What to eat today?

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Bolo de mel da MadeiraSpiced molasses cake with nuts

Madeiran families bake bolo de mel on 8 December so it can mellow in time for Christmas, and a well-wrapped one is said to keep until the following year. It is dense, almost black and fragrant with cinnamon, clove and aniseed, sweetened with mel de cana, the island's sugarcane molasses, and studded with walnuts, almonds and candied peel. Tradition says it should be broken by hand, never cut with a knife. Many old recipes use some lard; this one uses butter only. Chef's tip: wrap it in foil and wait at least a week before eating; the spices and molasses soften and blend as it rests.

90 min

Portuguese Baking

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Bolo de milho verdeSweetcorn cake

Almost every Brazilian padaria keeps a tray of bolo de milho verde by the till, and in June it multiplies across festa junina stalls, sliced into squares and wrapped in napkins. Everything goes into a blender: sweetcorn kernels, eggs, milk, oil, sugar and a little fine cornmeal, so the cake comes out yellow, dense and moist, almost custardy in the middle, with real corn flavour. It is made without wheat flour, which keeps it gluten free as long as your baking powder is. Eat it with afternoon coffee or warm from the tin. Opening the oven early is where it usually goes wrong; this batter is heavy and sinks if the door opens before 35 minutes. Chef's tip: leave the cake in the tin for 20 minutes after baking; it finishes setting as it cools and comes out in clean slices.

60 min

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Favas guisadas com chouriçoBroad beans with chouriço

When broad beans come in across the Alentejo in April and May, this is the dish that announces them: young beans stewed with chouriço and a little cured pork belly, garlic, onion and a big handful of coriander, until the beans are soft and the sauce is red with paprika fat. It is a weekday lunch with bread, or with a poached egg on top. This contains pork (chouriço and bacon). Frozen broad beans work well out of season. A common mistake is boiling the beans until they turn grey and mealy; stop when they are tender and still green. Chef's tip: a spoonful of vinegar at the end brightens the rich, fatty sauce.

50 min

Portuguese Meat

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Caldo de costillaBeef rib broth

Bogotá wakes up to caldo de costilla. Cafeterías near markets and bus terminals ladle it out from early morning, and it is the city's famous cure after a late night: beef short ribs simmered until tender in a clear, golden broth with potatoes, onion, garlic and a big handful of coriander. It's simple, beefy and restoring, served with an arepa, a cup of hot chocolate or coffee and maybe a slice of bread. People are tempted to boil it hard to save time; the broth turns cloudy and greasy and the meat tightens, so give it a slow, steady simmer. Chef's tip: make the broth the night before and chill it; you can lift off the solid fat in the morning and simply reheat with the potatoes for a fast, clean breakfast.

105 min

Colombian Soups

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Bolo de roloGuava paste roll cake

Cut a slice of bolo de rolo and you see a tight spiral of a dozen hair-thin layers, alternating pale butter sponge and dark red guava. It is Pernambuco's proudest cake, protected as a cultural heritage of the state, sold in Recife's bakeries and airport shops in long boxes and served at birthdays and with coffee in the afternoon. The batter is rich with butter and eggs, spread so thinly it bakes in minutes; each sheet is brushed with melted guava paste and rolled around the last. It takes patience rather than skill. The classic slip is spreading the batter too thick, which gives a fat swiss roll instead of fine stripes; you should almost see the paper through it. Chef's tip: roll each layer while it is still hot from the oven, on a clean cloth dusted with sugar, because the thin sponge cracks as soon as it cools.

85 min

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Arroz con pitu de caleyaSoupy rice with chicken

A pitu de caleya is a cockerel raised free in the lanes, or caleyas, of rural Asturias; its firm, flavourful meat needs long stewing, and families around Villaviciosa and Grado still cook it for feast days. The stew is often finished as a soupy rice, so the deep chicken juices go into every grain. Use the best free-range chicken you can find. The braise includes dry white wine; replace it with extra stock and a squeeze of lemon if you want it alcohol-free. Chef's tip: brown the chicken slowly and deeply; that colour is where the flavour of the whole pot comes from.

125 min

Spanish Chicken

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Chalupas poblanasFried tortillas with salsa

On Sunday evenings in the old centre of Puebla, around the Barrio de San Francisco and the Paseo Bravo, stalls fry stacks of small, thin tortillas in shallow oil and paint them half red and half green with salsa. These are chalupas poblanas, sold by the half dozen on paper plates and eaten in a few bites. The Puebla version is usually topped with shredded pork; ours keeps the salsas, onion and cheese, which are the real flavour, and adds a few beans. The edges should be crisp, the middle still a little soft from the salsa. Cheese like queso fresco is often made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian fresh cheese if you prefer. Chef's tip: spoon the salsa on while the tortilla is still in the pan so it sizzles and soaks in.

25 min

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Chalupas de ChilpancingoFried tortillas with chipotle chicken

Chalupas are Chilpancingo's favourite evening snack: in the capital of Guerrero they are sold by the plateful at cenadurías and street stands, often alongside pozole. Small, thick corn tortillas are fried until crisp at the rim but still a little soft in the middle, then heaped with chicken shredded into a smoky chipotle-tomato sauce and finished with sliced onion, a slice of pickled jalapeño and a crumble of cheese for those who like it. Expect to eat five or six each, with a cold agua fresca. The sauce is traditionally fried in pork lard, but vegetable oil is fine. Chef's tip: press a thumb into the edge of each tortilla while it is still warm to make a low rim; it holds the topping and gives the chalupa its little boat shape.

75 min

Portuguese Breads & Parathas

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Bolo do cacoSweet potato flatbread with garlic butter

Every street stall at the Funchal flower festival and every village arraial on Madeira has a hot stone griddle going, turning out these flat, chewy rounds of bread made with sweet potato. They are split while hot, spread with garlic and parsley butter and eaten on their own, or stuffed with a skewer's worth of espetada. The name comes from the caco, the basalt slab they were first baked on, but a heavy frying pan does the job at home. Chef's tip: cook them low and slow; a hot pan burns the crust before the thick middle is done.

