Featured recipe

Pityókás kenyér

Potato bread

In the Székely villages of Harghita and Covasna, the Hungarian-speaking corner of eastern Transylvania, pityóka is the local word for potato, and pityókás kenyér is the bread baked on Saturdays in outdoor wood ovens. Mashed potato in the dough keeps the crumb moist, soft and slightly sweet for days, while a long, hot bake builds a crust so dark it is nearly black in places, traditionally laid on a cabbage leaf. It is eaten with soups, with onions and fresh cheese, or simply with salt. Where most people go wrong is pulling the loaf too early when it looks brown; this bread wants a really deep crust and a hollow sound underneath. Chef's tip: use the potato cooking water, cooled to lukewarm, for the dough; its starch gives a better rise and a softer crumb.

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Xerém de conquilhasCornmeal with clams and chouriço

Xerém is coarse-ground maize cooked to a soft, spoonable porridge, an old poor man's food of the eastern Algarve that tasted of whatever the sea or the pig gave that day. Around Tavira and Olhão it is cooked with conquilhas, the little wedge clams raked from the sand bars of the Ria Formosa, so the cornmeal soaks up their salty juices. This contains pork (chouriço and streaky bacon); leave them out for a purely seafood version. Chef's tip: stir the cornmeal into the clam water off the heat, then put it back on, to avoid lumps.

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Viennese KaisersemmelCrisp star-topped rolls

No Viennese breakfast is complete without a Kaisersemmel: a light, hollow-crusted white roll with a pinwheel of five curved segments on top, split and spread with butter and apricot jam or filled with Leberkäse at a market stand. The crust should shatter and the inside be soft and airy. The star is traditionally knotted by hand, though a stamp works too. A common mistake is skipping the overnight cold dough, which leaves the rolls bland and pale. Chef's tip: prove the shaped rolls upside down, star side down, on a floured cloth, then flip them just before baking; the pattern stays sharp instead of puffing shut.

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Vollkornbrot is the dense, seedy tin loaf of northern Germany, from Hamburg to Bremen, sliced thin and eaten for breakfast or packed for work in a lunchbox with cheese, cucumber or a smear of quark. It is almost all whole rye: cracked grains, rye meal and a mix of sunflower seeds, linseed and sesame, all soaked overnight so the bread stays moist for a week. There is no shaping and no kneading, which makes it easier than it looks. A common mistake is cutting it warm, which leaves the knife and the slices gummy. Chef's tip: let the loaf cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out and wrap it in a tea towel overnight; the crust softens slightly and the crumb sets evenly.

680 min

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XatóEndive salad with salt cod

From late autumn to early spring, the towns of the Garraf coast, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Sitges and Vilafranca, hold xatonades: festive lunches built round this salad of bitter curly endive dressed with a thick sauce of ñora peppers, almonds, hazelnuts and garlic, and loaded with salt cod, tuna and anchovies. Each town insists its sauce is the true one. Like esqueixada, the cod is often only desalted; it is poached here for safety, since raw cured fish is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: dress the endive in the sauce with your hands, so every frond is coated before the fish goes on top.

70 min

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Zibdiyit gambariBaked prawns with tomato and garlic

In Gaza's seafront restaurants zibdiyit gambari arrives bubbling in the same clay bowl (zibdiya) in which the sauce was pounded: prawns baked in a fierce tomato sauce full of garlic, green chilli and dill seed, with olive oil pooling at the edges for dipping bread. Families make it at home for special Friday lunches when the catch is good. Common mistake: cooking the prawns as long as the sauce, which makes them tough; they need only a few minutes at the end. Chef's tip: pound the garlic, chilli and dill seed by hand; the rough paste fries into the oil and gives the sauce its punch.

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MarmitakoBonito and potato stew

Marmitako takes its name from the marmita, the iron pot that fishermen out of Bermeo and Ondarroa kept on board during the summer bonito season, from June to September. Potatoes simmer in a peppery broth made red with choricero pepper, and chunks of fresh bonito go in only at the very end. Along the coast it is still the summer lunch of fishing towns, eaten from deep plates. A common mistake is boiling the fish with the potatoes, which turns it dry and stringy; it needs just a few minutes of gentle heat. Chef's tip: snap the potatoes rather than cut them, so their starch thickens the broth.

