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Fu qi fei pian
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Fu qi fei pian

Cold beef and tripe

Fu qi fei pian, "husband-and-wife lung slices", takes its name from a couple who sold it from a shoulder-pole stall in 1930s Chengdu; today's version uses no lung, just beef shin and tripe. It is a cold dish, kept in big trays in the old snack restaurants around Chunxi Road and eaten at lunch or as a starter: paper-thin slices glossy with red chilli oil and numbing Sichuan pepper, with crushed peanuts and celery for crunch. It contains peanuts, sesame and soya. Chef's tip: slice the meat only when completely cold, and as thinly as you can; that is what lets the dressing coat every piece.

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Carne de vinha d'alhosPork marinated in wine and garlic

No Madeiran Christmas is complete without carne de vinha d'alhos: chunks of pork soaked for days in wine, vinegar, garlic and bay, then simmered and fried until browned and tangy. Families start it after the December pig-killing, and the leftovers fill bread rolls for days. Portuguese sailors carried the idea to Goa, where it became vindaloo. This contains pork and uses white wine; for an alcohol-free version use 250 ml water instead of the wine, as many Madeiran households do. Chef's tip: fry thick slices of bread in the pan juices at the end; they are the cook's reward.

95 minPortugueseMeat
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CarnitasSlow-cooked pork

Quiroga, a lakeside town in Michoacán, is the capital of carnitas: on weekends the plaza fills with stalls simmering huge copper pots of pork, sold by the kilo with warm tortillas, salsa verde and lime. This pork dish uses shoulder cooked gently in its own fat and lard with orange and garlic, so it turns soft inside and then browns into crisp, golden edges at the end. Pile it into tacos with onion, coriander and salsa, or keep it for tortas ahogadas. Chef's tip: when the meat is tender, turn the heat up for the last 10–15 minutes and stir; this final fry in hot lard is what gives carnitas their crackly edges.

195 minMexicanMeatGluten free
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CartolaFried banana with cheese and cinnamon

Sweet, salty and hot all at once, cartola ('top hat') is a Pernambuco dessert that sounds odd and tastes like it was always meant to be. Bananas are fried in butter until caramel-edged, covered with slices of coalho or queijo manteiga that melt into a blanket, then showered with cinnamon sugar. It turns up on Recife lunch menus, in hotel buffets and in home kitchens after Sunday lunch, and needs nothing else, though a scoop of vanilla ice cream is welcome. Bananas-prata or ripe plantains are used locally; firm, just-ripe bananas are the nearest swap. Coalho is often made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian version or a vegetarian halloumi. Avoid overripe fruit; it collapses in the pan and the cheese slides off. Chef's tip: finish under a hot grill for a minute so the cinnamon sugar bubbles into a thin, crackly crust.

20 minBrazilianDessertsGluten free
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CaruruOkra and dried shrimp stew

Every 27 September, homes across Salvador and the Recôncavo cook huge pots of caruru for the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian, and children are fed first; the rest of the year it turns up at acarajé stalls and on Bahian Sunday tables next to vatapá, rice and xinxim. Okra is chopped very small and cooked down with a paste of dried shrimp, toasted cashews and peanuts, ginger and onion, then finished with dendê oil until it is thick, glossy and gently sticky, nutty and faintly of the sea. Serve it with white rice, farofa de dendê and acarajé or abará. Most people make the mistake of slicing the okra into big rounds; cut tiny it melts into the sauce instead of sitting in slimy chunks. For a vegetarian caruru, skip the shrimp and use 40 g more of each nut. Chef's tip: toast the cashews and peanuts in a dry pan until they smell of popcorn before grinding them; it makes the stew taste deeper and less green.

65 minBrazilianCurriesGluten free
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CasadiellesWalnut-filled fried pastries

Look in the window of any confitería in Oviedo or Gijón and you will find casadielles, plump little pastry rolls stuffed with ground walnuts and sugar, fried until blistered and rolled in more sugar. Village bakers turn out trays of them for patron-saint fiestas and for Antroxu, and they keep for days in a tin. The traditional dough is moistened with dry white wine and the filling scented with anise liqueur; both are given alcohol-free swaps below. Chef's tip: roll the dough very thin, about 2 mm, because thick dough stays doughy inside before the outside browns.

