Featured recipe

Şalgam

Fermented purple carrot drink

Order an Adana kebab in its home city and a tall glass of şalgam arrives with it, deep purple, salty, sour and often fiery. It is made by fermenting black carrots with a little bulgur and salt for a week or more, and the sharpness clears the palate between bites of lamb and grilled onion. Street carts in Adana sell it by the glass in summer. This home version skips the separate bulgur-sour-dough stage the big producers use. Use non-iodised salt: iodised salt can stall the ferment. Chef's tip: taste from day 5; when it is sour enough to make you blink, strain and chill it, because it keeps fermenting at room temperature.

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Involtini di pesce spadaSwordfish rolls

Swordfish has been hunted in the Strait of Messina for centuries, and in early summer, when the boats with their tall lookout towers are out, the city's cooks roll thin slices around a filling of toasted breadcrumbs, pine nuts, raisins, lemon and parsley. Threaded onto skewers with bay leaves and onion, they are grilled or baked until just opaque, sweet-salty and fragrant. Serve with lemon wedges and a fennel and orange salad. Swordfish is high in mercury, so pregnant women and young children should limit how often they eat it; thin slices of tuna loin work too. Chef's tip: ask the fishmonger to slice the swordfish as thinly as possible, then pound it gently between sheets of cling film to 3 mm.

55 min

Italian Fish

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Kouneli stifadoRabbit stew with shallots and wine

Rabbit is a favourite winter Sunday dish in Crete and across the Greek countryside, and stifado is the way most cooks prepare it: jointed rabbit simmered slowly with a mountain of small whole onions in a glossy, sweet-sour sauce of tomato, red wine and vinegar, scented with cinnamon, allspice and bay. The sauce reduces until the onions are soft and jammy, and it is served with fried potatoes or rice and bread to wipe the plate. This recipe uses red wine; for an alcohol-free version use red grape juice with an extra spoon of vinegar. Common mistake: stirring once the onions go in, which breaks them up; shake the pot instead. Chef's tip: peel the shallots more easily by soaking them in boiling water for 5 minutes first.

140 min

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Zorza con patatasMarinated pork with chips and eggs

Zorza is the seasoned pork mixture for chorizo before it goes into casings, and in Galicia it was eaten fresh in the days after the winter pig slaughter, fried in a pan with potatoes. This contains pork. Today taverns in Lugo and Ourense serve it with chips and fried eggs, and it is easy to make at home with pork shoulder and lots of paprika. The meat marinates in the fridge, covered, for at least 12 hours. A common mistake is frying it over a fierce heat, which burns the paprika; keep it moderate and stir. Chef's tip: chop the pork by hand into small pieces rather than mincing it finely, for a juicier, more rustic texture.

55 min

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KourabiedesAlmond butter cookies

Snow-white kourabiedes are piled into pyramids at Greek Christmas, New Year and christenings, and in Macedonia they are handed out at weddings, so guests leave with sugar on their clothes. The crumb is short and sandy from well-whipped butter and toasted almonds, with a whisper of rose or orange-blossom water. Common mistake: dusting with icing sugar while the cookies are still hot, which melts into a paste instead of a soft coat. Chef's tip: beat the butter for a full 10 minutes until almost white; the air you whip in is what makes them melt in the mouth.

55 min

Greek Baking

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Mona de PascuaEaster brioche with egg

On Easter Monday, families across the Valencian Community head out to the countryside or the beach to "menjar-se la mona": they eat an orange-scented sweet brioche, often with a whole egg baked on top, and children crack the egg on a friend's forehead. The bun is soft and fluffy, glazed and sprinkled with sugar or coloured aniseed sprinkles. Here the eggs are hard-boiled first, so they are cooked through whatever the size of your bun. A common mistake is adding all the flour at once to a sticky dough; it softens as you knead, so hold back the last 50 g until you've kneaded for a few minutes. Chef's tip: make the starter the evening before and the dough on the day; the slow start gives a lighter crumb that stays soft for two days.

70 min

Spanish Baking

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GiouvetsiBeef and orzo clay-pot bake

Giouvetsi takes its name from the glazed clay dish it is baked in, and in Greek homes it is the Sunday lunch that gets put in the oven before church: chunks of beef braised with tomato, cinnamon and allspice, then finished with kritharaki (orzo) that soaks up every drop of the sauce. It arrives at the table bubbling, with grated cheese melting on top. This version uses wine to deglaze, which is traditional; use extra stock for an alcohol-free dish. Common mistake: adding the orzo with too little liquid, so it bakes dry and sticks; it needs about four times its weight in hot stock. Chef's tip: stir the orzo halfway through baking so the top pieces don't harden.

