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Jamaican fish tea
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Jamaican fish tea

Peppery fish broth

Fish tea is what Jamaicans along the coast from Kingston to Old Harbour sip from a cup when they feel run down, and it is ladled out at beach fish shacks and dances to steady late-night appetites. It is a thin, peppery broth made from fish heads and bones or cheap small fish, with green banana, pumpkin, thyme and a hint of scotch bonnet, light but full of flavour. The mistake to avoid is boiling it hard for a long time, which makes it cloudy and bitter; simmer gently and strain. Chef's tip: mash a few pieces of the soft pumpkin into the broth for body without any flour.

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Tai-meshi (sea bream rice)

Ehime prefecture on Shikoku farms more red sea bream than anywhere else in Japan, and tai-meshi is its signature rice. Around Matsuyama and the old fishing town of Hojo, a whole grilled fish is laid on seasoned rice and cooked in the same pot, then the flesh is flaked through the grains at the table. Down the coast in Uwajima the same name means raw bream on hot rice, but this is the cooked kind. Sea bream is a fish for celebrations in Japan, so the dish turns up at weddings and New Year as well as in station lunch boxes. Chef's tip: grill the fish briefly before it goes in the pot; the browned skin adds a toasty flavour to the rice and keeps the fish from smelling of the sea.

60 minJapaneseFish
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Otak-otakGrilled spiced fish mousse

Drive through Muar in Johor and you will see roadside grills stacked with slim green parcels, sold by the dozen in paper bags for the journey home. Inside each is a soft, bright-orange custard of pounded mackerel, coconut milk and egg, flavoured with a chilli-lemongrass rempah and kaffir lime leaf, which turns smoky and slightly charred at the edges from the grill. Melaka's Nyonya cooks make a fatter, steamed version, but this one is grilled in banana leaf. Eat it warm, peeled straight out of the leaf, with white bread, rice or nasi lemak. Chef's tip: chill the fish mixture for 15 minutes before wrapping; it firms up and is far easier to spoon onto the leaves.

50 minMalaysianFishGluten free
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Ossobuco alla milaneseBraised veal shanks

Thick cross-cut slices of veal shank, each ringed around a hollow bone full of marrow, are browned and then braised slowly in white wine and stock until the meat is soft enough to cut with a spoon: this is Milan's great winter Sunday dish. The old Milanese way, 'in bianco', keeps tomato out, so the sauce stays golden and savoury. Just before serving it gets a shower of gremolata, a sharp mix of lemon zest, garlic and parsley that wakes up the rich braise. Serve it with risotto alla milanese, the saffron risotto that is its traditional partner (one of the few times a Milanese risotto shares the plate), or with soft polenta. Chef's tip: snip through the thin skin around each shank in three or four places before browning, so the slices stay flat in the pan instead of curling up.

150 minItalianMeatGluten free
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Bungo juiceSweet-sour bungo fruit juice

Maji ya bungo is a favourite Zanzibar street drink made from the orange, sweet-sour pulp of the bungo fruit (Saba comorensis), soaked off the seeds, blended with sugar and water and strained. It's tangy, fruity and very refreshing. Serve well chilled.

25 minAfricanDrinksVeganGluten free
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Peynirli pideBoat-shaped cheese bread

Along the Black Sea coast, from Samsun to Trabzon, the pide salon is where families go on a Friday night, and the oven man shapes each boat of dough by hand before sliding it onto the hot stone floor of a wood-fired oven. The Black Sea way is generous: a pool of melted kaşar and white cheese held inside a rim of soft bread, an egg cracked into the middle for the last few minutes and a knob of butter dropped on as it comes out. Children love tearing off the crusty ends to drag through the cheese. Chef's tip: heat a heavy baking tray or pizza stone in the oven for a full 30 minutes; the hot base is what gives a crisp underside rather than a soft one.

