Featured recipe

Canjeero

Spongy fermented pancakes

Canjeero (also called laxoox) is Somali breakfast, made fresh each morning in homes and sold in cafés from Mogadishu to Djibouti: thin, spongy pancakes from a soured batter, cooked on one side only so the top is full of tiny holes. Eaten warm, they are drizzled with sesame oil or ghee and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled up with sweet spiced tea; on weekends they come with liver or beans. They are smaller and lighter than Ethiopian injera and made mostly from wheat. Chef's tip: spread the batter in a spiral with the back of the ladle, starting in the middle; that is what makes the thin, even, lacy sheet.

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MouhalabiehOrange blossom milk pudding

Mouhalabieh is the pudding a Lebanese grandmother makes when guests drop by unannounced: milk set softly with cornflour and a little rice flour, perfumed with orange-blossom water and topped with chopped pistachios. It appears after Ramadan iftar meals, at Christmas in Beirut and on ordinary weeknights in Damascus, always cold and wobbling in small glasses or a shallow dish. No gelatine is used; the starch alone gives a spoonable, silky set. Chef's tip: mix the cornflour into cold milk before it meets the heat; added to hot milk it forms lumps that no amount of whisking removes.

25 min

Lebanese Desserts

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Moules marinièresMussels in white wine

Along the coast of Normandy and Brittany, from Le Mont-Saint-Michel to Saint-Malo, summer means big black pots of moules marinières and a cone of frites, eaten at a seaside table with fingers and an empty shell as tongs. Fresh mussels steam open in minutes with shallot, garlic, thyme and white wine. The wine boils only briefly, so some alcohol stays; for an alcohol-free version use 150 ml fish or vegetable stock with 1 tbsp lemon juice. Chef's tip: buy mussels the day you cook them and keep them in the fridge in an open bowl covered with a damp cloth, never in water or a sealed bag.

25 min

French Fish

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Mousse au chocolatChocolate mousse

Mousse au chocolat is the dessert French children learn to make with their grandmothers and the one every bistro keeps in a big bowl in the fridge. The classic recipe is only dark chocolate, eggs, a little butter and sugar: the yolks make it rich, the whisked whites make it light and airy. It's made a few hours ahead and served in small glasses or scooped from a shared bowl. This version contains raw eggs, so use very fresh ones and avoid serving it to pregnant women, small babies or anyone unwell. For an egg-free version, see our eggless chocolate mousse. Chef's tip: let the melted chocolate cool until just warm before adding the yolks; adding them to hot chocolate is the common mistake and they scramble.

30 min

French Desserts

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MsemenFlaky square pancakes

Msemen are the square, layered flatbreads sold hot from griddles in every Moroccan medina at breakfast time and again for afternoon tea, when they are drizzled with honey or dipped in olive oil. The dough is stretched paper-thin on an oiled surface, sprinkled with fine semolina, folded into a square and cooked until crisp outside and flaky in the middle. This version uses oil throughout so it is vegan; many homes use butter or smen. Chef's tip: oil your hands and work surface generously; the dough should be stretched, not rolled, and it tears if it sticks.

60 min

Moroccan Breads & Parathas

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MshikakiGrilled beef skewers

Mshikaki are the beef skewers grilled at night markets in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar's Forodhani Gardens and every Tanzanian roadside barbecue, sold hot with chips, pili pili sauce and a wedge of lime. Small chunks of beef are marinated in lime, ginger, garlic, chilli and curry powder, which tenderises them, then grilled quickly over charcoal. The mistake is marinating with raw papaya or too much lime for too long, which turns the meat mushy; 2–6 hours is plenty. Chef's tip: soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes so they don't burn.

35 minEast African Meat

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MtewemGarlic meatballs in chickpea sauce

Mtewem, from the word for garlic (thoum), is an old dish of the Casbah of Algiers: chunks of lamb and garlicky beef meatballs simmered together in a peppery white sauce with chickpeas, and finished with whole cloves of garlic that turn soft and sweet. It is cooked for Ramadan and for guests, and eaten with bread. Some families add a little tomato; this is the white version. The mistake is letting the sauce boil hard after the meatballs go in, which makes them tough and break; keep it at a gentle simmer. Chef's tip: wet your hands when rolling the meatballs so they come out smooth and hold together.