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Ab havij bastaniCarrot juice with saffron ice cream

Every juice bar in Tehran, from Tajrish Square to the stalls of Valiasr Street, sells ab havij bastani: a tall glass of fresh, ice-cold carrot juice with a scoop of saffron ice cream floating on top. People eat it with a long spoon in summer, stirring the melting ice cream into the juice until it turns creamy and pale orange. It is sweet, earthy and cooling, and kids treat it as a dessert. Chef's tip: chill the carrots well before juicing; warm juice melts the ice cream at once and loses its fresh taste.

10 min

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AdasiBrown lentils with onion and cumin

Adasi is the winter breakfast of Iran's cafés and university canteens, ladled out early in the morning in Tehran, Tabriz and Mashhad from big pots that have bubbled since dawn. Whole brown lentils are cooked soft with turmeric and onion until thick and spoonable, then finished with cumin, a little golpar (ground angelica seed), black pepper and lemon. It is eaten with warm barbari or sangak and sweet tea. The common mistake is cooking it at a hard boil, which leaves the skins split and the soup grainy rather than velvety. Chef's tip: mash a ladleful of lentils against the side of the pot at the end; it thickens the adasi without any flour.

50 min

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Accras de légumesVegetable fritters

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AçmaSoft buttery breakfast rings

Every simit seller's glass cart in Istanbul has a softer cousin stacked beside the sesame rings: açma, a pillowy, slightly sweet ring of enriched dough that commuters tear apart on the ferry with a glass of tea and a wedge of white cheese. The crumb is close to brioche but lighter, with a shiny golden crust and black nigella seeds on top. Plain ones are best warm; some bakers fold olives or cheese into them. Chef's tip: rest the rolled ropes for ten minutes before shaping, so the gluten relaxes and the rings keep their shape instead of shrinking back.

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Adas bi hamodLentils with chard and lemon

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60 min

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Adobo arequipeñoMarinated slow-cooked pork

On Sunday mornings in Arequipa, families head to picanterías in Cayma and Yanahuara for a steaming bowl of adobo, chunks of pork that have marinated overnight in chicha de jora (fermented maize beer), ají panca, garlic and cumin, then cooked slowly in a clay pot with thick wedges of red onion. The sauce is dark red, tangy and garlicky rather than hot, and you mop it up with pan de tres puntas, the city's triangular bread; a mug of anise tea follows. Chicha de jora contains alcohol; for an alcohol-free adobo, use the vinegar and water swap in the ingredient list, which gives the same sour edge. Boiling it hard is the classic error, as it toughens the pork; it should barely tremble under the lid. Chef's tip: marinate the pork the evening before, always in the fridge, and cook it the next morning in its marinade.

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40 min

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Agnolotti del plinSmall pinched meat pasta parcels

In the Langhe and Monferrato hills of Piedmont, agnolotti del plin are the Sunday and feast-day pasta, made from whatever roast was left from the day before and pinched shut with a quick twist of the fingers (plin means pinch in dialect). Each parcel is barely a mouthful of thin egg pasta around a savoury filling of roast veal, pork shoulder and beef with a little cabbage, egg and parmigiano, so this is a pork dish as well as a veal one. In the trattorie of Alba they arrive either glossed with butter and sage or simply dressed in the reduced roasting juices, sometimes with no plate at all, served in a napkin. They want nothing alongside except a green salad afterwards. Chef's tip: keep the filling quite firm and the blobs small, no bigger than a hazelnut, or the pasta will not seal tightly around them.

270 min

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AguachilePrawns in lime and chilli water

Along the Sinaloa coast, from Mazatlán to Culiacán, aguachile is the cold plate that starts a long seafood lunch at the beachside palapas, eaten straight from a stone molcajete with tostadas and a cold drink. The classic version is raw prawns cured only in lime, and that raw version is the risky one: lime juice does not kill bacteria or parasites the way heat does. This safer version poaches the prawns for a minute or two until just pink and opaque, chills them and then dresses them, so you keep the snap and the fierce, grassy chilli heat. Even so, treat any cold seafood dish with care: the raw classic is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Serve with crisp corn tostadas and slices of avocado. Chef's tip: blend the chilli water with ice-cold water and pour it on at the last minute, so it stays vivid green and the prawns stay crisp.