170 min

Greek Meat

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Girit ezmesiFeta, walnut and herb spread

Girit ezmesi takes its name from the Cretan Muslims who settled in Alaçatı and Çeşme a century ago, and it is still a fixture of every meze table in those whitewashed streets. Soft white cheese is mashed with olive oil, walnuts, garlic, plenty of herbs and a dusting of hot pepper into a rough, salty spread that begs for warm bread. Feta and beyaz peynir are often made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian one if you need to. Chef's tip: mash by hand with a fork rather than blending; it should stay textured, with visible pieces of walnut and herb.

15 min

Turkish Chutneys & Dips

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MondeghiliFried beef and mortadella meatballs

Mondeghili are the thrifty meatballs of Milan, invented to use up the beef left from a pot of bollito misto and now a fixture on the aperitivo counters of the city's bars. The cooked beef is minced with mortadella, a soft pork sausage, then bound with milk-soaked bread, egg, grana and lemon zest, flattened slightly and fried in butter until crisp and brown. They are best warm, with a squeeze of lemon, a spoonful of green sauce or simply a cold drink before dinner. Leftover roast beef or veal works just as well as boiled meat. Chef's tip: flatten each ball a little before frying; they cook through evenly and get more of that crunchy crust.

35 min

Italian Snacks & Starters

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PambazoDipped roll with potato and chorizo

Pambazos are a Mexico City street classic, sold at night from griddles outside metro stations and at the fondas that open for Lent and village fiestas. A soft, light roll is split, filled with potato fried with pork chorizo, then dipped in a garlicky red guajillo sauce and crisped on the griddle, so the outside turns deep red, slightly crunchy and a little messy. Inside go shredded lettuce, cream and crumbled cheese, with salsa verde for heat. Eat it straight off the griddle with plenty of napkins. Chef's tip: use day-old rolls; fresh, soft bread soaks up too much sauce and falls apart on the griddle.

55 min

Mexican Fast Food

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GloriasPecan and goat milk caramels

Linares, a small town in Nuevo León, is famous across Mexico for glorias: soft, chewy balls of goat's milk caramel packed with pecans, each wrapped in a twist of red cellophane. They are bought by the box at roadside sweet shops on the way to Monterrey and handed out at weddings and Christmas. Goat's milk gives them a gentle tang; a mix of goat's and cow's milk is milder. Chef's tip: the last ten minutes need constant stirring, as the caramel thickens and catches fast.

80 min

Mexican Desserts

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Tsai tou vounouMountain tea with honey and lemon

Bunches of dried sideritis, the woolly-leaved herb Greeks call mountain tea, hang in village kitchens from Mount Olympus to Taygetos, and a pot is brewed at the first sniffle of winter or after a long walk. The tea is pale gold with a gentle lemony, earthy, slightly floral taste, and it is drunk with honey, a slice of lemon and sometimes a cinnamon stick. Common mistake: brewing it like black tea with boiling water for a minute; it needs a gentle simmer to draw out flavour. Chef's tip: break the dried stems into the pot along with the flowers; the flower heads hold most of the aroma, the stems add body.

10 min

Greek Drinks

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PamonhaSteamed fresh corn parcels

Corn season in Goiás and across the Northeast means pamonharias, roadside shops where pamonha comes out of huge steaming pots all afternoon, and in June it is one of the anchors of the festa junina table. Freshly grated green corn is mixed with milk and sugar, wrapped in its own husks, tied and boiled until it sets into a soft, sweet, slightly chewy parcel that smells of fresh corn. The Goiás way is also savoury, with salt instead of most of the sugar and cubes of cheese inside; that option is in the last step. Traditional queijo minas or curd cheese is often made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian cheese made with microbial rennet. Serve hot, with coffee, or with butter melting on top. The usual mistake is using mature, starchy supermarket corn or tinned kernels: the mixture will not set properly and the flavour is flat. Chef's tip: use corn so young that a fingernail pressed into a kernel squirts milky juice, and save every intact husk for wrapping.