120 minTurkishPizza
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AmbashaSpiced celebration bread

Ambasha is the round, slightly sweet festival bread of Tigray and Amhara, baked for holidays such as Easter (Fasika) and Meskel and for welcoming guests. The dough is scented with fenugreek, cardamom and coriander seed, and before baking the top is cut with a knife into a wheel-like pattern, so it comes out of the oven looking like a decorated plate; it is brushed with niter kibbeh and berbere and served torn into pieces with coffee. Chef's tip: cut the pattern deep (about 1 cm), or it disappears as the bread rises in the oven.

150 minEthiopianBreads & Parathas
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Lentil fritters (bhadali bhajia)

Golden fritters of coarsely ground black-eyed bean and green gram lentils with fenugreek, spinach, coriander, spring onion and chilli. They're crunchy outside and fluffy inside, and they go into Zanzibar mix and Coastal Mombasa mix too. Serve hot with coconut chutney.

55 minAfricanSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Soft doughnuts (kaimati)

Kaimati are bite-size Swahili doughnuts: a yeasted cardamom and coconut batter dropped by the spoonful into hot oil, then dipped in a fragrant saffron, cardamom and rose syrup while still hot. They're crisp outside and soft inside. Serve with tea.

105 minAfricanDessertsVegan
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PhagshapaPork with radish and chilli

High in the hills of Sikkim, where winters are long and cold, Bhutia and Lepcha households make phagshapa from fatty strips of pork, white radish and fiery dried red chillies. Traditionally it uses no oil at all: the pork renders its own fat, and the radish soaks it up and turns meltingly soft. It is everyday warming food in Gangtok kitchens, eaten with rice and a bowl of clear soup. Chef's tip: cut the radish thick, in batons, so it holds its shape through the long simmer.

80 minIndianMeatGluten freeSpicy
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Osmania biscuitsSweet and salty butter biscuits

Osmania biscuits are named after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, and they have been baked in the city's Irani bakeries for generations: round, crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth butter biscuits that are gently sweet with a distinct salty edge and a hint of cardamom. In old-city cafés, men linger over a plate of them and a cup of Irani chai in the early morning or after the evening prayers, dunking each one until it is just about to collapse. Chef's tip: chill the dough before cutting and baking; it keeps the biscuits round and thick instead of spreading thin.

47 minIndianBaking
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Öröm with breadClotted cream on bread

In Mongolian summer, when the herds are milked several times a day, families on the steppe gently heat fresh milk in a wide pan, ladling and pouring it back to froth it, then leave it overnight. By morning a thick, wrinkled, pale-gold skin of cream has formed: öröm. Lifted off and folded, it's spread on boortsog (fried dough) or bread with a sprinkle of sugar and eaten with milk tea. It's rich, slightly nutty and very simple. Chef's tip: use the widest, heaviest pan you own and the lowest possible heat; öröm needs a large surface and patience, not boiling.

130 minMongolianBreakfast & Brunch
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Pho boBeef noodle soup

Before Hanoi's offices open, pavement pho stalls are already busy, with diners on low plastic stools bent over bowls of rice noodles in a clear, spiced beef broth. The northern style is restrained: brisket and thin slices of raw beef that cook in the bowl, spring onion and a little coriander, with lime and chilli on the side rather than a heap of herbs and sauces. The work is in the broth, simmered slowly from bones with blackened onion and ginger and a small bag of toasted spices. Make it on a weekend; it keeps for three days and the bowls then take ten minutes. Chef's tip: char the onion and ginger until they are properly black in patches, because that smoky sweetness is what makes the broth taste of pho rather than plain beef stock.

240 minVietnameseSoups
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Pho cuonBeef rice noodle rolls

On Ngũ Xã, a little island of streets between Trúc Bạch lake and West Lake in Hanoi, whole rows of restaurants sell nothing but pho in different shapes, and phở cuốn is the one people order by the plateful in the evening. Instead of cutting the fresh rice-noodle sheet into ribbons, the cooks leave it whole and roll it round seared beef, lettuce and herbs. The rolls are soft, cool and slightly chewy, and you dip them in a light, sweet fish sauce with pickled carrot. Look for fresh rice-noodle sheets in the chiller of an Asian supermarket, often sold for Chinese ho fun. Chef's tip: if the sheets are stiff from the fridge, steam or microwave them for 30 seconds under a damp cloth before separating, or they tear.

