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Prawn balchão
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Prawn balchão

Sweet-sour prawn pickle curry

Balchão started as a way to keep the catch from the Goan monsoon season: prawns cooked down in a fierce red masala with vinegar and sugar until they keep like a pickle. In Goan homes a jar sits in the fridge to spoon beside rice and dal, and a fresh batch is served as a main curry on Sundays. Its taste is bold: hot, sharp and sweet all at once. Chef's tip: fry the masala slowly until the oil separates and it turns a deep brick colour; undercooked balchão tastes raw and vinegary.

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105 minPalestinianChicken
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65 minGermanCurries
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10 minColombianDrinksVeganGluten free
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Mamón en almíbarCandied green papaya

Along the subtropical northeast, papaya (mamón) trees grow in backyards from Corrientes to Formosa, and the unripe fruit is turned into this old-fashioned dessert: strips of firm green papaya poached slowly in syrup with cloves and cinnamon until they turn amber and translucent, chewy at the edges and tender inside. It is served cold in little bowls, traditionally next to a slice of fresh cheese for that sweet-and-salty contrast (choose a plant-based cheese to keep it vegan). Rushing the syrup is the misstep that turns the papaya hard and sugary on the outside and raw within, so the heat stays low for well over an hour. Green papaya is sold in Asian and Latin grocers. Wear gloves when peeling; the milky sap can irritate the skin. Chef's tip: soak the strips in water with a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda for an hour before cooking; it firms the outside so the pieces hold their shape in the syrup.

130 minArgentinianDessertsVeganGluten free
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MamouniehSemolina pudding with cinnamon

In the old souks of Aleppo, mamounieh shops open at dawn, serving bowls of this hot, buttery semolina pudding to workers before the day starts. Semolina is toasted in butter, then cooked in a light syrup until it sets soft and spoonable, and dusted with cinnamon; Aleppans eat it with a slice of salty white cheese and warm bread on the side, which makes the sweetness sing. Common mistake: pouring cold syrup onto the hot semolina; use hot syrup so it doesn't seize into lumps. Chef's tip: toast the semolina only to pale straw colour — any darker and it loses its delicate milky flavour. Akkawi and halloumi are often made with animal rennet; choose a vegetarian white cheese if needed.

25 minSyrianBreakfast & Brunch
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Shish barakLamb dumplings in garlic yoghurt

Shish barak is a labour of love that Lebanese grandmothers turn into a family afternoon: everyone sits round the table pinching hundreds of tiny dumplings filled with spiced lamb and onion. The dumplings are baked until lightly golden, then dropped into hot yoghurt sauce, and the bowl is finished with garlic and coriander fried in butter. It is rich, tangy and deeply comforting, served on its own or with plain rice. Common mistake: rolling the dough thick — it should be thin enough to see the board through, or the dumplings turn stodgy. Chef's tip: baking the dumplings before they go into the sauce sets their shape and adds a toasty flavour; you can freeze them at this stage.

115 minLebaneseMeat
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Leipziger LercheAlmond marzipan tartlets

Leipziger Lerchen began as real roast larks stuffed with herbs, sold in Leipzig until the King of Saxony banned songbird hunting in 1876. The city's bakers answered with a pastry that kept the name: a shortcrust tartlet filled with almond-marzipan cream, a cherry or jam hidden in the middle like the bird's heart, and two crossed strips of pastry on top like the string that tied it. Today you find them in every Leipzig café, especially at the Christmas market. A common mistake is overfilling the cases, so the filling bubbles over and the cross sinks. Chef's tip: chill the lined tins for 15 minutes before filling so the pastry keeps sharp edges.

65 minGermanBaking
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Leipziger AllerleiSpring vegetables with morels

Leipziger Allerlei is Leipzig's showpiece of spring: young carrots, peas, asparagus, kohlrabi and cauliflower, each cooked separately until just tender, then brought together in a light butter sauce with morel mushrooms. The traditional dish also includes crayfish and bread dumplings; this vegetarian version keeps the morels and vegetables, which were always the heart of it, and serves it with new potatoes. Dried morels are easiest to find and give a deep, smoky flavour. A common mistake is boiling everything together in one pot, which turns the dish muddy and over-soft. Chef's tip: save the vegetable cooking water and morel soaking liquid; together they make the stock for the sauce.

