Featured recipe

Gu lou yuk (Cantonese sweet and sour pork)

Ask a Hong Kong family what they order at a dai pai dong for the children, and gu lou yuk is near the top: nuggets of pork shoulder fried twice until shatteringly crisp, then tossed at the last moment with pineapple, green and red pepper and onion in a shiny, tangy, scarlet sauce. Cantonese cooks in Guangzhou and Hong Kong have made it for well over a century, and it is a fixture of wedding banquets and takeaway menus worldwide. Eat it fresh with steamed rice while the coating still crunches. A common pitfall is simmering the pork in the sauce, which turns the crust soggy within a minute; thicken the sauce first, then toss for a few seconds only. Chef's tip: the second, hotter fry is what makes it crisp, so don't skip it.

What to eat today?

Around the world

Today's trip: Paraguayan

A new country every day, from every cuisine on the site.

Paraguayan

Chipa

Cheese bread rings 50 minMore from Paraguayan (27) →

This week's collection

Kid-friendly dinners537 recipes · a new collection every Monday

New this week

See all new →

Latest recipes

Perde pilavıChicken pilaf in pastry dome

At weddings in Siirt, perde pilavı is carried out whole and cut open at the table: a dome of buttery pastry 'curtain' (perde) hiding rice cooked with shredded chicken, toasted almonds, currants and black pepper. Each part carries a wish for the couple: the rice for plenty, the almonds for children, the pastry for a home that holds together. It makes a spectacular centrepiece for any celebration. Common mistake: a wet filling; the base of the pastry turns soggy, so cook the rice until just dry. Chef's tip: scatter almonds over the buttered tin before the pastry goes in; they become a jewelled top when you turn it out.

135 min

Turkish Chicken

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Perdiz al modo de AlcántaraStuffed partridge braised in port

This is the famous dish of the monastery of San Benito at Alcántara, near the Portuguese border. The story goes that French troops looted the library in 1807, and its recipe for partridges stuffed with liver and truffle, marinated for days in port, ended up in French cookbooks, which is why Escoffier listed it. Today it is a dish for autumn hunting-season dinners in Extremadura. Our home version uses chicken livers, mushrooms and an overnight marinade. The dish uses port; for an alcohol-free version, use red grape juice with 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar. Chef's tip: a few slices of black truffle in the stuffing make it truly special, but well-browned mushrooms are a fine everyday substitute.

110 min

Spanish Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Perdiz de escabechePickled partridge

Partridge shooting season fills the cork-oak plains of the Alentejo with hunters in autumn and winter, and escabeche was how their families kept the birds: browned in olive oil, then cooked slowly in vinegar with onion, garlic, bay and peppercorns, and left in the cool larder for days. Today it is made in the fridge and served cold or at room temperature as a starter, with bread and a green salad. A common mistake is serving it straight away; it needs at least a day for the sour, garlicky flavour to soak in. Chef's tip: use good olive oil, since it sets around the birds and is served as part of the dish.

90 min

Portuguese Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

PerrunillasCinnamon and lemon lard cookies

Perrunillas are the cookies of Extremaduran grandmothers, baked in village ovens for Christmas, weddings and the days after the matanza, when fresh lard was plentiful. They are thick, pale and so short they crumble the moment you bite, with a crackly sugar top, and they are eaten with coffee or a glass of milk in the afternoon. This contains pork (pork lard), so they are not vegetarian. Chef's tip: beat the lard and sugar for a good few minutes until very pale and fluffy; that air is what makes them light.

38 min

Spanish Baking

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pescaíto fritoMixed fried fish

On the beaches of Pedregalejo and El Palo in Málaga, chiringuito cooks shake small fish in flour and fry them by the basketful: whole fresh anchovies (boquerones), rings of squid, strips of dogfish and little red mullet, served piled on paper with lemon. The secret is a coarse frying flour, partly durum semolina, and very clean, hot oil, so each piece comes out crisp and dry. Eat it at once, at the table, with a cold drink and a salad. Chef's tip: shake off every bit of loose flour in a sieve before frying; excess flour burns and makes the oil dark and bitter.

50 min

Spanish Fish

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pesque de quinuaCreamy quinoa with cheese

Up on the Altiplano around Lake Titicaca, where quinoa grows at almost 4,000 metres, pesque is everyday food: quinoa cooked until it collapses, then beaten with milk, a knob of butter and crumbled fresh cheese until it looks like a loose, savoury risotto. Puno families eat it for a warming lunch or supper, often with a glass of milk poured over or a fried egg on top, and in the cold dry air it is exactly what the body wants. It is soft, nutty and mildly salty. The step people skip is rinsing the quinoa, and the natural saponins then leave a soapy, bitter edge; rub it under running water until the foam stops. Serve with a tomato salad or a spoon of uchucuta for some heat. Andean fresh cheese is usually set with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian fresh cheese if needed. Chef's tip: cook the quinoa in a little more water than usual and leave it a few minutes longer than for a salad, so it turns creamy and the grains burst.