105 min

Algerian Meat

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MtoriGreen banana and beef soup

Mtori comes from the Chagga people on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, where cooking bananas grow around every house; it is a thick, smooth soup of green bananas and beef, mashed until creamy and finished with butter. It is given to new mothers to build their strength and eaten on cool mornings in Moshi and Arusha. The mistake is using sweet ripe bananas, which make it sugary; you need hard green cooking bananas or green plantain. Chef's tip: rub a little oil on your hands before peeling green bananas, as the sap stains.

100 minEast African Soups

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MtsvadiGrilled pork skewers

Mtsvadi are the grilled skewers of the Georgian supra and every summer picnic, and in the wine region of Kakheti they are cooked over the embers of dried grapevine cuttings left from pruning. This version is pork: chunks of fatty pork neck marinated simply with onion, salt and pepper, threaded on skewers and grilled until charred at the edges and juicy inside. Serve with raw onion rings, pomegranate seeds and tkemali (sour plum sauce). Chef's tip: keep the marinade simple; Georgians say good mtsvadi needs only good meat and good fire.

40 min

Georgian Meat

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Mughlai parathaEgg-stuffed paratha

Mughlai paratha is a Kolkata cabin-restaurant classic, the sort of thing eaten at Anadi Cabin or a para stall on a winter evening with a sweet-sour potato curry and sliced cucumber and onion. Paper-thin dough is stretched out on the tawa, a beaten egg with onion, chilli and coriander is poured into the middle, and the sides are folded over into a sealed square parcel that is shallow-fried until it blisters. Many shops add minced meat; this vegetarian version is egg only, the way plenty of Bengali homes make it. Chef's tip: stretch the dough with oiled hands rather than a rolling pin for the thinnest sheet.

60 min

Indian Breads & Parathas

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MuhammaraRed pepper and walnut spread

Gaziantep, a city on Turkey's southern border famous for pistachios and pepper paste, claims muhammara as its own, and you will find it on breakfast spreads and meze tables throughout the southeast. Roasted red peppers, walnuts and breadcrumbs are pounded with pepper paste, cumin and pomegranate molasses into a thick, brick-red spread that is smoky, nutty and gently hot. Spread it on bread, serve it with crudités or alongside a bowl of lentil soup. A common mistake is blending until completely smooth; it should keep a little bite from the walnuts. Chef's tip: toast the walnuts in a dry pan first until they smell like brown butter, which deepens the flavour far more than raw nuts.

20 min

Turkish Chutneys & Dips

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MujaddaraLentils and rice with crisp onions

Across the Levant, from Tripoli in northern Lebanon to the villages of the Galilee, mujaddara is the thrifty Friday or Lenten supper that nobody tires of: brown lentils and rice cooked together until soft and earthy, then heaped with a tangle of onions fried until mahogany and crisp. It costs very little, keeps well, and is eaten warm or at room temperature with a cucumber-yogurt salad, plain yogurt for non-vegans, or a sharp cabbage salad. The onions do all the seasoning, so be generous. Chef's tip: fry the onions in batches with room to spare in the pan; crowded onions steam and go soft instead of turning crisp.

60 min

Lebanese Rice & Grains

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Mul naengmyeonCold buckwheat noodles

Mul naengmyeon comes from Pyongyang, where it was once a winter dish eaten in heated rooms; after the war, northern cooks opened naengmyeon houses in Seoul, and now it is the first thing people crave on a sticky summer afternoon. The beef broth is served almost frozen, slightly sweet and sharp with vinegar, over long, springy buckwheat noodles. Bottles of vinegar and hot mustard sit on every table so you can adjust each bowl. Plan ahead: the broth needs at least 4 hours in the fridge, or make it the day before. Chef's tip: put the strained broth in the freezer for the last hour, so it turns slushy just as you serve.

120 min

Korean Pasta & Noodles

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Mullah bamiaOkra stew

Mullah is the Sudanese word for the thick stews that go with kisra and aseeda, and mullah bamia, with okra, is one of the most loved, cooked in homes from Khartoum to Kassala. The base is a large amount of onion cooked very slowly until it melts, then tomato and garlic; the okra is left to soften until the sauce turns silky. Many households add dried ground okra (weika) for a thicker, earthier stew. It is normally made with meat; here it is all vegetable. Chef's tip: cook the onions until they collapse into a jam before adding anything else; that slow base is what gives mullah its depth.

