Featured recipe

Daegu-sal juk (cod and vegetable baby porridge)

In Korea, homemade baby food (iyusik) follows clear stages, and by the late stage around nine months, Seoul parents are making juk with roughly crushed rice and small pieces of fish and vegetables. Daegu-sal juk uses mild, flaky cod with sweet courgette (aehobak) and carrot, and no soy sauce, salt or sesame oil. It is creamy, delicate and soft enough to mash between the gums. It contains fish and is free of milk, egg, gluten, nuts, soya and sesame. Chef's tip: crush the soaked rice lightly with a rolling pin or a couple of pulses in a blender; broken grains thicken the juk faster and give exactly the soft lumps this stage needs.

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Latest recipes

Torshi litehAubergine and herb pickle

Torshi liteh is the dark, spoonable pickle of late summer, made in kitchens from Tabriz to Tehran when aubergines pile up cheaply at the bazaar. Roasted aubergine is chopped fine with garlic, a heap of dried herbs, nigella and golpar (Persian hogweed) and loosened with vinegar, then left for a couple of weeks until the flavours knit. It goes alongside rice and stews, inside a sandwich of bread and cheese, or next to kuku. Chef's tip: squeeze the cooked aubergine hard in a cloth; water left in it dilutes the vinegar and shortens the life of the jar.

90 min

Persian Chutneys & Dips

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Torshi makhlootMixed vegetable pickle

In October, families all over Iran buy cauliflower, carrots, celery and peppers by the sack and spend a weekend chopping for torshi makhloot, the mixed pickle that sits on the sofreh through the winter. The vegetables stay crunchy, stained gold by turmeric, and the vinegar is scented with garlic, nigella, golpar and dried herbs. A small bowl comes out with every rice dish, from Tehran chelow kabab to a weeknight adas polo. Chef's tip: cut every vegetable to roughly the size of a hazelnut so each spoonful carries a little of everything.

65 min

Persian Chutneys & Dips

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Torta BalcarceSponge cake with dulce de leche

Mar del Plata's beachgoers and the people of Balcarce, a farm town an hour inland in Buenos Aires Province, both claim this cake, which was created in a Balcarce confitería in the 1950s and became famous when holidaymakers carried it home in boxes. Two layers of sponge sandwich a filling of dulce de leche, cream and crumbled crunchy meringue with walnuts, chestnuts or almonds and coconut, and the outside is covered in more cream and toasted coconut. It is soft, crunchy and very sweet, a celebration cake for Sundays and birthdays. Some bakers soak the sponge with a liqueur syrup; this version uses a vanilla syrup, so it is alcohol-free. The common error is mixing the meringue into the cream too early: it dissolves and the filling turns runny, so fold it in at the last minute. Chef's tip: bake the meringues the day before and keep them in an airtight tin; dry, crisp meringue is what gives the cake its crunch.

180 min

Argentinian Desserts

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Tattie sconesPotato griddle scones

Tattie scones are thin triangles of mashed potato and flour cooked on a dry girdle, part of a full Scottish breakfast and sold in packs in every Glasgow bakery. They are soft, slightly chewy and speckled brown, and are best fried in butter and eaten with eggs or rolled round a filling. Chef's tip: use the potato while warm; cold mash needs more flour and makes them heavy.

35 min

British Breakfast & Brunch

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Gallina pintaBeef, pinto bean and hominy stew

Despite the name, there is no hen in gallina pinta: the 'speckled hen' of Sonora is a hearty soup of beef, pinto beans and hominy, the speckles being the beans among the white corn. It is cold-weather food across the state, ladled out at family gatherings and in Hermosillo diners, and every cook uses bony cuts such as oxtail or beef shank so the broth turns rich and silky. The beans need soaking overnight, so start the day before. Serve it in deep bowls with chopped onion, oregano, lime and a dried red chilli crumbled over, plus warm flour tortillas. Chef's tip: add the hominy only in the last half hour, so the kernels stay plump and chewy rather than splitting.