30 min

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AguajinaAguaje palm fruit drink

Aguaje is the scaly, chestnut-red fruit of the moriche palm that grows in the flooded forests around Iquitos, and its orange flesh ends up in ice lollies, ice cream and, above all, aguajina, the cold drink sold in plastic cups at every corner and in Belén market. The taste is unusual and loved locally: tangy, a little like apricot and carrot, with a rich, slightly oily body. Fresh aguaje must be softened in warm water for an hour before its thin layer of pulp can be scraped off; outside Peru, frozen aguaje pulp from Latin American shops is the realistic choice and gives a good result. A common slip is adding all the sugar before tasting: the pulp's sourness varies from pack to pack, so sweeten at the end. Serve very cold with lunch or on a hot afternoon. Chef's tip: blend the pulp with only part of the water first, so it breaks down fully, then stir in the rest.

15 min

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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

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Bacalao al ajoarrieroSalt cod with garlic and pepper

The muleteers who carried goods over the mountain roads into Pamplona, the arrieros, lived on salt cod because it kept for weeks, and the garlicky way they cooked it took their name. Today ajoarriero is ordered in the bars around Pamplona's Plaza del Castillo, especially during San Fermín, and served in small earthenware dishes with bread. The Navarrese version is red with peppers, tomato and dried choricero pepper, and many cooks stir in egg at the end. Chef's tip: taste the cod after soaking and only salt the dish at the very end, if at all.

55 min

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Akçaabat köftesiGarlicky beef meatballs

The town of Akçaabat, just west of Trabzon, is lined with köfte houses whose grills turn out small, oblong, firm meatballs that taste strongly of garlic. Made from beef mince bound with soaked stale bread, they are seared fast so the outside chars while the inside stays juicy, then served with grilled peppers, a pile of onion and parsley, and a white bean salad. Common mistake: overworking the meat with wet hands after the bread has gone in, which turns them dense; knead hard before adding bread, then mix gently. Cook until the centre reaches 71 °C. Chef's tip: rest the shaped köfte in the fridge overnight; they hold their shape on the grill and the garlic mellows into the meat.

37 min

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Albaloo poloSour cherry rice with meatballs

In early summer the markets of Tehran fill with dark sour cherries, and many families cook a pot of albaloo polo the same week, also bringing it out for weddings and Yalda night because the red-and-gold rice looks so festive. The cherries are simmered into a glossy syrup, then layered through basmati with marble-sized lamb meatballs (some cooks use shredded chicken instead), and the whole pot is steamed until the rice turns pink and fragrant. The taste is sweet, sharp and savoury at once. A common mistake is pouring in all the syrup; it makes the rice soggy, so keep some back to drizzle at the table. Chef's tip: frozen or jarred pitted sour cherries in light syrup work well out of season; drain them and use half the sugar.

95 min

Persian Chicken

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AlboroníaAubergine, pumpkin and pepper stew

Alboronía is one of the oldest dishes in Andalusia; its name comes from the Arabic of al-Andalus, and cooks in Córdoba, Jaén and the villages of the Sierra Morena still make it in late summer, when aubergines, peppers and the first pumpkins share the market stalls. The vegetables cook down slowly with cumin, paprika and a little vinegar until they melt together into something between a stew and a jam-like sauté. Eat it warm with bread, or cold the next day as a tapa. A common mistake is stirring the pumpkin too often, which mashes it into the sauce instead of leaving soft chunks. Chef's tip: let the pumpkin go in only after the onion and peppers are soft, so it holds a few pieces among the purée instead of disappearing.

75 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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Alcachofas a la montillanaArtichokes braised in wine with mint

Montilla, south of Córdoba, makes a pale, dry wine from sun-dried Pedro Ximénez grapes, and in late winter and spring its kitchens braise young artichokes in it with a little saffron and fresh mint. Many cooks add cubes of cured ham; this version leaves it out and lets the artichokes, wine and mint carry the dish. It uses wine; the alcohol-free option is in the ingredient list. Serve it as a starter, or as a main with bread and a fried egg. A common mistake is trimming the artichokes without dropping them straight into lemon water, so they turn black before they reach the pan. Chef's tip: drop each trimmed artichoke straight into lemon water, because cut artichokes blacken within a minute in the air.

