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Masala ugali

Spiced maize meal porridge

Ugali, East Africa's staple of maize meal cooked into a stiff porridge, given a lift with toasted cumin, butter, fresh coriander and green chilli. Stir it hard and keep it soft. Serve hot with sukumawiki or any stew.

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MajariscoPlantain mash with seafood

Its name blends 'majado' (mashed plantain) and 'marisco' (seafood), and along the coast of Piura and Tumbes, near the Ecuadorian border, it's what cevicherías and beach restaurants serve when you want something hot and filling. Mashed green plantain is folded into a sauce of garlic, onion, ají and seafood juices, with prawns, squid and mussels running through it, so every forkful is creamy, garlicky and briny. Serve it with lime and salsa criolla. Mussels must be alive: tap any open ones and discard those that don't close, and discard any that stay shut after cooking. Overcooking the seafood is the most frequent mistake; it goes in at the end, just until pink and opaque. Chef's tip: keep the mussel cooking liquid and use it to loosen the mash; it's pure seafood flavour.

55 min

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MakdousWalnut-stuffed pickled aubergines

Every autumn, Damascus kitchens fill with jars of makdous as families preserve the last of the small aubergines for the winter breakfast table. The aubergines are boiled, salted and pressed for a day, then stuffed with walnuts, red pepper, garlic and chilli and packed under olive oil to cure until tangy and tender. A couple of them, split on a plate with bread, labneh and tea, is the classic Syrian morning. Common mistake: skipping the pressing — any water left in the aubergines can spoil the jar. Chef's tip: keep the jar in the fridge and always lift them out with a clean fork; homemade preserves in oil should be kept chilled and eaten within a month for safety.

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Maki acevichadoPrawn tempura rolls with ceviche sauce

Lima's Nikkei sushi bars invented the acevichado and it has become the roll every Peruvian orders: prawn tempura and avocado rolled in rice, topped with thin slices of fish and drenched in a creamy, lime-sharp sauce built from leche de tigre, ají amarillo and mayonnaise. Crisp, warm, cold and tangy in one bite, it is party food and Friday-night takeaway alike. For a safer topping, use sashimi-grade fish frozen at −20 °C for 24 hours first, keep it cold and eat the rolls at once; you can also sear the slices with a blowtorch or use cooked prawns instead. Even so, the raw-fish topping is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Overfilling is the usual mistake: the roll won't close and the rice splits. Chef's tip: use a pasteurised-egg mayonnaise and wet your hands with vinegared water so the rice doesn't stick.

90 min

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MakmouraLayered chicken and onion bread bake

Makmoura (meaning 'buried') is a village dish from around Jenin in the northern West Bank, made in olive harvest season when there is fresh oil to spare: layers of thin bread dough are baked over chicken and a heap of onions slow-cooked in olive oil with sumac and spice, so the bottom soaks up the juices and the top turns crisp. Families tear it apart by hand and eat it with yoghurt and olives. Common mistake: rushing the onions; they need a full half hour to turn sweet and jammy. Chef's tip: use good, fruity olive oil and don't skimp — it is the soul of the dish.

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MalakofftorteNo-bake sponge finger torte

Malakofftorte is the cake Viennese families put together for name days and summer parties, because the oven stays off. Sponge fingers are dipped in milk and layered with a rich almond cream made from butter, cooked vanilla custard and whipped cream, then chilled until it slices like a soft mousse cake. In many Austrian homes the soaking milk is laced with rum or almond liqueur; this version is alcohol-free and uses vanilla milk, and you can add 2 tbsp dark rum to the milk if you want the traditional taste. A common mistake is soaking the biscuits too long, so they go soggy and the layers collapse; one quick dip is enough. Chef's tip: make it the day before; it needs at least 6 hours to set and tastes best the next day.

55 min

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MalassadasFried yeast doughnuts

On Terça-feira Gorda, the last day before Lent, kitchens all over São Miguel smell of hot oil and sugar, as families fry malassadas to use up eggs and butter before the fast. Emigrants carried them to Hawaii and New England, but on the islands they are still a Carnival treat: irregular, puffy and light, with a crisp sugared outside. Eat them within an hour of frying. Chef's tip: stretch each piece thin in the middle with oiled fingers; it puffs up dramatically and stays airy.

