Featured recipe

Daikon to aburaage no nimono

Simmered daikon and fried tofu

When winter daikon is fat, sweet and cheap in every Japanese market, home cooks from Hokkaido to Kyushu simmer it with strips of aburaage, the thin fried tofu pouches, as an everyday side for rice and grilled food. The radish turns soft and see-through and drinks up a light soy broth, while the tofu soaks up the rest like a sponge. This version uses a kelp and shiitake dashi instead of bonito, so the whole pot is vegan, and it tastes even better reheated the next day. The usual mistake is boiling it hard: the daikon edges crumble and the broth goes cloudy, so keep it at a lazy simmer under a drop lid. Chef's tip: pour boiling water over the aburaage before cutting it, which rinses off the stale frying oil and lets the broth soak in.

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Navajas á pranchaGriddled razor clams

Razor clams are pulled from the sandy beds of the Galician rías, and in the seafood bars of Vigo and A Coruña they arrive straight from the griddle, opened up and glistening with garlic oil. They take two minutes to cook and are eaten with the fingers. Live razor clams twitch or pull in when touched: throw away any with cracked or broken shells, or that don't react at all. A common mistake is leaving them on the heat after they open, which turns the meat rubbery. Chef's tip: lay them all hinge side down in the same direction so they open evenly and the juices stay in the shells.

20 min

Spanish Fish

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Anar ba golparPomegranate seeds with golpar

On Yalda night, the longest night of the year in late December, a bowl of jewel-red pomegranate seeds sits at the centre of the korsi in homes from Tehran to Shiraz, symbolising the dawn and the return of light. Many families sprinkle the seeds with golpar (ground Persian hogweed) and a little salt, which makes the sweet-sour fruit taste brighter and more savoury, almost like a salad. A common mistake is bashing the fruit too hard to free the seeds, which bursts them and leaves a puddle of juice. Chef's tip: seed the pomegranates under a bowl of water; the seeds sink, the white pith floats and the juice doesn't stain the kitchen.

15 min

Persian Snacks & Starters

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BrezenknödelPretzel dumplings

Brezenknödel are what thrifty Munich kitchens make from yesterday's pretzels: the cubes soak in warm milk with egg, onion and parsley, then are shaped into dumplings with a faintly salty, malty crust flavour running through them. They are served on Sundays in place of bread dumplings, alongside a creamy mushroom sauce or a pile of red cabbage, and leftovers are sliced and fried the next morning. The big mistake is adding too much milk: the mixture should hold when squeezed, not drip. Chef's tip: pick off most of the coarse salt before cubing the pretzels, otherwise the dumplings end up far too salty.

50 min

German Sides

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Nebraska runzasBeef and cabbage bread pockets

Runzas came to Nebraska with Volga German settlers, who called them bierocks, and today they are the state's fast food, packed for Cornhusker football games and long drives across the plains. A soft, slightly sweet bread dough is wrapped around a peppery filling of beef mince, onion and cabbage and baked into a rectangular pocket. Chef's tip: let the filling cool and drain it in a sieve before filling; hot, wet filling makes the dough soggy and tear.

70 min

American Meat

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BratkartoffelnFried potatoes with onion

Bratkartoffeln are the potatoes of every German pub and home kitchen, from Hamburg to Munich: yesterday's boiled potatoes sliced and fried slowly in a heavy pan until the edges are crisp and brown, then tossed with onion. They come with fried eggs, pickled herring, Sülze or a green salad, and many cooks add bacon cubes; this version stays vegetarian with butter, onion and marjoram. The mistake everyone makes is stirring too often and crowding the pan: the slices steam instead of crisping. Chef's tip: use waxy potatoes boiled in their skins the day before; cold, firm slices hold their shape and brown far better than fresh ones.

35 min

German Sides

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Brasato al BaroloBeef braised in red wine

Brasato al Barolo is the winter centrepiece of the Langhe, the hills around Alba where Barolo is made, served for Christmas lunch and long autumn Sundays after the truffle fairs. A whole piece of beef is marinated overnight in red wine with vegetables and spices, then braised for hours until it can be cut with a spoon; the vegetables are blended into a dark, velvety sauce. The dish uses a whole bottle of red wine, and Barolo-style nebbiolo is traditional, but any full-bodied dry red works; an alcohol-free version with stock, grape juice and vinegar is given in the ingredient note. Serve thick slices with soft polenta or buttery mashed potato. Chef's tip: braise it a day ahead, chill it in its sauce and slice it cold; it cuts neatly, and the flavour deepens overnight.

230 min

Italian Meat

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New Mexico biscochitosAnise cinnamon cookies

Biscochitos are New Mexico's official state cookie, baked by the thousand at Christmas, weddings and baptisms in Hispanic homes from Las Cruces to Taos. They are crumbly, short and scented with anise seed, cut into stars or fleurs-de-lis and dipped in cinnamon sugar. Grandmothers use lard, which gives the classic texture; this version uses butter so it stays vegetarian. Traditional recipes add a splash of brandy; here orange juice is used instead. Chef's tip: lightly crush the anise seeds to release the flavour.

37 min

American Baking

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Brandade de morueWhipped salt cod with garlic

Brandade is Nîmes' great Lenten dish, served on Fridays, on Christmas Eve and as a spread on toast in the bars around the Roman arena during the ferias. Salt cod is poached, then beaten with warm olive oil and milk until it turns into a pale, fluffy, garlicky cream with a gentle salty depth. Nîmes purists make it with fish, oil and milk only; many cooks elsewhere fold in a little mashed potato for a softer texture, which is optional here. The cod needs 24–36 hours of soaking in the fridge first, so plan ahead. Spread it on toasted bread, or bake it in a dish until golden and serve with a green salad. Chef's tip: keep both the oil and the milk warm as you beat them in, so the brandade stays smooth and never splits.

65 min

French Fish

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NicuatoleCorn and cinnamon pudding

Nicuatole is a Zapotec sweet sold in little squares from glass cases at Oaxacan markets and at village fiestas, often with a bright pink top coloured with cochineal. It is made from corn masa cooked with water, sugar and cinnamon until it thickens enough to set when cool, a cousin of atole you can cut with a knife. The texture is soft, slightly bouncy and cool, and it is eaten as an afternoon treat. We give a coconut-milk option and use beetroot juice or a natural red food colouring instead of cochineal (which comes from insects) for the red layer. Chef's tip: cook it until the spoon leaves a clear path across the pan base for a full second; undercooked nicuatole never sets.

40 min

Mexican Desserts

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BouyiourdiBaked feta with tomato and chilli

Order a round of tsipouro in a Thessaloniki taverna and a little clay dish of bouyiourdi often arrives with it, still spitting from the oven. A slab of feta is buried under tomato, sweet and hot peppers, oregano and olive oil and baked until the cheese slumps and the edges catch. You scoop it straight from the dish with crusty bread. There's no alcohol in the dish itself; serve it with sparkling water and lemon instead of tsipouro if you like. Feta is usually made with animal rennet; a vegetarian feta-style cheese works well. Common mistake: using a big dish — the sauce spreads thin and burns, so pick one the cheese nearly fills. Chef's tip: wrap the dish in foil for the first 10 minutes so the feta turns creamy before the top browns.