70 min

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GarbureCabbage and bean duck soup

Shepherds in the Béarn valleys and farmers across Gascony have eaten garbure through the cold months for centuries, and it is still the centrepiece of village rugby-club suppers and winter fêtes. It is a soup so thick that, as people in Pau like to say, the ladle should almost stand up in it: white beans, cabbage, potatoes, leeks and turnips cooked down slowly, finished with pieces of duck confit warmed through in the pot. A ham hock is often added too; that version is a pork dish as well as a duck one, so leave it out if you need to. Serve it in deep bowls with thick slices of country bread. Chef's tip: hold back the salt until the very end, because confit duck and ham hock both season the soup as they warm.

180 min

French Soups

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Bolo formigueiroVanilla sponge with chocolate sprinkles

Slice into a bolo formigueiro and the crumb is dotted with dark specks, like ants on a sandy anthill, which is where the name comes from. This is the cake a Brazilian kid would want at merenda time: a soft, buttery vanilla sponge with chocolate sprinkles (granulado) folded through, often finished with a simple chocolate glaze and more sprinkles on top. Padarias and lanchonetes from São Paulo to Belo Horizonte sell it by the slice with a coffee. The cake contains wheat flour, eggs and milk. People often stir the sprinkles into the batter at the start, so they melt and turn the cake muddy grey. Chef's tip: fold the sprinkles in last, with a light hand, and use the chocolate kind (not candy-coloured), which hold their shape in the oven.

60 min

Argentinian Rice & Grains

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GüllaçRose milk wafer dessert

As soon as Ramadan begins, bakeries from Konya to Istanbul stack up packets of güllaç, the dried, almost transparent starch sheets that give this dessert its name. Soaked layer by layer in warm sweetened milk scented with rosewater, then filled with walnuts, the sheets turn soft and silky, and the dessert is served chilled after the iftar meal, often topped with pomegranate seeds. Common mistake: drenching the sheets in hot milk, which makes them dissolve into mush; the milk should be just warm. Chef's tip: make it at least 4 hours ahead, ideally overnight; it firms up enough to cut into clean slices.

40 min

Turkish Desserts

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Canelés de BordeauxVanilla custard cakes

Small, fluted and almost black on the outside, canelés are the signature cake of Bordeaux, sold in pâtisseries all over the city and eaten with morning coffee or at teatime. The thick, caramelised crust cracks to reveal a soft, custardy centre scented with vanilla. The batter traditionally includes dark rum; this version gives it as an option and uses extra vanilla and a little orange zest instead, so it can be made alcohol-free. Copper moulds are traditional, but silicone canelé moulds work well at home. Chef's tip: rest the batter for at least 24 hours in the fridge; fresh batter puffs up like a soufflé and the cakes lose their shape.

1500 min

French Baking

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Chairo puneñoLamb, chuño and wheat soup

High on the Altiplano, where nights freeze even in summer, chairo is the soup that gets Puno's market workers and farmers through the day. It is thick and brothy at once: lamb on the bone and a little charqui (dried meat) simmered with crushed chuño, peeled wheat, broad beans, potatoes and squash, scented with cumin, oregano and huacatay or mint. Expect a deep, meaty, slightly smoky bowl with lots of chew. Soak the chuño and the wheat overnight. A common error is adding the potatoes with the meat, so they dissolve before the lamb is tender; they go in for the last 25 minutes. Chef's tip: crush the soaked chuño into small pieces by hand; they thicken the broth as it cooks.

120 min

Peruvian Soups

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Bolo-reiCandied fruit and nut king cake

From early December to Twelfth Night every Lisbon pastelaria stacks its counter with these glossy rings, crowned with candied fruit and sugar, and families buy one for Christmas Eve and another for the Day of the Kings. A Lisbon confectioner brought the idea from France in the nineteenth century and it became the centre of the Portuguese Christmas table. Traditionally the raisins are soaked in port wine, which contains alcohol; orange juice works just as well. Old recipes hid a dried broad bean inside, and whoever found it bought next year's cake; we leave it out, as it is a choking hazard for children. Chef's tip: let the dough rise slowly in a cool place, even overnight in the fridge; the rich, buttery dough needs time to taste of anything.

95 min

Portuguese Baking

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Hawaiian sweet bread

Hawaiian sweet bread grew from the pão doce that Portuguese families baked in the islands at Easter, and bakeries in Hilo made it famous as a soft, golden, faintly tangy loaf. Pineapple juice gives a gentle fruity sweetness, and the crumb is pillowy and pulls apart in strands. Eat it toasted with butter, or use it for French toast. Chef's tip: the dough should be very soft; be patient during kneading instead of adding extra flour.

60 minPacific Islander Breads & Parathas

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Guiso de quinoaQuinoa and squash stew

High in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, where quinoa has been grown on terraces for centuries, a pot of guiso de quinoa is the sort of thing served at a comedor beside the road or in a family kitchen on a cold evening at 3,000 metres. The grain cooks in a cumin-scented broth with potato, squash and red pepper until it bursts and thickens everything into a spoonable stew, and cubes of fresh cheese go in at the end to soften. Serve it in deep bowls with a spoon of llajua or chilli sauce and bread. Skipping the rinse is the mistake that spoils it: quinoa is coated in saponins that taste soapy and bitter, so wash it until the water runs clear. Queso fresco is often made with animal rennet; use a vegetarian fresh cheese, or leave it out for a vegan stew. Chef's tip: toast the rinsed quinoa in the oil for two minutes before the liquid goes in; it brings out a nutty flavour.

50 min

Argentinian Curries

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Guiso de lentejasLentil and chorizo stew

When the pampero wind blows cold off the plains, Buenos Aires turns to guiso de lentejas, a thick, smoky lentil stew that every school canteen, worker's diner and grandmother makes, traditionally on 20 June (Flag Day) and through the winter. It is built on pork: chorizo colorado (paprika sausage) and pancetta, browned first so their fat flavours the sofrito, then simmered with lentils, potato, squash, tomato and plenty of pimentón. The lentils should keep their shape in a sauce thick enough for a spoon to stand up, and crusty bread is a must alongside. Make sure the sausage is cooked through to 71 °C, which it will be after the long simmer. Seasoning with salt at the start is a common error, as the pork is salty and the stew reduces, so taste at the end. For a vegetarian version, skip the meats, use smoked paprika and add more squash. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead; like most guisos it thickens and tastes better reheated.