70 min

Sudanese Curries

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Sev puriPuri topped with potato and chutneys

Sev puri is the snack Mumbaikars eat standing up at Juhu and Girgaum Chowpatty, or at the chaat stall outside the office in the evening. Flat, crisp papdi are laid out on a plate, topped with potato, onion and raw mango, splashed with green, sweet tamarind and red garlic chutneys, then buried under a snowfall of fine sev. It must be eaten within a couple of minutes, before the papdi soften. Here the papdi are made at home, but good shop-bought ones work fine on a busy day. Chef's tip: assemble each plate just before it's eaten, in the order given; chutney on bare papdi makes them soggy, so the potato always goes down first.

50 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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Mumu-style pork roastOven-roasted pork with sweet potato

A mumu is the earth oven of the Papua New Guinea highlands, around Mount Hagen and Goroka, made for feasts, bride-price ceremonies and Christmas: pork, kaukau (sweet potato), bananas and greens are wrapped in banana leaves and steamed over hot stones for hours. This dish contains pork. This home version packs the same ingredients, with coconut milk, into a covered roasting tin and cooks them slowly until the pork is soft. The mistake is cooking the pork fast and hot; it needs long, gentle heat to become tender. Chef's tip: add the greens only for the last 30 minutes so they stay bright.

210 minPacific Islander Meat

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Muriwo une doviGreens in peanut butter sauce

Muriwo une dovi, greens with peanut butter, is a daily relish in Zimbabwean homes, eaten with sadza at lunch and supper. Collard greens, rape or pumpkin leaves are cooked with onion and tomato, then stirred into a creamy peanut sauce. Zambia's ifisashi is the same idea, usually without tomato and often made with pumpkin leaves or spinach and eaten with nshima. Chef's tip: add the peanut butter at the end and cook just long enough to thicken; long boiling makes it gluey.

30 minSouthern African Sides

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MurtabakStuffed griddled bread

Mamak shops stay open late across Malaysia, and the man at the big flat griddle swinging dough into a translucent sheet is half the show. Murtabak is that dough wrapped around a filling of curried minced meat, onion and beaten egg, folded into a fat square parcel and fried until blistered and crisp outside, soft and steamy within. Ramadan bazaars sell piles of it at dusk for breaking the fast. Cut into squares and serve with a ladle of dhal or curry gravy and pickled red onion. Chef's tip: oil your hands and the work surface generously; murtabak dough wants to be stretched, never rolled, and the oil lets it glide.

60 min

Malaysian Snacks & Starters

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Mushroom luwomboSteamed mushroom groundnut stew

Luwombo is a royal dish of the Buganda kingdom in central Uganda, served at weddings, introduction ceremonies and Christmas: a stew wrapped and tied in softened banana leaves and steamed for hours so the leaf perfumes everything. Chicken, beef or smoked fish are traditional, but mushroom luwombo in a groundnut (peanut) sauce is a well-loved meat-free version, especially with the large wild mushrooms sold in Kampala markets. Serve with matoke. Chef's tip: wilt the banana leaves over a flame until they turn glossy and bendy; stiff leaves split and the sauce runs out.

130 minEast African Vegetarian

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MusakhanSumac chicken on flatbread

Musakhan is the dish Palestinian families in the villages around Jenin and Tulkarem make in late autumn, when the olives have been pressed and the first green, peppery oil comes home from the mill. Mounds of onion are cooked slowly in that oil with plenty of sumac, piled onto taboon bread with roast chicken and baked until the bread's edges crisp and its middle soaks up the purple-red juices. It is eaten with your hands, shared from one big tray, with yogurt and a chopped salad. Chef's tip: use more oil than feels right; the bread is meant to drink it, and a dry musakhan misses the point.