35 min

Peruvian Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

PestiñosAnise fritters in honey

When Holy Week and Christmas come round, convent turnstiles and village kitchens from Cádiz to Granada fill trays with pestiños: little folded parcels of dough flavoured with sesame, anise and orange, fried until crisp and blistered and then dipped in honey. The dough traditionally takes a splash of white wine, which makes it bubble and crunch; orange juice works too, and is the alcohol-free option in the list. A common mistake is frying them in oil that is too hot, which browns the outside before the folds of dough cook through and crisp. Chef's tip: roll the dough really thin; thick pestiños stay doughy in the middle and soak up oil.

70 min

Spanish Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Petits farcis niçoisStuffed vegetables with rice and herbs

From June to September the traiteurs around the cours Saleya market in Nice sell trays of petits farcis: round courgettes, tomatoes and onions hollowed out, refilled and baked until wrinkled and caramelised at the edges. Niçois families often use up leftover daube in the stuffing; this meatless version, common on Fridays and at summer picnics, uses rice, herbs, the vegetables' own flesh and Parmesan. Parmesan is made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian hard cheese if that matters to you. They are as good at room temperature the next day as hot from the oven. Chef's tip: choose vegetables of a similar size, so they all finish cooking at the same moment.

90 min

French Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Petits pâtés de PézenasSweet spiced lamb pies

Pézenas, the old Languedoc town of Molière, is famous for these little pies shaped like cotton reels, sold warm from its bakeries all winter and especially around Christmas. Local legend links them to the Indian cooks of Lord Clive, who stayed nearby in 1768, which would explain the unexpected sweet-savoury filling of minced lamb, brown sugar and lemon zest. They have a crisp, sturdy hot-water crust and a juicy, gently sweet centre with a hint of spice. Eat them warm as a starter, with a green salad, or as a mid-morning snack the way Piscénois do. Chef's tip: shape the pastry while it is still warm and supple; once it cools it cracks instead of folding.

90 min

French Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Peynir helvasıCheese and semolina halva

Around Çanakkale and the Dardanelles, peynir helvası is a soft, oven-browned halva made with fresh unsalted cheese, semolina, butter and sugar, sold warm in clay dishes at the market cafés. The top caramelises in spots, the inside stays creamy and stretchy, and the flavour sits somewhere between cheesecake and halva. Eat it warm on its own or with a glass of tea after a fish lunch. Chef's tip: use a mild, fresh, unsalted cheese and squeeze it well; salty or wet cheese gives a sour, runny halva.

50 min

Turkish Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

PfeffernüsseHoney spice biscuits

Pfeffernüsse are small domed biscuits baked in German homes through Advent, especially in the north and in Saxony, and sold in bags at Christmas markets everywhere. They are made with honey and a warm spice mix, and in old recipes the 'pepper' in the name meant exotic spices in general, though a pinch of real black pepper adds a lovely bite. A thin white glaze sets crisp over a chewy centre. The mistake many people make is eating them straight away; they are hard at first and need a few days in a tin with a slice of apple to soften. Chef's tip: warm the honey only until runny, never boiling, or the biscuits turn tough.

35 min

German Baking

by KrazyBadal 0 views

PfefferpotthastPeppery beef and onion stew

Pfefferpotthast is one of the oldest dishes of Westphalia, written about in Dortmund as far back as the 14th century and still cooked in the Münsterland and the Ruhr for big family meals. Beef is stewed with almost as much onion as meat, plenty of black pepper, cloves and bay, then thickened with breadcrumbs and sharpened with lemon and capers. Pickled gherkins and boiled potatoes go alongside. Chef's tip: grind the pepper coarsely and add half at the start and half at the end, so you get both deep warmth and a fresh bite.

130 min

German Curries

by KrazyBadal 0 views

PfitzaufEgg-batter puffs with apple sauce

Pfitzauf is a Swabian Sunday-afternoon treat: a thin egg and milk batter poured into a heavy clay or tin mould with deep cups, which rises in the oven like a soufflé and 'pfitzt auf', pops up, far above the rim. Grandmothers on the Swabian Alb served it hot with apple sauce or vanilla sauce, sometimes with stewed cherries. A muffin tin or popover tin works too. The classic mistake is opening the oven during baking: the puffs collapse and never come back. Chef's tip: get the buttered tin really hot in the oven before pouring in the batter; the shock of heat is what makes them climb.

