Featured recipe

Bichak

Pumpkin-filled half-moon pastries

Across northern Afghanistan, around Mazar, Kunduz and Shibirghan, the autumn pumpkin harvest is turned into bichak, plump half-moon pastries that show the region's Uzbek and Turkmen neighbours in their name and shape. A soft, thin wheat dough wraps a filling of grated pumpkin and onion seasoned only with salt, black pepper and a little chilli, which bakes into something sweet, savoury and juicy, best eaten warm with a glass of tea or alongside a bowl of yogurt. Some families bake them, others fry them in a wok of oil; this version bakes them. The filling must not be wet, or the bottoms go soggy and the seams burst, so squeeze the grated pumpkin hard before mixing. Chef's tip: grate the onion finely too, so it melts into the pumpkin instead of staying in crunchy pieces.

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Sago gula MelakaSago pudding with palm sugar

This cool, wobbly pudding is named after the dark palm sugar made from coconut-flower sap around Melaka, and it's on the menu at Peranakan restaurants there and at many a Malaysian dinner party. Little domes of clear sago pearls are chilled until set, then turned out and drowned in salted coconut milk and smoky gula Melaka syrup. The pearls are soft and bouncy, the sauces rich and caramel-dark, and it can all be made the day before. Chef's tip: pour the sago into the water only once it's at a full rolling boil, and stir straight away; tepid water turns it into a gluey lump.

40 min

Malaysian Desserts

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BagnetCrispy fried pork belly

Up in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, in towns like Vigan and Batac, bagnet hangs in market stalls in golden slabs: pork belly that has been boiled, dried and deep-fried so the rind is puffed and crunchy all the way through. Ilocanos chop it into rice bowls, add it to pinakbet and dinengdeng, or eat it with sukang Iloco, the region's dark sugarcane vinegar. It is richer and crunchier than lechon kawali because it is fried twice. A tomato and onion salad with a little shrimp paste cuts the fat. Chef's tip: the second fry, in hotter oil after a rest, is what makes the rind bubble; skip it and you get chewy skin.

150 min

Filipino Meat

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SahlabWarm milk drink

Sahlab is what Cairo drinks on a cold winter evening: a thick, sweet, steaming glass of milk sold in cafés and from street carts, topped with cinnamon, coconut, chopped nuts and a few raisins, and eaten as much with a spoon as drunk. The original thickener is powdered orchid root, which is now rare and protected, so most Egyptian households and many cafés use cornflour or a ready-made sahlab mix instead, as here. Chef's tip: keep whisking from the moment the thickened milk goes in until it boils; stop for a minute and it catches on the bottom of the pan and tastes scorched.

13 min

Egyptian Drinks

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Sai krok IsanSour pork and rice sausage

Strung in little round links and grilled at night markets from Khon Kaen to Udon Thani, these garlicky sausages are tangy from fermentation, with soft rice grains in a juicy pork filling. Vendors serve them with fresh ginger slices, bird's eye chillies, raw cabbage and roasted peanuts, and every bite is a mix of sour, salty, hot and crunchy. Traditionally they are left at room temperature for two or three days to sour; that is a real food-safety risk at home without controlled cultures and curing salts, so this version cures in the fridge instead. Expect a milder tang than street-stall sai krok; a squeeze of lime at the table makes up the difference. Chef's tip: use day-old cooked rice that went into the fridge quickly; freshly cooked warm rice turns the filling mushy and keeps it in the danger zone.

65 min

Thai Meat

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Sai ouaHerby grilled pork sausage

Walk through Chiang Mai's Warorot market and you will smell sai oua before you see it: long coils of sausage smoking over charcoal, flecked green with lime leaf and orange with chilli paste. The meat is coarse and juicy, the flavour loud with lemongrass, galangal and turmeric, and Northern Thais eat it in thick slices with sticky rice, raw cabbage, nam prik noom and a few slices of fresh ginger. If you have no casings or sausage stuffer, the same mixture makes excellent flat patties. Chef's tip: fry a teaspoon of the mixture before you stuff anything and taste it; this is your only chance to fix the salt and chilli.

90 min

Thai Meat

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Gatte ki sabziGram flour dumplings in spiced yogurt gravy

Gatte ki sabzi comes from the deserts of Rajasthan, where fresh vegetables were scarce and cooks turned gram flour into 'vegetables' instead. Firm, spiced besan rolls are boiled, sliced into little wheels and then simmered in a tangy yogurt gravy until they soak up its flavour. The dumplings are soft but hold their shape and the gravy is gently sour with a warming heat. Serve with phulka, bajra roti or steamed rice. Chef's tip: keep the cooking water from the gatte and use it for the gravy; it carries their flavour and a little starch that helps keep the yogurt from splitting.

