Featured recipe

Detsadovsky omlet (kindergarten oven omelette)

Anyone who went to a detsky sad, a kindergarten, in Moscow, Kyiv or Minsk remembers this omelette: tall, pale and soft as a sponge, baked in big trays and served in squares with a slice of bread and butter. The secret is lots of milk and a deep dish, so the eggs steam-bake into a quivering, custardy block rather than a flat frittata. It makes a protein-rich breakfast or supper for toddlers from 12 months, made here without salt. It contains egg and milk; there is no gluten, nuts or soya. Chef's tip: stir the eggs and milk, don't whisk them into a foam, or the omelette rises and then collapses.

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TootAlmond rosewater marzipan

Little white toot sit on silver dishes at Nowruz and at weddings in Tehran and Isfahan, shaped and named after the pale mulberries that grow all over Iran. They are a soft, fragrant almond paste bound with rosewater, rolled in sugar and finished with a sliver of pistachio for the stalk. No cooking is needed, so children can help shape them. Chef's tip: add the rosewater a spoonful at a time; the paste should just hold when squeezed, and a wet paste won't keep its mulberry bumps.

40 min

Persian Desserts

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TopfenknödelQuark dumplings in buttery crumbs

Topfenknödel belong to the long Austrian tradition of sweet main courses: in Viennese homes and Lower Austrian inns they are often served as a light Friday lunch, or as dessert after soup. Fresh quark, butter, egg and semolina make a dough that cooks into soft, tangy, almost cheesecake-like dumplings, which are rolled in breadcrumbs toasted in butter with cinnamon sugar and served with a warm fruit compote. A common mistake is boiling them hard; they puff, crack and fall apart, so keep the water just shivering. Most quark is made without animal rennet, but check the label and choose one marked vegetarian. Chef's tip: rest the dough for at least 30 minutes so the semolina can swell; it makes the dumplings hold together.

40 min

Austrian Desserts

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Torshe tarehSour herb and bean stew

Torshe tareh is one of the dishes that marks Gilan's cooking as different from the rest of Iran: a dark, sour, garlicky stew of finely chopped greens, cooked down with rice flour and soured with bitter orange juice or dried sour plums, then finished with eggs. It is made in the Rasht area all year round and eaten with kateh rice, often alongside salted fish for those who eat it; this version is vegetarian with black-eyed beans for body. The common mistake is undercooking the herbs, which leaves the stew grassy instead of deep and savoury. Chef's tip: fry the chopped herbs until they turn almost black-green and stop smelling raw before any liquid goes in.

65 min

Persian Curries

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Torito de cacahuatePeanut drink

Torito is the party drink of the port of Veracruz and the Sotavento, poured at weddings, saints' days and the Tlacotalpan Candelaria fair: a thick, cold, milkshake-like blend of peanuts, condensed and evaporated milk and cinnamon. The traditional version is spiked with aguardiente, the local cane spirit. This recipe is the alcohol-free version, so children can drink it too; adults who want the original add a measure of cane spirit to each glass. It contains peanuts, so check for allergies. Chef's tip: toast the peanuts until just golden before blending; raw ones taste flat and beany.

15 min

Mexican Drinks

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Torrejas de acelgaSwiss chard fritters

When a bunch of acelga (Swiss chard) is the cheapest thing at the verdulería, Buenos Aires home cooks turn it into torrejas: thin fritters of chopped chard bound with egg, a little flour, garlic and grated cheese, fried in shallow oil until the edges lace up and crisp. They are weekday food, eaten hot from the pan with a squeeze of lemon and a salad, or cold the next day in a sandwich, and children who won't touch greens tend to eat them. Inside they stay tender and green, outside nutty and golden. Wet chard is what ruins them: water left in the leaves makes the batter thin and the fritters spit and fall apart, so wring the blanched chard really dry. Grated hard cheese is often made with animal rennet; pick a vegetarian hard cheese if needed. Chef's tip: fry one small torreja first to check the seasoning and thickness, then adjust with a spoon of flour or a splash of milk.

30 min

Argentinian Snacks & Starters

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TorresmoPork crackling

Every boteco in Minas Gerais keeps a tray of torresmo by the counter: chunks of pork belly with the skin on, fried so slowly the fat melts out, then blasted in hot fat until the skin bursts into crackling bubbles. Done right, each piece has a shatteringly crisp, blistered top, a layer of soft fat and a strip of juicy meat. Mineiros eat it as a snack with lime and with feijão tropeiro, tutu or couve at lunch. The classic error is frying wet skin in very hot fat at once, which gives hard, glassy skin and dangerous spitting; dry it well and fry it twice. Use a deep, heavy pot, never fill it more than a third with fat, and keep children away from it. Chef's tip: after the first slow fry, let the pieces cool completely, even overnight in the fridge; the drier the skin, the bigger the puff.

