Featured recipe

Papa rellena

Stuffed potato croquettes

Torpedo-shaped and golden, papas rellenas sit stacked in the glass cases of Lima's sangucherías and market stalls, and they are just as often made at home on a weekday to use up a pot of mash. The shell is plain yellow potato with a crisp, thin crust; inside is a picadillo of minced beef with onion, ají panca, cumin, sliced egg, black olives and a few raisins for sweetness. They are eaten warm with a heap of salsa criolla and a spoon of ají sauce. The usual mistake is working the potato while it is still hot and wet: it turns gluey and splits in the oil, so let it steam dry and cool before shaping. Chef's tip: dust your hands and the croquettes with rice flour rather than wheat flour; it gives a thinner, crisper shell and keeps them gluten free. For a meat-free version, swap the beef for chopped mushrooms fried hard until dry.

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65 min

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35 min

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30 min

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120 min

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60 min

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Pastes de Real del MonteBeef and potato pasties

Cornish miners arrived in the silver mines around Real del Monte and Pachuca in the 1820s, and their pasties stayed: today the hilltop town in Hidalgo has paste shops on every street, selling them warm from the oven to visitors and locals all day. The classic filling is close to the original, diced beef, potato, onion and parsley seasoned with plenty of pepper, sealed in a short, buttery crust and baked until the juices turn to gravy inside; Mexican kitchens added a little chilli and many other fillings, including chicken in mole, which you can use instead of the beef. Eat them with a hot salsa or alone, with coffee. Chef's tip: cut the beef and potato small and evenly, about 1 cm; it all cooks raw inside the pastry, so even pieces are what make it tender.

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50 min

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Postre vigilanteCheese with quince paste

Ask for dessert in an old Buenos Aires bodegón and the waiter will rattle off flan, budín and, inevitably, vigilante: a thick slab of soft, mild cheese laid beside an equal slab of dulce de membrillo or dulce de batata. The name, "policeman", is said to come from the beat officers who ordered it as a cheap sweet in early twentieth-century cafés; Uruguayans call the same plate Martín Fierro. It is salty against sweet, creamy against firm, and takes five minutes. The traditional cheese is fresh queso cremoso or cuartirolo, or a firmer port salut; a young Havarti or mild Gouda is the best stand-in abroad. Like many soft cheeses, these are often made with animal rennet, so check the label for a vegetarian (microbial-rennet) cheese. The usual error is cutting the slabs thin like a cheese board; vigilante is about generous, equal bricks. Chef's tip: take the cheese out of the fridge 20 minutes ahead; cold cheese tastes of nothing next to the paste.

5 min

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Potaje de berrosWatercress and bean stew

Watercress grows wild in the irrigation channels and ravines of Tenerife and La Palma, and in the cool months it goes into potaje de berros, a thick, green, cumin-scented stew that islanders eat by the bowlful with a spoon of gofio stirred in. It is a cheap, filling family supper, and a good one to make ahead. Pork ribs or belly often go in for flavour; this version leaves them out and is vegan, relying on garlic, cumin and paprika instead. Chef's tip: cook the watercress for most of the time, not just at the end, so it collapses into the broth and gives the stew its earthy depth.

80 min

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Suquet de peixFish and potato stew with picada

Fishermen from Cadaqués, Palamós and the other Costa Brava ports made suquet on board with the fish that would not sell: rockfish, monkfish, hake, a few prawns, simmered with potatoes in a sofrito and thickened at the end with a picada of garlic, almonds, parsley and fried bread. Now it is a weekend lunch in harbour restaurants, served straight from the pan. The potatoes must release their starch so the broth turns into a light, silky sauce. Chef's tip: 'crack' the potatoes rather than slicing them: cut part way, then snap off the pieces; the rough edges give up more starch.

70 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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PasticciottoCustard-filled shortcrust pastries

In Lecce the day starts at the bar with a pasticciotto still warm from the oven: a little oval of crumbly, golden shortcrust split open to reveal thick lemon-scented custard. It is said to come from a pastry shop in nearby Galatina in the 1700s, and the whole Salento eats it at breakfast, after Sunday Mass and with a caffè in ghiaccio in summer. The traditional pastry is made with lard; this version uses butter, which keeps it short and crisp. Chef's tip: make the custard first and chill it well; cold, thick custard stays put inside the pastry while it bakes.

75 min

Italian Baking

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Sfakiani pitaCheese pancakes with honey

Shepherds in the mountains of Sfakia, on Crete's wild south coast, made these with what they had on hand: flour, oil, a ball of fresh cheese and the thyme honey from their hives. A soft dough is wrapped around the cheese, rolled out as thin as a plate and cooked in a dry pan, then eaten hot with honey running over it, for breakfast or as a late sweet with Greek coffee. Village cooks often add a splash of raki to the dough; here lemon juice does the same job and keeps it alcohol-free. The cheese is fresh mizithra, or use ricotta, which is usually rennet-free. Common mistake: cooking over too high a heat, which scorches the outside before the thin layer of cheese inside warms through. Chef's tip: roll from the centre outwards and give the disc a quarter turn each time so the cheese spreads evenly to the edge.

65 min

Greek Breakfast & Brunch

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Potée auvergnatePork, cabbage and sausage pot

High in the Massif Central, potée auvergnate is what farmhouses put on the stove when the first frosts arrive: a pork dish of salt pork belly and smoked pork sausage simmered slowly with savoy cabbage, carrots, turnips and potatoes. The broth comes out clear, smoky and gently salty, and the vegetables soak up all that pork flavour while keeping their shape. In the Cantal it is served in two rounds, the broth poured over slices of toasted country bread first, then the meat and vegetables on a big platter with strong mustard and gherkins. Chef's tip: soak the salt pork first and taste the broth before you add any salt; between the belly and the sausage it rarely needs more.

180 min

French Meat

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Potée lorraineSmoked pork and white bean pot

In Lorraine farmhouses around Nancy and the Vosges foothills, the potée simmered on the stove through winter and fed the household after a cold morning outside. It is a pork dish through and through: smoked pork shoulder, smoked belly and a garlic sausage gently poached with a whole green cabbage, carrots, turnips, leeks and white beans until the broth is smoky and the vegetables melt. The broth is ladled out first, sometimes over toasted bread, and the meat and vegetables follow with mustard and gherkins. Chef's tip: blanch the cabbage for five minutes before adding it to the pot, which takes away its sulphurous edge and keeps the broth sweet.

180 min

French Meat

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LadeniaTomato and onion olive-oil flatbread

On tiny Kimolos, a short boat ride from Milos, ladenia was the bread women baked in the village oven on bread-making day, pressing dough into a tray, covering it with tomato and onion and soaking it in olive oil. It is soft and airy inside with a crisp, oily base, a little like a focaccia, and is eaten warm or cold, cut into squares, with olives and cheese. Common mistake: piling on wet tomato, which sinks the dough; slice it thin and salt it first. Chef's tip: use your fingertips to press deep dimples into the risen dough so the oil and tomato juices pool and soak in.

55 min

Greek Breads & Parathas

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