Featured recipe

Tomato bredie

Mutton and tomato stew

Winter Sundays in the Boland and the Cape Flats smell of tamatiebredie: fatty mutton neck left to murmur for two hours with a kilo of ripe tomatoes, a stick of cinnamon, a few cloves and potatoes that soften into the sauce. The tomatoes collapse into a thick, brick-red gravy that is sweet, gently spiced and glossy with mutton fat, and the meat falls from the bone at a nudge. Serve it over plain white rice with a spoonful of fruit chutney or a beetroot salad on the side; like most bredies it tastes even better the next day. Most people drown it in water at the start, which leaves a thin, sour soup, so let the tomatoes provide the liquid and top up only by the splash. Chef's tip: for a meat-free pot, skip the mutton, soften the onions and spices the same way, then simmer two drained 400 g tins of butter beans with the tomatoes and potatoes for 40 minutes.

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Italian Sides

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CapunsChard parcels of herby dough

Capuns come from the valleys of Graubünden, where every village in the Surselva and Engadin has its own way of making them, and they are cooked on cold evenings and for festivals in mountain inns. A soft spätzle batter flavoured with herbs and little cubes of air-dried salsiz sausage and bacon is wrapped in chard leaves, then the parcels are poached in a mixture of milk and stock and finished with butter and grated mountain cheese. The salsiz and bacon are pork. Most first attempts fail because the dough is too runny to wrap; it should drop slowly off a spoon, like very thick porridge. Chef's tip: dip the chard leaves into boiling water for just 10 seconds so they turn supple enough to roll without tearing.

80 min

Swiss Meat

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Carciofi alla romanaBraised artichokes with mint

Every spring, from February to April, Roman market stalls pile up round, thornless romanesco artichokes (cimaroli), and trattorie serve them alla romana: stuffed with wild mint, parsley and garlic and braised stem-up in oil and water until meltingly soft. They are eaten warm or at room temperature as a contorno, often next to their crisp cousins, carciofi alla giudia. Any large globe artichoke works at home. Chef's tip: braise them upside down, stems in the air and tightly packed, so the hearts sit in the liquid and the stems steam to the same tenderness.

50 min

Italian Sides

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Cari pouletChicken curry

In Réunion a cari is any stew cooked with turmeric (called "safran" on the island), garlic, ginger, onion, tomato and thyme, and cari poulet is the dish families cook on Sundays in Saint-Denis and the mountain villages, often in a big cast-iron pot over a wood fire. It is served with white rice, red beans or lentils, and a fiery rougail on the side. The mistake is adding water too early: let the chicken brown and the tomatoes melt first, then add only a little. Chef's tip: thyme is essential in Réunionnais cooking; add it whole and fish it out before serving.

65 min

Mauritian Chicken

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CarimañolasYuca fritters stuffed with beef

Carimañolas are torpedo-shaped fritters of mashed yuca filled with savoury minced beef, a breakfast and party snack in Panama City and along the Caribbean coast in Colón, often eaten with a cup of coffee or a spoon of hot sauce. The yuca dough is soft and smooth, the outside crisp after frying. The mistake is working the yuca dough while it is cold; mash and shape it while still warm, when it is smooth and pliable. Chef's tip: wet your hands with a little oil or water as you shape them so the dough doesn't stick.

80 minCentral American Snacks & Starters

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Carne de porco à alentejanaPork and clams

Despite the name, this surf-and-turf dish of pork and clams is most often linked with the Algarve coast, where Alentejo pork met local shellfish; today it is served in tascas all over Portugal, especially for Sunday lunch. It is a pork dish: cubes of pork shoulder marinate in massa de pimentão (sweet red pepper paste), garlic and traditionally white wine, then are fried and tossed with steamed clams, crisp potato cubes, pickles and lots of coriander. For an alcohol-free version, swap the wine for chicken stock with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar. Chef's tip: buy the pork with a little fat on; lean loin turns dry and tough when fried.

