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Turmus
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Turmus

Brined lupini beans

Strolling the Beirut Corniche or a Sunday market in Amman, you will pass carts selling turmus: plump golden lupini beans kept in salted water, scooped into paper cones and eaten by nicking the skin with your teeth and popping out the bean. They are also a fixture on mezze tables and a fasting snack for Lent. Dried lupins are naturally very bitter and must be soaked for days to wash those compounds out; never eat them while they still taste bitter, and if you are allergic to peanuts, check with a doctor first as lupin allergy is linked. A jar of ready-debittered lupini, drained and seasoned, is a quick shortcut. The common mistake is salting the beans before they are fully sweet, which seals the bitterness in. Chef's tip: finish with lemon, cumin and a little chilli just before serving; the salty brine keeps them, the dressing makes them moreish.

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Alcatra da TerceiraBeef pot roast in wine

Alcatra is the feast dish of Terceira, cooked for the Holy Spirit festivals of spring and summer in unglazed clay pots that go into the bread oven after the loaves come out. Big pieces of beef braise for hours in wine with onions, bacon, allspice and bay, until the meat falls apart and the sauce turns dark and spiced. It is served with slices of massa sovada to soak up every drop. This contains pork (streaky bacon) and uses red wine; for an alcohol-free version, use the same amount of beef stock with 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Chef's tip: crush the allspice just before using; whole berries give the sauce its warm, clove-like scent.

260 minPortugueseMeat
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AlevropitaCrisp batter pie with feta

Shepherd families in the stone villages of Zagori, north of Ioannina, made alevropita when there was no time to roll pastry: a runny flour batter poured over sizzling oil in a very hot tin, dotted with feta and baked until crisp and lacy at the edges. It's now on every taverna table in Epirus, cut into rough squares and eaten warm with a bowl of thick yoghurt or a tomato salad. Feta is usually made with animal rennet; use a vegetarian feta-style cheese if you need to. Common mistake: pouring the batter into a cold tin — the oil must be smoking-hot, or the pie turns heavy instead of crunchy. Chef's tip: use a wide, shallow metal tray so the batter is only about 5 mm deep.

30 minGreekSnacks & Starters
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Alfajor cordobésJam sandwich cakes with sugar glaze

Córdoba's version of the alfajor is the soft one: two tender, slightly spongy honey-scented rounds sandwiched with fruit jam, usually quince or mixed fruit, and coated in a thin sugar glaze that dries to a crackly white shell. They are sold by the dozen in the sierras towns of Villa General Belgrano, La Falda and Capilla del Monte, where tourists buy boxes on the way home from holidays. Expect a gentle crunch, a cakey bite and a tart-sweet centre, best with a cup of coffee or mate. Overworking the dough is where they usually go wrong: knead it like bread and the rounds bake tough and flat, so mix only until it comes together. Quince paste (dulce de membrillo) loosened with water works well if you can't find a soft quince jam. Chef's tip: dry the glazed alfajores for 5 minutes in a barely warm oven; the glaze sets glassy and crackles when you bite.

70 minArgentinianBaking
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Alfajor santafesinoPastry discs with dulce de leche

Santa Fe's alfajor is a different animal from the soft cornflour kind sold everywhere else: three wafer-thin, crackly discs of yolk-rich pastry, stacked with dulce de leche, then dipped in a cooked sugar glaze that sets hard, white and shiny. Bakeries in Santa Fe city and along the Paraná river ship them all over the country in boxes, and travellers bring them home as the regional present. Bite through and the glaze shatters, the pastry flakes and the dulce de leche holds it all together. Thick pastry is the mistake that ruins the texture; it has to be rolled until you can almost see the worktop through it, or the alfajor turns bready. Some old recipes add a splash of cane spirit to the dough; this version uses only water and is alcohol-free. Use a thick, pastry-chef's dulce de leche (repostero) so it doesn't ooze. Chef's tip: bake the discs in batches and keep the rest of the dough covered; it dries out fast and then cracks when rolled.

120 minArgentinianBaking
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Fouace aveyronnaiseOrange blossom brioche crown

Every village fête in the Aveyron, the old province of Rouergue, has a baker selling fouace: a big golden brioche ring scented with orange flower water and topped with crunchy sugar, carried home in a paper bag to be torn up at breakfast or after Sunday lunch. Laguiole and Rodez bakeries are famous for it, and families bake one for Easter, weddings and christenings. It is softer and less buttery than a Paris brioche, with a light, cottony crumb. Chef's tip: let the shaped crown rise until it is puffy and a fingertip leaves a dent that springs back slowly; underproved fouace tears in the oven.

