Featured recipe

Pasticciotto

Custard-filled shortcrust pastries

In Lecce the day starts at the bar with a pasticciotto still warm from the oven: a little oval of crumbly, golden shortcrust split open to reveal thick lemon-scented custard. It is said to come from a pastry shop in nearby Galatina in the 1700s, and the whole Salento eats it at breakfast, after Sunday Mass and with a caffè in ghiaccio in summer. The traditional pastry is made with lard; this version uses butter, which keeps it short and crisp. Chef's tip: make the custard first and chill it well; cold, thick custard stays put inside the pastry while it bakes.

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130 minAfrican Snacks & Starters

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Chilaquiles verdesTortilla chips in green salsa

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25 min

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Gatte ki sabziGram flour dumplings in spiced yogurt gravy

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50 min

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Chiles en nogadaStuffed poblanos in walnut sauce

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120 min

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75 min

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Chilka rotiRice and chana dal pancakes

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50 min

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50 min

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45 min

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Big prawns in a pale, silky coconut gravy are what a Bengali family cooks for guests, for a new son-in-law at Jamai Sasthi, or for a wedding lunch. The dish is gently spiced, a little sweet, and leans on the head fat of the prawns for richness, so it tastes of the sea rather than of chilli. Serve it with steamed gobindobhog or basmati rice. Chef's tip: if you can find shell-on prawns with heads, leave the heads on; squeeze them into the gravy as you eat for the full flavour.

45 min

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Bazin with lambBarley dough with lamb stew

Bazin is the traditional festive dish of Libya, especially in Tripoli and the western mountains: a smooth, firm dome of barley-flour dough set in the middle of a wide dish, surrounded by a spicy lamb stew of tomato, chilli and turmeric, with hard-boiled eggs and potatoes. Everyone eats from the same plate with the right hand, pinching off dough and dipping it in the sauce. The mistake is not beating the dough hard enough: it should be pounded until completely smooth, or it tastes floury. Chef's tip: beat the dough with a wooden spoon, adding cooking liquid a spoonful at a time, until it pulls cleanly away from the pot.

150 minAfrican Meat

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Tianjin fried sticky rice cakes

These are one of Tianjin's three famous snacks, named after Erduoyan ('ear hole') Lane, where the original shop opened over a hundred years ago. The dough is soft, slightly fermented glutinous rice, filled with dark, sweet red bean paste and fried until the shell is crisp and blistered while the inside stays chewy. Locals buy them for festivals and as a winter treat. Chef's tip: seal the edges thoroughly and fry at a moderate heat; hot oil makes them burst and spit.

45 min

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Chipa guasuFresh corn and cheese bake

Chipa guasu (Guaraní for 'big chipa') is sopa paraguaya's softer cousin, made from fresh corn instead of cornmeal. The kernels are grated or blended into a milky purée and baked with onion, cheese and whipped eggs into a tender, gently sweet bake that rises and wobbles. It's a summer dish at Paraguayan asados and fiestas patronales (saints' days), eaten beside grilled meat or simply with a tomato salad. Chef's tip: fold in the whisked egg whites last; it's what makes chipa guasu light and puffed rather than dense.

75 min

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Chips mayaiChip omelette

Chips mayai ('chips and eggs') is Tanzania's best-loved street food, fried to order in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar at evening stalls with big flat pans: fresh chips are bound into a thick omelette and served with kachumbari and chilli sauce or ketchup. Children and students live on it. Chef's tip: let the chips go crisp before pouring in the egg; soft chips make a soggy omelette.

40 minEast African Fast Food

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Begun bhajaFried aubergine slices

Begun bhaja is the crisp-edged, creamy aubergine slice that sits beside dal and rice on almost every Bangladeshi lunch plate, from Chittagong to Sylhet, and it is a must with bhuna khichuri on a rainy afternoon. Thick rounds are rubbed with turmeric, chilli and salt, then shallow-fried in mustard oil until the outside is caramelised and the inside melts like custard. Chef's tip: salt the slices and leave them for 10 minutes, then pat dry; they drink up far less oil and brown more evenly.

27 min

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BeguniBattered aubergine fritters

When the monsoon arrives in Kolkata, the telebhaja shops at every para corner start frying beguni: long, thin slices of aubergine dipped in a spiced gram-flour batter and fried until the coat puffs and turns golden. It is eaten with muri and a cup of tea, or alongside khichuri on a wet Saturday. The inside should be soft and creamy, the shell thin and crackly. Chef's tip: a spoonful of rice flour and a pinch of nigella in the batter keep it crisp long after frying. This is a different dish from begun bhaja, where the slices are fried bare with turmeric and salt.

30 min

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Ludagun (donkey rolls)Rice rolls with red bean paste

The name means 'donkey rolling in the dust', after the golden soybean flour that coats these soft rolls like a donkey that has rolled on a dusty road. It's one of the old Beijing sweets sold at temple fairs and in snack streets near Houhai, often next to pea-flour cakes. Inside is chewy glutinous rice dough spread with red bean paste and rolled into a spiral. Chef's tip: toast the soybean flour yourself until it smells of roasted nuts; the shop-bought kind is often pale and flat-tasting.

50 min

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Beijing sesame shaobingSesame paste flatbreads

Old Beijing eats these at breakfast with a bowl of soy milk, or tears them up beside a lamb hot pot. The dough is spread with toasted sesame paste and ground Sichuan pepper, rolled up and coiled, so a cut loaf shows a spiral of dozens of thin brown layers. The top is crusted with sesame seeds and baked until it shatters. Chef's tip: spread the paste right to the edges and roll tightly; air pockets make the layers separate and burst.

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ChitrannaLemon rice

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25 min

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Beijing mung bean cakes

Beijing pastry shops stack these pale yellow cakes high in early summer, when they're eaten for the Dragon Boat Festival and as a cooling sweet on hot afternoons. Peeled mung beans are steamed, mashed with sugar and oil, then pressed in wooden moulds, so each cake comes out with a pattern. Northern versions are dry and crumbly; Suzhou ones further south are oilier. You need a mooncake press or small mould. Chef's tip: cook the paste until it pulls away from the pan in one ball; if it's too wet the cakes slump.

80 min

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