75 min

Argentinian Curries

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Garides saganakiPrawns with tomato and feta

Order garides saganaki at a seaside taverna on Mykonos or Syros and it arrives bubbling in the small two-handled pan it is named after: whole prawns in a quick sauce of tomato, garlic, chilli and oregano, scattered with feta that softens into the sauce. You eat it with bread for mopping, as a shared starter or a main with rice. Many tavernas add a splash of ouzo; this version leaves it out, so it is alcohol-free. Common mistake: cooking the prawns in the sauce for too long, which makes them tough; they need only a few minutes. Chef's tip: simmer the prawn heads and shells in a little water for 10 minutes and use that stock in the sauce for a deeper sea flavour.

30 min

Greek Fish

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Guiso carreroRice and dried beef stew

The carreros who hauled goods across Corrientes in ox carts needed food that kept for weeks, so they cooked rice in a single pot with charqui, sun-dried salted beef, plus whatever onion and pepper they carried. The guiso is still made in Corrientes homes and at country gatherings: rice swollen in a paprika-tinted broth, stringy shreds of beef with a deep, cured flavour, and a texture somewhere between a soupy risotto and a pilaf. Eat it hot from the pot with bread or chipá. Charqui is sold in Latin American shops; Brazilian carne seca works the same way. Forgetting to soak the dried beef is the classic mistake: it stays leathery and turns the whole pot too salty. Chef's tip: fry the soaked, shredded charqui in the oil before the vegetables; the caramelised edges give the broth its smoky depth. Plan for an overnight soak.

65 min

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GuirlacheAlmond brittle

Every December, the old confectioners of Zaragoza stack trays of guirlache in their windows: snapped slabs of toasted almonds held in a dark, glassy caramel, sometimes speckled with tiny coloured sugar sprinkles on top. It is eaten after Christmas dinner alongside turrón and dried fruit, and it keeps for weeks in a tin. Made only from almonds, sugar and a few drops of lemon, it is vegan and gluten free. A common mistake is stirring the caramel while the sugar melts, which makes it crystallise into grainy lumps; swirl the pan instead. Chef's tip: warm the almonds in the oven before they go into the caramel; cold nuts make it seize and set before you can spread it.

35 min

Spanish Desserts

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Bolo Souza LeãoCassava and coconut cake

Named after a sugar-planter family of nineteenth-century Pernambuco, this cake is closer to a set pudding than a sponge: fresh grated cassava, coconut milk, a clove-scented syrup, butter and a generous number of egg yolks, baked slowly in a water bath until glossy and firm. In Recife it is a centrepiece at weddings, christenings and Christmas, sliced thin and eaten at room temperature with coffee. The texture is smooth, slightly sticky and very rich, so a small piece is enough. Use only sweet cassava (aipim/macaxeira) and bake it fully; cassava must never be eaten raw. The mistake people make is not squeezing the grated cassava dry, which leaves the cake watery and grey in the centre. Chef's tip: strain the batter through a fine sieve before baking; it removes the fibres and gives that silky, flan-like slice.

100 min

Portuguese Breakfast & Brunch

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Canelons de Sant EsteveCannelloni with roast meat and béchamel

This contains pork (pork shoulder). On 26 December, Sant Esteve, Catalan families gather again and eat canelons, made from the meats left over from Christmas Day's carn d'olla or the roast. Rolled in pasta sheets, covered in béchamel and grated cheese and baked until bubbling, they are the reason many people say Sant Esteve is the better of the two feasts. This version cooks the meats from scratch, so you can make it any time. Cheeses like parmesan use animal rennet. Chef's tip: mince the meat finely and cook it down until it is moist but not wet, or the canelons go soggy.

150 min

Spanish Pasta & Noodles

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Bolos lêvedosSweet griddle muffins

In the steamy valley of Furnas, on São Miguel, bakers have been cooking these slightly sweet, lemon-scented muffins on flat griddles for generations, and visitors queue for them warm on the way to the hot springs. Thick, soft and pale with golden tops and bottoms, they are split and toasted for breakfast with butter, or used as buns for a sandwich. Chef's tip: the dough is very soft and sticky, so use oiled hands rather than more flour when shaping, or they turn dense.

70 min

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Hawaiian Chantilly cake

In Hawaii, Chantilly cake means a chocolate layer cake covered in a rich, caramel-coloured frosting made from evaporated milk, egg yolks and butter, not the whipped cream the name suggests. Honolulu bakeries have sold it for birthdays and graduations for decades, and it is very different from mainland cakes. Chef's tip: cook the frosting base slowly and stir constantly until it is as thick as pudding; if it is runny, the frosting will slide off the cake.

85 minPacific Islander Baking

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Guariroba refogadaSautéed bitter palm heart

Goiás is the one place in Brazil where people seek out bitterness in a palm heart: guariroba, from a cerrado palm, tastes like a cross between artichoke, chicory and jiló, and Goiânia's lunch counters serve it braised with tomato and onion beside rice, beans and pequi. The pale slices turn tender and silky, and the sharp, clean bitterness is softened by the sweet tomato base. Fresh guariroba is sold in Goiás markets, and jars or frozen packs in some Brazilian shops; elsewhere use ordinary palm heart with a handful of sliced chicory or radicchio for the bitterness. Cooks unfamiliar with it often boil it first to tame the bitterness, but that washes out the flavour that makes the dish; sauté it directly instead. Chef's tip: slice it thinly across the grain, because thick pieces stay fibrous however long you cook them.

30 min

Brazilian Sides

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Guaraná raladoGrated guaraná drink

Long before fizzy guaraná, people in Mato Grosso started the day with this: a hard, dark stick of roasted guaraná seed paste grated into a glass of cold water with sugar and stirred well. Cuiabá's older generation still drink it at breakfast or in the heat of the afternoon, and market stalls sell the sticks along with the traditional grater, the dried tongue of the pirarucu fish (a fine microplane works just as well). It tastes bitter-earthy, a little like cocoa without the fat, and the caffeine is strong. Because guaraná contains more caffeine than coffee, keep to one glass a day, and avoid it for children, during pregnancy or if you are sensitive to caffeine. The usual error is grating far too much, which makes it bitter and overpowering; a level teaspoon per glass is plenty. Chef's tip: let it stand for a minute after stirring so the powder hydrates, then stir again before drinking.