30 min

Greek Snacks & Starters

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Tiella bareseBaked rice, potatoes and mussels

Every family in Bari has its own tiella, also called riso, patate e cozze, and it turns up at Sunday lunches and summer gatherings along the Puglian coast. Layers of thinly sliced potato, raw rice, mussels opened on the half shell, onion, tomato, parsley and pecorino are packed into a deep baking dish, then baked with water until the rice has drunk up the sea-salty juices and the top is crisp. It's served warm, as a one-dish meal, followed by a salad. Chef's tip: open the mussels raw with a knife over a bowl and keep every drop of their liquid; it seasons the rice better than any stock.

105 min

Italian Rice & Grains

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Tielle sétoiseSpicy octopus and tomato pie

The fishing port of Sète eats tielles everywhere: from bakeries along the canals, at the market on the Halles square, and on the quays during the summer water-jousting festival. Brought by Italian fishing families from Gaeta, the pie wraps a spicy, slow-cooked filling of octopus, onions and tomato in a soft olive-oil bread dough with a fluted, crimped edge. It is chewy, rich and properly peppery, and just as good cold as warm. Cut it into wedges as a snack or serve it with a green salad for lunch. Chef's tip: cook the filling until it is thick enough to hold a line when you drag a spoon through it, or the base will go soggy.

210 min

French Snacks & Starters

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Tigelada da BeiraCinnamon milk custard

In Beira Baixa villages such as Oleiros and Proença-a-Nova, tigelada is baked in unglazed clay bowls heated in the wood oven until they are red hot, so the custard puffs up, cracks and browns on top while staying soft and slightly spongy inside. It is sold at festivals and markets across the region and is a common finish to a Sunday lunch. Terracotta dishes work best at home, but small ceramic ovenproof dishes do the job. Chef's tip: heat the empty dishes in the oven first; pouring cold batter into a hot dish is what makes it rise and form its typical crust.

40 min

Portuguese Desserts

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NoghlSugar-coated almond slivers

Noghl, the craggy white sugar-coated slivers of almond, is the confection of celebration in Iran, and the town of Urmia in West Azerbaijan is its home. It is showered over newlyweds at weddings, offered to guests at Nowruz and set beside tea on special days. Professionals build the spiky coat in a rotating copper pan over many hours; this home version does the same job in a wide pan, adding the rosewater syrup a little at a time. The usual mistake is adding too much syrup at once, which glues the almonds into a lump instead of building the knobbly crust. Chef's tip: keep the almonds moving constantly and wait until each coat is completely dry before the next.

120 min

Persian Desserts

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Tavuk pilavChicken and chickpea rice

Glass-fronted carts parked outside Istanbul's ferry piers and office blocks sell tavuk pilav from early morning: rice cooked in rich chicken stock with butter and chickpeas, heaped into a dish and topped with shredded chicken, black pepper and a pickled pepper on the side. Workers eat it standing up with a glass of ayran. At home it is just as easy and makes a whole chicken go a long way. Common mistake: stirring the rice while it steams; it breaks and turns sticky. Chef's tip: wash the rice until the water runs clear and soak it in warm salted water for 30 minutes; every grain stays separate and glossy.

90 min

Turkish Chicken

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AmygdalotaAlmond sweets

Andros is famous for its almonds, and the island's amygdalota are handed round at weddings, baptisms and Easter: little pear-shaped sweets of ground almond and sugar, baked just long enough to set, then splashed with rosewater and buried in icing sugar. They are soft and chewy inside, perfumed and pure white, and they go with a small cup of Greek coffee. Common mistake: baking them until golden, which turns them dry and hard; they should stay pale. Chef's tip: grind the almonds with some of the sugar so they release less oil and the paste stays light.

45 min

Greek Desserts

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Ajil-e moshkel goshaMixed nuts and dried fruit

On Chaharshanbe Suri, the bonfire night on the last Tuesday evening before Nowruz, families across Iran jump over small fires in the street and then share a big bowl of ajil-e moshkel gosha, the 'nuts that untie problems', making a wish as they eat. The same mix comes out again on Yalda, the longest night of the year in December. It mixes salted roasted pistachios and almonds with roasted chickpeas, sweet dried figs, white mulberries, raisins and sugared almonds, so every handful is sweet, salty and crunchy. The common mistake is using raw nuts; the toasting is what makes it taste like the bazaar version. Chef's tip: toss the warm nuts with a little salted water and let them dry in the oven for a light salty coating that sticks.

17 min

Persian Snacks & Starters

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BourdetoSpicy red pepper fish stew

Bourdeto, from the Venetian 'brodetto', is the fishermen's dish of Corfu: chunks of firm white fish (scorpion fish in the tavernas of Kassiopi and Paleokastritsa) poached in a fierce sauce of onions, olive oil, a little tomato and a lot of hot red pepper. It's eaten with bread for the oily, scarlet juices and a cool salad alongside. Common mistake: stirring once the fish is in, which breaks it up — shake the pan instead. Chef's tip: use fish on the bone, cut into steaks; the bones give the sauce body and the flesh stays moist.

50 min

Greek Fish

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Northumberland pan haggertyLayered potato, onion and cheese

Pan haggerty is a frugal supper from Northumberland and the Durham pit villages, made in a single heavy frying pan from thin layers of potato, onion and grated cheese. The bottom turns crisp and brown while the top melts under the grill, and it is eaten straight from the pan with pickles. Cheddar is often made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian cheddar. Chef's tip: slice the potatoes paper-thin and dry them in a tea towel; wet slices steam instead of browning.

60 min

British Vegetarian

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Tikin xicAchiote fish in banana leaf

Beach restaurants on the coasts of Quintana Roo and Campeche cook tikin xic over charcoal: a butterflied whole fish, or thick fillets, rubbed with brick-red achiote and bitter orange, laid on banana leaves under tomato, onion and pepper and grilled until smoky. The flesh stays moist and turns a deep orange, tangy and earthy rather than hot. Seville orange is the traditional sour; orange and lime juice together stand in well. Serve it with corn tortillas, rice, pickled red onion and habanero salsa so everyone can make tacos at the table. Chef's tip: cook the fish skin side down without turning; the banana leaf protects it and keeps the achiote from scorching.

95 min

Mexican Fish

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Nürnberger RostbratwürsteSmall marjoram pork sausages

Nuremberg's little pork sausages are barely longer than a finger, grilled over beechwood in the old town's sausage kitchens and sold three at a time in a crusty roll, 'Drei im Weggla', at the Christmas market and all year round. They are delicate, coarse-ground and fragrant with marjoram, mace and lemon zest, and at a sit-down meal six or twelve come on a pewter plate with sauerkraut and horseradish. Making them at home needs a mincer with a sausage nozzle and narrow sheep casings, and is a satisfying weekend project. Vegetarians can buy small vegetarian bratwursts and grill them with the same sides. Chef's tip: keep the meat and mincer ice-cold; warm fat smears and the sausages turn crumbly.