40 minVietnameseSnacks & Starters
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Pho gaChicken noodle soup

In Hanoi some shops sell nothing but chicken pho, and locals often choose it over beef for a gentler breakfast or a late bowl after an evening out. The broth is lighter than the beef version, made in about an hour from a whole bird with a few charred aromatics and only a hint of spice. The northern signature is a tangle of makrut lime leaf, cut as fine as thread, scattered over the hot chicken just before serving. It's a good first pho to make at home, since the timing is forgiving and the chicken poaches in the same pot. Chef's tip: plunge the cooked chicken into iced water for 5 minutes; the skin turns firm and slightly springy, the way Hanoi cooks like it.

90 minVietnameseSoups
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Phutkal saagStir-fried fig-tree leaves

In spring, before the rains, the phutkal tree (a wild fig) puts out tender pink-green shoots, and women across Jharkhand climb or hook them down to cook as saag. The leaves are naturally sour, so the dish needs no tomato or tamarind: they are boiled, squeezed and fried with garlic, dried chilli and mustard oil. Much of the harvest is dried in the sun and sold in Ranchi markets to cook through the year, and dried phutkal is what most people outside the state can find. Chef's tip: boil and squeeze the leaves well; this tames any bitterness and keeps the saag from turning watery.

40 minIndianSidesVeganGluten free
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PiadinaGriddled flatbread

Piadina is Romagna's everyday bread, cooked on a hot griddle (traditionally a terracotta testo) in chalet-style kiosks from Rimini to Ravenna and eaten folded around soft squacquerone cheese and rocket, or with grilled vegetables. It needs no yeast and is ready in half an hour, which is why families make it at home for quick suppers. The old recipe uses lard; olive oil gives a lighter, vegetarian result. Chef's tip: let the griddle get properly hot and cook the piadina dry, without oil; you want brown freckles and a few blisters, not a fried bread.

30 minItalianBreads & Parathas
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Pian'er chuan noodlesNoodle soup with pickled greens

Ask a Hangzhou local what they eat at a noodle shop and the answer is often pian'er chuan, a quick bowl named for its sliced (pian) pork and bamboo that are flash-cooked (chuan) in the broth. Salty, crunchy pickled mustard greens give it its savoury depth, the bamboo adds a clean sweetness, and the thin noodles soak up a cloudy, peppery soup. It is everyday lunch food, eaten at speed. A common mistake is skipping the rinse on the pickled greens; unrinsed, they make the whole bowl too salty. Chef's tip: slice the pork as thinly as you can while it is half-frozen, so it cooks in seconds and stays tender.

30 minChineseSoups
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PiayaMuscovado-filled flatbread

Piaya is the sweet everyone brings home from Bacolod and the sugar-growing island of Negros: a thin, flaky round of unleavened dough with a layer of dark muscovado inside, cooked on a dry griddle until blistered, and dotted with sesame seeds. The sugar melts and turns chewy as it cools. It is eaten with coffee in the afternoon, and newer shops fill it with ube. Lard is traditional in the dough; vegetable shortening gives the same flakiness. Chef's tip: roll the filled dough gently from the centre outward and keep it thin, or the sugar bursts through.

70 minFilipinoBakingVegan
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Pigeon peas in coconut milk (mbaazi)

Mbaazi wa nazi: soft pigeon peas cooked in thick coconut milk with onion, raw mango, ginger-chilli paste and a pinch of turmeric until creamy. It's mild, rich and comforting. Serve with mamri (mandazi) for the classic Swahili pairing.

60 minAfricanCurriesVeganGluten free
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Tawa chilli potatoes

A big tawa of potato cubes tossed with a fragrant tempering of mustard, cumin, coriander seeds, aniseed, cloves, cinnamon and black pepper, then onions, ginger, garlic and two kinds of chilli. It's hot, aromatic and great as a barbecue starter. Swap the potatoes for steamed paneer cubes for a change.