5 min

Brazilian Drinks

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GuajolotaTamal in a bread roll

Commuters in Mexico City grab a guajolota at the tamal stand by the bus stop at seven in the morning: a crusty bolillo roll split open with a whole steaming tamal pushed inside, sometimes with a smear of green salsa, eaten with a cup of atole. It is starch in starch, cheap and filling enough to last until lunch. The name means 'turkey hen', a joke about how stuffed it is. This recipe makes eight vegetarian tamales of roasted poblano strips and melting cheese (rajas con queso); four go into rolls and the rest freeze well. Shop-bought vegetarian tamales work if you are short of time. Chef's tip: warm the bolillo on the comal while the tamal rests, so the crust crackles against the soft masa.

120 min

Mexican Breakfast & Brunch

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GuacamayasPork crackling and salsa rolls

Guacamayas are León's street snack, sold from carts outside schools and in the city centre of this Guanajuato town from the afternoon on. A crusty bolillo is split and stuffed with crisp pork chicharrón, piled with a juicy pico de gallo of tomato, onion and chilli, and soaked with a hot red salsa and lime, so the crackling softens at the edges but stays crunchy in the middle. Some stands add avocado or a smear of beans. It is a quick, no-cook pork dish, best eaten standing up with a cold drink. Chef's tip: dress the chicharrón with salsa and lime only seconds before eating; left to sit, it turns soft and chewy.

20 min

Mexican Fast Food

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Grumbeersupp mit QuetschekuchePotato soup with plum cake

In the Palatinate, between the Rhine and the vineyards of the Weinstraße, September brings a pairing that puzzles outsiders: a bowl of creamy potato soup served with a slice of plum tray cake on the side, and you dip the cake as you go. It is a plain, cheap farmhouse supper for plum season, and the sweet-sour fruit against the soft, marjoram-scented soup is the whole joy. This version makes a small tray of yeasted plum cake while the soup simmers. A common mistake is sweetening the soup; it should stay savoury so the cake can do the sweet work. Chef's tip: use dark, oval Zwetschgen plums, which hold their shape; round dessert plums go watery.

90 min

German Soups

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Grüne SoßeSeven-herb green sauce with eggs

Grüne Soße, or Grie Soß in Frankfurt dialect, arrives in spring when market stalls in Hesse sell paper bundles of exactly seven herbs: borage, chervil, cress, parsley, burnet, sorrel and chives. Blended into sour cream and yoghurt, they make a cold, bright, grassy sauce that is eaten with halved boiled eggs and new potatoes, traditionally on Maundy Thursday. It is a whole meal, light but filling. If you can't find the herb bundle, any mix of soft herbs with some sorrel for sourness works. A common mistake is blending the herbs to a smooth purée in a hot blender, which turns them dull and bitter; chop or pulse briefly. Chef's tip: make the sauce an hour ahead and chill it so the herbs flavour the cream fully.

45 min

German Vegetarian

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BoozaStretchy mastic ice cream

In the covered Hamidiyeh souk in Damascus, men pound booza in frozen metal drums with long wooden pestles, and the thump of the mallets is part of the show. The ice cream is milky, chewy and elastic, thanks to sahlab (orchid-root flour) and mastic, then rolled in crushed pistachios. This home version thickens the milk with sahlab powder or cornflour and beats it as it freezes to get that stretch. Serve in scoops or slices, plain or with a spoon of rose syrup. Common mistake: grinding the mastic alone, which turns gummy; always pound it with a spoonful of sugar. Chef's tip: real sahlab gives the true chew, but a mix of cornflour and a pinch of guar gum gets very close.

35 min

Syrian Desserts

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GrießnockerlsuppeBeef broth with semolina dumplings

Grießnockerlsuppe is the soup that opens a proper Austrian Sunday lunch, from Viennese grandmothers' tables to village inns in Upper Austria: a clear, deeply savoury beef broth with three or four soft, oval semolina dumplings that should be fluffy enough to cut with a spoon. The broth is made from beef shin and bones, simmered slowly with charred onion; broth left over from Tafelspitz works perfectly too. Chef's tip: let the semolina mix rest for 15 minutes before shaping; the grains swell and the dumplings hold together without going heavy.

185 min

Austrian Soups

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Green Bay chicken booyahChicken and vegetable stew

Booyah is the great community stew of north-east Wisconsin, brought by Belgian and French-Canadian settlers around Green Bay; church picnics and fire stations cook it in huge kettles over wood fires all day and sell it by the quart at fall festivals and Packers tailgates. It is a thick, peppery stew of chicken, a little beef and lots of vegetables, cooked until the chicken falls apart. Chef's tip: cook it long and slow and stir it often; a good booyah is thick enough that the spoon nearly stands up.

210 min

American Soups

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Gratin de cardonsCardoon gratin

Cardoons, the tall silvery cousin of the artichoke, are a Christmas vegetable in Lyon and the Dauphiné; market stalls on the Quai Saint-Antoine sell them in December, and the gratin goes on the table at the réveillon dinner. The stalks taste gently of artichoke and celery and turn meltingly soft under a nutmeg béchamel. Lyon cooks often add bone marrow; this version leaves it out and uses vegetable stock in the sauce. Gruyère is usually made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian alternative if needed. If you cannot find cardoons, celery hearts work, though they cook faster. Chef's tip: drop each peeled stalk straight into lemon water; cardoons blacken within minutes in the air.

105 min

French Sides

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Grand aïoliSalt cod and vegetables with aioli

Across Provence, a grand aïoli is the lunch for Fridays, the meatless day, and for summer village fêtes, when long tables are laid under the plane trees and the platters go round. Poached salt cod, boiled potatoes, carrots, green beans, beetroot and hard-boiled eggs are piled up around a bowl of aïoli, the pungent, golden garlic mayonnaise that gives the meal its name. It is plain food made thrilling by that sauce, so use your best olive oil. The salt cod needs 24–36 hours soaking in the fridge, so start early. Because the aïoli is made with raw egg yolk, use pasteurised egg yolks if you are serving pregnant women, young children, older people or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: start the aïoli with a pinch of salt and pounded garlic, and add the oil drop by drop until it thickens.