100 min

Lebanese Chicken

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Mushroom khinkaliMushroom dumplings

Khinkali come from the mountain villages of Pshavi, Khevsureti and Tusheti in Georgia's north-east, and the roadside khinkali houses of Pasanauri on the Georgian Military Road are where many Tbilisi families stop for them. The classic filling is meat, but mushroom khinkali (sokos khinkali) are made all through Orthodox Lent and are on most menus. You hold each one upside down by its twisted topknot, bite a small hole, sip the hot juices, then eat the rest and leave the doughy knot on the plate to count how many you have eaten. The common mistake is rolling the wrappers too thin or the dough too soft, so they tear in the pot and lose their juice. Chef's tip: grind black pepper over them generously at the table, as Georgians do; it wakes up the mushrooms.

120 min

Georgian Snacks & Starters

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Mushroom tacos al pastorChilli mushroom tacos

Tacos al pastor are the night-time taco of Mexico City, born when Lebanese immigrants' spit-roasted shawarma met Mexican dried chillies: meat marinated in guajillo and achiote is stacked on a vertical spit (the trompo), shaved into small corn tortillas and finished with pineapple, onion and coriander. This vegetarian version, tacos al pastor de hongos, uses torn oyster mushrooms in the same brick-red adobo, seared hard in a hot pan until the edges crisp and char like meat cut from the trompo. Expect smoky, tangy, gently hot tacos with bursts of sweet, caramelised pineapple; serve them with salsa verde and lime wedges. Chef's tip: press the mushrooms flat with a spatula and leave them alone in a very hot pan; moving them around makes them steam and go soft instead of crisp.

35 min

Mexican Vegetarian

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Mushroom tibsSeared spiced mushrooms

Tibs means pieces of food quickly seared in a hot pan, and in Addis Ababa it is usually beef or lamb sizzling in a clay dish. In the last decade the city's busy vegan restaurants, especially during the long fasts, have made mushroom tibs a favourite in its own right: big chunks of mushroom fried hard with red onion, peppers, garlic, rosemary and a little berbere, so they come out browned and meaty. Serve straight from the pan with injera or rice. Chef's tip: cook the mushrooms in a single layer in a very hot pan and don't stir for the first two minutes; crowded mushrooms steam and go soggy.

20 min

Ethiopian Vegetarian

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Mushroom zrazyMushroom-stuffed potato cakes

Kartoplyani zrazy are a thrifty Ukrainian classic, made in kitchens across Chernihiv and the forested Polissia region where mushrooms are gathered every autumn: mashed potato is wrapped around a filling of fried mushrooms and onion, shaped into ovals, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried until crisp. They are a good home for yesterday's mash, and appear on the Lenten table and at casual family dinners with sour cream and pickles. Chef's tip: use cold mashed potato; common mistake is shaping the zrazy from warm, soft mash, which sticks to your hands and splits in the pan.

60 min

Ukrainian Snacks & Starters

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MustikkapiirakkaBlueberry pie

In late July and August, Finns head into the forests with buckets and come home with purple fingers, and the first thing many make is mustikkapiirakka. Finnish wild blueberries (mustikka) are small and blue right through, far more intense than cultivated ones. This is the version from Savo and central Finland: a soft, cakey shortcrust pressed into a tin, a deep layer of berries and a just-set topping of sour cream, egg and sugar. It is eaten at summer cottages (mökki) with coffee, warm or cool, often with vanilla sauce. Frozen wild blueberries from the freezer aisle work all year. Chef's tip: toss the berries with potato starch before they go into the crust; it catches the juice so the slices hold together instead of running purple.

55 minScandinavian Desserts

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Muya awandruBamboo shoot with rice paste

Muya awandru is a classic of the Tripuri (Kokborok-speaking) kitchen around Agartala: tender bamboo shoot is cooked with green chilli and a rice-flour paste (awandru) until it thickens into a soft, savoury mass, a little like a porridge. Traditionally a piece of berma (fermented dried fish) goes in; this vegetarian version drops it and adds roasted garlic and a little fermented soybean for depth, as vegetarian Tripuri cooks do. It is eaten with rice, often at village feasts. Chef's tip: mix the rice flour with cold water before adding it, or it lumps.

35 min

Indian Curries

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Nadru yakhniLotus stem in yogurt gravy

Lotus stem, called nadru in Kashmiri, is pulled from the shallow waters of the Dal and Anchar lakes around Srinagar, and Kashmiri Pandit families treat it as something close to a festive vegetable. Yakhni is their pale, onion-free yogurt gravy, scented with fennel, dry ginger and black cardamom instead of tomato or chilli. The lotus slices stay faintly crunchy and show their lacy holes in a creamy, ivory sauce. It turns up at Herath (Shivratri) meals and at Sunday lunches, always with a mound of plain steamed rice. Chef's tip: pick firm, pale stems with closed ends; the ends keep mud out of the hollow channels, so you rinse far less.