40 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten freeSpicy
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Picadillo vegetarianoLentil and mushroom picadillo

Picadillo a la habanera is Havana's everyday savoury hash, sweet with raisins, salty with olives and capers and sharp with tomato and sofrito. This vegetarian version swaps the meat for brown lentils and finely chopped mushrooms, which give the same crumbly, juicy texture and a deep savoury flavour. Spoon it over white rice with fried ripe plantain, or use it to fill empanadas and stuffed peppers. Chef's tip: let the mushrooms fry until all their liquid has gone and they turn brown; that browning is what makes it taste rich.

40 minCubanVegetarianVeganGluten free
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Barbequed peas

Tender peas in their pods tossed with chilli, ginger, garlic and lemon, sealed in foil and steamed on the barbecue. Everyone shells their own at the table and gets the spice on their fingers. Use the youngest, sweetest pods you can find.

20 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten freeSpicy
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Picanha churrascoGrilled beef rump cap

Picanha, the rump cap with its thick white fat layer, is the cut Brazilians prize most at a churrasco. The tradition comes from the gaúchos, the cattle herders of Rio Grande do Sul, and lives on in Sunday family barbecues in the south and in churrascarias across the country, where waiters carry the meat from table to table on long skewers. It is seasoned with nothing but coarse rock salt (sal grosso) and cooked over charcoal with the fat left on, so it bastes the meat. You can fold thick steaks into a C shape on skewers, as in the churrascarias, or grill them flat. Chef's tip: before slicing, knock the excess salt off with the back of a knife; the crust keeps just enough.

40 minBrazilianMeatGluten free
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Orecchiette con cime di rapaOrecchiette with turnip tops

In Bari the old women of Arco Basso still shape orecchiette on wooden boards in the street, and the dish everyone cooks them with is cime di rapa: the bitter, leafy turnip tops sold in big bunches from autumn to early spring. The greens and pasta boil in the same pot, then get tossed with garlic, chilli and good olive oil. Pugliese cooks usually melt in anchovies; this vegan version uses golden fried breadcrumbs (mollica), the 'poor man's cheese' of southern Italy, for crunch and savour. Chef's tip: add the chopped stalks first and the leaves a few minutes later, so everything is tender at the same moment as the pasta.

30 minItalianPasta & NoodlesVegan
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Corn & beans kebabs

Soft vegetarian seekh-style kebabs of sweetcorn, kidney beans and potato with fenugreek, spinach, ginger and green chilli, pressed onto skewers and browned over charcoal. They're crisp outside and soft inside. Serve hot with green chutney and mint and yogurt chutney.

55 minIndianSnacks & StartersSpicy
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PicaronesSweet potato and squash doughnuts

Picarones are Lima's favourite street sweet, fried to order at stalls in the parks and outside churches, especially in October during the Señor de los Milagros processions. The light, chewy rings are made from a yeasted dough of sweet potato and squash, scented with anise, fried until crisp and drenched in miel de chancaca, a dark syrup of unrefined cane sugar with orange peel, cinnamon and cloves. They are eaten hot, straight from the oil, with plenty of syrup. Chancaca is sold in Latin shops; dark muscovado or piloncillo makes a very good syrup too. Chef's tip: the dough should be very soft and sticky, like a thick batter; resist adding more flour, or the picarones turn heavy and bready.

80 minPeruvianDessertsVegan
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Barbequed paneer and vegetables

Party skewers of paneer, onion petals, capsicum, tomato, mushroom and cassava, each marinated in a thick, garlicky tandoori yogurt marinade and grilled over charcoal until charred at the edges. Make the marinade the day before and string the skewers just before the barbecue. Serve hot with mint and yogurt chutney.

