A light, no-cook party pudding: chopped lychees mixed with grated crystallised ginger, covered with whipped cream sweetened with icing sugar and more ginger, and decorated with mandarin segments. Fresh, cool and fragrant; chill before serving. Fresh de-seeded lychees work as well as tinned.
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Çeşme looks across the water to Chios, the island where mastic trees weep their resin, and the town's pudding shops have long used it to perfume a simple, wobbly milk pudding. The flavour is hard to describe: piney, a little floral, very fresh against cold creamy milk. It is the dessert to order after a long fish lunch in Alaçatı. Chef's tip: grind the mastic with a teaspoon of sugar in a mortar; on its own it gums up into sticky lumps.
Every Portuguese child seems to have helped make one: crushed Maria-style tea biscuits folded through rich chocolate, rolled into a log, chilled and dusted with icing sugar until each slice looks like salami. It turns up at birthday parties, in café display cases around Lisbon and on Christmas dessert tables. The traditional mix uses raw eggs; this version leaves them out and sets with melted chocolate and butter instead, so there is nothing raw in it. A splash of port is often added, which contains alcohol; leave it out or use milk. A common mistake is crushing the biscuits to crumbs; leave some larger pieces, or the slices lose their marbled look. Chef's tip: break the biscuits by hand into pieces the size of a fingernail; crumbs turn it into fudge and you lose the salami look.
Mezze restaurants along the Lebanese coast serve salatet el raheb as the fresh, chunky cousin of baba ghanoush: the aubergine is charred until smoky, then chopped rather than puréed and tossed with tomato, peppers, spring onion, parsley and a sharp dressing of lemon and pomegranate molasses. There is no tahini, so it is light and summery and sits well next to grilled halloumi or kebabs. Common mistake: leaving the aubergine juices in; drain the flesh in a sieve or the salad turns watery. Chef's tip: char the aubergines directly over a gas flame or on a barbecue rather than in the oven — the smoky flavour is the soul of the dish.
In spring, Palestinian families pick young za'atar (wild hyssop-thyme) from the hills of the West Bank and the Galilee, and the tender leaves are tossed raw with onion, lemon and the year's new olive oil. The salad is sharp, piney and peppery, eaten as part of breakfast with labneh, olives and warm taboon bread, or beside grilled meat. If you can't find fresh za'atar, a mix of fresh oregano, thyme and a little marjoram comes close. Common mistake: chopping the leaves; keep them whole so they stay perky and don't turn dark. Chef's tip: rub the sliced onion with sumac and salt for 5 minutes first; it softens its bite and turns it a pretty pink.
Late at night outside the bars and football stadiums of Bogotá and Medellín, carts and fast-food counters sell salchipapa by the plastic tray: hot chips topped with fried slices of hot dog sausage, drowned in salsa rosada (ketchup mixed with mayonnaise), mustard and grated cheese, sometimes with a squirt of pineapple sauce. Kids love it, and it's an easy Friday-night dinner at home: salty, crisp and soft at once, with the sweet-tangy pink sauce tying everything together. The way it goes wrong is soggy fries; double frying keeps them crisp under all that sauce. Chef's tip: slice the sausages on the diagonal and fry them until they curl and blister at the edges; the crisp bits make the dish.
The Sally Lunn is a huge, airy, enriched bun from the Georgian city of Bath, where an old house by the Abbey still serves it split and toasted, sweet with cinnamon butter or savoury with cheese. The dough is soft, with plenty of egg, butter and cream, so it bakes up light like brioche. Chef's tip: the dough is very soft; use a cake tin to hold its shape rather than shaping it freehand.
Salpicón is what Caleños grab at fruit stands and in the parks of San Antonio when the afternoon heat sets in: a tall cup of tiny, jewel-like cubes of papaya, pineapple, mango, banana and apple, swimming in freshly blended watermelon juice, eaten with a spoon and drunk to the last drop. Some stalls top it up with a fizzy orange or lemon soda; this version keeps it to fresh juice. It is sweet, cool and very refreshing. The mistake people make is cutting the fruit too big; the joy is in tiny cubes you can drink through the juice. Chef's tip: blend and strain the watermelon just before serving and keep everything ice cold; watermelon juice loses its fresh taste within an hour.
Chimichurri gets the fame, but at a Sunday asado anywhere from Buenos Aires to Salta the other bowl on the table is salsa criolla: tomato, onion and red and green pepper cut into small, even dice, dressed with vinegar, oil, oregano and salt, and left to sit until the juices pool. It is spooned over steak, chorizo and provoleta, piled into choripán, and eaten with grilled vegetables, and it brings freshness and acid to rich, smoky food. Expect crunch, a clean sour note and a mild sweetness from the peppers. Chopping it all in a food processor is the mistake: it turns watery and pulpy, so take the time to dice by hand. Some cooks use only red onion, others add spring onion or a pinch of chilli; adjust to taste. Chef's tip: dress the onion with the vinegar and salt first for 10 minutes before adding the rest; it softens the raw bite without losing the crunch.
Mar del Plata's golf club gave its name to this sauce in the 1920s, so the story goes, and Argentines have been mixing mayonnaise and ketchup ever since. It is the pink sauce of the 1970s cocktail party and the seaside: spooned into half avocados (palta a la golf), over hearts of palm, onto a cold hard-boiled egg, beside fries or into a prawn cocktail, and every family has its own ratio. A drop of lemon and a dash of mustard lift it from a simple mix to something tangy and creamy. Too much ketchup is the misstep that turns it sweet and orange; it should be a soft salmon pink. Use shop-bought mayonnaise, which is made with pasteurised egg; if you make your own, use pasteurised eggs. Check the labels of the mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard if you need it gluten free. Chef's tip: let it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes before serving; the flavours blend and it thickens slightly.
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