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Masala ugali

Spiced maize meal porridge

Ugali, East Africa's staple of maize meal cooked into a stiff porridge, given a lift with toasted cumin, butter, fresh coriander and green chilli. Stir it hard and keep it soft. Serve hot with sukumawiki or any stew.

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Paris-BrestChoux ring with praline cream

A Maisons-Laffitte pâtissier created this ring of choux pastry in 1910 to honour the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race, shaping it like a wheel, and it has been a fixture of Paris pâtisseries ever since. The ring is baked crisp, scattered with flaked almonds, split and piped full of a rich hazelnut-praline buttercream, then dusted with icing sugar. It is a celebration cake for birthdays and Sunday lunches, best eaten the day it is filled. Smooth hazelnut praline paste is sold in baking shops; or blend toasted hazelnuts with caramel. Chef's tip: let the baked ring dry in the switched-off oven with the door ajar; a dry shell stays crisp under the cream instead of going soft.

120 min

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Partan breeCrab and rice soup

Partan bree comes from the fishing villages of the north-east of Scotland, where partan is the Scots word for the brown crab and bree means broth. Rice is simmered in milk and fish stock until soft, blended with the crab's brown meat, and finished with sweet white claw meat and a little cream. It is the coast's answer to a bisque, simpler and milder. Buy ready-cooked crab meat and keep it chilled. Chef's tip: add the white meat right at the end and only warm it through, so it stays in flakes.

40 min

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Pashmak, 'little wool', is the fine, silky candy floss of Yazd, sold in boxes beside the city's qottab and baklava and piled on top of ice cream or cakes at weddings. Unlike fairground floss it is made by hand: a hot sugar ring is pulled again and again through toasted flour cooked in butter and sesame oil until it splits into thousands of threads. It is a project for two pairs of hands. A common mistake is letting the sugar get too cool before pulling; it should be warm and pliable, like soft plasticine, or it snaps instead of stretching. Chef's tip: wear clean cotton gloves under food-safe gloves, because the sugar is hot at first.

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Pasta con 'ndujaPasta with spicy 'nduja sausage

Spilinga, a small hill town above the Calabrian coast, celebrates 'nduja with its own summer festival. This soft, spreadable salumi of pork fat and meat with huge amounts of Calabrian chilli melts straight into a pan, turning a simple tomato sauce brick-red, rich and properly hot. It's a quick weeknight pasta in Calabria, often made with fileja or short pasta, and finished with a little pecorino or a dollop of ricotta to soften the heat. Chef's tip: add the 'nduja off the heat at first and let it melt gently, then simmer; frying it hard burns the chilli and makes it bitter.

25 min

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Pasta frola came to the River Plate with Italian immigrants (it is a cousin of the crostata), and it is now the tart every Argentine kitchen keeps on the counter for afternoon mate. The crust is short and cakey rather than crisp, scented with lemon zest and vanilla, and the filling is dulce de membrillo melted down into a spreadable jam; dulce de batata is the other classic. Bakeries in Buenos Aires sell it by the square and it keeps for days in a tin, getting better on the second day. The lattice strips should be thin and slightly wider apart than you think, so the dark filling shows through. A common slip is to spread the quince paste straight from the block: it will not spread, it tears the base and it turns leathery in the oven, so loosen it first with a little hot water. Chef's tip: chill the lined tin and the cut strips for 15 minutes before baking, so the lattice keeps its shape instead of slumping into the filling.

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In Messina and around Catania, pasta 'ncasciata is the dish for Ferragosto, Sunday lunch and any big family table, and it travels well to the beach. Short pasta is tossed with a beef and pork ragù, then layered in a deep tin with slices of fried aubergine, cubes of salami and cooked ham (both pork), hard-boiled egg and caciocavallo cheese, and baked until the top is crisp. It cuts into dense, generous wedges that are just as good warm as at room temperature. Chef's tip: salt the aubergine slices and leave them to drain before frying, so they soak up less oil and turn creamy rather than greasy.