325 minIndianSnacks & StartersGluten freeSpicy
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Pico de galloFresh tomato salsa

Pico de gallo, also called salsa fresca or salsa mexicana, is the fresh, uncooked salsa that sits on every Mexican table: diced ripe tomato, white onion, serrano chilli and coriander, brightened with lime juice and salt. It is crunchy, juicy and clean-tasting, with just enough heat, and goes with tacos, quesadillas, eggs, beans, rice and tortilla chips. It is best within an hour of making. Chef's tip: add the salt just before serving; salt draws water out of the tomatoes and leaves the salsa sitting in a puddle.

10 minMexicanChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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Sabudana khichdiSago with peanuts and potato

Sabudana khichdi is the dish that sees Maharashtra through every vrat (fast), from Navratri to Ekadashi, but it's so good that people eat it any day of the week. Soaked sago pearls are tossed in a pan with crushed roasted peanuts, cubes of potato, cumin and green chilli until each pearl turns glassy and separate, then finished with lemon and coriander. It's soft, chewy, nutty and gently hot. Fasting rules vary from family to family, so check yours; this version uses rock salt and no asafoetida, onion or garlic. Traditionally it's cooked in ghee; use ghee instead of oil if you aren't keeping it vegan. Chef's tip: soak the sago in just enough water to cover by the height of the pearls themselves, no more; too much water is the reason khichdi turns into one sticky lump.

25 minIndianBreakfast & BrunchVeganGluten free
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Pierogi ruskiePotato and cheese dumplings

Pierogi ruskie take their name from Red Ruthenia, the old borderland around Lwów and Przemyśl, and today they are the pierogi every Polish milk bar (bar mleczny) from Kraków to Gdańsk keeps on the menu. The filling is the Polish one: floury potato mashed with crumbly twaróg curd cheese, plenty of slowly browned onion and a lot of black pepper, wrapped in a thin, soft dough. Kraków even holds a pierogi festival every August, and ruskie are always the best sellers. Serve them boiled with more golden onion and a spoon of soured cream, or fry leftovers in butter the next day. Chef's tip: let the filling cool completely and taste it before you fill a single dumpling; it should taste over-seasoned on its own, because the dough mutes it.

90 minPolishPasta & Noodles
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PiklizSpicy pickled cabbage

Pikliz is the fiery slaw-pickle that sits on every Haitian table, in a big glass jar in the middle, and no plate of fried food in Haiti is served without it: it's spooned over fried plantain (bannann peze), fritters and rice. Shredded cabbage, carrot, onion and peppers are packed with hot scotch bonnets, cloves and peppercorns, then drowned in vinegar and lime. After a few days it is crunchy, sour and properly hot, and the vinegar itself becomes a hot sauce you sprinkle over everything. Chef's tip: slice the scotch bonnets thinly rather than leaving them whole; the heat spreads evenly through the jar and every forkful has a kick.

25 minHaitianChutneys & DipsVeganGluten freeSpicy
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Mushroom or lamHerb stew with aubergine and mushrooms

Or lam belongs to Luang Prabang, the old royal town on the Mekong, where it is cooked for long family lunches and served at almost every restaurant that makes local food. It is a thick, rustic stew of aubergine, long beans, mushrooms and greens, thickened with a little sticky rice and flavoured with sakhan, a peppery wood that numbs the lips like Sichuan pepper, plus heaps of dill and lemongrass. The usual dried buffalo skin and meat are swapped for two kinds of mushroom here. Eat it with sticky rice and a jeow. Chef's tip: if you can't find sakhan, a few lightly crushed Sichuan peppercorns give the same tingle; add them early so the tingle spreads through the broth.

75 minLaoVegetarianVeganGluten free
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Omegi tteokMillet rice cakes with red bean

Omegi tteok (오메기떡) are Jeju's best-known rice cakes: small dark-green rounds of glutinous millet and rice dough flavoured with mugwort, filled with sweet red bean, and rolled in a coat of mashed red beans or toasted nuts. Jeju farmers grew millet on fields too stony for rice, and the dough was once fermented into omegi-sul, the island's rice wine. Now they are bought in boxes at Seogwipo's Olle market as the island's favourite gift, kept in the freezer and thawed for tea time. Chef's tip: knead the dough with boiling water while it is still hot; mugwort and millet need the heat to bind into a smooth, stretchy dough.