55 min

Indian Curries

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Mysore masala dosaGarlic chutney dosa with potato

Mysuru in Karnataka gave its name to this bolder dosa: a slightly thicker, golden crêpe that is crisp outside and soft inside, painted with a hot red chutney of dried chillies, garlic and roasted chana dal before the potato palya goes in. The chutney melts into the dosa as it cooks, so every bite has a sweet-spicy, garlicky kick. In Mysuru's old cafés it's served flat and folded, with coconut chutney to cool things down. Chef's tip: use Byadagi or Kashmiri chillies for the chutney; they give a deep red colour without blowing your head off, so you can spread it generously.

75 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Mysore pakGram flour and ghee fudge

Mysore pak was first made in the kitchens of the Mysuru palace in Karnataka, and it's still the sweet that every Mysuru sweet shop is judged by. Roasted gram flour is cooked in a sugar syrup while hot ghee is poured in a spoonful at a time, until the mixture froths up and sets into a golden, honeycombed block. This home version is the softer, melt-in-the-mouth style, with a fine porous crumb; cook it a minute or two longer for the harder, crunchier traditional slab. It keeps for a week and is made for Diwali, weddings and Dasara. Chef's tip: keep the ghee hot on a second burner the whole time; hot ghee hitting the batter is what makes it froth and form those little air holes, and cold ghee gives a dense, greasy fudge.

40 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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NacatamalLarge pork tamal in banana leaf

Nacatamales are the Saturday and Sunday breakfast of Nicaragua, bought from neighbours who make them on Friday nights or steamed at home for Christmas: a large, soft masa dough enriched with lard and sour orange, wrapped round marinated pork, rice, potato, tomato, onion, sweet pepper and mint, then tied in banana leaves and steamed for hours. This dish contains pork. They are eaten with bread and black coffee. The mistake is a dry masa: it should be soft and spreadable, almost like thick mashed potato, or the tamal turns hard. Chef's tip: wipe the banana leaves and pass them briefly over a flame so they become supple and don't split.

330 minCentral American Meat

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Nagasaki castellaHoney sponge cake

Castella arrived in Nagasaki with Portuguese traders in the 16th century, when the port was Japan's only window to Europe, and the name probably comes from 'pão de Castela', bread from Castile. Over 400 years Nagasaki's bakers turned it into something their own: a tall, fine-crumbed sponge made only of eggs, sugar, flour and honey, with a dark, sticky top and a layer of crunchy zarame sugar crystals at the bottom. It's still sold in long wooden boxes at old shops near the harbour and given as a formal gift. Cut it into neat slices and serve with green tea. Chef's tip: wrap the cake in cling film while still warm and rest it overnight. Its moist, springy texture develops as it rests.

75 min

Japanese Baking

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ChamponSeafood noodle soup

Champon belongs to Nagasaki, the port that stayed open to Chinese and Dutch traders for centuries. It was created there at the end of the 19th century by a Chinese restaurant owner who wanted a cheap, filling meal for Chinese students, and the city's Chinatown still serves it in huge bowls. Pork, squid, prawns, fishcake and a pile of cabbage are fried in one wok, then the stock goes in and the thick noodles cook right in the soup. Restaurants make the cloudy broth from long-boiled pork and chicken bones; at home a little milk gives the same mellow, creamy look. Chef's tip: fry everything over the highest heat in small batches; the slight scorch on the cabbage and pork is what flavours the soup.

45 min

Japanese Soups

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Nam prik noomRoasted green chilli dip

Nam prik noom is the relish Chiang Mai is proud of: long green chillies, shallots and garlic charred over coals until blistered and soft, then pounded into a rough, smoky, gently hot dip. At Warorot Market and the morning markets of the north it is sold by the bagful next to crunchy pork rinds and baskets of steamed vegetables, and it sits on almost every Lanna family table with sticky rice. Most versions are salted with fish sauce or pla ra; this one uses salt and a dash of soy, and the smokiness carries it just as well. Eat it with blanched cabbage, long beans, cucumber and sticky rice. Chef's tip: roast the vegetables until their skins are black in patches and they collapse when pressed; undercooked chillies taste raw and sharp.