80 min

Portuguese Meat

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Casado vegetarianoRice, beans and plantain plate

Walk into any soda (small family diner) in San José at lunchtime and the board will offer a casado: one plate where rice and beans are 'married' to salad, sweet plantain and a main. The meatless version is just as common, with a fried egg and a slice of fresh white cheese, plus a little picadillo of chopped vegetables. It's a full, balanced lunch, and every element is simple. Chef's tip: cook the plantain only when it's deeply black-skinned and soft; ripe plantain caramelises to sticky dark edges, green plantain just goes dry.

65 minCentral American Vegetarian

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CassouletWhite bean and duck stew

Cassoulet is the great winter feast of the Languedoc, and the towns of Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse still argue over who makes it best. Contains pork: white beans cook with pork rind and belly, then bake for hours with duck confit and garlicky Toulouse sausages in a deep earthenware dish until a dark crust forms on top. It takes two days at a relaxed pace and feeds a crowd. Serve with nothing more than a green salad. Chef's tip: break the crust and push it under several times while it bakes; each new crust adds flavour and body.

280 min

French Meat

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Cataplana de mariscoSeafood and sausage steam pot

Cataplana is the Algarve's showpiece, named after the hinged, clam-shaped copper pan it is cooked in, and it is served at the table in harbour towns like Olhão and Portimão, lid opened in a puff of steam. This version contains pork: smoky chouriço sausage goes in with the onion, peppers and tomato, then clams, prawns and firm white fish steam on top in their own juices. Bring bread for the broth. No cataplana? A wide casserole with a tight lid works. Chef's tip: purge the clams in salty water in the fridge for an hour so they spit out their sand before cooking.

60 min

Portuguese Fish

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Cauliflower tinga tacosChipotle cauliflower tacos

Tinga comes from Puebla, where shredded meat is simmered in a sauce of sweet sliced onion, tomato and smoky chipotle chillies and piled onto tostadas or tacos. Here roasted cauliflower takes the place of the chicken: browned in a hot oven so it turns nutty and holds its shape, then folded through the brick-red sauce so every floret is glossy and smoky. The result, tinga de coliflor, is sweet, tangy and properly spicy; serve it in warm corn tortillas or on crisp tostadas with avocado, shredded lettuce and lime. Chef's tip: cook the onions slowly until soft and sweet before the tomatoes go in; the sweetness is what balances the heat of the chipotle.

35 min

Mexican Vegetarian

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Causa limeñaLayered potato terrine

Causa limeña is Lima's cold potato terrine: yellow potatoes mashed with lime, oil and ají amarillo, pressed into layers and filled. In Lima it is a lunchtime starter sold in every menú and at every family party, often with tuna or chicken; this vegetarian causa is filled with ripe avocado and a creamy salad of corn, peas and carrot. The potato should be smooth, sunny yellow, tangy and gently hot, and the whole thing is served cold in neat slices. Make it in the morning for dinner, or the day before for a party. Chef's tip: mash the potatoes while warm but add the lime only once they have cooled; lime on hot potato turns the mash grey and gluey.

50 min

Peruvian Snacks & Starters

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Cazuela de vacunoBeef and vegetable soup

Cazuela is the soup Chilean grandmothers make all through winter, from Santiago's Central Valley to the farms of the south: each bowl gets a whole piece of beef on the bone, a whole potato, a wedge of pumpkin and a piece of corn in a clear broth, with a little rice or green beans and plenty of fresh coriander. It is eaten as a full meal, with pebre and bread. The mistake is cutting the vegetables small: they should stay in big pieces, one of each per person. Chef's tip: simmer the beef very gently and skim it well so the broth stays clear.

145 min

Chilean Soups

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CendolPandan jelly in coconut milk

On a sweltering afternoon in Melaka, the queue snakes out of the cendol shops on Jonker Street: a bowl of shaved ice drenched in salted coconut milk and smoky, dark gula Melaka syrup, hiding soft green jelly 'worms' made from rice flour and pandan, with red beans at the bottom. It's sweet, salty, creamy and cold all at once, and it's the city's signature dessert. Melaka's own gula Melaka is the key; it should smell of caramel and woodsmoke. Chef's tip: a pinch of salt in the coconut milk makes the palm sugar taste deeper; without it the bowl tastes flat.