50 min

Indian Curries

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GataSweet bread with buttery filling

Gata is the sweet bread Armenians bake for Candlemas (Trndez) in February and for New Year, often with a coin hidden inside for luck; whoever finds it is set for the year. Every region shapes it differently, but the best-known are the large golden rounds sold by women at the roadside near Garni temple and Geghard monastery, cut into wedges for the drive home. Inside a tender, slightly flaky dough made with matsun (yogurt) and butter is khoriz, a sweet crumble of flour, sugar and butter that bakes into a soft, sandy layer. Eat it with black coffee or tea. Chef's tip: roll the dough thin and fold the khoriz inside like an envelope before rolling again; the folding creates layers so the gata is light rather than doughy.

75 min

Armenian Baking

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Gat kimchiMustard leaf kimchi

Dolsan island, off the port city of Yeosu in South Jeolla, grows a purple-tinged mustard green called gat that is milder and more tender than mainland mustard leaves, and gat kimchi (갓김치) made from it is the region's pride. The leaves keep a hot, wasabi-like bite that softens and turns tangy after a week or two of fermenting. Jeolla kimchi is usually heavy with fish sauce and salted anchovy; this version gets its depth from a kelp-and-rice porridge, pear, onion and soy, so it is vegan. Eat it with plain rice, noodles or on the side of jeon. Chef's tip: salt the leaves stems-first and turn them halfway; the thick stems need longer than the leaves.

50 min

Korean Basics

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Bagna càudaWarm garlic and anchovy dip

When the grape harvest is over in the Langhe and Monferrato, Piedmontese friends gather round a terracotta pot of bagna càuda, the 'hot bath', kept warm over a little flame in the middle of the table. Everyone dips raw and cooked vegetables into it: peppers, cardoons, fennel, cabbage leaves, Jerusalem artichokes, boiled potatoes and beetroot. The sauce is mellow rather than fierce, because the garlic is poached in milk before it melts with anchovies into olive oil and a little butter, giving a rich, salty, nutty bath. Hunks of bread catch the drips, and a young red wine is the usual partner. Chef's tip: keep it hot but never bubbling, on a fondue burner or tea-light warmer; if it fries, the garlic turns bitter and the anchovies harsh.

35 min

Italian Chutneys & Dips

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Sakkarai pongalSweet rice and moong dal

On the morning of Thai Pongal in mid-January, families across Tamil Nadu cook new-harvest rice in a clay pot in the courtyard and wait for the milk to bubble over: 'pongalo pongal!'. That pot becomes sakkarai pongal, a sticky, golden-brown sweet of rice and moong dal cooked soft, then simmered with melted jaggery and finished with lots of ghee, cardamom, edible camphor and cashews and raisins fried golden. It's also the classic prasadam at Vishnu temples. It's the sweet twin of the peppery ven pongal. Chef's tip: dry-roast the moong dal until it smells nutty before cooking; it adds a toasty depth that plain boiled dal can't give.

50 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Garadu chaatFried yam chaat

When the nights turn cold in Indore, the stalls of Sarafa Bazaar pile their woks with garadu, a starchy, slightly sticky yam that only appears from November to February. It is boiled, fried until the edges crunch, then shaken with a punchy masala of roasted cumin, black salt and chilli and finished with lime. People eat it standing up from a leaf bowl, often as the savoury stop between jalebi and rabri. Garadu can be hard to find outside Madhya Pradesh; purple yam or white yam from an Asian or African grocer is the closest match, and taro (arbi) works in a pinch. Chef's tip: boil the cubes only until a knife meets slight resistance, then let them steam dry completely, because wet yam spits in the oil and never crisps.

45 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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Salad shiraziTomato, cucumber and onion salad

Salad shirazi is named after Shiraz, the city of gardens in Fars province, and it is the salad served with almost every Persian rice and kebab meal. Tomato, cucumber and onion are cut into tiny, even dice and dressed simply with lime juice (or sour grape verjuice, ab-ghooreh, in Shiraz itself), dried mint and a little oil. There are no peppers or herbs to muddy it: it is crunchy, sharp and cold, and is spooned onto rice as a relish. Chef's tip: dice everything as small as a pea; the tiny cubes are what make it taste like Shirazi rather than a chopped salad.

10 min

Persian Salads

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Gansu jiangshui noodlesNoodles in tangy fermented vegetable broth

Tianshui and other towns in Gansu keep a crock of jiangshui going all summer: a pale, sour liquid made by fermenting greens in starchy noodle water. It is heated with chilli, Sichuan pepper and garlic chives and poured over hand-cut noodles, a cooling, refreshing bowl that people say beats the heat. The ferment takes 3–4 days in a warm kitchen, then keeps going for weeks if you top it up. Chef's tip: a spoonful of sauerkraut brine jump-starts the first batch, so it sours cleanly instead of growing off-flavours.

40 min

Chinese Pasta & Noodles

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