45 min

German Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pica-pauBeef in garlic mustard sauce

Pica-pau means woodpecker, and that is how you eat it: a crowd round a shared dish in a Lisbon cervejaria, pecking cubes of beef out of the sauce with toothpicks and dunking bread into the rest. The beef is seared quickly, then bathed in garlic, butter, mustard and a splash of white wine, and finished with tangy pickled vegetables. The wine contains alcohol; use stock with a teaspoon of vinegar instead. A common mistake is putting in all the meat at once: it stews grey instead of browning. Chef's tip: cut the beef into small, even 2 cm cubes so every piece browns fast and stays tender.

25 min

Portuguese Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Picadas veracruzanasMasa cakes with salsa

Breakfast in the port of Veracruz and in Xalapa often starts with picadas at a market fonda or a café by the harbour: palm-sized rounds of fresh masa, cooked on the comal, then pinched all around while hot (picar means to pinch) to make little ridges that catch the salsa. Half are spooned with red salsa and half with green, then scattered with onion and crumbled cheese, and eaten with black coffee. Cooks there drizzle them with hot pork lard; this recipe uses a little oil instead. Chef's tip: wet your fingertips in cold water before pinching, so you can work the hot masa without burning yourself.

35 min

Mexican Breakfast & Brunch

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Picadinho cariocaDiced beef stew with rice

Diced small and simmered in a glossy tomato gravy, picadinho is the plate Rio de Janeiro orders at lunch counters and old bars in Centro, and the one cariocas cook at home when they want comfort. The tender cubes of beef come with white rice, a fried egg with a runny yolk, farofa and slices of banana, and every forkful mixes a bit of everything: savoury, sweet, crisp and soft. The everyday mistake is crowding the pan, so the beef boils grey instead of browning; fry it in batches. Cook the eggs until the whites are fully set; if you are serving pregnant women, young children or older people, cook the yolks firm too. Chef's tip: cut the beef into 1.5 cm cubes; any larger and it is a stew, any smaller and it dries out.

65 min

Brazilian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Picante de polloChicken in red chilli sauce

High up in Jujuy, picante de pollo is the dish cooks make for weddings, patronal feast days and Carnival in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, and the small comedores near the markets of San Salvador serve it every Sunday. Chicken pieces are first poached, then finished in a vivid red sauce of ají colorado (ground dried red chilli), lots of onion, tomato and garlic, thickened with the broth; on the plate it goes with white rice, boiled Andean potatoes and often a scattering of crunchy fried potato sticks (papas fritas en bastón) or chopped tomato and onion. It is warming rather than fiery, with a deep earthy chilli flavour. The chicken must reach 74 °C at the bone. Burning the ground chilli is the usual mistake: add it to the pan off the heat or over a gentle flame, or it turns bitter in seconds. Chef's tip: let the stew sit for 15 minutes before serving; the chicken absorbs the red sauce and the colour deepens.

70 min

Argentinian Chicken

by KrazyBadal 0 views

PickertFried yeasted potato loaf with raisins

Pickert is the bread of Lippe and the Teutoburg Forest in eastern Westphalia, made where wheat was scarce and potatoes plentiful: grated raw potato, flour, eggs and yeast baked into a dense, moist loaf, studded with raisins. Locals slice it the next day and fry the slices in butter until crisp, then eat them for breakfast or supper with plum butter, sugar beet syrup, jam or, for meat eaters, liver sausage. This vegetarian version serves it with jam and syrup. A common mistake is not squeezing the potatoes, which leaves the loaf soggy in the middle. Chef's tip: bake it a day ahead; cold Pickert slices cleanly and fries far better than warm.

90 min

German Breads & Parathas

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pideli köfteGrilled meatballs on flatbread

Bursa, the city that gave the world İskender, has its own everyday answer for those who don't want doner: pideli köfte, served in workers' lokantas around the Ulu Cami. Small grilled köfte are laid over cubes of soft pide, drenched in a thin tomato sauce, then finished at the table with browned butter poured over so it hisses, with thick yoghurt on the side. It is rich, messy and very satisfying. Chef's tip: warm the pide in the oven before adding the sauce, so it soaks up the juices but keeps some chew.

50 min

Turkish Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pimenta da terraFermented red pepper paste

On São Miguel, nearly every kitchen has a jar of pimenta da terra, crushed red peppers salted and left to ferment for a few days until they turn tangy and deep red. It goes into stews, octopus, beans and sausages, onto grilled fish and into sandwiches of bolo lêvedo. It can be mild or fiery depending on the peppers. Make it in late summer when red peppers are cheap. Chef's tip: weigh the salt; too little lets the wrong bacteria take over, while the right amount keeps it safe and lets it ferment slowly.