90 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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Mango bicheGreen mango with salt and lime

Paper and plastic cones of mango biche are sold from street carts in Cali, Barranquilla and Bogotá, especially around schools, parks and bus stops. Biche means unripe: the mango is still hard and pale green inside, so it is crunchy and mouth-puckeringly sour, and the vendor cuts it into long strips and shakes on salt, lime and black pepper, sometimes a pinch of chilli. It is a refreshing, almost savoury snack, eaten in the afternoon heat. Choosing a mango that has started to ripen is the slip that spoils it: the flesh should be firm and white-green with no yellow, or it turns soft and sweet. Look for green mangoes in Asian and Latin shops. Chef's tip: chill the mango for 30 minutes before cutting; the strips stay crisp and the salt and lime cling better.

10 min

Colombian Snacks & Starters

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Kadayıf dolmasıWalnut pancakes in syrup

In Erzurum, kadayıf means not shredded pastry but small, spongy pancakes cooked on one side only. For kadayıf dolması they're filled with walnuts, folded into half-moons, fried golden and plunged into syrup, and they are the city's pride on festival days and at weddings. The outside is crisp and syrupy, the inside soft and nutty. Common mistake: cooking the pancakes on both sides; the uncooked, bubbly top is what sticks the edges together. Chef's tip: the syrup must be cold and the dolma hot straight from the oil, so they absorb syrup without going soggy.

80 min

Turkish Desserts

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Pastel de carne murcianoMinced beef and chorizo pie

Murcia's bakeries sell pastel de carne from first thing in the morning: a round pie with a crisp, coiled puff pastry lid, filled with spiced minced meat, chorizo and hard-boiled egg. People eat one standing at the counter with coffee, or buy a big one for Sunday lunch. Bakers make the coiled lid from a long rope of pastry; at home a scored spiral on a puff pastry lid gives the same look. This contains pork (chorizo). Chef's tip: let the filling cool completely before it goes into the pastry, otherwise the base melts and turns soggy.

85 min

Spanish Meat

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TaramosalataFish roe dip

Taramosalata is the star of Clean Monday, the first day of Greek Lent, scooped onto torn lagana at picnics while children fly kites, and it stays on taverna meze tables all year. The real thing is beige-pink, not bright pink, made from salted cured carp or cod roe (tarama) beaten with soaked bread, onion, lemon and oil into a salty, briny, mousse-like dip. Because tarama is cured rather than cooked, buy pasteurised roe for a safer version; even so, this dip is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Common mistake: adding the oil too fast, which splits it. Chef's tip: use white tarama if you can find it; it is less salty and lets the lemon shine.

20 min

Greek Chutneys & Dips

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KartoffelbrotPotato bread

Kartoffelbrot was born of thrift in the potato regions of the Palatinate, Thuringia and Brandenburg, when bakers stretched scarce flour with boiled potatoes. The happy result is a loaf with a thin, crackly crust and a soft, moist, slightly sweet crumb that stays fresh for four or five days. It is a favourite for Sunday breakfast, for toast, and for sandwiches with butter and chives. A common mistake is using warm, wet mash, which makes the dough sloppy; the potatoes should be floury, mashed dry and completely cool. Chef's tip: save 100 ml of the potato cooking water and use it in the dough instead of plain water, for an even softer crumb.

185 min

German Breads & Parathas

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Northumberland pan haggertyLayered potato, onion and cheese

Pan haggerty is a frugal supper from Northumberland and the Durham pit villages, made in a single heavy frying pan from thin layers of potato, onion and grated cheese. The bottom turns crisp and brown while the top melts under the grill, and it is eaten straight from the pan with pickles. Cheddar is often made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian cheddar. Chef's tip: slice the potatoes paper-thin and dry them in a tea towel; wet slices steam instead of browning.

60 min

British Vegetarian

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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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Zapallitos rellenosStuffed round squash

Round green zapallitos, the size of a tennis ball, pile up at every verdulería in Buenos Aires from December to March, and stuffing them is how home cooks turn a cheap summer vegetable into a main course. The shells are blanched, hollowed and refilled with their own flesh fried with onion and red pepper, bound with egg and melting cheese, and topped with breadcrumbs that bake to a crunchy lid. Expect a soft, savoury, slightly creamy filling under a golden crust; serve two per person with a tomato and onion salad or white rice. Overcooking the shells in the first boil is the trap: they collapse in the oven and leak water, so they only get 4 minutes. Round courgettes, eight-ball squash or short fat courgettes all work. The cheeses are usually made with animal rennet; swap in vegetarian versions if needed. Chef's tip: squeeze the chopped flesh in a clean cloth before frying it; drier filling means a firmer, tastier stuffing.