60 min

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Malloreddus alla campidaneseSaffron gnocchetti with sausage

Malloreddus, small ridged shells of semolina pasta coloured with saffron, are Sardinia's festive pasta, and on the plain of Campidano, north of Cagliari, they're served at weddings, saints' days and Sunday lunch with this sauce. It's a pork dish: crumbled fennel pork sausage is browned, then simmered with tomato until rich, and the little ridged shells catch every bit of it. A shower of sharp pecorino sardo finishes it. Dried malloreddus (sometimes sold as gnocchetti sardi) are easy to find; homemade ones are a lovely weekend project. Chef's tip: steep the saffron in a spoonful of hot water before adding it to the sauce; the colour and perfume spread evenly instead of staying in threads.

50 min

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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 min

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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 min

Syrian Breakfast & Brunch

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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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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.

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Manjar de cocoCoconut blancmange with prune syrup

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30 min

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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 min

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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 min

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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 min

Spanish Snacks & 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 min

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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 min

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MarranitasPlantain balls with pork crackling

Breakfast stalls along Cali's busy streets and the bakeries of the Valle del Cauca fry marranitas all morning: green plantain, half-fried, pounded while hot and shaped around a nugget of crunchy pork chicharrón, then fried again until crisp and golden. The name means 'little piglets', after the pork inside. The outside shatters, the plantain layer is dense and starchy and the crackling gives a salty, porky crunch in the middle. Eat them hot with a mug of coffee or hot chocolate, or as a snack with ají and hogao for dipping. The plantains must be truly green and hard; yellowing ones turn sweet and sticky and won't hold a crisp shell. Chef's tip: pound the plantain the moment it comes out of the first fry, using a little warm salted water on your hands; once it cools it stiffens and cracks when you shape it.

70 min

Colombian Snacks & Starters

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MasghatiRosewater and saffron starch sweet

Masghati takes its name from Muscat, from where traders brought the recipe to the port towns of the Persian Gulf, and today Lar and Shiraz are famous for it. It is a clear, firm, jelly-like sweet of starch, sugar and rosewater, tinted gold with saffron and studded with pistachios, made for Nowruz guests and for gifts. It sets enough to cut into neat diamonds but stays tender. A common mistake is not cooking the starch long enough: it must turn from milky to clear, or the masghati tastes floury and weeps. Chef's tip: stir with a flat wooden spatula and scrape the bottom constantly, because the paste catches suddenly in the last few minutes.

45 min

Persian Desserts

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Massa sovadaSweet lemon bread

Sovar means to knead hard, and Azorean women once kneaded this rich bread dough for an hour by hand before Easter and the Holy Spirit feasts of early summer, when loaves are blessed and shared with the whole parish. The crumb is soft, golden and feathery, with a tight, dark shiny crust. Slices are eaten plain with coffee, toasted with butter, or used to soak up the juices of alcatra on Terceira. A common mistake is baking before the loaf has doubled, which gives a dense, cakey crumb. Chef's tip: give it a slow, full rise, which is what gives the bread its fine, cotton-soft crumb.

80 min

Portuguese Baking

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Mast-o musirYoghurt with wild shallots

Every kebab house in Tehran puts a little bowl of mast-o musir on the table beside the chelow, and at home it sits next to Friday lunch the same way. Musir is a wild mountain shallot from the Zagros, sold dried in slices; once soaked it is mild, garlicky and faintly sweet, and it gives thick yogurt a sharp bite. The one mistake to avoid is skipping the long soak, which leaves the shallots tough and bitter. If you cannot find musir, see the swap in the steps. Chef's tip: make it a few hours ahead; the shallot flavour deepens as it sits in the fridge.

15 min

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MasteloClay-pot Easter lamb with dill

Sifnos is an island of potters, and its Easter dish is named after the deep clay pot it is cooked in: lamb or kid laid on a bed of vine prunings, splashed with red wine, scattered with dill and sealed in the baker's oven overnight. The meat steams in the wine and its own juices until it falls from the bone, smelling of dill and woodsmoke, and is served on Easter Sunday with potatoes and bread. This recipe uses red wine; for an alcohol-free version use red grape juice with 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Common mistake: opening the pot to check, which lets the steam escape and dries the lamb. Chef's tip: if you can't get vine twigs, a few thick slices of onion or a small rack under the meat stops it sitting in the liquid.