85 min

French Fish

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Ceviche de chochoLupin bean ceviche

Chocho, or tarwi, is the Andean lupin bean, a protein-packed legume grown high around Huaraz, Cajamarca and Puno, and street carts in the highlands sell it in plastic cups dressed like a ceviche: lime, red onion, tomato, coriander and a little ají, sometimes with toasted corn for crunch. It is fresh, sour and pleasantly firm, a vegan stand-in for fish ceviche that works as a starter or a light lunch. Food safety matters here: raw or bitter lupins contain toxic alkaloids and must never be eaten as they are. Use only ready-debittered, cooked chochos, sold in jars, vacuum packs or chilled tubs in Latin shops; if they taste bitter, rinse and soak them longer or throw them away. Lupin is also a common allergen and may affect people allergic to peanuts. The usual mistake is to drown everything in lime and leave it, which makes the onion limp; mix the dressing just before serving. Chef's tip: squeeze the limes gently by hand rather than with a press, so the juice doesn't turn bitter.

15 min

Peruvian Salads

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Ceviche acapulqueñoLime-marinated fish with tomato and orange

On the beaches of Acapulco, vendors sell ceviche in tall glasses with saltine crackers and tostadas: small cubes of white fish in lime with tomato, onion, green olives, chilli, a sweet streak of ketchup and fresh orange juice, eaten cold on a hot afternoon. The classic version is raw fish 'cooked' only by lime, which does not kill bacteria or parasites, so that version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. This safer recipe gently poaches the fish until just opaque, then chills it and dresses it in the same tangy, sweet-sharp mixture, so it keeps the firm, fresh texture. Serve with tostadas, crackers and slices of avocado. Chef's tip: dice the vegetables very small and the same size as the fish, so every spoonful has a bit of everything.

35 min

Mexican Fish

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GarrapiñadaCaramelised peanuts

On Florida street, in the plazas of San Telmo and outside every football ground in Buenos Aires, vendors stir copper pans of peanuts over little burners, and the smell of hot caramel reaches you half a block away. Garrapiñada comes in a paper cone, still warm, each peanut wrapped in a rough, sandy, crunchy sugar shell. It takes 20 minutes and three ingredients at home, and it is vegan. The process looks wrong halfway: the syrup turns cloudy and grainy, and that is exactly what you want, because the crystallised sugar is what gives the crunchy coating. The mistake is to stop stirring once it turns sandy; keep going until some of the sugar melts again and glazes the nuts. Chef's tip: use raw, skinned peanuts and a heavy pan, and add a pinch of salt at the end; it lifts the sweetness the way the street carts' slightly smoky pans do.

20 min

Argentinian Snacks & Starters

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Cèpes à la bordelaisePorcini with garlic and parsley

In autumn, when cèpes push up through the pine forests of the Landes and the oak woods of the Gironde, Bordeaux families fry them the local way: thick slices browned hard in a hot pan, then tossed with shallot, garlic and plenty of parsley. They come to the table as a side for Sunday lunch, piled on toast for a starter, or beside an omelette for supper. Many cooks use duck fat; this version uses olive oil, so it is vegan. Out of season, use chestnut mushrooms with a few soaked dried porcini for flavour. Chef's tip: wipe the cèpes with a damp cloth instead of washing them; wet mushrooms steam instead of browning.

22 min

French Sides

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Centolla gratinadaBaked king crab with cheese

Centolla, the southern king crab hauled from the cold waters of the Beagle Channel, is Ushuaia's pride, and seafood restaurants along the harbour serve it gratinada: sweet chunks of leg meat in a light white sauce, crowned with cheese and browned under a fierce grill. It is rich, so serve it in small dishes as a starter with lemon and a green salad, plus crusty bread for anyone who can eat gluten. Buy cooked, frozen king crab legs or meat and thaw them in the fridge overnight; if you ever cook crab yourself, it must be alive when it goes into the pot. A frequent mistake is a sauce so thick and cheesy that the delicate crab disappears; keep it pourable and the cheese thin. Chef's tip: fold the crab in gently at the end, in big pieces, and let the oven only heat it; it is already cooked and turns stringy if it boils.

45 min

Argentinian Fish

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Garroticos de TudelaChocolate puff pastry sticks

Walk past any bakery in Tudela on a weekend morning and the window will be full of garroticos, puff pastry rolls with a bar of dark chocolate baked inside and a crackly sugar top. The name means little sticks, after their shape, and they are eaten warm with coffee or bought by the half-dozen for an afternoon snack. Some bakers add a line of pastry cream next to the chocolate; this home version keeps it simple. Chef's tip: work with the pastry straight from the fridge, because cold butter layers are what make the pastry puff into flaky leaves.

35 min

Spanish Baking

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GoxuaLayered cream, sponge and custard dessert

The name means 'sweet' or 'delicious' in Basque, and goxua was created in Vitoria-Gasteiz in the 1970s, where cafés still serve it in small glasses or terracotta pots. From the bottom up you get whipped cream, a disc of sponge soaked in syrup, thick vanilla pastry cream and a crackling layer of burnt sugar. It is a make-ahead dessert for a Sunday lunch, since the layers need to chill. A common mistake is spooning in custard that is still warm, which melts the cream into a puddle. Chef's tip: caramelise the top just before serving, so the sugar crust is still glassy when the spoon goes in.

70 min

Spanish Desserts

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Cemita poblanaPork milanesa sandwich

Puebla's markets have whole aisles of cemita stalls, where a domed, sesame-crusted roll is split and piled with a thin, crisp milanesa, sliced avocado, a nest of stringy quesillo, smoky chipotle in adobo and leaves of pápalo, a pungent herb that tastes somewhere between rocket and coriander. This version uses pork loin for the milanesa, the most common choice alongside beef; thin beef steak works the same way. Pápalo is rarely sold outside Mexico, so coriander stands in for it here. It is a meal in itself, eaten with both hands at midday. Chef's tip: pull the quesillo into fine strands rather than slicing it, so it melts into the warm cutlet and holds the sandwich together.

