onion

The name comes from the Catalan escalivar, to cook in the embers, and in country masies across Catalonia the vegetables still go straight into the dying fire after a Sunday grill. Aubergines, red peppers and onions char black outside and turn smoky and soft within, then are peeled, torn into strips and dressed with nothing but olive oil, salt and a little garlic. Serve it warm or at room temperature with bread, beside grilled meat, or on toast. Chef's tip: wrap the roasted vegetables in a cloth or put them in a covered bowl for 15 minutes; the steam lifts the skins clean off.

80 min

Spanish Sides

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Sachertorte

This dense, dark chocolate torte is Vienna's most famous cake, eaten in coffee houses all over the city with a cup of Melange and, always, a cloud of unsweetened whipped cream on the side. The sponge is made with melted chocolate and whisked egg whites, so it is fine-crumbed and slightly dry by design; a thin layer of sharp apricot jam runs through the middle and over the top, under a shiny, snappy chocolate glaze. A common mistake is pouring the glaze too hot or too cold; too hot and it runs off thin, too cold and it sets dull and lumpy. It is a cake for birthdays and Sunday visits, and it keeps well for days. Chef's tip: bake it the day before and let it rest overnight wrapped; it cuts far more neatly and the crumb softens.

120 min

Austrian Baking

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Mahi doodi with sabzi polo

On the first day of the Persian new year, from Rasht to Tehran, the classic lunch is sabzi polo, a green herb rice, with fish, and on the Caspian side that fish is often golden hot-smoked white fish (mahi doodi). Fresh herbs stand for spring and the fish for life, so the plate is full of meaning as well as flavour. Most cooks buy the smoked fish ready made and simply warm it with a little garlic and saffron butter, which is what this recipe does; the rice is steamed with dill, parsley, coriander and chives until it forms a crisp tahdig. Hot-smoked fish is already cooked; heat it until piping hot, at least 70 °C in the middle. A common mistake is warming the fish dry in a hot oven, which makes it tough and salty; wrap it with a splash of water so it steams. Chef's tip: soak the smoked fish in warm water for 10 minutes first to draw out some of the salt.

90 min

Persian Fish

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ChilorioShredded pork in chilli paste

Chilorio is Sinaloa's great pork dish: pork shoulder simmered until it falls apart, shredded and then fried in pork lard with a vinegary paste of ancho and guajillo chillies until almost dry and deeply brick-red. Ranch cooks around Culiacán made it to keep, and it is still packed into jars and sold in markets across the north. It is rich, tangy and gently spicy rather than fiery, and it fills flour tortillas for burritos, tops scrambled eggs at breakfast or goes into tortas with refried beans. Chef's tip: fry the shredded pork in the lard for a few minutes before the chilli goes in, so the edges crisp and the paste clings instead of stewing.

175 min

Mexican Meat

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Chilpachole de jaibaSpicy crab soup

Chilpachole de jaiba is the restorative crab soup of the Veracruz coast, served in seafood cantinas and market stalls from Boca del Río to Alvarado, often with lime and tostadas on the side. The broth is brick-red and thick enough to coat a spoon, built from roasted tomato, garlic and smoky chipotle, thickened with a little masa and scented with epazote, a pungent Mexican herb; coriander with a pinch of oregano is a reasonable substitute. Buy crabs live or freshly cooked from a fishmonger and keep them cold until you cook them. Chef's tip: crack the claws before they go into the soup, so the broth seeps in and they are easy to pick at the table.

70 min

Mexican Soups

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Erk sousLiquorice root drink

In the lanes of old Damascus and Aleppo, the erk sous seller is heard before he is seen, clacking brass cups as he walks with a great curved jug strapped to his back. His drink is liquorice root, slowly dripped through with cold water, dark, earthy, faintly bitter and naturally sweet, poured with a flourish over the shoulder during Ramadan iftars and hot afternoons. At home a sieve and a cloth do the job. The mistake people make is pouring boiling water over the root, which pulls out harsh bitterness; cold water and patience give a smooth, foamy drink. Liquorice root raises blood pressure if you drink a lot of it, so keep to a glass or two a day and skip it if you are pregnant or have high blood pressure. Chef's tip: a pinch of bicarbonate of soda in the damp root gives the drink its traditional thick, frothy head.