230 min

Mexican Soups

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Hornazo de SalamancaPork, chorizo and egg pie

Salamanca's students and families picnic by the river Tormes on Lunes de Aguas, the Monday after Easter Monday, and the hornazo is what they unwrap: a golden pie with a bread-like crust, packed with layers of marinated pork loin, chorizo, cured ham and hard-boiled egg. It is eaten cold, in thick slices, and bakeries sell it all through spring. This contains pork (loin, chorizo and ham). The dough traditionally includes white wine; use water with a little lemon juice to keep it alcohol-free. Chef's tip: fry the loin slices first so they are cooked through before they go into the pie.

100 min

Spanish Meat

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Horta vrastaBoiled greens with lemon and oil

In Greek villages women still go out with a knife and a bag after the first autumn rains to gather horta: dandelion, wild chicory, amaranth, mustard greens. Boiled and dressed with the best olive oil and lemon, they are served warm or cool with almost every meal, from fried fish in a seaside taverna to a fasting-day plate of beans. The taste is pleasantly bitter and grassy. Common mistake: boiling them to khaki; cook only until the stems are tender and the leaves still deep green. Chef's tip: salt the cooking water generously like pasta water and dress the greens while warm, so they drink up the oil and lemon.

25 min

Greek Sides

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Plátanos fritos con cremaFried plantain with cream

Tabasco grows more plantain than almost anywhere in Mexico, and in Villahermosa homes fried ripe plantain arrives with breakfast eggs, alongside rice and black beans at lunch, or on its own as a sweet-savoury supper. The local touch is to finish the hot, caramelised slices with a spoon of tangy crema and a snow of crumbled fresh cheese, so you get sweet, salty and sour in one bite. Chef's tip: wait until the skins are almost black; yellow plantains taste starchy and never caramelise.

17 min

Mexican Sides

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GalinhadaChicken and turmeric rice

Sunday lunches, church festas and roadside restaurants in Goiás all revolve around a big pot of galinhada: chicken browned with garlic and onion, then cooked with rice in its own stock until each grain is golden from açafrão-da-terra. In Brazil that word means turmeric, not true saffron, and it is turmeric that gives the dish its colour. Goianos add pequi, the cerrado fruit with a heady, cheesy-tropical scent; you can buy it in jars in Brazilian shops, but warn your guests: the stone is covered in fine spines under the flesh, so nibble gently and never bite into it. It comes out moist, fragrant and comforting, finished with plenty of cheiro-verde. The common mistake is adding too much water, which makes it mushy; the rice should be loose, like a paella that has just settled. Chef's tip: brown the chicken until it leaves a dark crust in the pot, then let the rice dissolve it.

70 min

Brazilian Chicken

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HöşmerimCheese and semolina halva

Höşmerim is a winter dessert of the Erzurum plateau and the Bolu highlands, made from unsalted fresh cheese melted with butter and semolina until it turns golden and gives off its own butter, then soaked with syrup. It's eaten warm in small bowls, chewy and rich, topped with crushed walnuts or pistachios, often after a long cold day. Common mistake: using salty or aged cheese, which turns oily and bitter; you need a soft, unsalted fresh cheese such as lor or ricotta. Chef's tip: keep cooking until the fat starts seeping out at the edges and the mixture is the colour of light toffee; that's where the flavour comes from.

30 min

Turkish Desserts

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Confit de canard, pommes sarladaisesDuck confit with garlic potatoes

Every farmhouse in the Périgord and Gascony once lined its larder with stoneware jars of confit, duck legs salted, cooked slowly in their own fat and sealed under it to last the winter. Today it is the order of the day at Sarlat's Saturday market restaurants, served with pommes sarladaises: potato slices fried in that same duck fat until golden, then tossed with garlic and parsley. The skin should crackle and the meat should fall from the bone in soft, savoury shreds. The legs are cured for 12–24 hours in the fridge before cooking, so start the day before; a sharp green salad with walnut oil is all it needs alongside. Chef's tip: add the garlic and parsley to the potatoes only in the last two minutes, so the garlic stays sweet instead of turning bitter.