65 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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Alcatra da TerceiraBeef pot roast in wine

Alcatra is the feast dish of Terceira, cooked for the Holy Spirit festivals of spring and summer in unglazed clay pots that go into the bread oven after the loaves come out. Big pieces of beef braise for hours in wine with onions, bacon, allspice and bay, until the meat falls apart and the sauce turns dark and spiced. It is served with slices of massa sovada to soak up every drop. This contains pork (streaky bacon) and uses red wine; for an alcohol-free version, use the same amount of beef stock with 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Chef's tip: crush the allspice just before using; whole berries give the sauce its warm, clove-like scent.

260 min

Portuguese Meat

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AlevropitaCrisp batter pie with feta

Shepherd families in the stone villages of Zagori, north of Ioannina, made alevropita when there was no time to roll pastry: a runny flour batter poured over sizzling oil in a very hot tin, dotted with feta and baked until crisp and lacy at the edges. It's now on every taverna table in Epirus, cut into rough squares and eaten warm with a bowl of thick yoghurt or a tomato salad. Feta is usually made with animal rennet; use a vegetarian feta-style cheese if you need to. Common mistake: pouring the batter into a cold tin — the oil must be smoking-hot, or the pie turns heavy instead of crunchy. Chef's tip: use a wide, shallow metal tray so the batter is only about 5 mm deep.

30 min

Greek Snacks & Starters

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Alfajor cordobésJam sandwich cakes with sugar glaze

Córdoba's version of the alfajor is the soft one: two tender, slightly spongy honey-scented rounds sandwiched with fruit jam, usually quince or mixed fruit, and coated in a thin sugar glaze that dries to a crackly white shell. They are sold by the dozen in the sierras towns of Villa General Belgrano, La Falda and Capilla del Monte, where tourists buy boxes on the way home from holidays. Expect a gentle crunch, a cakey bite and a tart-sweet centre, best with a cup of coffee or mate. Overworking the dough is where they usually go wrong: knead it like bread and the rounds bake tough and flat, so mix only until it comes together. Quince paste (dulce de membrillo) loosened with water works well if you can't find a soft quince jam. Chef's tip: dry the glazed alfajores for 5 minutes in a barely warm oven; the glaze sets glassy and crackles when you bite.

70 min

Argentinian Baking

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Alfajor santafesinoPastry discs with dulce de leche

Santa Fe's alfajor is a different animal from the soft cornflour kind sold everywhere else: three wafer-thin, crackly discs of yolk-rich pastry, stacked with dulce de leche, then dipped in a cooked sugar glaze that sets hard, white and shiny. Bakeries in Santa Fe city and along the Paraná river ship them all over the country in boxes, and travellers bring them home as the regional present. Bite through and the glaze shatters, the pastry flakes and the dulce de leche holds it all together. Thick pastry is the mistake that ruins the texture; it has to be rolled until you can almost see the worktop through it, or the alfajor turns bready. Some old recipes add a splash of cane spirit to the dough; this version uses only water and is alcohol-free. Use a thick, pastry-chef's dulce de leche (repostero) so it doesn't ooze. Chef's tip: bake the discs in batches and keep the rest of the dough covered; it dries out fast and then cracks when rolled.

120 min

Argentinian Baking

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Alheira com ovo e batata fritaGarlic sausage with egg and chips

Mirandela, on the Tua river in Trás-os-Montes, is the home of alheira, a garlicky smoked sausage of bread and poultry, said to have been invented by Jewish families who needed something that looked like pork sausage. Today most alheiras contain pork, so this dish contains pork; look for the rare poultry-only kind if you avoid it. In every northern café it comes the same way: roasted until the skin crackles, with a fried egg, chips and sautéed greens. A common mistake is frying the alheira over a high heat, so the skin bursts and burns before the inside is hot. Chef's tip: prick the skin a few times and roast it in the oven rather than frying, so it stays whole and crisp.

45 min

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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

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AligotCheesy garlic mashed potato

High on the Aubrac plateau, where Aveyron, Cantal and Lozère meet, aligot was once the meal monks gave to pilgrims on the road to Santiago. Today it is beaten in huge copper pans at village fêtes and buron farm restaurants around Laguiole, then lifted high on a wooden spoon in long, glossy ribbons before it is served beside sausages or, for a vegetarian table, a big green salad and roasted mushrooms. It is a mash of floury potato, butter, cream and garlic, worked with young tomme fraîche until it stretches like mozzarella. Tomme fraîche is made with animal rennet; a mix of vegetarian mozzarella and a vegetarian mild cheddar gives a similar stretch. Chef's tip: keep beating in a figure of eight once the cheese goes in; the stretch only comes with steady work.