75 min

German Meat

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Botifarra amb mongetesPork sausage with white beans

This contains pork (botifarra sausage). Ask in any Barcelona neighbourhood restaurant for the most Catalan plate on the menu and you will probably get this: a coil of grilled botifarra, a fresh pork sausage seasoned with little more than salt and pepper, beside white beans sautéed with garlic and parsley until crisp at the edges. It is everyday lunch food, and often comes with allioli. If you cannot find botifarra, use coarse, plain fresh pork sausages. Chef's tip: let the beans sit untouched in the hot pan for a minute between stirs, so some of them catch and crisp.

30 min

Spanish Meat

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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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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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ObatzdaBeer-garden cheese spread

Obatzda is what a Munich beer garden puts beside a giant soft pretzel: overripe Camembert mashed with soft butter, sweet paprika, caraway and raw onion until it turns a creamy, rusty orange. It is a thrifty spread that grew up in Bavarian taverns as a way to use cheese that had gone a little too far, and it is still eaten in the afternoon sun with radishes and dark bread. Camembert is usually made with animal rennet, so pick one labelled vegetarian if that matters to you. A common mistake is blitzing it in a processor, which makes it gluey; mash with a fork so a few soft lumps stay. Chef's tip: make it an hour ahead and chill it, then let it stand 15 minutes before serving, so the paprika flavour blooms and it spreads easily.

15 min

German Chutneys & Dips

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WeißwurstfrühstückWhite sausage with sweet mustard

In Munich the Weißwurst breakfast is a late-morning ritual, eaten between ten o'clock and noon in beer halls and butcher's cafés, with soft pretzels and a pot of sweet Bavarian mustard. The pale sausages of veal and pork back fat, flavoured with parsley, lemon and mace, are bought fresh from the butcher and gently heated, never boiled, then the skin is peeled off at the table. Making the mustard yourself is the easy, rewarding part. Vegetarians can heat plant-based white sausages the same way and keep the mustard and pretzel. Chef's tip: keep the water just below a simmer; boiling splits the skins and the sausages go grey and dry.

40 min

German Meat

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OcopaPeanut, huacatay and cheese sauce

Arequipa's picanterías put ocopa on the table as a starter, a pale olive sauce spooned thickly over sliced boiled potatoes, and the smell of toasted chillies and huacatay (black mint) is what sets it apart from Lima's huancaína. The chillies are dried ají mirasol, charred in a dry pan, which gives a smoky, raisin-like warmth rather than sharp heat, and toasted peanuts make the sauce nutty and almost velvety. Many cooks thicken it with crackers; this version uses only peanuts and cheese, so it stays gluten free. Serve it at room temperature with yellow potatoes, a black olive and a few lettuce leaves, plus a halved boiled egg for anyone who eats eggs. The mistake people make is toasting the onion and chillies black, which turns the sauce bitter; they should be blistered in spots only. Queso fresco is often made with animal rennet, so look for a vegetarian fresh cheese. Chef's tip: huacatay paste comes in jars from Latin shops; without it, use a small handful of mint plus a few tarragon leaves.

30 min

Peruvian Chutneys & Dips

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AmygdalopitaAlmond syrup cake

Kefalonia is almond country, and amygdalopita is what islanders bake for the feast of Agios Gerasimos in August and for guests all year round: a moist, flourless-leaning cake of ground almonds, eggs and breadcrumbs, soaked in light lemon syrup until it's dense and fragrant. Serve a small square with coffee or a spoon of thick yoghurt. Common mistake: grinding the almonds too long, so they turn oily and the cake heavy — pulse them until just sandy. Chef's tip: toast half the almonds before grinding for a deeper, nuttier flavour.

65 min

Greek Baking

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Oeufs en meurettePoached eggs in red wine sauce

In Burgundy, between Dijon and Beaune, a meurette is any dish cooked in red wine sauce, and oeufs en meurette is the one served as a starter in village restaurants and at weekend lunches. Eggs are poached in a reduced, glossy sauce of red wine, shallots and stock, then served with crisp smoked pork lardons, button mushrooms and garlic-rubbed croutons to dip into the yolks. The sauce is deep, winey and savoury; the eggs make it rich. The dish uses red wine, and an alcohol-free version is in the notes. The yolks stay runny, so use pasteurised eggs for pregnant women, young children, older people or anyone with a weakened immune system, or poach the eggs until the yolks are set. Chef's tip: poach the eggs in water with a dash of vinegar rather than in the wine itself, so the whites stay white.

55 min

French Snacks & Starters

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TintoBlack coffee with panela

Ask for a tinto anywhere in Colombia and you get a small cup of black coffee, never red wine. Street vendors carry it in thermos flasks through the plazas of Manizales, Pereira and Bogotá, and offices, bus stations and farm kitchens in the coffee region brew pots of it all day. It is light, hot and gently sweet, often made by simmering ground coffee with water and a little panela, then straining it through a cloth bag. The usual error is boiling the coffee hard, which makes it harsh and bitter; let it come to the boil only once. Chef's tip: let the grounds settle for a minute off the heat before straining, so the cup stays clear.

10 min

Colombian Drinks

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OfenschlupferBaked bread pudding with apples

Ofenschlupfer, literally 'oven-crawler', is how Swabian farmhouse kitchens used up stale rolls on a Friday: slices of bread layered with apples, raisins and a little cinnamon in a deep dish, soaked in vanilla egg milk and baked until puffed and golden. Some families pour in a splash of rum; this version doesn't. It was once eaten as a sweet main course after a bowl of soup and is still served warm with vanilla sauce in Stuttgart cafés. A common mistake is baking it straight after pouring in the custard, which leaves dry patches on top; let it soak for 20 minutes. Chef's tip: dot the top with butter and a spoon of sugar for a crackly, caramelised crust.

65 min

German Desserts

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TipakayChicken in sweet-sour tamarind sauce

Sweet, tangy and a little sticky, tipakay is the chifa order for people who like their sauce on the fruity side: battered pieces of chicken fried crisp, then dressed in a dark, glossy sauce built on tamarind, panela and soy, with strips of red and green pepper and onion that keep some crunch. It is one of the most popular platters in Lima's family-run chifas, eaten with white rice or chaufa. Its sauce is darker and less candy-sweet than kam lu's, with tamarind's sour depth. The mistake most home cooks make is letting the peppers stew until soft; give them only a minute in the wok so they stay bright. Chef's tip: taste the sauce before thickening and balance it: more lime if it's cloying, a pinch more panela if it's too sour.