35 min

Mexican Fast Food

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GarullasSweet cheese bread rings

Sugamuxi province, around Sogamoso and Tibasosa in Boyacá, is garulla country: bakeries and home ovens turn out these rings and rolls of rich, buttery dough kneaded with fresh curd cheese. They are slightly sweet, dense and crumbly, with a golden top, and they keep well for a few days, which is why they travel in bags back to Bogotá after weekend trips. Have them with a hot black coffee or hot chocolate at onces time. Cuajada is curd set with rennet, usually animal; a vegetarian ricotta or curd works. Overworking the dough is the usual error and gives tough, chewy garullas; knead only until it comes together. Chef's tip: squeeze the cuajada in a cloth to remove as much whey as you can before you start; wet curd makes the dough sticky and the rings spread flat.

50 min

Colombian Baking

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Cazuela de cabritoKid goat stew

Up in the Calchaquí valleys of Salta, where goats graze between the vineyards and the cardón cactus, cabrito ends up in a heavy clay cazuela on Sunday or feast days. The meat simmers with onion, red pepper, cumin and ají molido until it slides off the bone, and the potatoes and thick rounds of corn on the cob drink up a brick-red, gently spiced broth. Bring it to the table in the pot with bread or a simple tomato and onion salad. Kid goat can be ordered from halal butchers and some farm shops; lamb shoulder works too. People often boil it hard to save time, which squeezes the lean meat dry and stringy; it wants the barest simmer. Chef's tip: brown the pieces in two or three batches so they colour properly instead of stewing in their own juices; that browning is where most of the flavour comes from.

130 min

Argentinian Meat

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GourounopoulaSlow-roast pork shoulder with orange

At the summer festivals of Messinia, whole young pigs are roasted overnight in bakers' wood ovens, then sold by the kilo at stalls with bread and pickled peppers. This home version uses a bone-in pork shoulder, rubbed with garlic, orange zest, oregano and chilli, left in the fridge overnight, and roasted low and slow until the meat pulls apart and the crackling shatters. Serve with lemon potatoes and a cabbage salad. Common mistake: wet skin — dry it well and salt it the night before, or it never crackles. Chef's tip: start covered at a low heat and finish uncovered at a high heat; that's how the meat stays juicy and the skin turns glassy.

290 min

Greek Meat

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GougèresCheese choux puffs

In the wine villages of Burgundy, around Beaune and Chablis, a basket of gougères lands on the table the moment guests sit down: small golden choux puffs, crisp outside and hollow and cheesy within. They are handed round at cellar tastings, christenings and Sunday aperitifs, and they are best eaten warm, within ten minutes of leaving the oven. The dough is the same as for profiteroles, but salted, peppered and beaten with grated Comté or Gruyère. Both cheeses are traditionally made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian hard mountain-style cheese if you need to. Chef's tip: dry the dough on the heat until it leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pan; drier dough takes more egg and puffs higher.

50 min

French Snacks & Starters

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Gosh-e filFried elephant ear pastries

Gosh-e fil, elephant's ear, is the big, bubbly, paper-thin fried pastry sold from bakery windows in Tehran and Shiraz in the days before Nowruz, and made at home for Ramadan evenings. A soft egg and yogurt dough is rolled almost see-through, pinched into a fan shape and fried until it blisters, then showered with icing sugar, cardamom and ground pistachio. They are best the day they are made, with glasses of black tea. Chef's tip: rest the dough properly; relaxed dough rolls thin without shrinking back.

60 min

Persian Desserts

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Gorditas de migajasMasa cakes with pork crackling

In Querétaro, gorditas de migajas are a breakfast and market favourite, cooked on wide griddles in the old town and in the street stalls of the Sierra Gorda. They are thick corn cakes filled with migajas, the crunchy crumbs of pork crackling left at the bottom of the carnitas or chicharrón vat, bound with asiento, the brown, savoury pork lard full of toasted bits. This is very much a pork dish; plain pork lard and finely crushed pork crackling make a good substitute if you can't find asiento. Split open while hot, they are filled with red salsa, onion, coriander and crumbled cheese. Chef's tip: cook them over a medium, not high, heat so the inside cooks through before the outside burns.

60 min

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Cazón en adoboMarinated fried dogfish

In Cádiz, the tapa that sells out first in the fried-fish shops around La Viña is cazón en adobo: bite-sized cubes of dogfish soaked overnight in a sharp marinade of vinegar, garlic, cumin, oregano and paprika, then floured and fried. The marinade seasons the fish right through and gives it a tang that needs no sauce. If you cannot find dogfish, monkfish or any firm white fish works. A common mistake is a short marinade; the fish needs at least 8 hours in the fridge, for the vinegar and cumin to soak in. Chef's tip: marinate for at least 8 hours but no more than 24; past that, the vinegar starts to firm and 'cook' the fish and it goes dry.

35 min

Spanish Fish

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Gordas de frijol negroBlack bean masa cakes

In the Sotavento region of southern Veracruz, around Tlacotalpan and Los Tuxtlas, cooks knead well-fried black beans straight into the corn masa, so the little cakes come out speckled grey-black, then fry them until they puff up like balloons. Gordas de frijol are a supper snack from street stalls and fiesta tables, split and topped with salsa, chopped onion and, for a non-vegan version, a crumble of fresh cheese. Avocado leaf in the beans gives a faint aniseed note. Chef's tip: the beans must be very thick and cooled; warm, wet beans make a sticky dough that will not puff.

40 min

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GondiChicken and chickpea-flour dumplings

Gondi is the Friday-night dish of Tehran's Persian Jewish families, served at the Shabbat table before the main course or as a light lunch after. Big, soft dumplings of minced chicken, grated onion and roasted chickpea flour, scented with cardamom, are poached in a clear turmeric broth with chickpeas, and each bowl gets one or two with plenty of broth, fresh herbs and flatbread. The texture should be tender and slightly crumbly, a little like a dense matzo ball. A common mistake is using raw chickpea flour; buy roasted chickpea flour (nokhodchi flour) or dry-toast plain gram flour first, or the dumplings taste raw. Chef's tip: chill the mixture for 30 minutes before shaping so the dumplings hold their shape in the broth.

