Featured recipe

Singapore chilli crab

Chilli crab was first sold from a pushcart on the Kallang river in the 1950s and is now the dish visitors queue for along Singapore's East Coast seafood strip. Big mud crabs are cut up, wok-fried and simmered in a thick, sweet, tangy and gently hot sauce of chilli, tomato and garlic, which is then silked with beaten egg. Everyone eats with their hands and mops up the sauce with fried or steamed mantou buns. It is a weekend or celebration meal, messy and loud. Buy crabs live or freshly cooked the same day from a fishmonger you trust. Discard any live crab that doesn't move, smells of ammonia or has a cracked, leaking shell. The common mistake is boiling the sauce after adding the egg, which scrambles it into lumps; pour it in a thin stream over a low heat. Chef's tip: ask the fishmonger to clean and quarter the crab for you, and crack each claw lightly with the back of a cleaver so the sauce soaks in.

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Kestane şekeriCandied chestnuts

Bursa sits beneath the chestnut forests of Uludağ, and every sweet shop in the old covered market sells kestane şekeri in neat gold boxes, especially as gifts in autumn and at the new year. Peeled chestnuts are poached and then candied over several days in a vanilla syrup until they turn dense, glossy and tender right through. It takes patience rather than skill. Chef's tip: wrap each chestnut in a square of muslin before poaching; it holds the fragile nuts together through the repeated syrup baths.

150 min

Turkish Desserts

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AşureWheat, bean and dried fruit pudding

In the month of Muharram, kitchens all over Anatolia, especially in conservative Konya and Sivas, boil great pots of aşure and send bowls to every neighbour, regardless of faith, so the sweet is as much about sharing as eating. Legend says it was cooked on Noah's ark from the last of the stores, which is why it combines whole wheat, chickpeas, white beans, dried apricots, figs and raisins in a thick, gently sweet pudding. It's topped with walnuts, pomegranate and cinnamon. Common mistake: adding sugar before the wheat is fully tender; sugar firms the grains and they never soften. Chef's tip: soak the wheat and pulses overnight and cook the wheat in its soaking water for the creamiest result.

150 min

Turkish Desserts

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PlinsenBuckwheat pancakes with quark

Plinsen come from Lusatia, the Sorbian-speaking borderland of Brandenburg and Saxony, where buckwheat once grew in the sandy soil. They are thin, soft pancakes, slightly thicker than a crêpe, made with buckwheat or a mix of buckwheat and wheat, and they are eaten for breakfast or as a sweet supper with sweetened quark, apple sauce or, in July, wild blueberries from the Lusatian pine woods. The buckwheat gives a nutty, earthy edge. A common mistake is cooking them in a too-cool pan, which makes them pale and rubbery; the butter should sizzle as the batter hits it. Chef's tip: rest the batter for 30 minutes so the buckwheat swells and the pancakes don't tear.

30 min

German Breakfast & Brunch

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LavashakSour plum fruit leather

Lavashak is the sour fruit leather Iranian children buy rolled up in plastic from corner shops, and every family has a version dried at home in late summer, when tart plums and apricots are plentiful in Tehran's bazaars. Fruit is cooked down, sieved smooth, spread thin and dried until it peels off as a flexible, glossy sheet, sour enough to make you wince and very moreish. Torn into strips, it is a snack on its own or wrapped around a crisp of rice. Chef's tip: spread the purée evenly thin, about 3 mm; thick patches stay sticky while the edges go brittle.