60 min

Argentinian Vegetarian

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Gofio escaldadoToasted grain flour paste in broth

Gofio, flour ground from toasted maize or wheat, has fed the Canary Islands since before the Spanish arrived, and a bowl of escaldado is its simplest, most comforting form. Hot broth is beaten into the gofio until it turns into a soft, savoury paste flecked with mint, eaten by scooping it up on chunks of raw red onion. In fishing towns the broth is usually fish stock left from a sancocho; this version uses vegetable broth so it is vegan. Pure maize gofio is gluten free, but most blends contain wheat, so check the bag. Chef's tip: add the broth gradually while you beat, as dumping it in at once makes stubborn lumps.

25 min

Spanish Snacks & Starters

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Pan bagnatPressed tuna and anchovy sandwich

Pan bagnat, 'bathed bread' in Niçois, is the beach and market lunch of Nice, sold wrapped in paper from kiosks around the Cours Saleya and packed for picnics on the pebbles of the Promenade. A round crusty roll is soaked with fruity olive oil and filled with everything that goes into a salade niçoise: tuna, anchovies, hard-boiled egg, tomato, sweet green pepper, spring onion and black olives. Pressed for an hour, it turns juicy, compact and easy to eat in big, messy bites. Serve it on its own or with a few radishes and a glass of something cold. Chef's tip: rub the cut bread with garlic before the oil goes on; it perfumes every bite without overpowering the fish.

40 min

French Fast Food

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Tortas de VianaSponge roll with egg-yolk cream

In the pastry shops along Viana do Castelo's old streets, tortas are sold rolled and sliced, a feather-light sponge wrapped around a glossy egg-yolk cream. They turn up on festival weekends in August, when the town fills for the Romaria d'Agonia, and as an afternoon treat with coffee the rest of the year. The sponge contains only eggs, sugar and a little flour, so it bends without cracking if you roll it warm. Chef's tip: roll the sponge in sugared paper straight from the oven and let it cool in that shape, then unroll and fill.

55 min

Portuguese Baking

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Zapallo en almíbarCandied squash

Across the Argentine countryside, when the autumn squash harvest piles up, cooks turn some of it into zapallo en almíbar: cubes of firm orange squash soaked briefly in slaked lime (cal) and then simmered in syrup until they are crisp-skinned outside and tender, almost translucent inside. Farm stalls in Córdoba and Santiago del Estero sell it in jars, and it is eaten as dessert with a slice of cheese, the same idea as postre vigilante. This home version skips the lime and uses a short sugar cure instead, which still keeps the pieces whole. It is vegan as written; serve it with vegan cheese or toasted walnuts to keep it that way. The mistake to avoid is stirring: the squash breaks into purée, so shake the pan instead. Chef's tip: use a dense, dry squash such as Crown Prince or butternut neck, and cook the syrup slowly; if it boils hard the outside candies before the centre softens.

90 min

Argentinian Desserts

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Goiabada cascãoGuava paste with skins

Ponte Nova and other towns in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais are famous for this rough, dark guava paste, stirred for hours in big copper pans over wood fires until it is almost brick red and firm enough to cut with a knife. 'Cascão' means it keeps chunks of the skin, so each slice is chewy and fruity rather than smooth. It is the guava in Romeu e Julieta, the filling for countless cakes, and a sweet in its own right after lunch. A heavy stainless-steel pan works at home. The big mistake is cooking over high heat to save time; the sugar catches and turns bitter long before the paste is set, so keep the heat moderate and stir constantly near the end. The paste spits fiercely, so use a long spoon and cover your arm. Chef's tip: test it by dropping a spoonful into a glass of cold water; when it stays in one firm piece, it is ready to pour.

150 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Gojeh sabz ba namakSour green plums with salt

In late March and April, just after Nowruz, the fruit stalls of Tehran and every small town fill with hard, bright green plums, and children walk home from school with paper bags of them and a twist of salt. The unripe plums are crunchy and mouth-puckeringly sour; a dip in salt, sometimes mixed with dried mint or chilli, makes them addictive. There is nothing to cook, only good fruit to choose. A common mistake is buying plums that have already softened and turned yellow; they lose the crunch that makes this snack. Chef's tip: chill the plums for an hour and wash them in cold water just before serving so they snap when you bite.