240 minFrenchBaking
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GloriasPecan and goat milk caramels

Linares, a small town in Nuevo León, is famous across Mexico for glorias: soft, chewy balls of goat's milk caramel packed with pecans, each wrapped in a twist of red cellophane. They are bought by the box at roadside sweet shops on the way to Monterrey and handed out at weddings and Christmas. Goat's milk gives them a gentle tang; a mix of goat's and cow's milk is milder. Chef's tip: the last ten minutes need constant stirring, as the caramel thickens and catches fast.

80 minMexicanDessertsGluten free
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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 minGermanFishGluten free
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San Francisco sourdough bread

Sourdough has been San Francisco's bread since the Gold Rush of 1849, when miners kept a wild starter going, and the cool, foggy climate around the Bay helps give it its famously sour tang. Bakeries at Fisherman's Wharf still serve it hollowed out as a bowl for chowder. A long, cool rise gives a crackling dark crust and a chewy, open crumb. You need an active starter, fed 6–8 hours before. Chef's tip: for a more sour loaf, give the shaped dough a longer, colder rest in the fridge, up to 36 hours.

90 minAmericanBreads & ParathasVegan
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Alheira com ovo e batata fritaGarlic sausage with egg and chips

Mirandela, on the Tua river in Trás-os-Montes, is the home of alheira, a garlicky smoked sausage of bread and poultry, said to have been invented by Jewish families who needed something that looked like pork sausage. Today most alheiras contain pork, so this dish contains pork; look for the rare poultry-only kind if you avoid it. In every northern café it comes the same way: roasted until the skin crackles, with a fried egg, chips and sautéed greens. A common mistake is frying the alheira over a high heat, so the skin bursts and burns before the inside is hot. Chef's tip: prick the skin a few times and roast it in the oven rather than frying, so it stays whole and crisp.

45 minPortugueseMeat
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Ali nazikLamb on smoky aubergine and yoghurt

Gaziantep cooks char aubergines over coals until they collapse, mash the flesh with garlicky yoghurt and spoon pan-fried lamb with tomatoes and peppers on top: that is ali nazik, a lunchtime favourite in the city's lokantas. The cool, smoky base and the hot, buttery meat are the whole point, so assemble it just as you serve. A gas flame or a very hot grill gives the same smoky flesh at home. The usual mistake is not draining the aubergine, which makes the yoghurt runny and grey. Chef's tip: stir the yoghurt into the aubergine off the heat with a spoonful of butter; warm, not hot, keeps it from splitting.

55 minTurkishMeatGluten free
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AligotCheesy garlic mashed potato

High on the Aubrac plateau, where Aveyron, Cantal and Lozère meet, aligot was once the meal monks gave to pilgrims on the road to Santiago. Today it is beaten in huge copper pans at village fêtes and buron farm restaurants around Laguiole, then lifted high on a wooden spoon in long, glossy ribbons before it is served beside sausages or, for a vegetarian table, a big green salad and roasted mushrooms. It is a mash of floury potato, butter, cream and garlic, worked with young tomme fraîche until it stretches like mozzarella. Tomme fraîche is made with animal rennet; a mix of vegetarian mozzarella and a vegetarian mild cheddar gives a similar stretch. Chef's tip: keep beating in a figure of eight once the cheese goes in; the stretch only comes with steady work.

50 minFrenchSidesGluten free
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Navajo fry bread

Fry bread is eaten across the Navajo (Diné) Nation of Arizona and New Mexico, at powwows, rodeos, flea markets and family gatherings. It grew out of the flour and lard handed out as government rations after the Long Walk of 1864, so it carries a painful history as well as pride. The dough is simple, stretched by hand and fried until puffed, crisp at the edges and chewy inside. Eat it with honey and icing sugar, or as the base for Navajo tacos. Chef's tip: poke a small hole in the centre before frying so it cooks evenly and doesn't balloon.

35 minAmericanBreads & Parathas
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Cauliflower cheese

Cauliflower cheese is the bubbling, golden side that appears beside the Sunday roast in English homes, and on its own it makes a comforting vegetarian supper with crusty bread. Tender cauliflower is baked under a mustardy cheddar sauce with a crisp, browned top. Many cheddars are made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian mature cheddar. Chef's tip: steam the cauliflower and let it dry; wet florets water down the sauce.

45 minBritishVegetarian
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New Mexico sopaipillas

In New Mexico sopaipillas arrive in a basket with every plate of enchiladas or carne adovada, from Albuquerque diners to Santa Fe cafés, along with a squeeze bottle of honey. Small squares of dough puff up into hollow pillows in hot oil; you tear off a corner and drizzle honey inside to cool the heat of the red or green chile. They are a different thing from Chile's pumpkin sopaipillas. Chef's tip: roll the dough evenly to 3 mm and spoon hot oil over the tops as they fry; that is what makes them balloon.

40 minAmericanBreads & Parathas
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