240 min

French Meat

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Conejo en salmorejoMarinated rabbit with garlic and peppers

Nothing to do with the cold tomato soup of Córdoba: in the Canaries salmorejo is a punchy marinade of garlic, red pepper, paprika, thyme, oregano, vinegar and wine, and rabbit cooked in it is the star of Tenerife's hillside guachinches and Sunday family lunches. The rabbit soaks overnight, then is fried and simmered in the marinade until tender, and served with papas arrugadas to mop up the sauce. The marinade uses white wine; for an alcohol-free version, swap it for water with an extra spoon of vinegar. Chef's tip: dry the rabbit pieces well before frying, so they brown properly rather than stew grey in the marinade.

75 min

Spanish Meat

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ChanfanaGoat braised in red wine

Chanfana belongs to the hill towns south of Coimbra, Miranda do Corvo and Lousã above all, where older goats were once cooked for village feasts in black clay pots sealed and left overnight in the bread oven. The meat braises in red wine with garlic, paprika, bay and cloves until it falls apart in a dark, rich sauce. It is a weekend and festival dish, served with boiled potatoes. The dish is cooked in red wine and not all of the alcohol cooks off; for an alcohol-free version use the substitute in the ingredient note. Chef's tip: marinate it for a full day; the long soak both flavours and tenderises the goat.

240 min

Portuguese Meat

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Galinha ao molho pardoChicken in dark blood sauce

Country cooking from the state of Rio and southern Minas Gerais, galinha ao molho pardo (also called galinha de cabidela) is cooked at weekend gatherings with a free-range hen, and served with angu, white rice and okra. The chicken is braised with onion, garlic, tomato and herbs, then the sauce is finished with the bird's blood mixed with vinegar, which turns it dark brown, velvety and savoury, with a gentle sourness. It tastes richer and deeper than an ordinary stew. Buy fresh chicken blood from a licensed poultry butcher or halal butcher, ask for it mixed with vinegar so it does not clot, keep it in the fridge and use it within 24 hours. The usual mistake is boiling the sauce hard after the blood goes in, which makes it grainy; stir it at a gentle simmer instead. The blood must be cooked right through. Chef's tip: temper the blood with a ladle of hot sauce before adding it to the pot.

90 min

Brazilian Chicken

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Torta de bolachaNo-bake biscuit and custard cake

Gaúcho birthday tables almost always carry a torta de bolacha, the fridge cake that grandmothers in Porto Alegre and the Serra Gaúcha towns put together the night before. Plain Maria biscuits are dipped in sweet milk and stacked with two stovetop creams, one pale vanilla custard and one chocolate, until the biscuits soften into something close to sponge. It is cool, soft and very sweet, and slices best after a night in the fridge; serve it with coffee or as the birthday cake itself, with candles on top. It contains egg yolks and wheat biscuits. Most failures come from soaking the biscuits too long: they should be dipped for a second, not left to swim, or the layers collapse into mush. Chef's tip: let both creams cool until just warm before layering, so they stay thick enough to hold the next row of biscuits.

40 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Chalupas poblanasFried tortillas with salsa

On Sunday evenings in the old centre of Puebla, around the Barrio de San Francisco and the Paseo Bravo, stalls fry stacks of small, thin tortillas in shallow oil and paint them half red and half green with salsa. These are chalupas poblanas, sold by the half dozen on paper plates and eaten in a few bites. The Puebla version is usually topped with shredded pork; ours keeps the salsas, onion and cheese, which are the real flavour, and adds a few beans. The edges should be crisp, the middle still a little soft from the salsa. Cheese like queso fresco is often made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian fresh cheese if you prefer. Chef's tip: spoon the salsa on while the tortilla is still in the pan so it sizzles and soaks in.