5 min

Persian Snacks & Starters

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Veau aux olivesVeal stew with green olives

In the villages of Corsica's mountainous interior, veau aux olives is the dish of Sunday lunch and of family gatherings on saints' days, made with the island's free-roaming veal. The meat is browned, then stewed slowly with tomato, garlic, rosemary and plenty of green olives, giving a rich, savoury sauce with a pleasant salty-bitter edge from the olives. Corsicans often add a little panzetta (cured pork belly), which is optional here; with it, the dish contains pork. White wine is used too, and the ingredient note gives an alcohol-free version. Serve with soft polenta, ideally the island's chestnut-flour pulenda, or with fresh pasta. Chef's tip: blanch the olives for two minutes before adding them, so their brine doesn't oversalt the sauce.

145 min

French Meat

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ManiçobaManioc leaf and smoked pork stew

Black-green, smoky and rich, maniçoba is the dish Belém cooks for the Círio de Nazaré in October, when families gather after the great procession, and it is sold all year at the Ver-o-Peso market. Its base is maniva, ground manioc leaves, which contain natural cyanide and must be cooked for days before they are safe; in Pará cooks simmer it for up to a week. Never use raw or home-ground manioc leaves for this dish. Buy only ready-cooked ground maniva (sold frozen in Brazilian shops and labelled pre-cooked), and follow the pack's further cooking time if it is longer than ours. The leaves are then simmered for hours with the cuts of a feijoada: salted pork ribs, smoked bacon, smoked pork sausage, beef jerky and pig's trotter, until the meat falls apart into a thick, smoky, faintly bitter stew. Serve it with white rice, farinha d'água and pimenta-de-cheiro. Plan ahead: the salted meats need soaking overnight. The usual mistake is adding the meat too early, so it disintegrates. Chef's tip: maniçoba tastes even better reheated the next day.

460 min

Brazilian Meat

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Gol gav zabanBorage flower tea

Gol gav zaban is the calming tea Iranians make on stressful evenings or when a cold is coming on, sold in bags of dried purple flowers by herbalists in the old bazaars of Tehran and Tabriz. Steeped in hot water it turns a dusky blue-brown, then flashes pink the moment lime juice goes in, which children love to watch. It is sipped with a stick of saffron nabat (rock sugar), sometimes with a few dried limes or a pinch of valerian. Persian borage contains small amounts of natural compounds that can strain the liver, so drink it only now and then, and avoid it if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or have liver problems. Chef's tip: steep below boiling and keep the pot covered so the gentle aroma doesn't escape.

10 min

Persian Drinks

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Pan con chicharrónCrisp pork sandwich

Sunday mornings in Lima mean a queue at the neighbourhood sanguchería or a stop at Barranco's old cafés for this: a crusty pan francés roll stuffed with chicharrón, pork that has been simmered in salted water until the water evaporates and then fried in its own fat, layered with slices of fried sweet potato and a crown of salsa criolla. The pork is crisp at the edges, juicy inside, the sweet potato sweet and soft, the onion sharp and cold. It comes with coffee or a hot drink. The usual mistake is frying the pork in extra oil from the start; the water has to boil off first so the meat renders and fries in its own fat, otherwise it stays pale and tough. Chef's tip: use pork belly mixed with shoulder for the right balance of crackle and meat.

120 min

Peruvian Breakfast & Brunch

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Pastel de ChavesMinced veal puff pastry pies

In the spa town of Chaves near the Spanish border, these crescent-shaped pasties are sold warm from bakeries all day and eaten for breakfast, lunch or with a coffee on the old Roman bridge. Many crisp, buttery layers enclose a savoury filling of minced veal. Chaves bakers use their own protected dough; at home, good all-butter puff pastry gets very close. A common mistake is a warm filling; it melts the butter in the pastry, so cool the meat completely before shaping. Chef's tip: cook the filling and let it cool completely before filling, or it melts the butter in the pastry and the layers will not rise.

65 min

Portuguese Snacks & Starters

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TlatlapasBean, fava and pea soup

In the villages of Tlaxcala, tlatlapas is the Lenten and rainy-season soup: dried beans, fava and peas are toasted on a comal, ground to a coarse flour and simmered into a thick, earthy purée seasoned with dried chilli, epazote and strips of cactus. It is a peasant dish with pre-Hispanic roots, cheap, filling and full of protein, eaten with corn tortillas and a squeeze of lime. Using split beans keeps the cooking under an hour. Chef's tip: toast the pulses until golden and nutty, not dark; burnt ones turn the whole pot bitter.