40 min

Malaysian Desserts

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Ceylon teaSpiced milk tea

In the misty tea country around Nuwara Eliya, Hatton and Ella, and in every roadside tea kade across Sri Lanka, tea is made strong, sweetened generously and often whitened with milk, then poured from a height between two jugs so it cools a little and wears a frothy cap. Families drink it first thing, again at 'tea time' around four, and with every short eats snack in between. Unlike Indian masala chai there are no spices: the flavour comes from bright, brisk high-grown Ceylon black tea, often a BOP or BOPF grade. If you'd rather have it plain, kahata thé is the same tea with no milk and a bite of jaggery. The common mistake is stewing the leaves too long, which turns it bitter and tannic; three to four minutes is plenty. Chef's tip: pour from jug to jug four or five times; the 'pulled' tea is smoother and creamier.

5 min

Sri Lankan Drinks

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ČesnečkaGarlic soup

Česnečka is the soup Czechs swear by after a long night in a Prague pivnice: a thin, savoury broth fragrant with raw garlic, caraway and marjoram, with soft potato cubes, crunchy fried bread and a fistful of grated cheese melting into each bowl. It costs almost nothing, comes together in half an hour and is served in workers' canteens and village pubs all winter. This version uses vegetable stock instead of the old meat bouillon. Chef's tip: crush the garlic into the bowls or add it right at the end off the heat; boiled garlic goes sweet and mild, and česnečka should bite.

30 min

Czech Soups

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ĆevapiGrilled minced meat fingers

In Sarajevo's old Baščaršija bazaar, ćevabdžinicas grill ćevapi from morning till late night, serving them ten at a time stuffed into a puffy, griddle-warmed somun flatbread with raw onion and a spoon of kajmak. The little skinless fingers are made from beef (often mixed with lamb), seasoned with nothing more than salt, pepper, garlic and a little bicarbonate of soda, which gives them their bouncy bite. Belgrade and Banja Luka have their own versions, but the idea is the same: smoky meat, soft bread, sharp onion. People often over-season them with herbs and paprika; the Bosnian way is plain, letting the meat and charcoal speak. Chef's tip: chill the shaped ćevapi well before grilling and turn them only once or twice, so they keep a juicy centre and a crusty outside.

40 minBalkan Meat

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Cha ca La VongTurmeric fish with dill

A family restaurant in Hanoi's Old Quarter served this one dish for so long that the street itself was renamed Chả Cá, Grilled Fish Street. Chunks of white fish are marinated in turmeric and galangal, cooked until golden, then brought to the table in a pan of hot oil where everyone throws in handfuls of dill and spring onion to wilt. You eat it over rice vermicelli with peanuts, fresh herbs and a pungent shrimp-paste dip. Dill is rare elsewhere in Vietnamese cooking, which is why this dish tastes so distinct. Chef's tip: use a lot more dill than seems sensible; it is treated as a vegetable here, not a garnish.

45 min

Vietnamese Fish

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ChainsooRoasted black gram dal

Chainsoo comes from the Garhwal hills, where whole black urad is roasted in a dry pan until it smells like toasted bread, ground coarsely on a hand mill and cooked into a thick, smoky dal. It is a winter dish: heavy, warming and full of protein, eaten with plain rice or jhangora and a drizzle of ghee for anyone who isn't keeping it vegan. Village cooks make it in a lohe ki kadhai, the iron pan that turns it almost black. The texture should be grainy and spoonable, somewhere between a dal and a porridge. Chef's tip: roast the urad slowly over a medium-low heat; the moment it turns from golden to dark brown it tastes bitter, so keep stirring and pull it off early.

65 min

Indian Curries

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ChajáSponge, peach and cream cake

Chajá was created in 1927 at a bakery in Paysandú, a city on the Uruguay River, and named after a local bird whose feathers look as fluffy as its crumbly meringue coat. Today it's Uruguay's birthday and celebration cake: layers of light sponge soaked in peach syrup, filled with whipped cream, peaches and dulce de leche, then covered in crushed meringue. It's sweet, soft and crunchy at once, best on the day it's assembled. Chef's tip: soak the sponge but not too much; it should feel moist, not wet, or the layers slide.