45 min

Peruvian Chicken

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TiraditoSliced fish in ají amarillo sauce

Lima's Japanese-Peruvian cooks turned ceviche on its head with tiradito: instead of cubes soaked in lime, the fish is cut thin like sashimi, laid flat and dressed at the last minute, so it stays silky with only the surface turning white. The sauce here is the classic golden one, ají amarillo blended with lime, garlic and ginger, fruity and medium hot. It is served as a starter in cevicherías and upmarket Miraflores restaurants with boiled sweet potato and corn. Because the fish is eaten almost raw, this version uses sashimi-grade fish frozen at −20 °C for 24 hours first (allow for that), kept cold and eaten the moment it is dressed; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. The mistake people make is dressing it ahead: after ten minutes the lime cooks it through and it turns chalky. Chef's tip: chill the plates in the freezer for 10 minutes before you lay out the fish; it keeps the slices firm while you work.

20 min

Peruvian Fish

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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

Portuguese Breakfast & Brunch

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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

Brazilian Baking

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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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Tiroler GröstlFried potato and pork with egg

Tiroler Gröstl is what Tyrolean mountain huts serve to skiers and hikers coming in from the cold, and what farmhouse kitchens around Innsbruck make on Monday from Sunday's roast. Cold boiled potatoes are fried until crusty with onions, then tossed with cubes of leftover roast pork or smoked pork, caraway and marjoram, and crowned with a fried egg. It is made in one big pan and brought to the table in it. Chef's tip: let the potatoes fry undisturbed for the first few minutes; the brown crust is the whole dish.

35 min

Austrian Meat

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Olho de sograCoconut-stuffed prunes

The 'mother-in-law's eye' is a slightly teasing party sweet from the docinhos tradition of weddings and birthdays: a prune slit open and filled with a pale coconut fudge, so it looks like a dark eyelid around a white eye. It shows up on Brazilian sweet tables from Rio to Porto Alegre, often finished with a single clove for the pupil and rolled in crystal sugar. Chewy, sticky prune against creamy, coconutty filling makes it less cloying than many docinhos. Older recipes add egg yolks to the filling; this one is egg free. Stuffing them while the filling is still warm is a frequent mistake; it smears and the shape is lost. Chef's tip: choose large, soft pitted prunes and open them like a book with a small knife, without cutting all the way through.

42 min

Brazilian Desserts

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OliaiguaOnion, pepper and tomato soup

The name is simply oli i aigua, oil and water, and that is how Menorcan farm workers started it: a pan of olive oil, a little water and whatever the vegetable patch offered, poured over slices of hard bread. Today oliaigua amb tomàtigues is a July and August supper all over the island, from Ciutadella to Maó, slow-cooked onion, green pepper and ripe tomato in a light broth. Menorcans eat it with fresh figs or grapes on the side, which sounds odd and works beautifully. Chef's tip: the bread must be stale and sliced paper-thin, so it softens in the broth without dissolving into paste.

60 min

Spanish Soups

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Olive all'ascolanaStuffed fried olives

Olive all'ascolana are the pride of Ascoli Piceno in the Marche, sold in paper cones at street fairs and piled on platters of fritto misto at every celebration in the region. Large, mild green olives are cut from their stones in a spiral, wrapped around a filling of pork, beef and chicken cooked with soffritto and a splash of white wine, then breaded and fried until crunchy. The real Ascolana tenera olive is hard to find outside Italy, so any large, mild green olive in brine is a practical substitute. The filling uses white wine, and the note gives an alcohol-free option. Serve hot, with lemon wedges and other fried titbits or a glass of something cold. Chef's tip: rinse and soak the olives before stuffing them; if they are too salty they overwhelm the delicate meat filling.

100 min

Italian Snacks & Starters

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Olla gitanaChickpea, pumpkin and green bean stew

The name means gypsy pot, and in Murcia and the neighbouring Vega del Segura it is the stew of autumn and Lent: chickpeas cooked with pumpkin, green beans and potato, perfumed with saffron and mint, and finished with a crushed paste of fried almonds, garlic and bread. What makes the Murcian version stand out is the pear, added near the end so its sweetness comes through the broth. It has no meat at all and is vegan as written. Chef's tip: choose firm pears, such as Conference, that keep their shape in the pot.

145 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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Welsh cawlLamb and leek broth

Cawl is the national dish of Wales, a slow broth of lamb on the bone, swede, carrots, potatoes and leeks that farmhouses kept simmering through the winter, and which is eaten with bread and a hunk of Caerphilly on St David's Day. Many families serve the broth first and the meat and vegetables after, and say cawl tastes best on the second day. Chef's tip: chill it overnight and lift off the fat that sets on top for a cleaner broth.

170 min

British Soups

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Omelette au brocciu et à la mentheFresh cheese and mint omelette

Inland Corsica, around Corte and the mountain villages, serves this omelette from late autumn to early summer, the months when shepherds make fresh brocciu. The cheese goes in at the last moment so it stays creamy, and wild mint picked from the maquis cuts through its richness; it is a light lunch or supper with a green salad and bread. Brocciu is made from the whey of rennet cheeses, so vegetarians often use ricotta labelled vegetarian instead. Chef's tip: season the cheese and mint, not just the eggs, because fresh whey cheese is very mild.

13 min

French Breakfast & Brunch

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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

Brazilian Baking

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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

Portuguese Breads & Parathas

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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

Brazilian Baking

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Orellas de EntroidoCrisp sugared carnival pastries

Orellas, 'ears' in Galician, are fried for Entroido in villages across Ourense and Lugo, from Laza to Xinzo de Limia, and handed round in big baskets during the carnival days. The thin dough blisters and turns crisp in hot oil, and the pastries are finished with sugar or honey. This version uses a little aniseed spirit (aguardiente), as is traditional, so it contains alcohol; for an alcohol-free version use orange juice with a pinch of ground anise. Old recipes use pork fat; this one uses butter, so it is vegetarian. A common mistake is rolling the dough too thick, which gives chewy, greasy pastries instead of crisp ones. Chef's tip: roll until you can almost see the worktop through the dough.

70 min

Spanish Desserts

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Orkney clapshotSwede and potato mash

Clapshot is the Orkney way with neeps and tatties: equal amounts of swede and potato mashed together with butter, chives and plenty of pepper, rather than served side by side. Islanders eat it with oatcakes and cheese, with mince, or alongside haggis on Burns Night. It is sweet, earthy and soft-orange. Chef's tip: dry the boiled vegetables in the hot pan before mashing, or the swede makes it watery.

40 min

British Sides

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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

Brazilian Baking

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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 mandiocaGrated cassava and coconut cake

Grated raw cassava makes a cake unlike any flour cake: heavy, sticky and pudding-like, with a chewy golden crust and a moist, almost translucent middle. Bolo de mandioca (or bolo de aipim in Rio) is baked all over Brazil, sold by the slice at roadside stands in the interior of Bahia and Minas, and is a regular at June festivals next to the corn cakes. Coconut milk and grated coconut make it fragrant, butter makes it rich. Fresh cassava is sold in Latin, African and Caribbean shops; frozen peeled cassava is fine once thawed. Raw cassava must be fully cooked, and baking this long is enough. A classic error is blending in the fibrous core of the root, which leaves woody threads in the cake; cut it out first. Chef's tip: squeeze a little of the liquid out of the grated cassava in a cloth before mixing, and the cake gets a firmer, more cake-like texture without turning dry.