25 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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Htapodi me kofto makaronakiOctopus and pasta in tomato

During Lent and on fasting days, coastal families in Crete and the islands turn to octopus, which the church counts as fasting food. In this one-pot dish it is first stewed in its own juices until tender, then simmered in tomato with cinnamon and allspice, and finally the little cut pasta tubes cook right in the sauce, soaking up the deep red, faintly sweet liquid. It is served hot with a squeeze of lemon and a green salad. Common mistake: salting the octopus at the start, which tightens it; season only once it is tender. Chef's tip: buy frozen octopus or freeze fresh for a day; freezing breaks down the tough fibres and saves you the traditional beating on the rocks.

110 min

Greek Fish

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Htapodi sti skaraCharcoal-grilled octopus

Octopus tentacles hanging to dry on a line outside a harbour taverna are a summer sight across the Greek islands, and they end up on the grill as one of the great ouzo mezedes, though they are just as good with a cold lemonade. Simmering first makes the octopus tender; the grill adds smoky, crisp tips. It is also a favourite Lenten dish, since shellfish and octopus are allowed on fasting days. Common mistake: grilling raw octopus straight away, which leaves it rubbery. Chef's tip: cook it in its own juices without added water; it gives off plenty of liquid and stays more flavourful.

90 min

Greek Fish

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TascalateToasted corn and cacao drink

Tascalate is the drink of the Chiapas central valley, sold in Chiapa de Corzo and Tuxtla in tall glasses at markets and given to guests at fiestas. A powder of toasted tortillas, cacao, pine nuts, sugar, cinnamon and a little achiote is whisked into cold water or milk, so it is orange-brown, thick and nutty with a sweet chocolate finish. The powder keeps for weeks, so make a jar. Made with water it is vegan. Chef's tip: toast the tortillas until they snap cleanly; any softness leaves the powder clumpy.

22 min

Mexican Drinks

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Huachinango a la veracruzanaRed snapper in tomato sauce

In the port of Veracruz, fish a la veracruzana shows the city's centuries of trade with Spain: red snapper baked in a sauce of tomato, onion and garlic with green olives, capers, bay and herbs, sharpened with pickled yellow chillies. It is served at seafront restaurants on Sundays and is a favourite on Christmas Eve, when many families eat fish. The sauce is tangy, briny and gently hot, and the fish stays moist under it. Serve it with plain white rice to soak up the sauce. Chef's tip: cook the sauce down until thick before the fish goes in; the fish releases juices as it bakes and will thin it out.

65 min

Mexican Fish

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HuatiaEarth-baked potatoes

After the potato harvest in May and June, families in Puno, Cusco and across the highlands build a huatia in the field: a little dome of dry earth clods heated with dried brush until the clods glow, then knocked down over freshly dug potatoes and oca so they bake slowly underground. Opened an hour later, the potatoes are smoky, floury and so soft their skins split, and the oca turns sweet and tangy. Everyone eats them with their hands, with salt, chilli sauce and fresh cheese. This recipe gives an oven method for home cooks: a lidded pot bedded with coarse salt and herbs, which traps heat and steam much like the earth. If you do try a real huatia outdoors, use a clear patch of ground away from anything that can catch fire and keep water nearby. Don't uncover the pot early to check: the steam escapes and the potatoes turn leathery. Fresh oca is sold in some markets as New Zealand yam; small sweet potatoes will do. Chef's tip: choose potatoes of a similar size so they all finish together, and serve with uchucuta.

80 min

Peruvian Sides

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Sakızlı muhallebiMastic milk pudding

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.