90 min

Paraguayan Baking

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Chak-chakHoney-bound fried dough

Chak-chak arrived in Uzbekistan with Tatar families and is now a fixture of wedding tables and Navruz spreads in Tashkent and Samarkand: tiny nuggets of egg dough fried crisp, then tossed in hot honey syrup and pressed into a mound or ring that's broken apart with the fingers. Guests nibble it all evening with green tea. It keeps for a week, so it's often made a day or two ahead. Chef's tip: cook the honey syrup only to the soft-ball stage (about 115°C); boil it longer and the chak-chak sets as hard as brittle.

60 min

Uzbek Desserts

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Chak-hao kheerBlack rice pudding

Chak-hao is Manipur's aromatic black rice, grown in the valley around Imphal; when cooked slowly in milk it turns a deep violet and makes chak-hao kheer, the pudding served at Meitei feasts, weddings and Ningol Chakouba, the festival when married daughters come home for a meal. The grains stay slightly chewy and nutty, and the milk takes on a lavender colour. Chef's tip: soak the rice for at least 3 hours, or overnight; black rice has a hard bran layer and won't soften in the milk otherwise.

70 min

Indian Desserts

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ChakalakaSpicy vegetable and bean relish

Chakalaka is said to have started in the townships and mines around Johannesburg, where workers cooked tinned beans and vegetables with chilli and curry powder over open fires. Today no South African braai (barbecue) is complete without a pot of it, and it goes on the table at Sunday lunch, at funerals and weddings, served warm or cold alongside pap. It is spicy, a little sweet from the carrots and peppers, and tangy from the tomato and beans. Chef's tip: grate the carrots rather than chopping them; they melt into the relish and give it its characteristic soft, spoonable texture.

30 min

South African Sides

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ChakhwiJackfruit seed and papaya stew

Chakhwi is a Tripuri festive stew cooked at weddings and family feasts around Agartala, where the defining ingredient is 'khar' or soda, made by filtering water through banana-plant ash. It softens vegetables and gives a smooth, gently alkaline taste. Pork chakhwi is the best known; the vegetarian version is cooked with raw papaya, jackfruit seeds, bamboo shoot and long beans, with ginger and green chilli. It is soupier than Assamese khar and has no lentils. Chef's tip: use bicarbonate of soda if you have no ash water, but only a pinch; you should be able to taste it, not feel it.

50 min

Indian Soups

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Chakki ki shaakWheat gluten curry

This Malwa dish from around Indore and Ujjain is a lesson in thrift: wheat dough is washed under water until only its stretchy gluten remains, then steamed into a firm block and cut into rounds that look like little grinding stones, or chakki. Fried and simmered in a spiced yogurt gravy, the pieces turn chewy and meaty, soaking up flavour like a sponge. It is a Sunday or special-occasion sabzi in Marwari and Malwi homes, eaten with hot rotis or bafla. It takes time, but most of it is hands-off resting and washing. Chef's tip: whisk the yogurt with the coriander powder and add it off the heat, then bring it back slowly, so the gravy stays smooth instead of curdling.

110 min

Indian Curries

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Chakuli pithaRice and urad dal pancakes

Chakuli pitha is Odisha's breakfast pancake and the first of the pithas a child learns to love; it is offered to Lord Jagannath and made at home on Sundays and for Manabasa Gurubar in the month of Margasira. Rice and a little urad dal are soaked, ground and fermented overnight, then poured onto a hot pan into a pancake that is thinner than an uttapam but softer and thicker than a dosa, with a lacy, holey top. It is eaten with aloo bhaja, ghuguni or simply with jaggery. Chef's tip: cook only on one side under a lid; the steam sets the top and keeps the holes.

45 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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ChallahBraided egg bread

On Friday afternoons the bakeries of Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market and every Jewish neighbourhood from Brooklyn to Golders Green fill with plaited, shiny challah for the Shabbat table, where two loaves sit under an embroidered cloth until the blessing. The dough is enriched with eggs, oil and a little honey, so the crumb is soft, faintly sweet and pulls apart in feathery strands, and the crust bakes deep mahogany. Leftovers make wonderful French toast. Chef's tip: brush the egg glaze twice, once before rising and once just before baking, for the deep, lacquered shine.