80 min

Brazilian Baking

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Bolo de alfarrobaCarob and orange cake

Carob trees grow all through the dry Barrocal hills behind the Algarve coast, and the toasted pods are ground into a sweet, cocoa-coloured flour that local bakers have used for generations. This cake, sold by the slice in cafés around Loulé and São Brás de Alportel, is made with olive oil and orange, so it stays moist for days. It has a gentle caramel, almost malty taste rather than a chocolate one. A common mistake is using too much carob; it is sweet and earthy and turns bitter when overdone, so stick to the amount given. Chef's tip: sieve the carob flour with the wheat flour, because it lumps easily and leaves dry pockets in the crumb.

65 min

Portuguese Baking

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TitainaTomato, pepper and tuna stew

Titaina comes from the Cabanyal, the tiled fishermen's neighbourhood by Valencia's beach, where it is still served as a tapa in the old bars and spooned onto bread at home on summer evenings. Green peppers, onion and ripe tomatoes are cooked down in olive oil with toasted pine nuts until sweet, then mixed with tuna. Fishermen used tonyina de sorra, salt-cured tuna belly; this version uses good tinned tuna in olive oil, which is already cooked and easy to find. A common mistake is cooking it fast on a high heat: it needs a slow 40 minutes so the vegetables melt instead of fry. Chef's tip: add a pinch of sugar only if your tomatoes are sharp, and stir in the tuna at the very end so it stays in flakes.

65 min

Spanish Fish

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PaidakiaGrilled lamb chops

In the mountain villages around Athens and in Roumeli, families drive out on Sunday to psistaries where paidakia are sold by the kilo: thin lamb rib chops grilled over charcoal until the fat crackles, then showered with lemon, salt and oregano and eaten with your fingers. Chips, a horiatiki salad and tzatziki complete the meal. Common mistake: marinating them for hours in lemon, which makes the meat mushy; season simply and add lemon after grilling. Chef's tip: leave a thin rim of fat on each chop and grill fat-side first for a minute; it renders and bastes the meat.

20 min

Greek Meat

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WelshCheddar beer toast with ham

Brought over the Channel by British soldiers and miners, the welsh rarebit became a fixture of the estaminets of Lille and the Nord, where it is served in its own oval dish: toast soaked in beer, a slice of ham, then a flood of Cheddar melted with more beer and mustard, baked until bubbling and often topped with a fried egg. It is rich, sharp and very filling, with chips and a green salad the usual partners. It contains pork in the form of cooked ham, and uses beer; the notes give an alcohol-free swap. Chef's tip: use a strong, mature Cheddar, because a mild one melts flat and loses all its bite once the beer goes in.

30 min

French Fast Food

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Tlacoyos de habaStuffed blue corn cakes

Walk out of almost any Metro station in Mexico City in the morning and you will find a woman on a low stool patting out tlacoyos on a clay comal: thick, oval cakes of blue or white corn masa with a seam of bean or fava purée hidden inside, topped with cactus, salsa and crumbly cheese. They are bought hot, eaten standing up, and are one of the oldest street foods in the valley, older than the city itself. This version is filled with garlicky fava purée (habas) and topped with a quick nopal salad and salsa verde. Leave off the cheese and it is vegan. Chef's tip: keep the purée stiff, like mashed potato; a loose filling bursts through the masa when you flatten it.

70 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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TlatlapasBean, fava and pea soup

In the villages of Tlaxcala, tlatlapas is the Lenten and rainy-season soup: dried beans, fava and peas are toasted on a comal, ground to a coarse flour and simmered into a thick, earthy purée seasoned with dried chilli, epazote and strips of cactus. It is a peasant dish with pre-Hispanic roots, cheap, filling and full of protein, eaten with corn tortillas and a squeeze of lime. Using split beans keeps the cooking under an hour. Chef's tip: toast the pulses until golden and nutty, not dark; burnt ones turn the whole pot bitter.

55 min

Mexican Soups

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Bollo de yucaBoiled cassava bundles

Along the Caribbean coast from Cartagena to Santa Marta, the bollo de yuca is a staple to set beside fried fish, a bowl of soup or a slice of fresh white cheese. Raw cassava is grated, kneaded with a little salt and sometimes a few anise seeds, then wrapped and boiled until it turns translucent and pleasantly chewy, with a mild, slightly sweet flavour. Market sellers stack them by the dozen, and they keep well, so many households buy enough for several days. Cassava must always be fully cooked and peeled down past the pink inner layer, since the raw root contains natural toxins that cooking removes. Squeezing the grated cassava too hard is the error that ruins it: bone-dry dough gives tough, rubbery bollos, so you only want to press out the loose juice. Frozen grated cassava from Latin or African shops works well. Chef's tip: wet your hands before rolling the logs, because the starch sticks to dry palms.

90 min

Colombian Breads & Parathas

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OuziSpiced rice and lamb filo parcels

Ouzi is the showpiece of Jordanian and Damascene wedding buffets and Eid lunches: golden filo bundles that break open to spiced rice, minced lamb, peas and toasted nuts. The name comes from the whole roast lamb once served on a mountain of rice; the parcels are the neat, home-sized version, made ahead and baked as guests arrive. Serve with plain yoghurt or a cucumber-yoghurt salad. The common mistake is filling the filo with wet rice, which turns the bottoms soggy, so cook the rice until just tender and spread it out to steam dry. Chef's tip: lay a few nuts and peas in the bowl first, then the filo, then the filling, so each parcel comes out with a pretty top.

100 min

Jordanian Meat

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Ovos moles de AveiroEgg-yolk and sugar cream

Nuns in Aveiro's convents used leftover yolks, after the whites had starched their habits, to make this soft, intensely sweet cream, and the town's shops now sell it in painted wooden barrels or wrapped in thin wafer shaped like shells and fish. Visitors buy boxes at the railway station and along the canals where the moliceiro boats run. Only yolks, sugar and water go in, cooked slowly until thick and shiny. Chef's tip: cool the syrup slightly before adding the yolks and cook over the lowest heat, as a common mistake is hurrying it and ending up with sweet scrambled egg.

45 min

Portuguese Desserts

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Pa amb oli mallorquíTomato olive oil bread

In Mallorca pa amb oli is supper on a hot evening, the snack in every village bar and the picnic on a boat. Slices of dense, unsalted brown country bread are rubbed with the island's tomàtigues de ramellet, small tomatoes kept hanging in bunches through winter, then soaked with olive oil and salted. On the side go green olives, capers, pickled sea fennel and slices of Mahón cheese; this vegetarian plate leaves out the usual cured ham. Mahón is normally made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian semi-cured cow's milk cheese if that matters to you. Chef's tip: toast the bread only lightly, or not at all, so it stays soft enough to drink up the tomato.