230 min

Greek Meat

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Mecklenburger RippenbratenApple and prune stuffed pork belly

Mecklenburger Rippenbraten is the Christmas and Sunday roast of Mecklenburg on the Baltic coast, a flat piece of pork belly spread with apple and prunes, rolled, tied and roasted until the skin crackles. The fruit melts into the meat and turns the pan juices into a sweet, dark gravy, served with red cabbage and boiled potatoes. The prunes are sometimes soaked in rum; here they are soaked in apple juice, so the dish is alcohol-free. Chef's tip: dry the scored skin uncovered in the fridge overnight; dry skin is what puffs into crackling.

180 min

German Meat

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MatafanThick potato pancake

The name is said to come from 'mate faim', 'kills hunger', and that is what this thick pancake did for farmers in the Savoie and Bauges mountains, who ate it for breakfast before a day in the fields or the high pastures. Every valley makes it differently; this version is a golden cake of grated potato, egg and a little milk, cooked slowly in butter and finished with Beaufort, served cut into wedges with a green salad or a fried egg. Beaufort is made with animal rennet; a vegetarian mountain-style cheese works too, or leave it out and serve the matafan with jam for a sweet version. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated potato really hard in a tea towel; the drier it is, the crisper the crust.

40 min

French Breakfast & Brunch

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Matambre a la pizzaFlank steak with tomato and mozzarella

Weekend asados around Buenos Aires usually end with a show-off dish from the grill, and matambre a la pizza is the one that makes children cheer: a whole sheet of matambre (the thin flank cut that sits under the skin) cooked slowly until tender, flipped, then spread with tomato sauce, oregano and mozzarella and left on the grill until the cheese bubbles. Parrillas in the suburbs sell it cut into squares. Many cooks first simmer the meat in milk, which keeps the lean cut juicy and soft; that is the method here, finished under a hot grill or in the oven if you have no barbecue. Matambre is eaten well done and tender rather than pink. The usual mistake is grilling it straight away like a steak, which leaves it leathery: slow cooking first is what makes it tender. Chef's tip: score the membrane on the fatty side in a criss-cross before cooking, so the sheet stays flat instead of curling up when it hits the heat.

120 min

Argentinian Meat

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Matambre arrolladoRolled stuffed flank steak

Christmas and New Year in Argentina fall in high summer, so the festive table is crowded with cold dishes, and matambre arrollado is the one that draws a crowd: a thin sheet of beef from between the ribs and skin (matambre, the rose or flank cut), spread with garlic and parsley, layered with hard-boiled egg, carrot and red pepper, rolled into a fat sausage, poached and pressed. Rotiserías in the Buenos Aires suburbs sell it by the slice, and each round shows a mosaic of colours. Served cold with Russian salad and a sharp chimichurri, it is tender and savoury. Because the outside of the meat ends up rolled inside, cook it to a core temperature of 71 °C, as for minced meat. The usual mistake is slicing it warm: it falls apart, so press it under a weight in the fridge overnight. If you can't find matambre, ask the butcher for a thin flank steak butterflied to 1 cm. Chef's tip: lay the meat with the grain running along the roll, so each slice cuts across the fibres and stays tender.

180 min

Argentinian Meat

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Mate com limãoIced mate with lime

On Copacabana and Ipanema, vendors in orange uniforms trudge across the hot sand carrying two metal barrels, one of iced mate tea and one of limonada, shouting 'mate, limão!' and mixing the two in a plastic cup for each customer. The tea is chá mate tostado, roasted yerba mate leaves brewed like ordinary tea, with a smoky, toasty taste; with sweet lime lemonade it becomes the definitive carioca beach drink, cold, tangy and gently caffeinated. Toasted mate is sold loose or in tea bags in Brazilian shops; green yerba mate gives a grassier result. Squeezing the limes too hard, or blending them whole, is the usual pitfall, because the white pith turns the lemonade bitter. Chef's tip: brew the tea strong and chill it completely before mixing, so the ice does not dilute it.