50 min

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KrautkrapfenBraised sauerkraut dough rolls

Krautkrapfen come from the Allgäu and the Swabian Alb, where farm cooks rolled noodle dough paper-thin, spread it with sauerkraut and fried onion, rolled it up like a strudel and sliced it into snails. The slices are packed upright in a buttered pan, fried until the bottoms crisp, then half-covered in stock and braised until the dough is tender. They are a Friday or winter supper with a green salad. A common mistake is pouring in too much stock: it should come only a third of the way up, or the crisp base turns soggy. Chef's tip: let the dough rest a full 30 minutes; relaxed dough rolls out thin without shrinking back.

80 min

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AllioliGarlic and olive oil sauce

True Catalan allioli is just garlic, salt and oil, all ('garlic') i oli ('and oil'), worked slowly in a mortar until it becomes a stiff, pale emulsion with a fierce bite. Families serve it with grilled lamb, rice dishes, boiled potatoes and snails, and making it by hand is a small point of pride. It takes patience and steady arms, but no egg is needed. Chef's tip: if it splits, start a new paste with one crushed clove and a few drops of water, then work the broken sauce back in a spoonful at a time.

20 min

Spanish Chutneys & Dips

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Almejas á mariñeiraClams in garlic and white wine

Carril, a fishing village on the Arousa estuary, is famous across Spain for its clams, and Galician bars serve them á mariñeira in small clay dishes with bread for the sauce. They are cooked with onion, garlic and a little paprika, and the sauce is lightly thickened with flour and loosened with white wine. This recipe contains alcohol (white wine); for an alcohol-free version, use fish stock with a squeeze of lemon. Throw away any clams with cracked shells, and any open ones that don't close when tapped, before cooking. A common mistake is overcooking: clams toughen once they open, so take them off the heat as soon as most are open. Chef's tip: soak the clams in salted water in the fridge for an hour so they spit out their sand.

30 min

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Almejas chocolatasBaked clams with garlic cheese

Loreto, on the Gulf of California side of Baja, is famous for its almejas chocolatas: large clams named for their glossy brown shells, sold by local divers and cooked at seafood stands along the bay. One popular way is to open them, top the meat with butter, garlic, chilli and melting cheese, and bake them until bubbling. Chocolate clams are rarely found elsewhere, so use the largest hard-shell clams you can buy, such as quahogs or cherrystones. Serve them hot as a starter with lime and cold drinks. Chef's tip: chop the clam meat before returning it to the shell, so every bite gets butter and cheese instead of one chewy mouthful.

60 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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Almogrote gomeroGoat cheese and red pepper spread

On La Gomera, the small, steep island west of Tenerife, almogrote is the sharp, punchy paste you find spread on toast in every bar in San Sebastián and Valle Gran Rey, often with a glass of the island's wine. It was a thrifty way to use up hard, aged goat's cheese: grated, pounded with garlic, hot red pepper and a little tomato, and bound with olive oil. The result is salty, spicy and pungent. Traditional Gomeran cheese is made with animal rennet; use a vegetarian aged goat's or hard cheese if that matters to you. Chef's tip: grate the cheese very finely first, so it pounds smooth instead of staying gritty.

15 min

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AlmojábanasGlazed choux rings

In Aragonese bakeries, almojábanas are the rings stacked by the till at Easter and for local fiestas: rings of choux-like dough that puff up hollow and airy in the oven and are then brushed with a white sugar glaze that cracks as you bite. The name comes from Arabic, and versions are found from Teruel to the Ribagorza, some flavoured with lemon and others with anise. They are best the day they are made, with a coffee or a glass of cold milk. A common mistake is opening the oven early: choux collapses if the steam escapes before the shells have set. Chef's tip: beat the eggs in one at a time and stop when the paste falls from the spoon in a thick, glossy V; you may not need the last egg.