15 min

Spanish Snacks & Starters

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Bolinho de estudanteTapioca and coconut fried fingers

Baianas de acarajé sell these next to their black-eyed pea fritters, and the name, 'student's cake', comes from how cheap and filling they are for schoolchildren in Salvador. A dough of granulated tapioca soaked in hot milk and coconut milk with grated coconut is shaped into short fingers, fried until the outside shatters, and rolled while still warm in cinnamon sugar. Inside they stay chewy and moist, a little like a coconut doughnut. Eat them with afternoon coffee, or make a tray for a festa junina. A common error is frying before the tapioca has fully absorbed the liquid, which makes the fingers burst open in the oil; give the dough its full 30-minute rest. Chef's tip: keep a bowl of water by you and wet your hands while shaping, so the sticky dough rolls into smooth fingers that fry evenly.

65 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Bolinho de aipimCheese-stuffed cassava balls

Order a round of chope in a Rio boteco and a plate of these usually follows: golf-ball-sized fritters of mashed aipim (cassava) with a molten cheese centre, crisp and craggy outside, soft and stretchy within. Places like the bars of Tijuca and Botafogo fill them with everything from dried beef to shrimp, but cheese is the classic veggie order. The cassava dough needs no egg or flour to bind it, so they are naturally gluten free. Use a mozzarella or Minas cheese made with microbial rennet to keep them vegetarian. They go wrong when the cassava is mashed while wet: the balls soften and split in the oil. Drain it very well and let the steam escape. Chef's tip: chill the shaped balls for 30 minutes before frying, so the cheese stays inside and the crust sets before the centre melts.

65 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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Boleima de maçãApple and cinnamon cake

In Portalegre, in the hills of the north Alentejo, boleima was born on baking day: a piece of the bread dough was set aside, enriched with olive oil, sugar and cinnamon, layered with sliced apples and baked in the cooling oven. It is not a delicate cake but a flat, moist, fragrant slab with caramelised edges, eaten at Christmas and at coffee time in autumn. It has no egg, butter or milk. A common mistake is slicing the apples thick, which leaves them hard while the dough is done; cut them thin. Chef's tip: give the dough a long, slow rise; that is where the bread-like flavour comes from.

75 min

Portuguese Baking

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PaçocaPeanut and cassava flour sweet

Kids across Brazil grow up on paçoca, the pale peanut sweet that melts into sandy crumbs the moment it is bitten, and no festa junina bag of treats is complete without a few. It started in the countryside of São Paulo and Minas as a way to use the peanut harvest, pounded in a wooden pestle with sugar and cassava flour, and today it is mostly pressed into little discs called rolhas. The flavour is pure toasted peanut, salty-sweet, with a texture between shortbread and fudge. Fine cassava flour (farinha de mandioca fina) is sold in Brazilian shops; you can leave it out for a richer, softer paçoca. Under-roasting the peanuts is the usual pitfall: pale peanuts give a raw, beany taste. Chef's tip: grind the mixture only until it just starts to clump; if it turns to butter, it will not hold a crumbly shape.

20 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Bolas de fraileDulce de leche doughnuts

Friars' balls, to translate them literally, are a fixture of the Buenos Aires panadería counter among the facturas that porteños buy by the dozen on Sunday morning: soft, round yeast doughnuts, fried golden, rolled in sugar and split or piped with dulce de leche or crema pastelera. Children dive for them first. Inside they are light and fluffy, outside slightly crisp and sweet, and they are at their best within a few hours, with mate or coffee with milk. Oil that is too hot is the mistake: the outsides brown in seconds and the centres stay raw and doughy, so keep it at 170 °C and fry slowly. A thermometer helps a lot. Pastry cream is the other classic filling if you prefer it. Chef's tip: let the shaped balls rise on individual squares of baking paper and slide them into the oil on the paper; they keep their round shape and the paper peels off after a few seconds.

125 min

Argentinian Baking

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Paçoca de carne de solPounded dried beef with cassava flour

Not the peanut sweet of the same name: in Ceará, Piauí and Maranhão, paçoca is a savoury, fluffy tangle of fried carne de sol pounded with toasted cassava flour and onion in a big wooden pilão. Cowboys of the sertão carried it on long rides because it keeps for days, and today it is served at roadside restaurants and at home with baião de dois, boiled macaxeira, ripe banana and a cold glass of cajá juice. It should be dry, crumbly and full of crisp beef threads, salty and deeply savoury. The thing that goes wrong most often is adding the cassava flour to a wet pan, which turns it into paste; the beef must be fried really dry first. Without a pilão, a large mortar or short pulses in a food processor do the job. Chef's tip: let the pounded paçoca rest for ten minutes before serving; the farinha soaks up the beef fat and the texture turns soft and fluffy.

65 min

Brazilian Meat

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Pacu assadoRoast whole river fish

Cuiabá's fish restaurants and weekend riverside lunches in the Pantanal put a whole pacu on the table, stuffed with farofa and roasted until the skin is golden and crisp. Pacu is a round, fat-rich river fish with sweet, juicy flesh; ask your fishmonger for whole sea bream, pompano or a large tilapia if pacu is not available. The stuffing is cassava flour toasted with onion, garlic, pepper, tomato and herbs, and it soaks up the fish juices as it cooks. Serve with white rice, a tomato vinagrete and lime. The mistake to watch for is over-roasting until the flesh dries out; check at the backbone and stop when it is just opaque. Pacu has fine Y-shaped bones in the belly, so eat carefully. Chef's tip: cut deep slashes on both sides and push a little lime-garlic paste into them; it seasons the thick flesh and helps it cook evenly.

80 min

Brazilian Fish

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Paiche a la parrillaGrilled paiche steaks

Paiche (arapaima), one of the largest freshwater fish on earth, has thick, white, almost boneless flesh, and in Iquitos it is farmed and cut into meaty steaks that sizzle on the grills of riverside restaurants. Marinated briefly in garlic, lime, cumin and achiote, it chars on the outside and stays juicy and mild inside, a little like cod but firmer. Serve it with a tomato and onion salad, rice, or tacacho (mashed fried plantain balls). Frozen farmed paiche is sold in some fishmongers; thick cod, halibut or hake loin are good stand-ins. Leaving it in lime too long is the big mistake: the acid starts to 'cook' the surface and it sticks and tears on the grill, so 15 minutes is plenty. Chef's tip: oil the fish, not the grill, and don't move it for the first 3 minutes so it forms a crust and releases cleanly.

25 min

Peruvian Fish

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Pain d'épices de DijonHoney spice loaf

Dijon has been baking pain d'épices since the Middle Ages, and the shops near the old ducal palace still sell it by the slice, plain or glazed with orange. It is a dense, fragrant honey loaf, sold all year but eaten most in December, when Burgundian families toast slices for breakfast, spread them with butter, or serve them with cheese and pears. The Dijon style uses wheat flour and a whole egg, which makes it softer than the rye-flour loaves of Reims. Chef's tip: wrap it and wait a day before cutting; the crumb turns moist and the spices settle and deepen.