180 min

Israeli Baking

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Chaman kaliyaPaneer in turmeric milk gravy

In Kashmir paneer is called chaman, and kaliya is the name for a gravy coloured bright yellow with turmeric rather than red with chilli. Kashmiri Pandit cooks fry thick slabs of paneer, rest them in warm water so they stay spongy, then simmer them in milk with fennel, dry ginger and cardamom. The result is mild, sweet-scented and soothing, a dish that sits beside the fiery ones on a wedding or festival spread and is just as welcome on a weekday with rice. Chef's tip: use a generous spoon of good turmeric; the gravy should glow a deep gold, and the milk mellows any rawness.

40 min

Indian Curries

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Chana jor garamSpiced flattened chickpea snack

Chana jor garam is sold from a tin box slung round a vendor's neck on the Kolkata Maidan, at Babughat and along Esplanade, with a sing-song call to match its name. Chickpeas are soaked, pressed flat, and fried or roasted until crunchy, then tossed to order with raw onion, tomato, green chilli, coriander, lime and a spice mix, and handed over in a paper cone. It is lighter than jhalmuri and much crunchier. The same snack is sold on Mumbai beaches; this is the Kolkata cart version. Chef's tip: flatten the soaked chickpeas while still damp, with a rolling pin between two cloths, so they split into thin discs.

35 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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Changsha stinky tofuFried fermented tofu

Walk down Pozi Street in Changsha and you'll smell this before you see it. The tofu is fermented in a brine until it turns jet black and pungent, then fried until it puffs up with a crisp skin and a soft, hollow middle. Vendors poke a hole in each piece and spoon in a sauce of chopped chillies, garlic and soy. Making the brine takes weeks, so this home version starts with bought stinky tofu (frozen, in Chinese supermarkets). Chef's tip: the smell fades a lot during frying; it tastes milder and nuttier than it smells.

25 min

Chinese Snacks & Starters

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ChanguaMilk and egg breakfast soup

Changua is the breakfast soup of Bogotá and the high plains of Cundinamarca and Boyacá, where cold mornings call for something hot before work. Milk and water are simmered with spring onion, eggs are poached right in the pot, and the bowls get fresh coriander and pieces of stale bread or calado (dried toasted bread) that soften in the broth. It is gentle, creamy and filling. Chef's tip: keep the milk at a bare simmer; if it boils hard it can catch on the bottom and the eggs break apart.

15 min

Colombian Soups

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Chin chinCrunchy fried dough bites

Every December, Nigerian kitchens turn into small factories of chin chin, crunchy little cubes of sweet fried dough packed into big plastic tubs for Christmas visitors, weddings and the long drive back to the village. The dough is enriched with butter, egg and evaporated milk and scented with nutmeg; cut small and fried, it shatters with a satisfying crunch. It keeps for weeks, so families make kilos at a time. Chef's tip: roll the dough evenly thin, about 5 mm, so every piece fries through to a crisp centre at the same time.

50 min

Nigerian Snacks & Starters

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Vegetable charquicánPumpkin, potato and corn stew

Charquicán is old Chilean country food: a thick mash of pumpkin and potato with corn and peas, once made with charqui, the dried meat of the Andes. In the south and in Santiago homes it's a winter weeknight dinner, served in a deep plate with a fried egg on top and pickled onions or a simple salad. Without the meat it's still rich and smoky with merkén (smoked chilli) and paprika. Chef's tip: mash only roughly at the end; charquicán should have soft chunks, not be a smooth purée.

50 min

Chilean Vegetarian

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ChashushuliSpicy beef and tomato stew

Chashushuli is a fiery beef stew from the home kitchens and Tbilisi taverns of eastern Georgia, cooked in a clay ketsi pot or a heavy pan and eaten with shoti bread. Beef simmers slowly with lots of onion and tomato, then gets a hit of garlic, chilli, khmeli suneli and fresh coriander right at the end. It is meant to be spicy, but you can halve the chilli. Chef's tip: cook it until the sauce is thick enough to scoop with bread; Georgians do not eat it like soup.