55 min

Mexican Soups

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Manjar de cocoCoconut blancmange with prune syrup

Sunday lunch at a grandmother's in Rio, Minas or Pernambuco often ends with a manjar, a snowy ring of coconut blancmange turned out of its mould and drowned in glossy, nearly black prune syrup. It is smooth and cool, with a soft wobble, the mild sweet coconut cream set off by the deep, winey taste of the prunes. The dessert is set with cornflour alone, so it is gluten free, and it has to be made at least 4 hours ahead. Under-cooking the cornflour is what usually goes wrong: the manjar tastes chalky and breaks when turned out. Chef's tip: wet the mould with cold water instead of greasing it, then shake out the drops; the manjar slides out cleanly with a coconut taste unspoilt by oil.

30 min

Brazilian Desserts

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KreatotourtaLamb, cheese and mint pie

In Chania and the villages of western Crete, kreatotourta is baked on Easter Saturday so it is ready for the Sunday feast: a tall pie of tender lamb pieces layered with soft fresh cheese and mint, sealed in a crisp olive-oil pastry. It is cut into wedges and eaten warm or at room temperature, and leftovers vanish over the following days. The traditional cheeses are fresh mizithra and some graviera. Common mistake: putting raw lamb in the pie, which leaves the pastry burnt before the meat is tender; simmer the lamb first. Chef's tip: save a ladle of the lamb's cooking liquid and pour it through the steam hole halfway through baking so the filling stays juicy.

195 min

Greek Meat

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ZarangolloCourgette and onion with egg

Ask for a tapa in almost any bar in Murcia city and zarangollo will be on the counter in a clay dish, scooped onto bread or eaten with a fork. It comes from the huerta, the irrigated market gardens around the city, where courgettes pile up all summer: they are sliced thin with onion, stewed gently in olive oil until sweet and almost jammy, and then bound with beaten egg. Some families add a little potato, but courgette and onion are the heart of it. Chef's tip: slice the courgettes into thin half-moons so they melt quickly and evenly.

30 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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Nürnberger RostbratwürsteSmall marjoram pork sausages

Nuremberg's little pork sausages are barely longer than a finger, grilled over beechwood in the old town's sausage kitchens and sold three at a time in a crusty roll, 'Drei im Weggla', at the Christmas market and all year round. They are delicate, coarse-ground and fragrant with marjoram, mace and lemon zest, and at a sit-down meal six or twelve come on a pewter plate with sauerkraut and horseradish. Making them at home needs a mincer with a sausage nozzle and narrow sheep casings, and is a satisfying weekend project. Vegetarians can buy small vegetarian bratwursts and grill them with the same sides. Chef's tip: keep the meat and mincer ice-cold; warm fat smears and the sausages turn crumbly.

75 min

German Meat

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KremidopitaOnion and cheese pie

Mykonian grandmothers made kremidopita long before the island filled with beach clubs: a pie of slowly softened onions, tangy fresh cheese, eggs and dill between sheets of filo, baked for name days and family Sundays. The onions go sweet and jammy, the cheese keeps it creamy and sharp, and it is eaten warm or cold with a tomato salad. Feta is usually made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian feta if you need to. Common mistake: frying the onions hard and fast; they must sweat gently until soft, or the filling turns bitter and crunchy. Chef's tip: cool the onions completely before mixing in the eggs and cheese, so the filling doesn't start to set before baking.

100 min

Greek Snacks & Starters

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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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GondiChicken and chickpea-flour dumplings

Gondi is the Friday-night dish of Tehran's Persian Jewish families, served at the Shabbat table before the main course or as a light lunch after. Big, soft dumplings of minced chicken, grated onion and roasted chickpea flour, scented with cardamom, are poached in a clear turmeric broth with chickpeas, and each bowl gets one or two with plenty of broth, fresh herbs and flatbread. The texture should be tender and slightly crumbly, a little like a dense matzo ball. A common mistake is using raw chickpea flour; buy roasted chickpea flour (nokhodchi flour) or dry-toast plain gram flour first, or the dumplings taste raw. Chef's tip: chill the mixture for 30 minutes before shaping so the dumplings hold their shape in the broth.

