Featured recipe

Bezar

Spice blend

Every Emirati kitchen keeps a jar of bezar, and many families in Dubai and Al Ain still roast and grind their own each winter to last the year. It is the warm, earthy backbone of machboos, saloona, harees and grilled fish, built mainly on coriander and cumin with fennel, a little chilli heat, cinnamon and plenty of turmeric for colour. Toasting the whole spices first gives it a deeper, nuttier taste than any ready-mixed powder. The common slip is toasting everything together on a high heat, so the small seeds burn while the coriander is still raw. Chef's tip: stir the turmeric and ground ginger in after grinding, never into the hot pan, or they turn bitter.

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MixiotesChilli lamb steamed in parchment

Mixiotes belong to the high plains of Hidalgo and Tlaxcala, where they are a Sunday and fiesta dish sold from steaming pots at weekly markets. Chunks of lamb (or chicken) are soaked in a dark, aromatic paste of guajillo and ancho chillies with garlic, cumin and cloves, wrapped in parcels and steamed until the meat collapses into its own rich red juices. The traditional wrapper is mixiote, the thin skin peeled from maguey leaves, which is now protected and hard to buy, so this recipe uses baking parchment tied with string. The lamb marinates in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight. Open the parcels at the table and serve with corn tortillas, salsa verde and avocado. Chef's tip: twist and tie the parcels tightly so no steam gets in; a sealed parcel keeps the sauce thick and concentrated.

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Despite its name, which nods to North Africa, moghrabieh is thoroughly Lebanese: big, chewy pearls of hand-rolled semolina cooked with chicken, baby onions and chickpeas in a broth scented with caraway and cinnamon. Families in Beirut and the mountains make it for Sunday lunch and especially on Christmas Eve in some villages. The pearls are served in a mound with the chicken and onions on top and a jug of broth to moisten each plate. Common mistake: boiling the pearls in the broth from the start; they turn gluey, so parboil them in water first. Chef's tip: toss the drained pearls in a little butter and caraway before mixing them with the onions — they stay separate and glossy.

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MohnnudelnPotato noodles with poppy seeds

The Waldviertel, the cool, forested uplands of Lower Austria, is poppy country: in July its fields bloom white, pink and violet, and the grey poppy seed grown there has a protected name. Mohnnudeln are its favourite sweet dish, served as a main meal on meatless days or as dessert. Soft potato dough is rolled into little tapered noodles, boiled, then tossed in foaming butter with a generous amount of freshly ground poppy seed and icing sugar, so they taste nutty, buttery and gently sweet. A common mistake is using whole or stale poppy seeds; whole seeds give no flavour and old ground ones taste bitter. Chef's tip: grind the poppy seed yourself in a spice grinder just before using, in short bursts so it doesn't turn to paste.

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Of Oaxaca's seven moles, mole negro is the one brought out for weddings, christenings and the Day of the Dead, when families cook it in huge clay pots and send guests home with containers of it. Its near-black colour comes from chillies toasted very dark and from seeds and tortilla charred on purpose, balanced by fried plantain, raisins, sesame and a little Mexican chocolate, so the sauce tastes smoky, bittersweet and deeply savoury rather than sweet. The true base is the Oaxacan chilhuacle negro, which is hard to find outside the region; this version uses a practical mix of pasilla, mulato, ancho and guajillo, which gets very close. Serve it over the poached chicken with white rice and warm corn tortillas. Oaxacan cooks often fry the sauce in pork lard; vegetable oil works just as well and keeps the dish pork-free. Chef's tip: make the sauce a day ahead; like most moles it rounds out and deepens overnight in the fridge.

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