60 minGermanVegetarian
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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 minColombianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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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 minBrazilianMeatGluten free
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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 minBrazilianDessertsGluten free
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Sholeh MashhadiWheat, bean and lamb porridge

Sholeh Mashhadi is cooked in huge pots in Mashhad, the shrine city of Khorasan, and handed out to pilgrims and neighbours as nazri (a votive offering), especially during the month of Muharram. Wheat, rice, lentils, mung beans, chickpeas and lamb are cooked for hours with onion and spices, then beaten with a wooden paddle until everything melts into one thick, stretchy porridge, topped with fried onion, mint oil and a dusting of cinnamon. A home pot is smaller but follows the same rhythm. A common mistake is leaving it unstirred towards the end; the grains catch and burn, so stir and scrape the base every 10 minutes once it thickens. Chef's tip: cook the lamb on the bone first and shred it; the broth from the bones gives the porridge its body.

300 minPersianCurries
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MarathopitesFennel hand pies

In early spring, when wild fennel sprouts along the field walls around Rethymno, Cretan cooks gather armfuls of the feathery fronds for marathopites, thin olive-oil pastry wrapped round a green, aniseed-sweet filling and cooked in a pan. They are Lenten food, so they contain no cheese or egg, and they are eaten warm with olives and a glass of water or tea. Wild fennel can be hard to find outside the Mediterranean; the fronds from bulb fennel mixed with dill give a close flavour. Common mistake: leaving the greens wet after washing, which steams the pastry from inside and splits it. Chef's tip: salt the chopped greens and squeeze them hard in a cloth before mixing the filling.

80 minGreekSnacks & StartersVegan
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Kaburga dolmasıRice-stuffed lamb breast

In Mardin and Diyarbakır, a stuffed lamb breast is the centrepiece of bayram and wedding tables: the butcher cuts a pocket between the ribs and the meat, which is filled with rice cooked with almonds, currants, allspice and cinnamon, sewn shut and baked slowly until the meat falls from the bones. The rice inside soaks up all the lamb juices. Ask the butcher to open the pocket for you. Common mistake: packing the rice tightly when it is raw; it needs room to swell or the pocket splits. Chef's tip: roast it covered for most of the time, then uncover and turn the heat up at the end for crackling-crisp fat.

250 minTurkishMeatGluten free
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MarinerasRussian salad and anchovy bread rings

No pre-lunch drink in Murcia is complete without a marinera: a crunchy ring-shaped breadstick, the rosquilla, piled with ensaladilla rusa (potato, carrot and peas in mayonnaise) and crowned with an anchovy. Bar counters in the city line them up from midday, alongside the marinero, topped with a vinegar-cured fresh anchovy, and the bicicleta, which has no fish at all. This version uses salted anchovy fillets in oil and shop-bought mayonnaise, which is made with pasteurised egg. If you use vinegar-cured fresh anchovies instead, they are raw fish: buy them frozen first, and they are not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: assemble them at the last moment so the rings stay crunchy.

45 minSpanishSnacks & Starters
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MarmitakoBonito and potato stew

Marmitako takes its name from the marmita, the iron pot that fishermen out of Bermeo and Ondarroa kept on board during the summer bonito season, from June to September. Potatoes simmer in a peppery broth made red with choricero pepper, and chunks of fresh bonito go in only at the very end. Along the coast it is still the summer lunch of fishing towns, eaten from deep plates. A common mistake is boiling the fish with the potatoes, which turns it dry and stringy; it needs just a few minutes of gentle heat. Chef's tip: snap the potatoes rather than cut them, so their starch thickens the broth.

60 minSpanishFishGluten free
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MarmorkuchenMarble cake

Marmorkuchen is the cake German children grow up with: a tall, buttery ring of vanilla sponge swirled with chocolate, baked for birthdays and kindergarten parties and kept under a glass dome for afternoon coffee all week. It needs nothing but a dusting of icing sugar, though many families pour over a thin chocolate glaze. A common mistake is over-stirring the two batters together, which turns the cake a muddy brown instead of showing clear marbling. Chef's tip: layer the batters in the tin, then pull a fork through just once in a spiral; less is more.

75 minGermanBaking
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Leche de tigreCitrus ceviche marinade

Every cevichería along Lima's coast, from Chorrillos to the market stalls of Surquillo, sells this as a pick-me-up before lunch: a small glass of milky, lime-sharp juice blitzed with fish, celery, ginger and ají limo, with a few cubes of fish and kernels of cancha floating on top. It is cold, salty, very sour and fiery, and people swear by it the morning after a long night. Because the fish is cured only by lime, this safer version uses very fresh white fish that has been frozen at −20 °C for 24 hours first, keeps everything ice cold and is drunk at once; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. The common mistake is blending the lime with the fish for too long, which makes the juice bitter, so pulse only briefly. Chef's tip: squeeze the limes by hand, gently, without pressing the pith; the last hard squeeze is what turns leche de tigre bitter.

15 minPeruvianSnacks & StartersGluten freeSpicy
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