90 min

Persian Chicken

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Moqueca de ovosEggs in coconut and tomato sauce

When fish money runs short or it is a meatless Friday, Bahian kitchens make moqueca with eggs instead: the same orange sauce of coconut milk, tomato, peppers, coriander and dendê palm oil, with whole eggs poached right in it until the whites set and the yolks stay soft. It is everyday food in Salvador and the Recôncavo, cooked in a clay pan and carried straight to the table with white rice, farofa de dendê and a spoon of pimenta sauce for those who want heat. The sauce is mellow, slightly sweet from the peppers and rich from the coconut, and the runny yolks thicken it on the plate. The usual mistake is stirring after the eggs go in; they break and turn the sauce cloudy, so cover the pan and leave it alone. Chef's tip: add half the dendê at the start and the rest just before the eggs; heated too long it loses its nutty, floral perfume and only the colour remains.

35 min

Brazilian Vegetarian

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Gordas de frijol negroBlack bean masa cakes

In the Sotavento region of southern Veracruz, around Tlacotalpan and Los Tuxtlas, cooks knead well-fried black beans straight into the corn masa, so the little cakes come out speckled grey-black, then fry them until they puff up like balloons. Gordas de frijol are a supper snack from street stalls and fiesta tables, split and topped with salsa, chopped onion and, for a non-vegan version, a crumble of fresh cheese. Avocado leaf in the beans gives a faint aniseed note. Chef's tip: the beans must be very thick and cooled; warm, wet beans make a sticky dough that will not puff.

40 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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Gorditas de migajasMasa cakes with pork crackling

In Querétaro, gorditas de migajas are a breakfast and market favourite, cooked on wide griddles in the old town and in the street stalls of the Sierra Gorda. They are thick corn cakes filled with migajas, the crunchy crumbs of pork crackling left at the bottom of the carnitas or chicharrón vat, bound with asiento, the brown, savoury pork lard full of toasted bits. This is very much a pork dish; plain pork lard and finely crushed pork crackling make a good substitute if you can't find asiento. Split open while hot, they are filled with red salsa, onion, coriander and crumbled cheese. Chef's tip: cook them over a medium, not high, heat so the inside cooks through before the outside burns.

60 min

Mexican Snacks & Starters

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Moraba-ye bahar narenjBitter orange blossom jam

When the bitter orange trees lining Shiraz's streets bloom in April, the whole city smells of blossom, and households gather the fallen petals to make this pale golden jam for the year ahead. It is spooned onto bread with fresh cheese at breakfast, or stirred into tea. The petals are bitter, so they are blanched and soaked several times before they meet the syrup. A common mistake is cutting the soaking short, which leaves the jam harsh. Chef's tip: add the lemon juice only at the end; it keeps the petals bright and stops the syrup from crystallising.

70 min

Persian Basics

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Moraba-ye haveejCarrot jam with cardamom and almonds

Moraba-ye havij is the bright orange jam on Iranian breakfast tables, spread on warm barbari or sangak with butter or a slice of white cheese, especially in winter when carrots are at their sweetest. Thin shreds of carrot are candied in a light syrup with cardamom and orange peel, then finished with rosewater and slivered almonds, so every spoonful is chewy, glossy and fragrant. It is made in every region, and families argue over how thick the syrup should be. Chef's tip: cut the carrots into fine matchsticks rather than grating them; grated carrot turns to mush and clouds the syrup.

60 min

Persian Basics

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Gosh-e filFried elephant ear pastries

Gosh-e fil, elephant's ear, is the big, bubbly, paper-thin fried pastry sold from bakery windows in Tehran and Shiraz in the days before Nowruz, and made at home for Ramadan evenings. A soft egg and yogurt dough is rolled almost see-through, pinched into a fan shape and fried until it blisters, then showered with icing sugar, cardamom and ground pistachio. They are best the day they are made, with glasses of black tea. Chef's tip: rest the dough properly; relaxed dough rolls thin without shrinking back.

60 min

Persian Desserts

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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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KhubeizehSautéed mallow greens

After the winter rains, mallow (khubeizeh) springs up along field edges and roadsides in Palestine, and families gather bags of it for a humble, much-loved dish: the leaves chopped and wilted with lots of onion fried in olive oil, sometimes with a handful of bulgur or rice to stretch it. It is eaten warm with bread and lemon, soft and earthy like spinach with a slightly silky texture. If you can't forage mallow, use chard or spinach with a little baby kale. Common mistake: drowning the greens in water; they release their own and only need a splash. Chef's tip: brown half the onions deeply and keep the rest soft; you get sweetness and crunch together.