15 min

Brazilian Drinks

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Matjes HausfrauenartHerring in apple cream sauce

Matjes nach Hausfrauenart, 'housewife's matjes', is the early-summer plate of northern Germany, eaten when the new season's young herring arrives in June, from Glückstadt on the Elbe to the cafés of Emden. Mild, buttery matjes fillets are covered in a cool sauce of sour cream and yoghurt with crisp apple, onion and gherkin, and served with hot boiled new potatoes in their skins and sometimes green beans. Matjes is cured raw herring, so buy commercially prepared, previously frozen fillets from the chilled counter and keep them cold; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: make the sauce first and let it chill for 20 minutes so the apple and onion flavour it before the fish goes in.

30 min

German Fish

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MazamorraHominy milk pudding

Long before cake, there was mazamorra: dried white maize, soaked and simmered with water until the kernels burst, then finished with milk, sugar and cinnamon. In colonial Buenos Aires mazamorreras sold it from clay pots on the street, and it still turns up at school and town-hall celebrations every 25 May and on cold evenings in the interior, eaten warm or cold from a bowl. The kernels stay pleasantly chewy in a creamy, gently sweet milk, a bit like rice pudding with more bite. Look for maíz blanco pisado (cracked white hominy) in Latin American shops; dried white pozole corn is the closest substitute. Plan ahead: the corn needs soaking overnight. Adding the milk too early is the main mistake, because the corn will not soften in milk and the pot catches on the bottom, so cook it in water first. Chef's tip: stir in a little of the hot liquid with the sugar before you add the rest of the milk, and serve it with a dusting of cinnamon or a spoonful of honey.

160 min

Argentinian Desserts

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Mazorca desgranadaSweetcorn with chicken and cheese

Food trucks and street corners in Bogotá and Medellín sell mazorca desgranada in plastic tubs, late into the evening: sweet corn kernels cut off the cob, fried in butter and layered with shredded chicken, melted cheese, crunchy potato sticks, pineapple sauce and salsa rosada. Some stands add bacon, beef or quail eggs; this version keeps to chicken. It is sweet, salty and gooey, and a hit with teenagers. Using tinned corn without draining it well is a common error: the water dilutes the sauces and the tub gets soggy. Chef's tip: fry the corn until a few kernels brown and pop; that caramelised edge stands up to all the sweet sauces. For a vegetarian tub, skip the chicken and use a cheese made with microbial rennet.

35 min

Colombian Fast Food

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MeghliSpiced rice pudding

When a baby is born in Lebanon, the family cooks a big pot of meghli and hands out bowls to every visitor who comes to congratulate them; it also appears at Christmas in Christian homes. Ground rice is simmered with sugar and warm spices — caraway, cinnamon and anise — until it sets into a smooth, cocoa-brown pudding with no milk or eggs at all. Each bowl is topped with desiccated coconut and a generous pile of soaked walnuts, almonds, pistachios and pine nuts. Common mistake: walking away from the pot; ground rice catches and lumps fast, so it needs steady stirring. Chef's tip: soak the nuts in cold water overnight and peel the almonds; they turn plump and crisp, which is the hallmark of a good meghli.

50 min

Lebanese Desserts

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Mejillones a la provenzalMussels with garlic and parsley

On the Atlantic coast around Puerto Madryn and the Golfo Nuevo, mussels from cold Patagonian waters are farmed and gathered in quantity, and seafood places along the rambla steam them a la provenzal, which in Argentina means lots of garlic and parsley. A splash of dry white wine goes into the pot; the alcohol mostly cooks off, but you can swap it for fish stock with a little lemon for an alcohol-free pot that tastes just as good. Serve with bread or chips to mop up the briny juices. Cooking mussels too long is the usual slip: they shrink and turn rubbery, so lift the lid as soon as most have opened. Before cooking, throw away any mussel with a broken shell or one that stays open when tapped; after cooking, discard any that stay shut. Chef's tip: keep the garlic in gently warm oil until it just smells sweet; brown garlic turns bitter and dominates the mussels.

25 min

Argentinian Fish

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Mexillóns en escabechePickled mussels

Galicia's estuaries are lined with the wooden rafts (bateas) where mussels grow on ropes, and the region's canneries have long sold them in escabeche: steamed, shelled and kept in a warm-spiced marinade of oil, vinegar and paprika. Made at home, they're a tapa for an aperitif with crisps and cold drinks, and they keep for several days. Throw away any mussels with cracked shells, and any open ones that don't close when tapped, before cooking. A common mistake is pouring the marinade over cold mussels straight from the fridge: mix while both are warm so the flavours soak in, then chill. Chef's tip: they taste best after a full day in the fridge.