440 min

Persian Snacks & Starters

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Sorrentinos de calabazaSquash and ricotta pasta parcels

Mar del Plata claims the sorrentino, a big round stuffed pasta about the size of a jam-jar lid that Italian-Argentine cooks made their own in the mid-20th century; despite the name, you won't find it in Sorrento. Every fresh-pasta shop in Buenos Aires province sells them by the dozen on Sunday mornings, and the squash version, with roasted calabaza, ricotta and nutmeg, is the most loved. The filling is sweet and soft, the pasta thin but sturdy, and the sauce is either brown butter with sage or a plain tomato filetto. The classic mistake is boiled squash: it carries too much water, the filling weeps and the parcels burst in the pot, so the squash is roasted until dry and caramelised. Grated hard cheese is usually made with animal rennet; choose a vegetarian hard cheese if needed. Chef's tip: chill the filling until firm before you shape it; a cold, stiff filling is far easier to seal without air pockets.

100 min

Argentinian Pasta & Noodles

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Layali LubnanSemolina pudding with cream and pistachios

Layali Lubnan — 'Lebanese nights' — is the cool, wobbly pudding Beirut families make for Ramadan evenings and summer gatherings, because it is quick and feeds a crowd from one dish. A base of milk thickened with fine semolina and scented with orange blossom is topped with a thick layer of cream, then finished with pistachios, rose petals and a trickle of sugar syrup at the table. It is gentle and milky rather than very sweet; the syrup lets everyone choose. Common mistake: pouring the cream on while the semolina is still hot; it melts in and the layers blur. Chef's tip: whisk the semolina in slowly and keep whisking for the first minute — that is what keeps it perfectly smooth.

30 min

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Sosis bandariSpicy sausage and tomato sandwich

Sosis bandari, 'port-style sausage', began in the Gulf ports of Bushehr and Bandar Abbas and is now the late-night snack of sandwich shops all over Iran, from Tehran to Shiraz. Sliced beef or chicken frankfurter-style sausages (Iranian sausages are never pork) are fried with lots of onion, potato, tomato paste and chilli until sticky and hot, then stuffed into a soft baguette with pickles and tomato. It is spicy, greasy in the best way and ready in minutes. A common mistake is crowding the pan; the onion steams instead of browning, so use your widest pan. Chef's tip: a pinch of curry powder and a squeeze of lemon at the end is how the bandari shops give it their southern kick.

28 min

Persian Fast Food

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PantxinetaCustard and almond puff pastry tart

Pantxineta was first baked in a pastry shop in San Sebastián's old town in the early twentieth century, and Donostiarras still buy it on Sunday mornings to take to family lunch. Two layers of buttery puff pastry enclose vanilla pastry cream, and the top is covered with flaked almonds and icing sugar. It is best eaten warm on the day it is made, while the pastry shatters. A common mistake is filling the pastry with warm custard, which melts the butter layers and stops them rising. Chef's tip: chill the assembled tart for 20 minutes before baking so the pastry keeps sharp edges.

70 min

Spanish Baking

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PanuchosBean-stuffed tortillas with chicken

Mérida's loncherías and the evening stands around its parks sell panuchos by the plateful: small corn tortillas puffed on the griddle, slit open, stuffed with black bean paste and fried until the edges crisp. They are topped with shredded chicken marinated in achiote and bitter orange, sharp pink pickled onion, tomato and avocado, with fiery habanero salsa on the side for those who want it. Bitter (Seville) orange is the traditional sour; a mix of orange and lime juice works well. Two or three make a supper with a cold drink. Chef's tip: let the tortilla balloon on the hot comal before you slit it; if it doesn't puff, there is no pocket for the beans.

150 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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QizhaNigella seed cake

Qizha is Gaza's own sweet: a dense, near-black semolina cake made with a paste of roasted nigella seeds, eaten especially in winter and during Ramadan, when bakeries in Gaza City stack trays of it. It tastes nutty and slightly bitter, a little like dark sesame, softened by syrup and topped with almonds or pistachios. Nigella paste is sold in some Middle Eastern shops; if you can't find it, grind toasted nigella with tahini as below. Common mistake: over-toasting the nigella, which turns it acrid; stop as soon as it smells fragrant. Chef's tip: rest the mixed batter for 30 minutes before baking so the semolina swells and the cake slices cleanly.