75 min

French Baking

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Westfälisches BlindhuhnBean, apple and bacon stew

Blindhuhn, "blind hen", is a late-summer pot from the farms of Westphalia and the Münsterland, made when the garden and orchard give green beans, carrots, apples and pears all at once. It is called blind hen because, as farmers joked, even a blind hen finds a grain in it: the pot holds a bit of everything. White beans, vegetables and fruit cook together with smoked streaky bacon into a sweet-savoury one-pot supper. Leave out the bacon and add a spoon of smoked paprika for a vegetarian pot. Chef's tip: add the apples and pears only for the last 15 minutes so they stay in soft pieces instead of melting away.

90 min

German Curries

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Pan de CalatravaCaramel bread pudding

Pan de Calatrava is Murcia's thrifty Sunday dessert, a flan thickened with yesterday's bread or leftover sponge and baked over a layer of dark caramel. Murcian grandmothers made it to use up the end of a loaf, and it is still on the menu at family-run restaurants across the region, cut into slices and served cold with the caramel running down. The milk is infused first with lemon peel and cinnamon. Chef's tip: let it chill overnight before turning it out, so it slices cleanly and the caramel turns to syrup.

80 min

Spanish Desserts

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PambazoDipped roll with potato and chorizo

Pambazos are a Mexico City street classic, sold at night from griddles outside metro stations and at the fondas that open for Lent and village fiestas. A soft, light roll is split, filled with potato fried with pork chorizo, then dipped in a garlicky red guajillo sauce and crisped on the griddle, so the outside turns deep red, slightly crunchy and a little messy. Inside go shredded lettuce, cream and crumbled cheese, with salsa verde for heat. Eat it straight off the griddle with plenty of napkins. Chef's tip: use day-old rolls; fresh, soft bread soaks up too much sauce and falls apart on the griddle.

55 min

Mexican Fast Food

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PamonhaSteamed fresh corn parcels

Corn season in Goiás and across the Northeast means pamonharias, roadside shops where pamonha comes out of huge steaming pots all afternoon, and in June it is one of the anchors of the festa junina table. Freshly grated green corn is mixed with milk and sugar, wrapped in its own husks, tied and boiled until it sets into a soft, sweet, slightly chewy parcel that smells of fresh corn. The Goiás way is also savoury, with salt instead of most of the sugar and cubes of cheese inside; that option is in the last step. Traditional queijo minas or curd cheese is often made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian cheese made with microbial rennet. Serve hot, with coffee, or with butter melting on top. The usual mistake is using mature, starchy supermarket corn or tinned kernels: the mixture will not set properly and the flavour is flat. Chef's tip: use corn so young that a fingernail pressed into a kernel squirts milky juice, and save every intact husk for wrapping.

90 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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Bola de LamegoBread stuffed with ham and sausage

Lamego, the cathedral town above the Douro, is famous for its cured hams, and its bola is a bread baked with them inside: a soft, slightly rich yeasted dough layered with presunto, chouriço, salpicão and often chicken or veal. It is taken on picnics, to the pilgrimage of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios in September, and sold by the slice in local cafés. This contains pork (presunto and chouriço). Chef's tip: let the bola cool for an hour before slicing; the juices from the meats settle into the crumb.

85 min

Portuguese Breads & Parathas

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Pan bagnatPressed tuna and anchovy sandwich

Pan bagnat, 'bathed bread' in Niçois, is the beach and market lunch of Nice, sold wrapped in paper from kiosks around the Cours Saleya and packed for picnics on the pebbles of the Promenade. A round crusty roll is soaked with fruity olive oil and filled with everything that goes into a salade niçoise: tuna, anchovies, hard-boiled egg, tomato, sweet green pepper, spring onion and black olives. Pressed for an hour, it turns juicy, compact and easy to eat in big, messy bites. Serve it on its own or with a few radishes and a glass of something cold. Chef's tip: rub the cut bread with garlic before the oil goes on; it perfumes every bite without overpowering the fish.

40 min

French Fast Food

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Pan con chicharrónCrisp pork sandwich

Sunday mornings in Lima mean a queue at the neighbourhood sanguchería or a stop at Barranco's old cafés for this: a crusty pan francés roll stuffed with chicharrón, pork that has been simmered in salted water until the water evaporates and then fried in its own fat, layered with slices of fried sweet potato and a crown of salsa criolla. The pork is crisp at the edges, juicy inside, the sweet potato sweet and soft, the onion sharp and cold. It comes with coffee or a hot drink. The usual mistake is frying the pork in extra oil from the start; the water has to boil off first so the meat renders and fries in its own fat, otherwise it stays pale and tough. Chef's tip: use pork belly mixed with shoulder for the right balance of crackle and meat.

120 min

Peruvian Breakfast & Brunch

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Bocadillo veleñoGuava and panela paste

Vélez, a hill town in Santander, has given its name to Colombia's favourite sweet. Bocadillo veleño is guava pulp cooked down with panela and sugar until it sets into a firm, sliceable paste, deep red and fruity with a caramel edge, then cut into bars and wrapped in dried bijao leaves. It is the snack of bus journeys and school lunchboxes, and with a slice of fresh white cheese it becomes the classic pairing Colombians call a matrimonio. Plan for overnight setting. Stopping the cooking too early is the familiar mistake: the paste looks thick in the pan but stays soft and weeps once cool, so cook until it pulls away from the pan and a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a clear track. Long sleeves are a good idea; it splutters. Bijao leaves are hard to find abroad; banana leaves or baking paper work. Chef's tip: use pink-fleshed guavas for colour, and add the lime early so the pectin sets firm.

150 min

Colombian Desserts

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Bocadillo de calamaresFried squid sandwich

Madrid sits hundreds of kilometres from the sea, yet its most famous snack is a crusty roll stuffed with hot fried squid rings, eaten standing at the bars around the Plaza Mayor at any hour. Locals order one with a cold drink at the counter and squeeze over a little lemon; some add a smear of mayonnaise. Chef's tip: fry the squid in very hot oil and for barely a minute, so it stays tender inside a crisp coat.

25 min

Spanish Fish

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Pan de arrozRice flour cheese rings

Coffee in Arauca or Casanare rarely comes alone: there is usually a basket of pan de arroz, small golden rings made from rice flour and grated salty cheese, sold at roadside stalls, bakeries and village fiestas across the plains. They bake crisp on the outside and soft, slightly chewy and cheesy within, a cousin of pandebono but lighter and more crumbly. Eat them warm with a cup of tinto or hot chocolate in the afternoon. The cheese on the plains is queso llanero, a firm, salty farm cheese; mix feta-style cheese with a little mozzarella if you cannot find it, and as both are usually made with animal rennet, choose vegetarian (microbial-rennet) ones. The mistake that causes trouble is coarse, lumpy cheese, which makes the dough crack as you shape it; crumble or grate it very finely. Chef's tip: rest the dough for 10 minutes before shaping so the rice flour hydrates and the rings close without splitting.