90 min

Persian Chicken

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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

Colombian Breakfast & Brunch

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CayeyeGreen banana mash with cheese

Ask anyone from Santa Marta or Ciénaga what they ate growing up and cayeye will come up quickly. Unripe green bananas, the small cooking kind rather than plantains, are boiled and mashed with butter and grated salty cheese into a soft, slightly sticky purée, then topped with hogao, the tomato and spring onion sauce of Colombian kitchens. Breakfast is its moment, often with a fried egg or a slice of fried cheese and a strong black coffee, and it is filling enough to last until lunch. The cheese on the coast is queso costeño; a firm feta-style cheese works, and since both are usually set with animal rennet, look for a vegetarian microbial-rennet version. Mashing the bananas once they have cooled is the misstep to avoid, because they set into a gluey lump; mash them straight from the pot with a splash of the hot cooking water. Chef's tip: rub your hands with oil before peeling green bananas, as the sap stains skin and boards.

35 min

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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

Persian Snacks & Starters

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Gol gav zabanBorage flower tea

Gol gav zaban is the calming tea Iranians make on stressful evenings or when a cold is coming on, sold in bags of dried purple flowers by herbalists in the old bazaars of Tehran and Tabriz. Steeped in hot water it turns a dusky blue-brown, then flashes pink the moment lime juice goes in, which children love to watch. It is sipped with a stick of saffron nabat (rock sugar), sometimes with a few dried limes or a pinch of valerian. Persian borage contains small amounts of natural compounds that can strain the liver, so drink it only now and then, and avoid it if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or have liver problems. Chef's tip: steep below boiling and keep the pot covered so the gentle aroma doesn't escape.

10 min

Persian Drinks

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Borraja con patatasBorage and potatoes with garlic oil

Borage grows all along the Ebro valley, and in Zaragoza it is almost a point of pride: markets sell bundles of the thick, hairy stalks from autumn to spring, and borraja con patatas is a weeknight supper in thousands of Aragonese homes. Boiled until tender, the stalks taste mild and green, a little like a cross between cucumber and chard, and the floury potatoes soak up a simple dressing of olive oil and fried garlic. It is vegan and gluten free. A common mistake is skipping the cleaning: the fine hairs and stringy outer fibres must come off, or the dish feels prickly. If you can't get borage, chard stalks are the closest stand-in. Chef's tip: fry the garlic in the oil slowly, off a high flame, and pour it over sizzling hot so it sings when it hits the vegetables.

55 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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Gojeh sabz ba namakSour green plums with salt

In late March and April, just after Nowruz, the fruit stalls of Tehran and every small town fill with hard, bright green plums, and children walk home from school with paper bags of them and a twist of salt. The unripe plums are crunchy and mouth-puckeringly sour; a dip in salt, sometimes mixed with dried mint or chilli, makes them addictive. There is nothing to cook, only good fruit to choose. A common mistake is buying plums that have already softened and turned yellow; they lose the crunch that makes this snack. Chef's tip: chill the plums for an hour and wash them in cold water just before serving so they snap when you bite.

5 min

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Goiabada cascãoGuava paste with skins

Ponte Nova and other towns in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais are famous for this rough, dark guava paste, stirred for hours in big copper pans over wood fires until it is almost brick red and firm enough to cut with a knife. 'Cascão' means it keeps chunks of the skin, so each slice is chewy and fruity rather than smooth. It is the guava in Romeu e Julieta, the filling for countless cakes, and a sweet in its own right after lunch. A heavy stainless-steel pan works at home. The big mistake is cooking over high heat to save time; the sugar catches and turns bitter long before the paste is set, so keep the heat moderate and stir constantly near the end. The paste spits fiercely, so use a long spoon and cover your arm. Chef's tip: test it by dropping a spoonful into a glass of cold water; when it stays in one firm piece, it is ready to pour.

150 min

Brazilian Desserts

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AborrajadosFried cheese-stuffed plantain

Cali's bakeries and Sunday food stalls by the Pance river sell aborrajados all day: thick slices of very ripe plantain, fried soft, pressed around a slab of white cheese, sometimes with guava paste, then coated in a light batter and fried again until golden. The result is sweet, salty and gooey, a snack you eat with your hands alongside a glass of lulada or champús. Choose plantains with skins almost completely black; yellow ones are too starchy and never get sweet. Queso blanco or campesino is often set with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian mozzarella or similar. The usual mistake is batter that is too thick, giving a heavy, bready shell; it should coat like thin pancake batter. Chef's tip: chill the stuffed plantain parcels for 10 minutes before battering; they hold together much better in the oil.

40 min

Colombian Snacks & Starters

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Bread and butter pudding

Bread and butter pudding was the thrifty English way of using up stale bread, and today it's a pub and Sunday-lunch pudding from the Cotswolds to London. Buttered slices of bread are layered with sultanas, soaked in a vanilla and nutmeg custard and baked until puffed with a crisp, sugary top and a soft, wobbly centre. Chef's tip: let the bread soak in the custard for 30 minutes before baking, so it's creamy all the way through.

55 min

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Spotted dick

Spotted dick is the steamed suet pudding of English school dinners and gentlemen's clubs in London, the 'spots' being the currants and 'dick' an old word for pudding. Suet makes it light and moist; this recipe uses vegetarian suet, so it is meat-free. It is rolled, wrapped and steamed, then served in thick slices with hot custard. Chef's tip: leave a pleat in the paper and foil so the pudding has room to swell.

105 min

Moroccan Breakfast & Brunch

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Lasagne alla bolognese

In Bologna, lasagne means green lasagne: thin sheets of spinach egg pasta layered with slow-cooked ragù, béchamel and plenty of parmigiano, baked until the edges crisp and served for Sunday lunch and every family celebration in Emilia-Romagna. The ragù is made with beef and pork mince and a little pancetta, so this is a pork dish as well as a beef one; a splash of white wine is traditional but optional, and the note gives an alcohol-free swap. Homemade spinach pasta is the classic choice, but bought fresh egg lasagne sheets work well. Serve with a crisp green salad. Chef's tip: keep the layers thin and many rather than thick and few; a proper Bolognese lasagne has at least six layers and holds its shape when cut.