60 min

Palestinian Baking

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SoumadaAlmond syrup drink

On Crete and several Aegean islands, a glass of cloudy-white soumada is offered to guests at weddings and on hot summer afternoons. It begins as a thick almond syrup kept in the fridge, which is stirred into iced water to make a cool, gently sweet drink that tastes of marzipan and orange blossom. Some islanders add a few bitter almonds for an edge; they are not safe to eat in quantity, so this version uses a drop of almond extract instead. Common mistake: boiling the syrup hard after the almond milk goes in, which makes it cloudy and grainy rather than smooth. Chef's tip: squeeze the almond pulp in a muslin bag with real force; the last drops are the richest.

45 min

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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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Pão alentejanoSourdough country loaf

Almost every Alentejo meal leans on this bread: it is crumbled into açorda, laid under soups and stews, fried into migas and, fresh, eaten with olives and sheep's cheese. Village bakers make it with a sourdough starter, white wheat flour, water and salt, and give each round loaf a little knob of dough on top, called the cuco. The crumb should be dense, moist and chewy and the crust thick and crackling, so it lasts a week. You need an active starter that doubles within 6 hours of feeding. A common mistake is baking too pale; let the crust go a deep brown for flavour and keeping. Chef's tip: use a wetter dough than you think; it gives the open, moist crumb that keeps the bread soft for days.

90 min

Portuguese Breads & Parathas

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Ali nazikLamb on smoky aubergine and yoghurt

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

55 min

Turkish Meat

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Soupe de poissons with rouilleFish soup with rouille

Not to be confused with bouillabaisse, where whole pieces of fish are served, soupe de poissons is the smooth, rust-coloured soup made all along the coast from Marseille to Sète from small rockfish too bony to eat any other way. The fish are fried with fennel, tomato, garlic and saffron, simmered and then pressed through a food mill, giving a velvety soup tasting deeply of the sea. In harbourside restaurants it arrives with a tray of toasted croutons, a pot of fiery garlic rouille and grated cheese, and everyone builds their own bowl. This rouille is thickened with potato and bread, with no raw egg. Chef's tip: press the cooked fish hard through the mill or sieve; the flavour is in the pulp, not just the liquid.

100 min

French Soups

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Ulster potato farlsGriddled potato bread

Potato bread, often just called fadge or tattie bread, is the soft, flat quarter-round that sits beside soda bread in every Ulster fry from Belfast to Derry. Warm mashed potato is worked with a little flour and butter, rolled into a round, cut into four farls and cooked on a dry griddle. It is thinner than a Scottish tattie scone and is always fried golden before serving. Chef's tip: use only enough flour to stop it sticking; the more potato, the better the farl.

30 min

British Breads & Parathas

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KeşkülAlmond milk pudding

Keşkül takes its name from the bowl that wandering dervishes carried for alms, and it has been on Istanbul pudding-shop counters (muhallebici) since Ottoman times. Ground almonds simmered in milk give it a delicate nutty flavour and a faint grain, set with a little rice flour and cornflour into a soft, spoonable pudding. Turks eat it chilled as an afternoon treat or after a light supper, topped with pistachio and desiccated coconut. The usual mistake is stopping the whisking as it thickens; it catches on the base and tastes scorched. Chef's tip: steep the ground almonds in the warm milk for 15 minutes before you start cooking for a much deeper almond flavour.

35 min

Turkish Desserts

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South Dakota chislicFried lamb cubes

Chislic is the official nosh of South Dakota, brought to the prairie by Germans from Russia and served at taverns and county fairs around Freeman and Sioux Falls. Bite-size cubes of lamb or mutton are deep-fried or grilled on skewers, tossed in garlic salt and eaten with cocktail sticks, with saltine crackers and hot sauce on the side. Chef's tip: cut the cubes all the same size, about 2 cm, so they cook evenly in the short time in the oil.

25 min

American Meat

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