50 min

Colombian Baking

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Pan de milloGalician cornbread

In the inland villages of Lugo and Ourense, and in the Deza area of Pontevedra, pan de millo, also called broa, was the everyday bread before wheat became common, baked in wood ovens and sometimes on a cabbage leaf. It is heavy, moist and slightly sweet inside, with a thick, cracked crust, and it is eaten with caldo, cheese or simply olive oil. Maize flour has no gluten of its own, so this version mixes in some wheat flour to help it rise; it is vegan. A common mistake is expecting a light loaf: it should feel heavy and close-textured. Chef's tip: scald the maize flour with boiling water first, which makes the crumb tender and stops it crumbling.

80 min

Spanish Breads & Parathas

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Pan dulceChristmas fruit bread

No Argentine Christmas Eve table is complete without a pan dulce, set out at midnight with turrón, nuts and a cold cider for the adults. The bread is the River Plate take on Genoese pandolce and Milanese panettone: a tall, buttery yeast dough scented with orange blossom and lemon, packed with candied fruit, raisins and walnuts. The crumb is closer and moister than panettone, and it keeps for a week wrapped in a cloth. Allow a long day, as the dough has a sponge and two rises. Some bakers soak the fruit in rum or sweet wine; here it is soaked in orange juice, so the bread is alcohol-free. People often add the fruit at the start of kneading, which shreds the gluten and gives a heavy, sunken loaf; work it in only once the dough is silky. Chef's tip: bake it in a tall paper mould or a 16 cm tin lined with a collar of baking paper, and turn it upside down onto a rack for the first 20 minutes of cooling so the top does not sink.

295 min

Argentinian Baking

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PanadesLamb and pea pies

On Easter Saturday, Mallorcan kitchens turn into pie workshops: whole families shape panades, small upright pies with pinched rims and a pastry lid, filled with raw diced lamb, peas and a little pork belly, then bake them to eat on Easter Sunday and the picnics of the days after. This contains pork (lard in the pastry and pork belly in the filling); butter can replace the lard and the belly can be left out. The meat cooks inside the pastry, staying juicy. Chef's tip: cut the lamb small, no bigger than 1.5 cm, so it cooks right through in the time the pastry takes to brown.

120 min

Spanish Meat

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Tocino de cieloEgg-yolk and syrup custard

Tocino de cielo means 'bacon from heaven', but there is no pork in it at all: the name refers only to its rich, deep-yellow colour. The story told in Jerez de la Frontera is that the sherry bodegas used egg whites to clarify their wine and gave the leftover yolks to the convents, whose nuns turned them into this. It is denser and silkier than flan, with no milk, and a small square goes a long way after Sunday lunch. Chef's tip: strain the yolk mixture twice and skim off every bubble; that is what gives the glassy, pore-free finish.

60 min

Spanish Desserts

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Blanc-manger cocoCoconut dessert

In Martinique, blanc-manger coco is the cool, wobbly dessert that closes a Christmas or Sunday family lunch: coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk scented with lime zest, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg, set and turned out of a mould. Many island cooks set it with gelatine, which is not vegetarian; this recipe uses agar-agar, a seaweed setting agent, so it is meat-free and holds well even in the heat. Serve it chilled with passion fruit or a guava coulis. Chef's tip: once the agar is in, keep the mixture boiling for 2 full minutes; agar only sets after it has been properly boiled.

205 min

French Desserts

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BizriFried whitebait

Fish restaurants on the harbours of Byblos, Batroun and Tyre bring bizri to the table within minutes of ordering: a heap of tiny whitebait, dusted in seasoned flour and fried so crisp you eat them whole, heads and all, with a squeeze of lemon. It is a mezze for sharing with fattoush, tahini sauce and fried pitta, usually while waiting for the bigger grilled fish. Buy the fish very fresh and keep it on ice until it goes into the pan. The common mistake is crowding the pan, which drops the oil temperature and leaves the fish greasy and soft. Chef's tip: toss the damp fish in flour in a sieve and shake off every bit of excess; a thin coating fries glassy-crisp.

25 min

Lebanese Fish

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Pan de yucaCassava starch cheese rolls

Cali bakeries sell pandeyucas warm in paper bags from early morning, often in a horseshoe shape, to go with a glass of kumis yoghurt drink or a café con leche. Made only from cassava starch, cheese, egg and a little butter, they are gluten free, puff up in the oven and stay hollow and stretchy inside with a thin crisp skin. Unlike pandebono, there is no corn flour, so they are lighter and chewier. Use tapioca (cassava) starch, sold in Asian and Latin shops; the cheese is typically a salty queso costeño made with animal rennet, so mix a vegetarian feta-style cheese with vegetarian mozzarella. Dough that is too wet makes them spread flat; it should feel like soft play dough. Chef's tip: they are at their best within 30 minutes of baking, so shape them ahead and bake just before eating.

38 min

Colombian Baking

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Bizcochos de achiraAchira starch cheese biscuits

Achira is a canna plant whose root gives a fine, silky starch, and in Huila and Tolima it becomes bizcochos: crunchy, cheesy little sticks and rings that dissolve on the tongue. They are sold in long plastic bags at roadside stands near Neiva, Altamira and the Magdalena valley, and they travel everywhere as a snack with coffee or a cold drink. Look for achira flour in Colombian shops; arrowroot powder is the nearest substitute, while tapioca starch gives a chewier result. The cheese is traditionally a dry, aged curd made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian hard cheese. The usual mistake is pulling them from the oven too early: they look done but go soft as they cool. Chef's tip: bake them right through until dry and only lightly coloured; they should snap cleanly once cold.

55 min

Colombian Baking

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Pane carasauThin crisp flatbread

Shepherds in Barbagia, the mountainous heart of Sardinia, took stacks of pane carasau with them for weeks on the high pastures, because this dry, glass-thin flatbread never goes stale. Each disc is baked until it balloons, split in two while hot, then baked again until crisp and golden; Italians call it carta da musica, music paper, for how thin and crackly it is. Sardinians eat it with olive oil and salt as a snack, break it into soups and layer it into pane frattau. Making it at home takes patience and a very hot oven. Chef's tip: split each puffed disc the moment it comes out of the oven; once it cools, the two layers fuse together.

180 min

Italian Breads & Parathas

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Pane di MateraDurum wheat sourdough bread

Matera's bread is a big golden loaf of durum-wheat semolina and sourdough, with a thick crackling crust and a crumb the colour of straw that stays moist for a week. It is shaped into a horned cornetto or a high-backed loaf, and until the 1950s families in the Sassi took their dough to the communal oven, each loaf marked with a carved wooden stamp so it came back to the right house. It is still eaten every day in the city, sliced thickly with olive oil and tomato or soaked in soups. Plan over two days, with a cold rise overnight. Chef's tip: feed your starter with semolina the day before, so its flavour matches the dough.

1440 min

Italian Baking

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