45 min

Palestinian Vegetarian

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GougèresCheese choux puffs

In the wine villages of Burgundy, around Beaune and Chablis, a basket of gougères lands on the table the moment guests sit down: small golden choux puffs, crisp outside and hollow and cheesy within. They are handed round at cellar tastings, christenings and Sunday aperitifs, and they are best eaten warm, within ten minutes of leaving the oven. The dough is the same as for profiteroles, but salted, peppered and beaten with grated Comté or Gruyère. Both cheeses are traditionally made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian hard mountain-style cheese if you need to. Chef's tip: dry the dough on the heat until it leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pan; drier dough takes more egg and puffs higher.

50 min

French Snacks & Starters

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GourounopoulaSlow-roast pork shoulder with orange

At the summer festivals of Messinia, whole young pigs are roasted overnight in bakers' wood ovens, then sold by the kilo at stalls with bread and pickled peppers. This home version uses a bone-in pork shoulder, rubbed with garlic, orange zest, oregano and chilli, left in the fridge overnight, and roasted low and slow until the meat pulls apart and the crackling shatters. Serve with lemon potatoes and a cabbage salad. Common mistake: wet skin — dry it well and salt it the night before, or it never crackles. Chef's tip: start covered at a low heat and finish uncovered at a high heat; that's how the meat stays juicy and the skin turns glassy.

290 min

Greek Meat

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Viennese GugelhupfLemon and raisin ring cake

In Vienna the Gugelhupf is the Sunday cake of home bakers, set out on the table for afternoon Jause with coffee, and every family has its own fluted copper or ceramic mould. Unlike the yeasted ring cakes of Alsace and southern Germany, the everyday Viennese one is a Rührgugelhupf, a buttery sponge lifted with whisked egg whites, scented with lemon and studded with plump raisins. It is tender, light and keeps moist for several days under a cake dome. A common mistake is a badly greased mould; every ridge needs butter and flour or the cake tears as it comes out. Chef's tip: soak the raisins in hot water for 15 minutes, dry them and toss them in a spoon of flour so they don't sink.

90 min

Austrian Baking

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GoxuaLayered cream, sponge and custard dessert

The name means 'sweet' or 'delicious' in Basque, and goxua was created in Vitoria-Gasteiz in the 1970s, where cafés still serve it in small glasses or terracotta pots. From the bottom up you get whipped cream, a disc of sponge soaked in syrup, thick vanilla pastry cream and a crackling layer of burnt sugar. It is a make-ahead dessert for a Sunday lunch, since the layers need to chill. A common mistake is spooning in custard that is still warm, which melts the cream into a puddle. Chef's tip: caramelise the top just before serving, so the sugar crust is still glassy when the spoon goes in.

70 min

Spanish Desserts

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IntxaursaltsaWalnut cream with milk and cinnamon

On Christmas Eve in Gipuzkoa farmhouses, after the sea bream and before midnight, a pot of intxaursaltsa appears: walnuts slowly simmered in milk with sugar and cinnamon until thick and creamy. It was the sweet of the caseríos, made with walnuts from the farm's own trees, and it is eaten warm or cold from small bowls. A common mistake is letting it boil hard, which makes the milk catch and taste scorched; it should only murmur. Chef's tip: grind the walnuts in short pulses so they stay like coarse sand and don't turn into an oily paste.

70 min

Spanish Desserts

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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.

170 min

Austrian Breads & Parathas

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ZarbPit-roasted lamb, chicken and vegetables

Visitors to the desert camps of Wadi Rum often watch the zarb come up from the sand at sunset: tiered racks of spiced lamb, chicken, potatoes and onions that have steamed for hours in a pit of embers, then lifted out smoky and falling apart. At home you get close with a deep roasting tin sealed tightly with foil, a long, low oven and a short blast of heat at the end. Serve it on a big platter over rice or with shrak, with yoghurt and a tomato salad. The mistake most people make is leaving gaps in the foil, so the steam escapes and the meat dries. Chef's tip: marinate overnight in the fridge and add a little smoked paprika to the spice mix; it brings back the taste of the pit.

240 min

Jordanian Meat

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