25 min

Turkish Desserts

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Tas kebabıBraised beef with rice

Despite the name, tas kebabı never sees a grill: it is a bowl ('tas') of beef braised slowly with lots of onion, tomato and a little pepper paste until the meat is soft and the sauce is rich and glossy. It is a mainstay of esnaf lokantası, the tradesmen's restaurants where workers eat a hot lunch from steam trays, and is served over buttery rice pilaf or alongside mashed potato. Common mistake: crowding the pan when browning, so the beef boils grey. Chef's tip: cook the onions down until jammy before the tomato goes in; they melt into the sauce and give it body without any flour.

125 min

Turkish Meat

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Huevos a la flamencaBaked eggs with chorizo and peas

This contains pork (chorizo and serrano ham). Seville has served huevos a la flamenca since at least the nineteenth century, and its old taverns still bring it to the table in individual clay dishes: eggs baked on a tomato sofrito, ringed with peas, asparagus tips, slices of chorizo and ham and strips of red pepper, as colourful as a flamenco dress. It makes a fine lunch with crusty bread. Chef's tip: warm the dishes with the sofrito before adding the eggs, so the whites set quickly from below while the yolks stay soft.

45 min

Spanish Breakfast & Brunch

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Reshteh poloRice with toasted noodles and dates

On the last evening before Nowruz, and on the first night of the new year in many Tehran households, a platter of reshteh polo is set out so the family can 'take hold of the reins' of their luck for the year ahead; the noodles are the reins. Long-grain rice is par-boiled with toasted reshteh (thin, salty Persian noodles), layered with buttery dates, raisins and cinnamon and steamed until each grain separates, with a golden tahdig crust underneath. Meat is often served alongside, but the polo itself is meat-free. A common mistake is skipping the noodle toasting, which leaves them pale and gummy. Chef's tip: wrap the lid in a clean tea towel while the rice steams so condensation doesn't drip back and make the rice wet.

140 min

Persian Rice & Grains

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Galeto al primo cantoRoast spring chicken

Caxias do Sul's galeterias serve galeto as an all-you-can-eat feast: young chicken, so small it is called al primo canto, at its first crow, marinated overnight in white wine, garlic, sage and rosemary, then roasted over embers and brought to the table with crisp fried polenta, pasta and salad. The habit came with the Italian immigrants of the Serra Gaúcha, and the meat is tender, juicy and fragrant with herbs. The marinade uses dry white wine; part of the alcohol cooks off during roasting but not all, so for an alcohol-free galeto use the same amount of chicken stock with 2 tbsp white wine vinegar. Marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge. Many cooks baste with the raw marinade right to the end; stop 10 minutes before the chicken is done so no raw juices reach the plate. Chef's tip: set the polenta the day before so it slices cleanly and fries crisp.

100 min

Brazilian Chicken

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Galayet bandoraStewed tomatoes with garlic and chilli

Ask anyone in Amman what they cook when the fridge is nearly empty and the answer is often galayet bandora: ripe tomatoes collapsed in a shallow pan with olive oil, garlic and hot green chilli until they turn jammy and sweet. It turns up at breakfast, as a quick supper, and over a camp fire on desert trips to Wadi Rum, always eaten straight from the pan with torn khubz or shrak. Some families add cubes of lamb; this meatless version is the one most homes make every week. The usual mistake is stirring too much and adding water, which gives you a thin sauce instead of glossy, slightly caramelised tomatoes. Chef's tip: let the tomatoes sit untouched for the first few minutes so their undersides catch and colour; that touch of browning is where the flavour comes from.

30 min

Jordanian Vegetarian

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GalatopitaMilk and semolina custard pie

Galatopita is the pie that Epirus shepherds' wives baked when the ewes were in full milk in spring, and you still find it in bakeries in Ioannina and Metsovo, cut into wobbly golden squares. Milk, eggs and semolina are cooked to a thick cream, poured into a buttered tin and baked until the top browns and puffs like a soufflé, then settles into a soft, set custard. Eat it warm or chilled with a dusting of cinnamon. Common mistake: baking at too high a heat, which cracks and weeps the custard — keep it moderate. Chef's tip: a single sheet of filo in the base makes it easier to lift out, but the old village version needs none.