180 min

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These torpedo-shaped croquettes of salt cod, potato, egg and parsley are everywhere in Lisbon: piled on café counters, packed for picnics, and served at weddings and christenings in their dozens. Every family argues over the cod-to-potato ratio; about equal parts gives a fluffy inside that still tastes properly of fish. Salt cod needs 24–48 hours of soaking in the fridge, so start two days ahead. A common mistake is a wet mixture from boiled potatoes, which makes the croquettes burst in the oil; bake or steam the potatoes instead, or dry them well. Chef's tip: shape each one between two wet tablespoons, passing the mixture back and forth until it has three smooth sides.

80 min

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Pastéis de feijãoWhite bean and almond tarts

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65 min

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Pastéis de TentúgalEgg cream pastry rolls

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Pastel de anguFried cornmeal cheese pastries

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90 min

Argentinian Baking

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Pastes de Real del MonteBeef and potato pasties

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100 min

Mexican Baking

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75 min

Italian Baking

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Pastis gasconCrackling apple pastry

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80 min

French Baking

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Pastissets de moniatoSweet potato pastry half-moons

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95 min

Spanish Baking

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PastitsadaSpiced beef with thick pasta

Pastitsada is Corfu's great Sunday and feast-day dish, a legacy of four centuries of Venetian rule: big pieces of beef (or rooster) slowly braised in tomato with a heady spice mix of cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg and sweet paprika, sharpened with vinegar, then served over bucatini with grated cheese. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the pasta and taste warm rather than hot. Many Corfiots add red wine; this version uses red wine vinegar and stock, so it's alcohol-free (swap 150 ml of the stock for red wine if you like). Common mistake: rushing the braise — beef shin needs a long, gentle simmer to turn soft. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead; the spices settle and the sauce tastes rounder.

175 min

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Pataniscas de bacalhauSalt cod fritters

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45 min

Portuguese Fish

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PatarashcaLeaf-wrapped grilled fish

Wrapping fish in leaves and cooking it over embers is how the riverside towns of Loreto and San Martín have always cooked their catch, and in Iquitos patarashca is sold on Belén market grills and in the restaurants along the Malecón. A whole fish or thick fillet is smeared with garlic, ají dulce, tomato, onion, cumin and sacha culantro, folded in large bijao leaves and grilled until the parcel chars and the fish steams in its own juices. When you open it, the flesh is soft and fragrant with herbs. Banana leaves from Asian shops are the best swap for bijao; foil works at a pinch. Too thin a parcel is the usual mistake: the leaves burn through and the fish dries out, so use two layers. Chef's tip: serve it in the opened leaf with boiled plantain or cassava and spoon up every drop of the juices.

45 min

Peruvian Fish

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PatascaHominy and tripe soup

Through the highlands of Ayacucho, Huancavelica and Apurímac, patasca (also called mondongo) is the soup for cold mornings, carnivals and the day after a fiesta: plump white mote, dried maize kernels that burst open like flowers after long boiling, in a clear, rich broth with honeycomb tripe and beef shin, perfumed with mint and oregano. It is filling and gentle, and gets its fire at the table from a spoon of rocoto sauce. Plan ahead: the maize needs an overnight soak and several hours of simmering. Buy tripe cleaned and blanched from a butcher or Latin or halal shop; it must be simmered until soft and fully cooked. The typical mistake is salting the mote early, which keeps the kernels hard. Chef's tip: cook the maize and the tripe in separate pots, then combine; each needs a different time and the broth stays cleaner.

240 min

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Patatas al cabralesFried potatoes with blue cheese sauce

Cabrales is ripened in limestone caves in the Picos de Europa, and the bars of Arenas de Cabrales and Cangas de Onís pour it, melted into cream, over hot chips as a ración to share with a bottle of cider. The sauce is sharp, salty and very rich, so a little goes a long way. Most cabrales is made with animal rennet; for a strictly vegetarian dish, choose a blue cheese labelled vegetarian. Chef's tip: keep the sauce below a boil once the cheese goes in, or it splits and turns grainy.

45 min

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Patatas revolconasPaprika mashed potatoes with crisp pork

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55 min

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