270 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Ensalada César

The Caesar salad was born in Tijuana in the 1920s, at an Italian immigrant's restaurant on Avenida Revolución, and it is still tossed at the table there by waiters who make the dressing in a wooden bowl in front of you. Crisp inner romaine leaves are coated in a garlicky, lemony emulsion of coddled egg yolk, anchovy, olive oil and parmesan, then showered with garlic croutons; traditionally you pick the leaves up with your fingers. The yolks are only lightly warmed, so use pasteurised eggs if you are serving anyone pregnant, very young, elderly or with a weakened immune system. It makes a starter before grilled meat, or a light lunch on its own. Chef's tip: mash the garlic and anchovies to a paste with salt before anything else goes into the bowl, so the dressing is smooth with no fishy lumps.

30 min

Mexican Salads

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Steak frites

Steak frites is the backbone of the Parisian bistro and brasserie menu, ordered at a zinc-topped table at lunchtime with a green salad and a dab of Dijon. A thick entrecôte or bavette is seared hard in a very hot pan, rested, then topped with a melting coin of shallot and parsley butter, while chips cooked twice come out crisp outside and fluffy within. In France the steak is usually served rare (saignant) or medium-rare (à point); because this is a whole-muscle cut, the inside can safely be pink as long as the outside is well seared, but cook it to your taste using the guide in the steps. Chef's tip: take the steak out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking and salt it just before it goes in the pan, for an even, crusty sear.

65 min

French Meat

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Loubia (white beans in cumin and tomato)

Ask in a Marrakech side street where to eat cheaply and you will be pointed to a stall with a vat of loubia: white beans stewed until creamy in a garlicky tomato sauce spiked with cumin, paprika and a little ginger, ladled into a bowl and eaten with bread. At home the same dish is a weekday staple, often cooked with a piece of meat, but the meat-free version here is just as satisfying and is how plenty of families make it. The sauce should be thick and orange with olive oil pooling on top. A sprinkle of cumin and a drizzle of oil at the table are customary. Avoid adding the tomato before the beans are tender; its acid keeps the skins tough however long they simmer. Chef's tip: soak the beans overnight and cook them until tender before the tomato goes in properly; acid stops beans softening, so loubia rushed with tomatoes from the start can stay chalky.

90 min

Moroccan Curries

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Salsa romesco

Romesco belongs to the fishing quarter of El Serrallo in Tarragona, where fishermen made it to eat with the day's catch, and where an annual contest still decides who pounds the best one. It is close kin to the salvitxada served with calçots, but deeper and hotter: the ñoras are fried, a small dried chilli goes in, and hazelnuts share the work with almonds. Serve it with grilled fish, prawns, potatoes, or any roasted vegetable. Chef's tip: fry the bread and nuts in the same oil you will use in the sauce; it carries their toasted flavour into every spoonful.

50 min

Spanish Chutneys & Dips

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Moroccan marinated olives (zitoun mchermel)

Olive sellers in the Marrakech medina build tall pyramids of green, violet and black olives, and some of the most tempting bowls are the ones already dressed with chilli paste, garlic and preserved lemon. Making zitoun mchermel at home is simple: rinse good brined olives, then toss them with harissa, cumin, paprika, lemon rind, herbs and olive oil and give them a day in the fridge to soak up the flavours. They come to the table at almost every meal, next to bread and salads, and are perfect with mint tea or as a snack before dinner. Chef's tip: lightly crack each olive with the flat of a knife or the bottom of a glass so the marinade gets inside.

20 min

Moroccan Chutneys & Dips

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Moroccan beetroot salad

On a Rabat family table, the Friday couscous is often preceded by a spread of small cooked salads, and the jewel-red dish of beetroot cubes is always one of them. Boiled beetroot is cut into dice and dressed with cumin, a little sugar, olive oil and either vinegar for a sharp version or orange-flower water for a softer, perfumed one; some cooks use both. It is earthy, sweet and bright, and needs nothing more than parsley on top. Make it a few hours ahead so the beets soak up the dressing, and serve it cool with bread and other salads. Chef's tip: dress the beetroot while it is still slightly warm; it absorbs the dressing far better than cold beets do.

55 min

Moroccan Salads

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Tagoula (barley porridge with argan oil and honey)

Tagoula is mountain food from the Souss and the Atlas: coarse barley (or maize) cooked in salted water until it is thick enough to hold a shape, then turned into a shared dish, hollowed in the centre and filled with golden argan oil, honey and sometimes a spoon of smen. Families eat it for breakfast on cold days and it is a traditional dish for Yennayer, the Amazigh New Year in January. Everyone dips spoonfuls of the soft, nutty porridge into the pool of oil and honey, so each bite is sweet, savoury and rich at once. Outside Morocco, a roasted walnut oil is the closest stand-in for culinary argan oil. Chef's tip: pour the grits into boiling water in a thin stream while beating with a wooden spoon; dumping them in at once is the usual mistake and leaves lumps.

40 min

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Ponche segoviano

Segovia's confiterías have sold ponche since the 1920s: layers of light sponge brushed with syrup, sandwiched with thick custard and wrapped in a thin coat of marzipan whose sugared top is branded into a diamond lattice with a hot iron. It is the cake for a family celebration, or the sweet finish after a roast suckling-pig lunch in the old town. The syrup is traditionally laced with liqueur; leave it out, or swap it for orange juice, for an alcohol-free cake. Chef's tip: let the custard cool and set completely before assembling, or the layers slide.

120 min

Spanish Baking

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Treacle tart

Treacle tart is an old English nursery pudding, a favourite of Victorian kitchens and still served with clotted cream or custard in pubs and school canteens. Despite the name it's made with golden syrup thickened with fresh breadcrumbs, sharpened with lemon zest and juice, baked until chewy at the edges and soft in the middle. Chef's tip: warm the syrup before mixing so the breadcrumbs soak it up evenly.

60 min