40 min

Spanish Fish

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Mel i matóCurd cheese with honey and walnuts

On the road up to Montserrat, farm women once sat at stalls selling fresh mató, a soft, mild, unsalted curd cheese, and the dessert of mató drizzled with honey became a fixture of Catalan restaurants. It is as simple as dessert gets, and best with the freshest cheese. Shop-bought mató and some ricottas are set with animal rennet; this home version is set with lemon juice instead, so it is vegetarian. If you buy cheese, check the label for a vegetarian or microbial rennet. Chef's tip: heat the milk gently and stop at 90 °C; boiling makes the curds tough and grainy.

30 min

Spanish Desserts

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Mulinciani chiniStuffed aubergines

Mulinciani chini, 'full aubergines' in Calabrian dialect, are what summer gardens across Calabria turn into in August: halved aubergines hollowed out, their pulp fried and mixed with soaked bread, pecorino, egg, garlic and basil, then piled back into the shells and baked in a light tomato sauce. They are made in big trays for family lunches and taken cold to the beach the next day. The filling turns soft and savoury, the shells silky. Chef's tip: they taste best after resting for an hour, so they are perfect to make ahead.

70 min

Italian Vegetarian

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MelcochasPulled panela taffy

Pulling melcocha is a spectacle at roadside stalls in panela country, around Villeta in Cundinamarca and the Santander highlands. A syrup of panela is boiled until thick, cooled just enough to handle, then stretched, folded and stretched again until it turns from dark brown to a pale, satiny gold and becomes chewy. It is twisted into ropes and cut into pieces that taste of caramel and molasses. Kids and adults both buy it in little bags, and it makes a fun kitchen project for a group. Getting the timing wrong is the usual mistake: too hot and it burns your hands and sticks, too cold and it snaps instead of stretching. Work when it feels like warm putty. The syrup is dangerously hot, so keep children well back until it has cooled. Chef's tip: a sugar thermometer takes the guesswork out; take the syrup off at 125 °C for a chewy result.

45 min

Colombian Desserts

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MelitiniaSweet cheese cups with mastic

Santorini's Easter sweet is melitinia: small, thin pastry cups pinched around a soft filling of fresh cheese, sugar and mastic, baked until the tops crack and turn golden. Islanders bake trays of them on Holy Saturday and offer them on Easter Sunday with coffee, and their resinous, piney mastic perfume sets them apart from cheese pastries elsewhere in Greece. Fresh mizithra is the island cheese; ricotta, usually rennet-free, is a good substitute. Common mistake: grinding mastic on its own, which makes it gum up; always crush it with a spoon of sugar. Chef's tip: roll the pastry very thin, about 2 mm, so it bakes crisp around the creamy filling.

70 min

Greek Baking

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MelitzanosalataSmoky aubergine dip

Every Greek taverna puts melitzanosalata on the meze table, especially in summer when aubergines are charred over the same coals as the souvlaki. Unlike Levantine dips it has no tahini: the smoky flesh is chopped with a knife, not puréed, and sharpened with red wine vinegar, raw garlic, parsley and plenty of fruity olive oil, so it stays rough-textured and bright. Serve with warm pitta, grilled bread or alongside fried fish. Common mistake: leaving the bitter juices in; drain the cooked flesh in a sieve for 10 minutes. Chef's tip: char the aubergines directly on a gas flame or barbecue until they collapse; the oven alone will not give the smoky taste.

40 min

Greek Chutneys & Dips

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MelomakaronaHoney-dipped spice cookies

From early December, bakeries and kitchens all over Greece fill tins with melomakarona, the oval cookies that sit beside kourabiedes on every Christmas table and get handed to visitors with coffee. The dough is made with olive oil and orange juice rather than butter, scented with cinnamon and clove, then baked and plunged into warm honey syrup so the inside turns soft and sticky while the edges stay crisp. Common mistake: dipping hot cookies into hot syrup, which turns them to mush; one of the two must be cool. Chef's tip: mix the dough only until it comes together; overworking it squeezes out the oil and the cookies bake hard and greasy.