70 min

Greek Desserts

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Conejo a la aragonesaRabbit braised with garlic and wine

Rabbit has always been the everyday meat of rural Aragon, and in the farmhouses of the Somontano and the Cinco Villas it is braised slowly in a clay pot with lots of garlic, thyme and rosemary from the hillside, and a glass of the local white wine. The result is lean, tender meat in a small amount of rich, garlicky sauce, served with fried potatoes or bread. The wine can be replaced with chicken stock and a spoonful of vinegar if you prefer no alcohol. A common mistake is boiling the rabbit hard; the lean meat tightens and goes stringy, so keep it at the gentlest simmer. Chef's tip: mash a few of the soft braised garlic cloves into the sauce at the end; they thicken it and make it sweeter.

90 min

Spanish Meat

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WelshCheddar beer toast with ham

Brought over the Channel by British soldiers and miners, the welsh rarebit became a fixture of the estaminets of Lille and the Nord, where it is served in its own oval dish: toast soaked in beer, a slice of ham, then a flood of Cheddar melted with more beer and mustard, baked until bubbling and often topped with a fried egg. It is rich, sharp and very filling, with chips and a green salad the usual partners. It contains pork in the form of cooked ham, and uses beer; the notes give an alcohol-free swap. Chef's tip: use a strong, mature Cheddar, because a mild one melts flat and loses all its bite once the beer goes in.

30 min

French Fast Food

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Colombo de pouletChicken curry with aubergine and chayote

In Guadeloupe and Martinique, colombo is the curry brought by Tamil workers in the nineteenth century and now a fixture of Sunday lunches, christenings and Carnival feasts. Its spice blend, also called colombo, mixes toasted coriander, cumin, fenugreek, mustard seed and turmeric with a little toasted rice that thickens the sauce. Chicken is marinated in lime and garlic in the fridge, then simmered with aubergine, chayote (christophine) or courgette and potato into a golden, earthy, gently tangy stew, with a whole Scotch bonnet for perfume. Serve with white rice and a wedge of lime. Chef's tip: leave the Scotch bonnet whole and lift it out at the end for flavour without fierce heat; prick it only if you want it hot.

90 min

French Curries

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Pochas a la navarraFresh white beans with vegetables

Pochas are white beans picked in late summer before they dry, when the pods have gone soft and yellowish, and in Navarre September means bowls of them in every village from Sangüesa to the Ribera. Because they are fresh they need no soaking and cook in about 40 minutes into something creamy, sweet and gentle. Many homes add chorizo or quail; this version keeps to the vegetables and is vegan. Pickled guindilla chillies on the side are the usual partner. Chef's tip: if you can't find fresh pochas, frozen ones are sold in Spanish shops and are very good.

60 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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Scottish tabletButter fudge

Tablet is harder and grainier than fudge, a sugary square sold at every church fête, Highland games and corner shop in Scotland and taken home in paper bags by visitors. Sugar, butter, milk and condensed milk are boiled to the soft-ball stage and beaten until they crystallise, giving that crumbly, melting snap. Chef's tip: beat it hard off the heat until it loses its gloss and drags on the spoon; stop too early and you have soft fudge.

35 min

British Desserts

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Gaisburger MarschBeef stew with potatoes and spätzle

Gaisburger Marsch is named after Gaisburg, a district of Stuttgart, and the story goes that officer cadets marched there from barracks for it. It is a hearty Swabian one-pot of beef broth, cubes of boiled beef, potatoes and spätzle, crowned with onions fried in butter until sweet and brown, and it is still a weekday lunch in Stuttgart pubs and canteens. Chef's tip: cook the potatoes in the strained broth rather than in water, so they soak up the beef flavour.