30 min

Thai Chutneys & Dips

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Nam prik ongTomato and pork chilli dip

Every khantoke dinner in Chiang Mai sets out a bowl of this brick-red relish beside the sticky rice baskets, and morning markets sell it by the scoop in little plastic bags. It sits somewhere between a chunky meat sauce and a dip: sweet-sour from slow-cooked cherry tomatoes, savoury from shrimp paste and pork, with a gentle chilli warmth rather than a blast. Scoop it up with cucumber, blanched long beans, cabbage wedges and crisp pork crackling, or press a ball of sticky rice into it. Chef's tip: fry the pounded paste in the oil until it darkens and smells toasty before the pork goes in; that is where the deep, roasted flavour comes from.

30 min

Thai Chutneys & Dips

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Nam tok neuaGrilled beef salad

The name means 'waterfall', after the juices that drip from the beef onto the coals, and this salad is what Isan drinking spots and family barbecues serve when there is good meat on the grill. Smoky slices of pink steak are tossed while still warm with lime, fish sauce, chilli flakes, shallots and mint, then dusted with toasted rice powder for crunch. The meat soaks up the dressing like a sponge, so every bite is juicy, sour and hot. Pile it on a plate with sticky rice, cabbage, cucumber and long beans. Chef's tip: choose a steak with some marbling, such as sirloin or rump; very lean cuts turn dry and chewy once sliced thin.

30 min

Thai Salads

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Narikol laruCoconut and jaggery balls

Narikol laru are the small, chewy coconut balls that sit next to til pitha on every Bihu plate in Assam, offered to visitors with tea and jolpan. Fresh coconut is cooked with jaggery until it binds, flavoured with cardamom and rolled warm. They are soft and moist, not dry like desiccated-coconut ladoos, and are made in big batches the night before the festival. Chef's tip: roll them while still warm with damp palms; once cold, the mixture won't hold.

35 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Nasi dagangCoconut rice with tuna curry

Breakfast on the east coast, in Kuala Terengganu and Kota Bharu, very often means nasi dagang: soft, slightly sticky rice steamed twice with coconut milk, ginger and fenugreek seeds, wrapped in paper with a ladle of gulai ikan tongkol, a gentle tuna curry. The rice is fragrant and a little chewy from the glutinous grains mixed in, while the curry is mellow, coconutty and sour from dried tamarind slices. Stalls sell it from dawn, with hard-boiled eggs and cucumber pickle on the side. It also makes a fine weekend brunch at home. Chef's tip: soak the two kinds of rice overnight so the grains steam evenly and turn plump rather than chalky.

90 min

Malaysian Rice & Grains

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Nasi gorengIndonesian fried rice

Every warung and night stall from Medan to Makassar has its own nasi goreng, but the starting point is always yesterday's rice, a pounded paste of shallot, garlic and chilli, and a glug of kecap manis that turns the grains glossy and caramel-brown. Indonesians eat it for breakfast as readily as for a late supper, crowned with a fried egg and served with cucumber, tomato and a heap of crackers. This vegetarian version keeps all the smoky-sweet depth without the usual shrimp paste. Chef's tip: get the wok properly hot and add the kecap manis down the side of the pan, not onto the rice, so it sizzles and caramelises before you toss it through.

20 min

Indonesian Rice & Grains

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Nasi kerabuBlue rice with herbs

Nasi kerabu comes from Kelantan on the north-east coast, and in Kota Bharu it is a breakfast and lunch staple, sold in the morning markets in mounds of startlingly blue rice. The colour comes from butterfly pea flowers. Around the rice sit 'ulam', raw herbs and vegetables sliced as fine as thread: lime leaves, lemongrass, long beans, bean sprouts, cucumber, mint and basil, with nutty toasted coconut on top. Kelantanese stalls dress it with budu, a fermented fish sauce, so this version uses a sharp tamarind, lime and chilli dressing instead. It's light, crunchy and full of perfume. Chef's tip: slice the herbs as thinly as you can with a sharp knife; the finer the shreds, the more they scent every mouthful of rice.