70 min

Greek Baking

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MelopitaHoney and fresh cheese pie

On Sifnos, the Easter table always has a melopita, a crustless pie of fresh cheese, eggs and thyme honey baked until just set and dusted heavily with cinnamon. It is lighter than a cheesecake, gently sweet and floral from the honey, and tastes best a day after baking, cut into squares with coffee. The island cheese is fresh mizithra; ricotta works well and is usually made without animal rennet. Common mistake: baking it too hot, which makes it puff up and crack, then sink and weep. Chef's tip: let it cool slowly in the switched-off oven with the door ajar for a smooth, silky set.

60 min

Greek Desserts

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Menestra de TudelaSpring vegetable stew

In Tudela, at the southern tip of Navarre, the market gardens along the Ebro send out artichokes, peas, broad beans and asparagus all at once in April and May, and the town celebrates with its Jornadas de Exaltación de la Verdura. Menestra is how those vegetables reach the table: every one is cooked on its own, the artichokes and chard stalks are dipped in flour and egg and fried, and everything is brought together at the end in a little garlic and onion sauce. Local cooks often add cured ham; this version leaves it out and is fully vegetarian. Chef's tip: save a cupful of the water the vegetables were boiled in, because it gives the final sauce far more flavour than plain water or stock.

95 min

Spanish Vegetarian

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MenestrónBeef, bean and pasta soup

Think of the Italian minestrone after a century of Lima kitchens: menestrón is thicker, heartier and greener, a weekday soup that families and menú restaurants make in huge pots. Beef shin simmers into a rich broth with potatoes, squash, corn, cabbage, green beans and white beans, then short pasta goes in, and finally a purée of basil, spinach, garlic and fresh cheese turns the whole pot pale green and fragrant. It is a meal in a bowl, best with bread and a squeeze of lime or a spoon of ají. People tend to add the basil purée too early; boiled, it loses its colour and its scent, so stir it in off the heat. Chef's tip: for a vegetarian menestrón, skip the beef and use vegetable stock, with a cheese made with microbial (vegetarian) rennet.

100 min

Peruvian Soups

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Merluza en salsa verdeHake and clams in parsley sauce

Bilbao families have cooked merluza en salsa verde in a shallow clay cazuela for generations, and it still turns up at Sunday lunch and on Christmas Eve. The sauce is just olive oil, garlic, parsley and the fish's own juices, thickened by gently shaking the dish so the gelatine from the hake binds it, much like a pil-pil. Clams open on top at the end. A common mistake is stirring with a spoon, which breaks the fish; swirl the dish instead. Chef's tip: keep the heat low once the hake goes in, because the sauce only comes together when it barely simmers.

40 min

Spanish Fish

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Mercimek köftesiRed lentil and bulgur patties

No women's afternoon gathering in Ankara or Kayseri is complete without a platter of mercimek köftesi: little finger-pressed ovals of red lentils and fine bulgur, rich with onion, pepper paste, cumin and a big handful of spring onion and parsley. They're eaten cold, tucked into lettuce leaves with a squeeze of lemon, and they keep well for picnics and lunch boxes. Common mistake: draining the lentils; the bulgur needs all that hot liquid to swell, so cook the lentils until the water is just absorbed. Chef's tip: knead the mixture with wet hands for a few minutes after the bulgur softens; the more you knead, the smoother and less crumbly the köfte.

50 min

Turkish Vegetarian

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MerengónMeringue with cream and strawberries

Weekend drives out of Bogotá often end at a roadside sweet shop with a slice of merengón: two discs of crisp, chalky meringue sandwiched and piled with whipped cream and fruit. Strawberry is the classic in the highlands, while on the Caribbean coast soursop (guanábana) is just as popular. Think of it as Colombia's answer to pavlova, crunchier and sweeter, assembled shortly before eating so the meringue cracks under the spoon. The meringue needs a long, slow bake and a slow cool in the oven, so plan ahead. Humidity and undissolved sugar are the main enemies: if the sugar is not fully beaten in, the meringue weeps sticky syrup, so rub a little between your fingers and keep whisking until it feels smooth. For a soursop version, swap the strawberries for 300 g thawed soursop pulp, folded into half the cream. Chef's tip: assemble no more than an hour before serving, or the cream softens the meringue.

150 min

Colombian Desserts

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