110 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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Torshi limooSalt-pickled limes

In Shiraz and down towards the Gulf ports, small thin-skinned limes are packed into jars with salt and more lime juice, then forgotten on a sunny shelf until the peel softens and turns translucent. The result is sour, salty and faintly bitter, and a little goes a long way: a sliver alongside fish and rice in Bushehr, chopped into a salad, or mashed into a stew. It is related to the Gulf habit of drying limes, but stays soft and juicy. Chef's tip: choose small, thin-skinned limes; thick-skinned ones stay bitter and tough however long you wait.

30 min

Persian Chutneys & Dips

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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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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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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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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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Torta galesaDark fruit and walnut cake

Welsh settlers arrived in the Chubut valley in 1865 and their descendants still serve afternoon tea in Gaiman and Trelew, where the casas de té bring out pots of tea, scones, cream cakes and, always, a slice of torta galesa. It is a dense, almost black fruit cake made with brown sugar and black treacle, studded with raisins, candied peel and walnuts, and it was built to last through long Patagonian winters and journeys across the steppe. The crumb is moist and sticky, rich with spice and caramel. An oven that is too hot is the classic error: the outside chars before the middle is set, so it bakes low and slow under a sheet of paper. There's no alcohol in this version; many cooks brush it with rum after baking, so leave that out or use strong tea. Chef's tip: wrap the cooled cake tightly and wait two or three days before cutting; it turns moister and the flavours deepen.

140 min

Argentinian Baking

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Torta holandesaChilled biscuit and ganache tart

Despite the name, the 'Dutch tart' is a Brazilian invention, created in a confeitaria in Campinas, São Paulo state, in the 1990s and now sold in bakeries and churrascarias all over the country. A crunchy biscuit base holds a tall layer of light vanilla buttercream, sealed with dark chocolate ganache, and the sides are fenced with chocolate-dipped biscuits stood on their edges. Served cold, it is rich, creamy and crunchy at once, cut in thin slices with coffee. Some versions set the cream with gelatin; this one gets its body from butter and whipped cream only. Warm ganache poured straight on is the commonest mistake, since it melts the cream underneath into streaks. Chef's tip: let the ganache cool until it is just pourable and barely warm to a fingertip, about 30 °C, before pouring it over the chilled tart.

50 min

Brazilian Desserts

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Torta rogelLayered pastry dulce de leche cake

Birthdays in Buenos Aires are where the rogel shows off: eight or more wafer-thin, crackling discs of egg-yolk pastry, each spread with thick dulce de leche, stacked high and finished with a cloud of glossy Italian meringue browned with a blowtorch. Confiterías sell it by the slice, and it is a cake of contrasts, crisp and chewy, very sweet against the faintly salty pastry. It is laborious rather than difficult, and it slices best after a few hours' rest, when the dulce de leche has softened the layers just slightly. Use thick dulce de leche repostero (bakers' style); the runny kind for spreading on toast makes the tower slide. Rolling the discs too thick is the classic mistake: they should be so thin you can almost see the worktop through them, or the cake becomes heavy and hard to cut. Chef's tip: prick every disc all over with a fork before baking, or it puffs into a dome and won't stack flat.

150 min

Argentinian Baking

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Tortas ahogadasPork rolls in tomato sauce

Guadalajara's great hangover cure, the torta ahogada is sold from street stands and small fondas all over the city from mid-morning. A crusty roll is split, packed with pork carnitas, then 'drowned' in a thin, mild tomato sauce and splashed with a ferociously hot chile de árbol salsa; you can order it half-drowned or fully submerged, and eat it with a plastic bag over your hand or with a knife and fork. The local birote salado, a sourdough roll with a hard crust, rarely exists outside Jalisco, so use the crustiest small baguettes or sourdough rolls you can find. Pickled red onions and a few radishes are the classic side. Chef's tip: let the rolls go a day stale and toast the cut sides; a firm, dry crumb soaks up sauce without turning to mush.

50 min

Mexican Fast Food

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Tortas de aceite sevillanasCrisp olive-oil flatbreads with anise

Castilleja de la Cuesta, just west of Seville, has made these hand-pressed tortas for well over a century, and across Andalusia they are dunked into morning coffee or eaten as an afternoon snack. The dough is little more than flour, olive oil infused with anise and sesame, and a pinch of yeast, rolled until you can almost see through it and baked with a crust of sugar. Chef's tip: roll each torta directly on the baking paper you will bake it on; the dough is too thin to lift without tearing.

45 min

Spanish Baking

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Tortas de almaPumpkin and almond pastries

In the province of Teruel, especially around Calamocha and the Jiloca valley, tortas de alma are made at the end of autumn when the pumpkins come in: crisp, flaky olive-oil pastry folded over "alma", a sweet filling of pumpkin cooked down with sugar, almond and cinnamon. They are eaten with coffee at the village festivals and given away by the dozen at All Saints and Christmas. Recipes vary from house to house; this one keeps to the simple, widely made version. A common mistake is a runny filling, which leaks and burns on the tray; cook it until it is thick enough to hold a clean line. Chef's tip: make the filling a day ahead and chill it; cold alma is far easier to spoon onto the pastry.