55 min

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Colombian almojábanasCheese bread rolls

Few Bogotá breakfasts beat a warm almojábana torn open next to a cup of hot chocolate. Bakeries across Cundinamarca and Boyacá, and especially roadside stops near Chía and Sopó, bake these pale, puffy rolls from fresh cuajada and fine corn meal, so they are springy, moist and salty-sweet inside with a thin, lightly browned crust. They are gluten free by nature. Cuajada is curd set with rennet, usually animal-derived; use vegetarian curd or ricotta drained very well. Too much corn meal is the mistake most people make: the almojábanas come out dry and heavy. The dough should feel soft and slightly tacky. Chef's tip: they are best within an hour of baking; reheat leftovers briefly in a hot oven, never the microwave, which makes them rubbery.

45 min

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AmbrosiaSweet milk and egg curds

Found in glass jars at farm-shop counters in Minas Gerais and on the dessert tables of gaúcho family lunches, ambrosia is an old Portuguese-rooted sweet that turns milk, eggs and sugar into soft, golden curds bathed in a caramel-coloured syrup. The eggs are poured into the sweet milk and then left to set and simmer for an hour with clove and cinnamon, so the curds form large and tender rather than scrambled. Cold from the fridge it is creamy, eggy and fragrant, rather like a rustic crème caramel broken into pieces. Serve small bowls with a slice of fresh cheese or nothing at all. Where most people go wrong is stirring as soon as the eggs go in; that breaks the curd into grainy crumbs, so wait until it has set before moving it gently. Chef's tip: a squeeze of lemon juice into the milk before the eggs helps the curds form quickly and keeps them in large, tender clouds.

90 min

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Amêijoas à Bulhão PatoClams with garlic and coriander

A Lisbon seafood beer hall wouldn't be one without a steaming bowl of these on every other table, with bread for the juices that pool in the bottom. The dish is named after the nineteenth-century poet Raimundo Bulhão Pato, a keen cook and hunter who is said to have loved it. It is only clams, olive oil, a lot of garlic, fresh coriander and lemon, so the shellfish must be lively and well cleaned. Many cooks add a splash of white wine, which contains alcohol; water or a little extra lemon juice works fine. Chef's tip: add the coriander at the very end, off the heat, so it stays bright and fragrant.

20 min

Portuguese Fish

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Amendoim cozidoBoiled peanuts

Steaming paper bags of boiled peanuts are sold in São João squares from Campina Grande to the interior of São Paulo, and families cook pots of them at home when the fresh peanut harvest comes in around June. Boiled in the shell in well-salted water, the peanuts turn soft, juicy and almost bean-like, with a savoury, slightly sweet taste quite different from roasted peanuts. You crack them open with your fingers and slurp the salty water out with the nut. You need raw peanuts in the shell, either fresh (green) or dried; roasted ones never soften. Under-salting is the beginner's slip: the shell blocks a lot of salt, so the water should taste like the sea. Chef's tip: let the peanuts sit in their cooking water for 30 minutes off the heat before draining, so the salt soaks through to the nut.

60 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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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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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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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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AnchiCorn semolina pudding with peaches

Sold in plastic cups from coolers at Salta's Mercado San Miguel and on village plazas at the end of a hot afternoon, anchi is a thin, sweet pudding of fine maize semolina cooked with water, sugar and plenty of lemon. It sets only softly, so it is half eaten and half drunk, cold and refreshing, often with slices of poached peach or a few rehydrated orejones (dried peaches) on top, and sometimes a dusting of cinnamon. There's no milk or egg in it, which is what keeps it light. Too much semolina is the easy error: anchi should pour slowly from the spoon when cold, not slice like polenta, so stick to the ratio and remember it thickens as it cools. Fine maize semolina is the Salta choice; fine wheat semolina works too. Chef's tip: add the lemon juice off the heat at the end; boiled lemon loses its fresh sharpness.

25 min

Argentinian Desserts

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AnguSoft cornmeal mush

Angu is to a mineiro kitchen what bread is elsewhere: a pot of fine yellow fubá cooked with water into a smooth, soft mush, traditionally without salt, to sit under saucy dishes. In Minas Gerais and Rio it is spooned beside frango com quiabo, braised greens, mushroom ragouts and anything with a gravy, and the old roadside restaurants bring it in clay bowls. Plain angu tastes clean and gently sweet of corn, which is why it suits strongly seasoned food. The classic mistake is pouring dry cornmeal into boiling water, which creates lumps that never cook out; start it in cold water instead. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and give it the full 20 minutes even when it looks thick already; raw cornmeal tastes gritty and bitter, while cooked angu is silky and comes away from the sides of the pan.

30 min

Brazilian Sides

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