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Mazavaroo

Every Mauritian table has a little jar of something red, and mazavaroo is the fiercest of them: bird's-eye chillies crushed with garlic, ginger and salt, then loosened with oil so it keeps. A pinhead goes on a dholl puri, into a bowl of noodle soup or beside fried snacks from a Port Louis vendor, and a teaspoon is enough to wake up a whole pot of lentils. The flavour is sharp and bright rather than smoky, with a garlicky bite. Wear gloves, and keep your hands away from your eyes; the classic mistake is to blitz it in an open blender and breathe the spray. Chef's tip: this is garlic in oil, so keep it in a clean jar in the fridge with the oil covering the surface and use it within two weeks.

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Chhena poda

Chhena poda means 'burnt cheese', and it is Odisha's most famous sweet. It was first made in Nayagarh district, where a sweet maker is said to have left chhena and sugar overnight in a cooling wood oven. Fresh chhena is kneaded with sugar, a spoon of rice flour or semolina, and cardamom, then baked slowly until the outside caramelises into a dark, sticky crust and the inside stays moist and fudgy. It is offered to Lord Jagannath and sold in slabs at every Odia sweet shop. Chef's tip: line the tin with ghee-brushed banana leaf if you can; it adds the smoky note of the original.

105 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Katsudon

Japanese students often eat a bowl of katsudon the night before a big exam, because 'katsu' sounds the same as the verb 'to win'. Soba restaurants, set-meal shops and train-station stands all over Japan serve it, and it is a favourite takeaway lunch too. A panko-crusted pork loin cutlet is fried until golden, sliced, then simmered for a minute with onion and egg in sweet soy dashi. The top of the crust stays crunchy while the underside soaks up the sauce. Chef's tip: snip the fat along the edge of each cutlet in three or four places before breading, so the meat stays flat in the oil and cooks evenly.

40 min

Japanese Meat

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Chhena gaja

Chhena gaja is the sweet pilgrims carry home from Puri in boxes from the stalls along the Bada Danda, the grand road to the Jagannath temple. Fresh chhena is kneaded with semolina, cut into rectangles, fried until golden and crisp, then soaked briefly in sugar syrup so the outside turns glassy and crunchy while the inside stays soft and grainy. It travels well and keeps for days. Chef's tip: dry the fried blocks for an hour after syruping; the sugar sets into a thin crust.

80 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Takoyaki

Walk through Dotonbori in Osaka on any evening and you'll see cooks flicking dozens of batter balls around a cast-iron plate with metal picks. Stalls in the city have sold them since the 1930s, and they turn up at every summer festival, eaten from a paper boat with a cocktail stick. The outside is crisp, the inside almost molten, with a chewy piece of octopus at the centre. You need a takoyaki pan, either a stovetop cast-iron one or an electric plate. Chef's tip: fill the cups right to the top and let the batter flood across the whole plate, as the overflow is what you fold in to make each ball round.

40 min

Japanese Snacks & Starters

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Kol posola

Kol posola is the pale inner core of the banana plant, chopped and cooked down with mustard oil, ginger and green chilli until it is soft, juicy and faintly sweet. In Assamese villages, where banana plants grow in every yard, it is cheap everyday food, and it is also a favourite on Bihu tables and in Assamese thalis in Guwahati restaurants. It has a mild, cucumber-like flavour and is prized as a cooling, cleansing food. Chef's tip: as you chop the stem, twirl a finger or a skewer through the slices to catch and pull away the fine fibres; otherwise they stay stringy.

45 min

Indian Sides

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Chicken karaage

Nakatsu, a city in Oita prefecture on Kyushu, calls itself the capital of karaage and has dozens of takeaway shops selling it by weight. Across Japan, these bite-size nuggets fill school bento boxes, sit in the hot cabinet of every convenience store and arrive with a squeeze of lemon at izakaya bars. Boneless thigh soaks briefly in soy, ginger and garlic, then a dusting of potato starch fries into a thin, glassy crust. Frying twice keeps the meat juicy and the outside crisp for longer. Chef's tip: once you have tossed the chicken in starch, wait 5 minutes until the coating looks damp in patches, which is what gives that craggy, crunchy finish.

40 min

Japanese Chicken

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Chicken teriyaki

Teri means shine and yaki means grilled, which sums up the glossy, lacquered finish of this weeknight favourite. Japanese restaurants often save the teriyaki treatment for yellowtail in winter, but at home it is usually chicken thighs, cooked in one frying pan and sliced over rice or packed into a lunchbox. The sauce is just soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar, bubbled down in the pan until it clings. Serve it with shredded cabbage and a bowl of miso soup. Chef's tip: wipe the fat out of the pan with kitchen paper before the sauce goes in, so the glaze thickens and shines instead of sitting in a greasy pool.

25 min

Japanese Chicken

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Rasabali

Rasabali comes from the Baladevjew temple in Kendrapara and is one of the 56 offerings of Puri's Jagannath temple. Flattened discs of chhena are deep-fried until reddish-brown, then soaked in milk that has been simmered down until thick and sweet with cardamom. Unlike rasmalai, whose discs are poached in syrup, rasabali's are fried, so they keep a chewy, slightly caramelised skin under the milk. It is eaten chilled at festivals and weddings in Odisha. Chef's tip: press a dimple into the centre of each disc before frying, so it fries evenly and holds more milk.

90 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Nikujaga

Two naval port towns, Maizuru near Kyoto and Kure near Hiroshima, both claim nikujaga was first cooked in their navy galleys. Whatever its start, it became the dish many Japanese people think of as mum's cooking, simmered on autumn and winter evenings and served with rice and miso soup. Thin slices of beef, chunks of potato, onion and carrot cook gently in dashi seasoned with soy and sugar until the potatoes are tender and soaked with flavour. Families in eastern Japan often use pork; in the west, beef is usual. Chef's tip: cover the stew with a circle of baking paper with a small hole in the middle (an otoshibuta, or drop lid), so the small amount of liquid bastes everything evenly.

40 min

Japanese Meat

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