55 minKoreanDessertsVeganGluten free
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PinakbetMixed vegetable stew

Pinakbet comes from the Ilocos region in the far north-west of Luzon, where families cook whatever grows behind the house: bitter melon, small aubergines, okra, yard-long beans and tomatoes, simmered with very little water until the vegetables shrink and wrinkle (the name comes from the Ilocano for 'shrivelled'). Ilocanos season it with fermented fish paste; here white miso gives the same savoury, salty depth without any fish, and a little squash (more common in the Tagalog version) adds sweetness. It is an everyday lunch dish, eaten with rice and often a spoonful of extra miso on the side. Chef's tip: choose small, firm bitter melon and don't scrape out every bit of the pith; a little bitterness is the point.

35 minFilipinoVegetarianVeganGluten free
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PindjurRoasted pepper and aubergine relish

Where ajvar is the patient winter preserve, pindjur is its quick summer cousin, made in Macedonian and Bosnian kitchens in July and August when tomatoes are at their ripest. Roasted peppers and aubergine are chopped rather than ground, then simmered briefly with fresh tomatoes and plenty of garlic, so it stays chunky, juicy and bright. It is eaten warm or at room temperature, scooped up with bread and a slab of white cheese, as part of a mezze spread in Ohrid or Mostar. Chef's tip: chop everything with a knife instead of a blender; a puréed pindjur loses the texture that sets it apart from ajvar.

70 minBalkanChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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Olluquito con charquiOlluco and dried beef stew

Olluco is a glossy yellow-and-pink tuber grown high in the Andes, crunchy when raw and silky when cooked, and in Lima's market eateries it is cut into fine matchsticks and stewed with charqui, sun-dried meat that was the travel food of Inca messengers. The dish is gently spiced with ají panca and finished with fresh parsley, and it is always served with white rice. Latin shops sell olluco in jars; if you can't find it, firm new potatoes or courgette give a similar texture, and beef brisket stands in well for charqui. Chef's tip: cut the olluco and rinse it well; the slippery sap washes off and the stew won't turn slimy.

95 minPeruvianCurriesGluten free
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Olla de carneBeef and vegetable pot

Olla de carne, "pot of meat", is the Costa Rican Sunday soup, cooked slowly in the Central Valley around San José and in country homes: beef shin and short ribs simmered for hours in a clear broth with big pieces of yuca, chayote, green plantain, corn, carrot and taro. The broth is served first, then the meat and vegetables, with rice on the side. The mistake is putting all the vegetables in together; add the hard ones first and the soft chayote and corn last. Chef's tip: use a little bone with the beef; it gives the broth body without any stock cube.

180 minCentral AmericanSoupsGluten free
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PinniGhee wheat flour sweets

When the fog settles over Punjab in December, kitchens fill with the smell of wheat flour roasting slowly in ghee: pinni season has started. These dense, crumbly balls of roasted atta, jaggery, almonds and fried edible gum are made in big batches for Lohri, packed into tins for relatives and given to new mothers for strength. One pinni with a glass of hot milk is a classic winter breakfast. Chef's tip: let the roasted flour cool until just warm before adding the jaggery; if it is hot, the jaggery melts and the pinni set hard as stone.

50 minIndianIndian Sweets
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OliebollenRaisin fritters

On the last day of December the queues outside the oliebollenkraam, the caravan-like stalls that pop up in every Dutch town, stretch round the block. Oliebollen ('oil balls') are the food of Oudejaarsavond, New Year's Eve: round, yeasted fritters full of raisins, currants and apple, deep-fried and buried in icing sugar. Families fry big batches at home in the afternoon and eat them with champagne at midnight. They are best within a few hours. Chef's tip: dip your two scooping spoons in the hot oil before each ball; the sticky dough slides off cleanly and the balls come out round instead of ragged.