180 min

German Soups

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Tarte aux pralines rosesPink praline tart

Lyon's pralines are almonds coated in hard, shocking-pink sugar, and the city's bakeries melt them with cream into a sticky, vivid filling for this tart, sold by the slice in every pâtisserie from Bellecour to the Croix-Rousse. It is very sweet and nutty, with a crunch from the almonds, and is eaten in small slices with coffee. Look for pink pralines coloured with plant-based colourings; some are coloured with carmine (E120), which comes from insects. Chef's tip: crush the pralines roughly in a bag with a rolling pin, leaving some pieces the size of a lentil for crunch.

80 min

French Baking

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Tarte au sucre lilloiseBrioche sugar tart

In Lille and across the Nord, a sugar tart is not pastry at all but a flat round of soft brioche dough, dimpled and covered with brown cassonade sugar, butter and a little egg and cream, which bakes into a sticky, caramelised top over a fluffy base. Families buy it from the boulangerie for Sunday breakfast and goûter, or bake one when guests come for coffee. The Nord's own beet sugar, vergeoise, gives it a deep, almost molasses flavour; soft dark brown sugar is the closest swap. Chef's tip: press deep dimples into the risen dough with your fingertips before adding the topping; the sugar and cream collect in them and bake into little pools of caramel.

55 min

French Baking

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Huntingdon fidget pieGammon, apple and onion pie

Fidget pie is a harvest pie from Huntingdonshire and the Fens around Cambridge, baked for farm workers bringing in the crops in autumn. It is a pork dish: chunks of gammon (cured pork) are layered with sharp cooking apples and onions in a cider gravy under shortcrust, so it is salty, sweet and fruity all at once. This recipe contains alcohol from the cider; for alcohol-free use cloudy apple juice with a teaspoon of cider vinegar. Chef's tip: soak salty gammon in cold water for an hour first, or the pie can be too salty.

90 min

British Meat

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ReviroFried flour and egg scramble

For field workers in the yerba-mate plantations of Misiones, the morning starts with reviro: a simple dough of flour, egg, water and salt fried in plenty of fat and then broken up with a spatula as it cooks, until it becomes a pile of crisp, golden, irregular crumbs with soft centres. It is filling, cheap and very good dunked in a mug of mate cocido or milky coffee, and it shares its roots with the Guaraní and Paraguayan kitchen across the river. Traditionally it is fried in lard or beef fat; this version uses butter and oil so it is vegetarian. Turning it too early is the classic blunder: the batter needs to fry undisturbed until a crust forms, or it turns into a pale, doughy mash. Chef's tip: keep chopping and turning with the edge of a metal spatula for the last 10 minutes; the more edges you make, the more crunch you get.

30 min

Argentinian Breakfast & Brunch

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RevithadaClay-pot baked chickpeas

On Sifnos, Saturday night means taking a clay pot of chickpeas, onions, olive oil and bay to the village baker, who leaves it in the cooling wood oven overnight; on Sunday morning, after church, families collect it and eat it for lunch. The chickpeas turn creamy and almost melting in a thick, sweet, onion-rich broth. A home oven at low heat does the same job in about five hours. Common mistake: adding salt at the start, which can keep the chickpeas firm; add it in the last hour. Chef's tip: rub the soaked chickpeas with a little bicarbonate of soda and rinse well; it helps them soften to that silky texture.

315 min

Greek Vegetarian

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Tarta de SantiagoFlourless almond cake

Pilgrims finishing the Camino in Santiago de Compostela see this cake in every bakery window around the cathedral, dusted white with icing sugar and stencilled with the cross of St James. It is made only from ground almonds, sugar, eggs and a little lemon and cinnamon, so it is naturally free of gluten, moist and dense with a thin crisp crust. Galicians eat it with coffee after Sunday lunch or at weddings. A common mistake is overbeating the eggs to a foam, which makes the cake rise and then sink; just mix until smooth. Chef's tip: cut a cross from paper and lay it on the cold cake before sifting over the icing sugar.