100 min

Spanish Baking

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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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Tortilla al rescoldoAsh-baked flatbread

Puesteros in the hills of Salta and the Calchaquí valleys bake this bread the oldest way there is: a thick disc of plain dough laid straight onto the hot ash at the edge of the fire, covered with more embers and dug out 20 minutes later with a crust that is blistered and smoky and a crumb that is dense and soft. You brush off the ash, break it with your hands and eat it with goat's cheese, a mate or a bowl of locro. The traditional fat is lard (grasa); this version uses butter or vegetable shortening so it stays vegetarian. Laying the dough on flaming wood instead of a bed of settled grey embers is the mistake that burns the outside black before the middle cooks, so wait until the fire has died back. No fire? A dry cast-iron pan and a hot oven give you a close result. Chef's tip: knock the bread on its base when you lift it out; a hollow sound means it is cooked through.

60 min

Argentinian Breads & Parathas

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Tortillas de harina sobaquerasGiant flour tortillas

In Sonora, wheat is the grain, and the pride of Hermosillo kitchens is the sobaquera: a flour tortilla stretched over the backs of the hands and arms until it is almost see-through and as wide as a serving tray (the name comes from sobaco, armpit, because it reaches that far). It cooks in seconds on a big comal and is folded around beans, cheese or machaca, or torn and eaten with caldo de queso. Sonoran cooks use lard; vegetable shortening works the same. A 30–35 cm tortilla is a realistic home size. Chef's tip: the long rest is what makes the dough stretch; do not cut it short.

80 min

Mexican Breads & Parathas

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Tortillitas de camaronesShrimp and chickpea-flour fritters

Around the Bay of Cádiz, especially in San Fernando and Sanlúcar de Barrameda, tortillitas de camarones are fried to order in bars and eaten with fingers: thin, lacy fritters of chickpea flour, spring onion and parsley studded with tiny whole shrimp. The local camarones are eaten shell and all; outside the bay, small raw peeled prawns, roughly chopped, work well. The batter must be as thin as single cream, so it spreads into a crisp lace in the oil. Chef's tip: keep the batter in the fridge until the last moment; cold batter hitting hot oil gives the most delicate lace.

35 min

Spanish Fish

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Tortitas de Santa ClaraShortbread with pumpkin seed cream

The nuns of the Santa Clara convent in Puebla are credited with this biscuit, and the city's Calle de los Dulces still sells it in boxes stacked beside camotes and jamoncillos. It is a crumbly, lightly sweet shortbread round, covered with a thick, pale cream made from ground pumpkin seeds, sugar and milk, which sets to a soft fudge-like layer. They are eaten with coffee in the afternoon and taken home as a gift from Puebla. Chef's tip: grind the peeled pumpkin seeds as fine as you can before cooking; any coarse bits make the topping gritty.

75 min

Mexican Baking

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Tortitas mendocinasFlaky round breakfast breads

Every panadería in Mendoza fills a tray with tortitas in the early morning, and they go out in paper bags to be eaten warm with mate, split and spread with butter, quince paste or a slice of cheese. They are flat, round, slightly salty breads, soft and layered in the middle and crisp at the edges, with the fork marks that give them away. The traditional fat is beef lard (grasa), which makes them very short; here butter or vegetable shortening takes its place to keep them vegetarian, and both give a good flaky result. The mistake to avoid is rolling them thin like crackers: they should be a generous centimetre thick, or they bake hard and dry. Chef's tip: fold the dough in three twice before the final roll, like a quick puff pastry; those folds give tortitas their layers.

75 min

Argentinian Baking

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Tortitas negrasBrown sugar-topped buns

Black cakes, the name means, though only their tops are dark: tortitas negras are flat, round, flaky buns covered with a thick crust of dark brown sugar that melts in the oven and sets crunchy and toffee-like. They are among the cheapest and most popular facturas in Buenos Aires bakeries, eaten from a paper bag at breakfast or as a merienda with mate, and everyone fights over the sugary edges. The dough is a lightly laminated yeast dough, between bread and puff pastry. Bakeries often use lard or margarine; this version uses butter and stays vegetarian. Being stingy with the sugar is the classic misstep: a thin layer just melts into the dough and disappears, so pile it on thickly and press it down. Chef's tip: brush the rounds with water, not egg, before adding the sugar; the water melts the sugar into a crisp, crackling shell.

88 min

Argentinian Baking

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Tortos de maízCorn cakes with fried eggs

In the cider houses of Asturias, tortos arrive as a starter: small discs of corn dough fried until crisp outside and soft within, usually piled with something rich on top. Inland farms once ate them in place of bread, since maize grew far better than wheat in the damp valleys. This meat-free version tops each torto with a fried egg and blistered green peppers, with a little crumbled cabrales for those who want it; cabrales is usually made with animal rennet, so use a vegetarian blue cheese if that matters to you. Chef's tip: knead the dough with hot water and let it rest; cold water gives a crumbly dough that cracks in the pan.

50 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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