60 minDutchDesserts
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OlanAsh gourd and cowpea stew

Olan is the quietest dish on a Travancore sadya leaf, the banana-leaf feast served in southern Kerala for Onam, weddings and temple festivals. Thin, glassy slices of ash gourd and soft red cowpeas sit in coconut milk with nothing louder than green chilli and curry leaves, and its job is to cool the palate between the tangy, fiery curries around it. The flavour comes from coconut milk added in two stages and a spoonful of raw coconut oil poured over at the end. Eat it with plain rice, or ladle it beside appam on an ordinary weekday. Chef's tip: slice the ash gourd as thin as a coin so it turns translucent in the time the coconut milk takes to thicken.

60 minIndianCurriesVeganGluten free
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OkroshkaCold vegetable and kvass soup

When Moscow swelters in July, okroshka replaces every hot soup: a bowl of finely chopped radishes, cucumber, potato, egg and a forest of green onion and dill, with ice-cold kvass poured over at the table. It is the lunch of dacha weekends and of hot afternoons on the Volga, and families argue over whether kvass or kefir is the right base (kefir works well and is less sweet). The name comes from kroshit, to crumble, since everything is chopped small. Chef's tip: rub the spring onions and dill with salt first until they give off juice; it releases a green, pungent flavour that tastes of summer.

45 minRussianSoups
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Onion focaccia

A soft, dimpled focaccia topped with thinly sliced red onion, crumbled paneer and mozzarella, torn basil, chilli flakes and crunchy sea salt, all drizzled with olive oil. It's crisp underneath and airy inside. Cut it into pieces and serve hot alongside barbecue dishes and salads.

145 minItalianBreads & Parathas
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Soya seekh kebabs

Vegetarian seekh kebabs of soya chunks, potato and paneer, spiced with garlic, ginger, green chilli, chaat masala and white pepper, pressed onto skewers and cooked over charcoal until browned. They're meaty in texture and very moreish. Serve with spring onion and yogurt dip or any chutney; they can also be deep fried.

45 minIndianSnacks & StartersGluten free
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Trofie al pesto genoveseTwisted pasta with basil pesto

In Genoa and along the Ligurian coast, pesto is pounded from small-leaved basil, pine nuts, garlic, hard cheese and local olive oil, and served on trofie, short twisted pasta, cooked in the same pot as diced potato and green beans. The starch from the potato helps the pesto cling, and the beans add sweetness. It is the dish of a summer lunch in the Cinque Terre. Chef's tip: never heat the pesto; loosen it with a spoon of pasta water in a bowl and toss the pasta off the heat so the basil stays bright green.

25 minItalianPasta & Noodles
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Pique machoBeef and sausage platter with chips

Pique macho was invented in Cochabamba, legend says late one night when hungry customers asked for whatever was left, and it remains the sharing plate Bolivians order with friends: a pile of chips topped with beef strips and sausage cooked in a peppery sauce, with onion, tomato, locoto chillies and boiled eggs on top. The name roughly means "if it stings, you're a man", for the hot locoto. This recipe can include beer in the sauce; for an alcohol-free version use beef stock. The mistake is letting the chips sit under the sauce, so they go soggy; assemble right before serving. Chef's tip: oven chips work fine and leave the hob free for the meat.

65 minAndeanMeatGluten freeSpicy
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Okayama barazushiScattered sushi with vegetables

Okayama families make a big shallow platter of barazushi for the autumn shrine festivals, Girls' Day in March and other celebrations, and it is sold in station lunch boxes all year. A local story says it began when a lord ordered people to eat only one side dish, so cooks hid everything in the rice instead. The seasoned rice is mixed with simmered vegetables and topped with seafood from the Seto Inland Sea. This version uses cooked prawns, gently simmered squid and egg threads, plus ready-made vinegared mackerel, which is cured but not cooked. Use very fresh, sushi-grade fish from a trusted fishmonger; not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Leave the mackerel out, or add extra prawns, to make it fully cooked. Chef's tip: fold the vinegar into the rice while it is hot and fan it as you go; the rice soaks up the seasoning and turns glossy instead of wet.

60 minJapaneseRice & Grains
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