15 min

Syrian Drinks

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Espárragos de Navarra con vinagretaWhite asparagus with vinaigrette

White asparagus grows under mounded earth in the sandy fields along the Ebro and its tributaries, and the Espárrago de Navarra label covers the spears picked there from April to June. In spring, restaurants from Pamplona to Tudela serve them freshly boiled, still warm or just cool, as a starter on their own or with a sharp vinaigrette full of finely diced peppers and egg. The rest of the year the jarred ones are a pantry staple. Chef's tip: add a teaspoon of sugar to the cooking water; it softens the faint bitterness of the stems.

45 min

Spanish Snacks & Starters

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Chimia de uvaThick grape spread

German immigrants who settled the valleys around Santa Cruz do Sul and São Leopoldo in the 1800s brought their Schmier, and the word slowly turned Portuguese as chimia. It is a dark, thick fruit spread cooked down from whatever the backyard gives: grapes, figs, plums, pumpkin or banana. Colonial cafés in the Vale do Rio Pardo set out a pot of it beside cuca, cheese and cold meats at the café colonial, and at home it goes on thick slices of pão caseiro, often with a smear of nata (thick cream) underneath. This version uses dark grapes, cooked whole and sieved, so it keeps the deep colour of the skins. People often stop cooking too soon; a runny chimia soaks straight into the bread instead of sitting on top. Chef's tip: test it on a cold saucer from the freezer; when a line drawn through it stays open, it is ready.

65 min

Brazilian Chutneys & Dips

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ChinchulinesGrilled beef intestines

No proper Sunday asado in Buenos Aires province or the interior is complete without a round of achuras, and chinchulines are the boldest of them: beef small intestine, coiled on the grill and cooked slowly until the outside crackles like pork scratchings and the inside stays soft and rich with its own fat. Pass them round on a board with lemon and bread as a starter while the bigger cuts cook. Buy them already cleaned from a butcher or a Latin American meat counter, and rinse them again well at home. The usual mistake is too much heat: the outside burns long before the inside cooks. Offal must be cooked right through, with no soft, raw-looking parts. Chef's tip: simmer them briefly before grilling; it cleans them further, shortens the time on the coals and gives you a much more even crunch.

65 min

Argentinian Meat

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Albaloo poloSour cherry rice with meatballs

In early summer the markets of Tehran fill with dark sour cherries, and many families cook a pot of albaloo polo the same week, also bringing it out for weddings and Yalda night because the red-and-gold rice looks so festive. The cherries are simmered into a glossy syrup, then layered through basmati with marble-sized lamb meatballs (some cooks use shredded chicken instead), and the whole pot is steamed until the rice turns pink and fragrant. The taste is sweet, sharp and savoury at once. A common mistake is pouring in all the syrup; it makes the rice soggy, so keep some back to drizzle at the table. Chef's tip: frozen or jarred pitted sour cherries in light syrup work well out of season; drain them and use half the sugar.

95 min

Persian Chicken

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Mahyaveh-style anchovy and spice spread

In Bandar Abbas, Lar and the villages of Hormozgan, mahyaveh is a dark, pungent sauce made by leaving tiny fish with salt, mustard seed and spices to ferment in the sun for weeks; it is smeared on hot flatbread for breakfast or with eggs. That open-air fermentation is hard to control safely at home, so this version gets the same deep, salty flavour from ready-cured anchovy fillets blended with toasted mustard seed, cumin, coriander seed, fennel and a little vinegar, and it lives in the fridge from the start. It is still a cured-fish product: not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. A common mistake is spreading it thickly like a pâté; it is a seasoning, so a thin smear is enough. Chef's tip: toast the spices until the mustard seeds just start to pop, which takes the raw bitterness out and gives the spread its roasted edge.

20 min

Persian Basics

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