55 min

Spanish Baking

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Tarta de chocloSweetcorn tart

Ask any Argentine rotisería for a slice of tarta and choclo will be next to the chard and the ham-and-cheese. This is the creamy one: sweetcorn kernels folded into a thick white sauce with softened onion and red pepper, set with egg and cheese inside a buttery shortcrust. It is lunchbox and picnic food, eaten warm or at room temperature with a green salad, and it is a big favourite with children for its sweetness. The filling should slice cleanly but still be soft. A runny centre is the usual problem, and it comes from a thin white sauce or from forgetting to blind-bake: make the sauce thick enough to coat the spoon heavily, and part-bake the case. Mozzarella and grated hard cheese are often made with animal rennet, so buy vegetarian ones if that matters. Chef's tip: blitz a third of the corn with the white sauce; it gives a creamier, more corn-tasting filling while the whole kernels keep some bite.

80 min

Argentinian Vegetarian

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Torta de palmitoHeart of palm pie

Paulistano families bring this pie to Sunday lunch, to Easter and to every bring-a-plate party, and padarias sell it by the slice next to the coxinhas. A crumbly, buttery crust encloses a creamy filling of heart of palm with tomato, peas, green olives and parsley, set with a little cornflour so it slices cleanly but stays moist. It is good warm or cold, with a green salad or just on its own. Look for palm hearts from cultivated pupunha palms. The commonest problem is a soggy base from a filling that is too wet or too warm; cook it until thick and let it cool before it goes in. Chef's tip: bake the pie on a preheated tray on the bottom shelf, so the base gets a blast of heat and crisps before the filling can soak in.

85 min

Brazilian Baking

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Revuelto GramajoScrambled eggs with potatoes and ham

Late at night in the bodegones of Buenos Aires, when the kitchen has been busy for hours, revuelto Gramajo is what regulars order with a glass of something cold: a pile of crisp shoestring potatoes tossed in the pan with cooked ham (pork), onion, peas and eggs scrambled just until creamy. Legend credits a colonel's aide called Gramajo with inventing it, and every porteño has an opinion about how soft the eggs should be. Done right, some potato threads stay crunchy and others soak up the egg. The mistake to avoid is adding the potatoes too early, which turns them to mush; they go in at the very end, with the pan off the heat. Cook the eggs until no liquid egg remains if you are feeding anyone pregnant, very young or elderly. For a vegetarian version, leave out the ham and double the peas and onion. Chef's tip: fry the potato matchsticks twice, first pale and then golden, so they stay crisp even after meeting the eggs.

30 min

Argentinian Breakfast & Brunch

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Tarhana çorbasıFermented yoghurt and vegetable soup

Late every summer, women across Central Anatolia, from Uşak to Konya and Sivas, ferment a dough of yoghurt, flour, tomatoes, peppers and onion, dry it on cloths in the sun and rub it into crumbs. All winter that tarhana becomes a quick, warming soup with a gentle sourness and the sweetness of sun-dried pepper. It is breakfast in villages, a cure for colds in cities, and is eaten with bread and a squeeze of lemon. Common mistake: tipping dry tarhana straight into hot liquid, which forms stubborn lumps; soak it in cold water first. Chef's tip: finish with a spoon of butter sizzled with dried mint and chilli flakes drizzled over each bowl; it lifts the whole soup.

30 min

Turkish Soups

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Torta del Casar al hornoBaked sheep's cheese with garlic

Torta del Casar is made in Casar de Cáceres and the surrounding plains from raw merino sheep's milk, curdled not with animal rennet but with the dried flower of a wild thistle, so it suits many vegetarians. When ripe, the rind holds a centre so soft it is eaten with a spoon, and in Cáceres bars a whole torta comes warm from the oven with its lid cut off, surrounded by bread for dipping. It is a cheese for sharing at the start of a long dinner. Because it is made from unpasteurised milk, it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system unless heated until steaming hot all through. Chef's tip: take the cheese out of the fridge an hour ahead so it warms evenly.

20 min

Spanish Snacks & Starters

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