120 min

Georgian Meat

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ChatamariRice flour crêpe with toppings

Chatamari is a thin, round crêpe of rice flour that Newar cooks in Patan, Bhaktapur and old Kathmandu make on a covered griddle, so the topping steams on top while the base turns crisp underneath. It is sometimes called Newari pizza, which says something about how it's eaten: cut into wedges, hot, and shared. It is a festival and teahouse snack, served at Newar feasts and in the small eateries around Patan Durbar Square. The classic topping is a cracked egg spread over the batter with onion, tomato and coriander, and this vegetarian version keeps the egg; leave it out and add more vegetables if you prefer. The common mistake is to pour the batter too thick; it should be as thin as single cream so it cooks through before the edges burn. Chef's tip: swirl the batter with the back of a ladle in a spiral from the centre outwards, so it sets in an even, lacy layer.

30 min

Nepali Snacks & Starters

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Chatini pomme d'amourCrushed tomato chutney

Chatini pomme d'amour (tomato chutney) is on the side of every Mauritian plate of rice, dholl puri and farata. In Creole and Indo-Mauritian homes it is crushed by hand on the roche carri, the island's flat grinding stone, so the tomato turns juicy while the onion and coriander stay fresh. Unlike kachumbari it is crushed rather than chopped, with raw garlic and a spoon of oil. Chef's tip: crush the garlic and chilli to a paste first, then the tomato; otherwise you bite into raw garlic pieces.

10 min

Mauritian Chutneys & Dips

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ChebakiaSesame honey flower cookies

Chebakia are the dark, sticky, flower-shaped cookies that every Moroccan family associates with Ramadan; women in Fez, Meknes and Casablanca spend a whole day in the weeks before the holy month folding hundreds of them, and they are served at iftar with harira and dates. The dough is scented with anise, cinnamon, saffron and toasted sesame, cut into rectangles, folded into a rose, fried and dropped straight into hot, perfumed honey. They are crisp, chewy and very sweet. Chef's tip: work in small batches and keep the honey hot but not boiling; hot honey soaks in properly, while cool honey just coats the outside.

120 min

Moroccan Desserts

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Chelow with tahdigSaffron rice with crispy base

Chelow is the plain, fluffy steamed rice at the centre of almost every Iranian lunch table, and tahdig ('bottom of the pot') is the crisp golden crust that forms underneath it. In homes from Tehran to Isfahan the pot is turned out at the table and the shards of tahdig are fought over before anyone touches the stew. The method is the master one for all Persian polo dishes: long-grain rice is soaked, boiled briefly, then steamed slowly under a cloth-wrapped lid so every grain stays separate and long. This page gives a yogurt-and-saffron tahdig, with potato and flatbread versions in the steps. Serve it with ghormeh sabzi, a yogurt dip and fresh herbs. Chef's tip: turn the heat up for the first 10 minutes until you hear a steady sizzle, then right down; that early burst is what sets the crust.

90 min

Persian Rice & Grains

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Vegetable cheung funSteamed rice noodle rolls

Cheung fun are the slippery rice-noodle rolls of Guangdong. In Guangzhou you see them steamed to order on cloth-lined trays at breakfast stalls, and at dim sum they arrive in a pool of sweet soy. This home version uses a flat tray in a wok, and fills the rolls with shiitake, Chinese chives and beansprouts. Chef's tip: stir the batter every time before you pour; the starch sinks in seconds, and an unstirred batter gives a thin, torn sheet.

40 min

Chinese Snacks & Starters

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Chhanar dalnaFresh cheese and potato curry

Chhanar dalna is how Bengal uses its fresh chhena, the same curd cheese that goes into rasgulla and sandesh, for a savoury lunch. Freshly split milk is kneaded with a little flour, pressed, cut into squares and fried, then simmered with potato in a thin, gingery tomato gravy scented with bay leaf and cardamom. It is lighter than a North Indian paneer curry and is a favourite on Thursdays and niramish days in Kolkata homes. Chef's tip: knead the chhena with your palm until it feels smooth and slightly greasy; that is what holds the cubes together in the gravy.

60 min

Indian Curries

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