70 minSpanishDesserts
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Casoncelli alla bergamascaFilled pasta in sage butter

Casoncelli (casonsei in Bergamo dialect) are the pride of the old upper town of Bergamo and of nearby Brescia, eaten at weddings, village festivals and Sunday lunch. The filling is a thrifty mix of pork sausage, leftover beef, breadcrumbs and grana, perfumed with a crushed amaretto biscuit, a few raisins and a little pear, so it tastes faintly sweet and savoury at once. The folded half-moons are pressed into a little saddle shape and served in plenty of butter with sage and crisp cubes of pancetta, which makes this a pork dish twice over. A green salad is all they need afterwards. Chef's tip: cook the sausage filling first and let it cool completely; warm filling makes the pasta soggy and hard to seal.

120 minItalianPasta & Noodles
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Cau cauTripe and potato stew

Cheap, filling and deeply loved, cau cau is a lunchtime staple at Lima's menú restaurants and market comedores, served with white rice. Pieces of honeycomb tripe are simmered until soft, then stewed with diced potato in a golden sauce of ají amarillo, garlic and turmeric, finished with a fistful of mint (hierbabuena) that freshens the richness. The texture is soft and slightly springy, the sauce mild, warm and herby. Buy tripe from a butcher or Latin, Asian or halal shop already cleaned and blanched (white honeycomb); it must be simmered until fully tender and cooked through. The common mistake is undercooking the tripe: if it squeaks between your teeth it needs longer. Chef's tip: cut the potatoes small and let some of them break up at the end; they thicken the sauce naturally.

120 minPeruvianCurriesGluten free
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Cavacas de ResendeGlazed hollow egg biscuits

Resende, a town of cherry orchards above the Douro, has made cavacas for centuries, and stalls at its fairs and the Festa de São Pedro sell them by the bag. They are a curious and lovely thing: a simple batter of eggs, flour and oil puffs up in the oven into a hollow, crisp shell, which is then brushed with a boiled sugar glaze that dries brilliant white. A common mistake is opening the oven early, which makes the puffed biscuits sink before their crust sets. Chef's tip: keep the oven door shut for the first 20 minutes, because opening it early makes the cavacas collapse.

55 minPortugueseBaking
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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 minColombianBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
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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 minSpanishFish
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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 minArgentinianMeatGluten free
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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 minMexicanFast Food
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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 minArgentinianFishGluten free
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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 minFrenchSidesVeganGluten free
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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 minMexicanFishGluten free
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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 minPeruvianSaladsVeganGluten free
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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 minPeruvianSoups
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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 minMexicanSnacks & StartersSpicy
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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 minMexicanSnacks & StartersGluten free
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ChanfanaGoat braised in red wine

Chanfana belongs to the hill towns south of Coimbra, Miranda do Corvo and Lousã above all, where older goats were once cooked for village feasts in black clay pots sealed and left overnight in the bread oven. The meat braises in red wine with garlic, paprika, bay and cloves until it falls apart in a dark, rich sauce. It is a weekend and festival dish, served with boiled potatoes. The dish is cooked in red wine and not all of the alcohol cooks off; for an alcohol-free version use the substitute in the ingredient note. Chef's tip: marinate it for a full day; the long soak both flavours and tenderises the goat.

240 minPortugueseMeatGluten free
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Chaniotiko bourekiCourgette, potato and cheese bake

In Chania, western Crete, boureki is what happens to the courgette glut in July: thin slices of courgette and potato layered with crumbled soft cheese, mint and plenty of olive oil, then baked slowly until the top is golden and the inside is meltingly soft. Families bake a big tin for Sunday and eat it warm or at room temperature over the next two days with bread, olives and a tomato salad. The traditional cheese is fresh mizithra plus a little graviera; graviera is made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian hard cheese if that matters to you. Common mistake: skipping the salting of the courgettes, which leaves a pool of water in the tin. Chef's tip: slice the potatoes paper-thin, no thicker than 3 mm, so they cook through in the same time as the courgettes.

120 minGreekVegetarianGluten free
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ChapoPlantain and milk drink

Breakfast stalls in Iquitos and the riverside towns of Loreto pour chapo into glasses from big steaming pots before the heat of the day sets in, and by afternoon the same drink is sold chilled. It is made from plantains left until their skins are black, simmered with cinnamon and cloves until soft, then blended smooth and loosened with milk. The result is thick, naturally sweet and gently spiced, somewhere between a smoothie and a thin custard, and children love it. Some families make it with water only; evaporated milk is the common addition in town. The mistake is using plantains that are still yellow-green: they taste starchy and the drink turns grey and gluey, so wait until the skins are mostly black and the fruit gives when pressed. Serve hot with bread or a tamal, or cold over ice. Chef's tip: strain it through a sieve after blending for a silky drink, and thin it with water if it thickens as it cools.