40 min

Portuguese Chutneys & Dips

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pinhão cozidoBoiled pine nuts

When frost settles on the highlands of Paraná and Santa Catarina, every street fair and roadside stall in Curitiba, Lages and São Joaquim sells paper cones of hot pinhão. These are the seeds of the Araucaria pine, big as a thumb, with a leathery brown shell and a starchy, sweet centre that tastes somewhere between chestnut and boiled potato. Families boil a pot after supper and peel them around the wood stove, and the pinhão is also the star of the Festa do Pinhão in Lages each June. The season runs roughly April to July; outside the south, look for vacuum-packed or frozen pinhão in Brazilian shops, and if you cannot find any, fresh chestnuts cooked the same way are the closest stand-in. The common mistake is pulling them out too early: underdone pinhão is waxy, hard to peel and slightly bitter. Chef's tip: snip the pointed tip off each seed before boiling and the shell slips off in one piece once cooked.

60 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pionono de dulce de lecheDulce de leche sponge roll

Pionono is the flat, springy sponge sheet that Argentine supermarkets sell ready-made for party rolls; at home it takes 10 minutes to bake and makes a far lighter roll. The sweet version, filled with dulce de leche and softly whipped cream, is a birthday and Sunday-tea classic in Buenos Aires and Córdoba, cut into spirals that show off the swirl. Savoury piononos rolled around ham, cheese, tomato and mayonnaise are just as common at parties; this one is the sweet, vegetarian kind. The sponge is a fatless, egg-rich batter that relies on air, so whisk the eggs until they hold a trail for several seconds. Most cracked rolls come from letting the sponge cool flat before rolling. Chef's tip: turn the hot sponge out onto a clean tea towel dusted with sugar, peel off the paper and roll it up in the towel while warm, then unroll to fill once cool; it remembers the shape and doesn't split.

40 min

Argentinian Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Piononos de Santa FeSponge rolls with toasted cream

The pionono was invented in Santa Fe, on the plain outside Granada, in the late nineteenth century by a local pastry maker who named it after Pope Pius IX, Pío Nono in Spanish. The town still sells them by the dozen from its bakeries, and granadinos carry boxes home for Sunday coffee. Each one is a little standing roll of thin sponge soaked in cinnamon syrup, filled with custard and capped with a dome of custard burnt under a hot iron or torch. Chef's tip: roll the sponge while it is still warm and pliable; once cool it cracks instead of curling.

75 min

Spanish Desserts

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Piperies Florinis gemistesFeta-stuffed roasted peppers

Every autumn the long crimson peppers of Florina, near the borders of north-west Macedonia, are roasted over wood in courtyards and either jarred for winter or stuffed and eaten straight away. Here they are charred, peeled and filled with soft feta beaten with herbs and a little chilli, then baked until the cheese just begins to melt. They're a meze for the ouzeri table, with bread for the juices, or a light supper with a salad. Feta is traditionally made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian feta-style cheese if that matters. Common mistake: tearing the peppers while peeling — let them steam under a lid first and the skins slip right off. Chef's tip: keep the stalks on; they hold the peppers together and make them easy to lift.

55 min

Greek Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

PiperradaPeppers and tomato with eggs

Piperrada belongs to late summer on both sides of the Pyrenees, when the market stalls of Bayonne, Gernika and Pamplona are piled with green and red peppers. The vegetables are stewed slowly in olive oil until sweet and jammy, and in many Basque homes beaten eggs are stirred in at the end for a light supper. It is often served with cured ham alongside; this version is vegetarian. A common mistake is rushing the peppers over a high heat: they should collapse slowly, or the dish tastes raw and sharp. Chef's tip: take the pan off the heat while the eggs still look slightly wet, because they keep cooking on the way to the table.

55 min

Spanish Vegetarian

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pipirrana jaeneraTomato pepper salad with egg yolk

Olive pickers in the province of Jaén used to carry the makings of pipirrana into the groves, and in the city it is still the salad people set out on a hot July evening, with bread for the juices. What sets the Jaén version apart is the dressing: garlic, salt and boiled egg yolk are pounded together, then loosened with the province's own peppery oil until it turns creamy. Some cooks add tinned tuna; this one stays vegetarian. The usual mistake is chopping the vegetables in large chunks; everything should be cut small enough to fit a fork. Chef's tip: peel the tomatoes before dicing, so the dressing clings to soft flesh instead of slipping off tough skin.

30 min

Spanish Salads

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pipoca doceCaramelised popcorn

Pink, sticky and crunchy, sweet popcorn is the smell of a São João fairground and of the pipoqueiro carts outside schools and squares all year. The popcorn pops directly in a sugar syrup, so every kernel gets a thin, glassy, crackly shell; a few drops of red colouring turn it the classic festival pink. It takes about 10 minutes, so it is a favourite to make with kids watching from a safe distance. Use a plant-based red colouring if you want it vegan, as some red colourings are made from insects. Many cooks add too much colouring or sugar, which makes a sticky clump that never goes crisp. Chef's tip: shake the pan constantly once the popping slows, then tip it out immediately onto a tray and separate the kernels with two forks while still hot.

12 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Showing 27 of 7,762 recipes

Show more recipes

Page 544 of 863