50 min

Malaysian Rice & Grains

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Nasi kuningTurmeric coconut rice

Yellow rice is Indonesia's rice for good news: shaped into a tall cone called tumpeng, it's the centrepiece at birthdays, housewarmings and thanksgiving gatherings across Java, Bali and Sulawesi, and in Manado and Banjarmasin it's also a weekday breakfast wrapped in banana leaf. The grains are cooked in coconut milk with turmeric, lemongrass, salam and lime leaf, so they come out fluffy, golden and gently fragrant, rich without being heavy. Serve it with tempe orek, perkedel, sambal and cucumber for a festive platter. Chef's tip: steam the rice after its first absorption, Javanese style, or rest it covered off the heat for 10 minutes — skipping this gives sticky, uneven grains.

40 min

Indonesian Rice & Grains

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Nasi lemakCoconut rice with sambal

All over Malaysia, nasi lemak is what people grab before work: a pyramid of banana leaf or brown paper from a roadside stall, opened at a desk or on a car bonnet, with fragrant rice steamed in coconut milk, a dab of sticky red sambal, crunchy peanuts and cool cucumber. Stalls usually add fried anchovies and boiled egg; our meat-free plate keeps the morning ritual but swaps the anchovies for thin batons of tempeh fried until they shatter, and the sambal is cooked without belacan, so the depth comes from slow-fried chillies, tamarind and palm sugar. Eat it for breakfast, brunch or a lazy supper. Chef's tip: give the sambal the full time on a low flame; it is ready only when a shiny red oil floats free around the edge.

50 min

Malaysian Rice & Grains

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Natilla colombianaPanela and cinnamon milk pudding

Natilla is the firm, sliceable Christmas pudding of Colombia, stirred on the night of the alumbrado (7 December) and through the novenas, and always shared with buñuelos. Milk is infused with cinnamon, sweetened with panela (unrefined cane sugar), thickened with cornflour and finished with grated coconut and raisins, then poured into a dish to set. It is dark gold, caramel-scented and soft, a bit like a firm flan. Chef's tip: stir without stopping once the cornflour goes in, scraping the corners of the pan, or lumps and a scorched bottom will form.

40 min

Colombian Desserts

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NazookSour cream pastry rolls

Nazook is the slice-shaped pastry stacked in the windows of Yerevan bakeries and sold by the box at every Armenian church fair from Glendale to Marseille. A yeasted dough enriched with sour cream is rolled thin, spread with a vanilla-scented filling of flour, butter and sugar, rolled into a log and cut on the slant before baking. The result is flaky outside, with a soft, buttery swirl inside, sweet but not sticky. It is a coffee pastry, served to guests and packed for long journeys because it keeps well. Chef's tip: keep the filling cold and spread it right to the side edges; the swirl looks finished and every slice gets its share.

70 min

Armenian Baking

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NdambéBlack-eyed bean stew

Ndambé is what Dakar eats for breakfast on the way to work: a thick, peppery stew of black-eyed beans with onion and tomato, sold from pots on street corners and spooned into a split baguette (tapalapa or pain de mie) with a smear of chilli sauce. At home it is just as good with rice or bread for supper. The beans are cooked until some break down and thicken the sauce, so it holds together in the bread. Chef's tip: soak the beans and cook them separately in plain water first; adding the tomato too early keeps the skins tough.

90 min

Senegalese Breakfast & Brunch

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Ndolé with peanuts and greensBitter leaf and peanut stew

Ndolé comes from the Douala coast and is Cameroon's national dish, cooked for Sunday lunches, weddings and funerals: bitter leaves washed until only a gentle bitterness remains, simmered in a thick sauce of boiled, ground peanuts. Traditionally it is finished with beef, smoked fish and prawns; this version keeps the greens and peanuts at the centre and tops it with crisp fried onions, the way Douala cooks always do. Serve with boiled plantain, miondo or rice. As a variation, add prawns or beef the traditional way. Chef's tip: use raw peanuts, boiled and ground, not peanut butter; ndolé should be nubbly and pale, not like a smooth satay sauce.