30 minPeruvianDrinksGluten free
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CharamuscasTwisted piloncillo taffy

Around Day of the Dead in Guanajuato city, sweet sellers display charamuscas pulled and shaped into skulls, mummies (a nod to the town's famous museum) and simple twists, glossy amber and wrapped in cellophane. The everyday ones are rope-like spirals of pulled piloncillo, chewy then brittle, with a deep molasses taste. Pulling the hot sugar is a two-person job and great fun with older children; younger ones should watch. Chef's tip: wear clean rubber kitchen gloves rubbed with oil; you can handle the sugar sooner and much more comfortably.

40 minMexicanDessertsVeganGluten free
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Charleston benne wafersSesame cookies

Benne is the West African word for sesame, brought to the Carolina Lowcountry by enslaved people, and these paper-thin, toasty wafers are the cookie Charleston is known for, sold in tins in the old city market. Toasted sesame seeds are folded into a buttery brown-sugar batter that spreads into lacy, crisp discs. Chef's tip: toast the seeds until they are honey-coloured; pale seeds taste of very little.

45 minAmericanBaking
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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 minPeruvianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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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 minMexicanChutneys & Dips
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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 minMexicanMeatGluten free
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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 minMexicanSoupsGluten freeSpicy
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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 minBrazilianChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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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 minArgentinianMeatGluten free
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Chivito al asadorSpit-roasted whole goat

Malargüe, in the dry south of Mendoza, holds a goat festival every summer, and the star is the chivito: a milk-fed kid opened flat, wired to an iron cross and planted at an angle beside a fire of jarilla or other hardwood. It cooks from the side, never over the flames, basted with a garlicky salmuera until the skin turns glassy and crackling and the meat pulls apart. Serve it straight from the cross with salad, bread and chimichurri. Order a whole kid of 5–7 kg dressed weight from a specialist or halal butcher, and check the cross fits it before the day. Most failures come from setting it too close to the fire, which burns the outside while the thick legs stay raw. Kid is lean, so cook it right through, as in Mendoza: the thickest part of the leg should reach at least 70 °C. Chef's tip: cook bone side to the fire for two-thirds of the time; the ribs protect the meat, and the skin goes on last so it crisps instead of scorching.

240 minArgentinianMeatGluten free
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Choclo con quesoCorn on the cob with cheese

Ride the train or the bus through the Sacred Valley of Cusco and at every stop someone will hold up choclo con queso: a steaming cob of Urubamba's huge white-kernelled corn with a slab of fresh cheese tucked into a corn husk. The kernels are big, chewy and starchy rather than sweet, and the salty, milky cheese is eaten in alternating bites, sometimes with a dab of uchucuta or ají. It's snack food, a market lunch and something to keep children going on a long day. Fresh choclo is sold frozen in Latin American shops; sweet corn works but is sweeter and softer. Adding salt to the cooking water is the usual misstep, as it can toughen the kernels: season the cheese, not the corn. Andean fresh cheese is generally made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian fresh cheese if needed. Chef's tip: drop a few of the inner husks and a small spoon of sugar into the pot; it brings back some of the sweetness lost after picking.

20 minPeruvianSnacks & StartersGluten free
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Choco fritoFried cuttlefish with chips

Across the river from Lisbon, the fishing port of Setúbal claims choco frito as its own, and there are whole streets of grill-houses serving it with chips, salad and lemon. Thick strips of cuttlefish are marinated in garlic, lemon and a little white wine, floured and fried until golden and tender. The wine contains alcohol; extra lemon juice with a splash of water does the job. A common mistake is frying too long: cuttlefish goes from tender to rubbery in a minute or two. Chef's tip: score the inside of the cuttlefish in a fine crisscross before cutting it into strips, so it stays tender and grips the flour.

35 minPortugueseFish
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Chocolate santafereñoHot chocolate with cheese

Old Bogotá, once Santafé, built an afternoon ritual around hot chocolate. In the café-restaurants of La Candelaria it comes in a big cup, frothed with a wooden molinillo, with a plate of white cheese, almojábanas and buttered bread on the side. The surprise for visitors is the cheese: cubes go straight into the hot chocolate, softening into stretchy strings that are fished out with a spoon, a salty contrast to the sweet, spiced drink. Colombian table chocolate comes in bars already sweetened and often flavoured with cinnamon and clove; dark chocolate plus sugar and spice is a fair swap. The usual cheese, queso campesino or doble crema, is normally set with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian (microbial-rennet) mozzarella-style cheese. Boiling the chocolate hard is the misstep that makes it grainy and scorched; keep it at a gentle simmer. Chef's tip: no molinillo? Whisk briskly with a balloon whisk or a milk frother until there's a thick foam.

15 minColombianDrinksGluten free
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