110 min

Cameroonian Curries

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Neenish tartsJam and cream tarts

Neenish tarts have sat in the windows of Australian country bakeries for more than a century, and they're also found across the Tasman in New Zealand. Where the name comes from is still argued over, with one story placing it in the small town of Grong Grong in New South Wales. A crisp sweet pastry case holds a thin layer of raspberry jam and a fluffy mock cream, a beaten mixture of butter, sugar and milk, and the top is iced in two halves: one white, one chocolate. Many bakery mock creams use gelatine; this one doesn't. Chef's tip: beat the mock cream for a long time, a full 8–10 minutes, until the sugar has dissolved and it is white and fluffy, not gritty.

80 min

Australian Baking

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Neer dosaThin rice crepes

Neer means water in Tulu and Kannada, and that is the whole idea: a batter as thin as milk, poured onto a hot pan where it sets into a soft, lacy crêpe full of tiny holes. In Mangaluru and Udupi homes it is made fresh for breakfast or a Sunday lunch, folded into quarters and eaten warm with coconut chutney, a vegetable sagu, or simply with grated coconut and jaggery for children. Unlike most dosas, the batter is not fermented, so you can soak rice in the morning and eat by lunchtime. The crêpes are pale white, never browned, and should be tender enough to fold without cracking. Chef's tip: stir the batter from the bottom before every single dosa; the rice settles within a minute, and a batter poured from the top runs too thin and tears.

45 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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BaraBlack lentil patties

Bara, or wo in the Newar language, is a thick, savoury pancake of ground black lentils that the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley have made for centuries. It is cooked on a flat griddle until spotted brown and lacy at the edges but soft and airy inside. It is festival food above all: it appears at Sithi Nakha in early summer, on the plates of Newar feasts and at roadside stalls in Kirtipur and Patan, where it is often topped with a cracked egg. This plant-based version keeps it plain, with ginger, garlic and cumin in the batter. Eat it hot with golbheda ko achar. The usual mistake is to add too much water when grinding: the batter must be thick enough to hold a peak, or the bara spread thin and go flat. Chef's tip: beat the ground batter by hand for 3–4 minutes until it turns pale and fluffy; the air you whip in is what makes the bara light.

40 min

Nepali Snacks & Starters

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Nga thongbaLight fish curry with potato

In the Imphal Valley fish comes from Loktak Lake and the paddy-field ponds, and nga thongba is how most Meitei families cook it on an ordinary weekday. It is a thin, gently spiced curry with potatoes, finished with a big handful of herbs such as maroi nakupi (a local chive) and coriander, so it smells green and fresh. It is eaten with sticky or plain rice, alongside a chilli chutney. Chef's tip: lightly fry the fish first so it stays in neat pieces in the thin gravy.

45 min

Indian Fish

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NgohiongFive-spice spring rolls

Ngohiong grew from the Chinese-Filipino kitchens of Cebu City and is now street food all over Cebu: a lumpia filled with heart of palm (ubod) or jicama seasoned with five-spice, then dipped in batter and fried, so it has a thick, golden coat rather than a thin crisp skin. It is eaten with a glossy, sweet-hot dipping sauce and often with rice. Cebu stalls mix in a little pork or shrimp; this version is all vegetable. Chef's tip: cook the filling until dry and cool it fully; wet filling tears the wrapper and spits in the oil.

55 min

Filipino Snacks & Starters

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NhopiPumpkin and peanut butter mash

Nhopi is a simple Shona dish from Zimbabwe, made at harvest time when the pumpkins come in: pumpkin or butternut boiled soft, mashed and enriched with peanut butter. Some families stir in a little maize meal to make it thicker (nhopi dovi), and it is eaten for breakfast or as a side with greens. It is sweet, nutty and loved by children. Chef's tip: drain the pumpkin very well before mashing, or the nhopi turns thin and watery.

30 minSouthern African Sides

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Niislel saladPotato and egg salad

Niislel means 'capital', and this creamy salad is the one served across Ulaanbaatar at Tsagaan Sar (Lunar New Year), birthdays and in every canteen. It descends from the Russian Olivier salad of the Soviet era, made Mongolian with plenty of cucumber and sometimes apple; it usually includes ham or sausage, left out here and replaced with extra egg. It's cool and comforting next to hot buuz (dumplings) or tsuivan. Chef's tip: cut everything into small, even cubes the size of a pea; that uniform dice is what makes it niislel and not just potato salad.

45 min

Mongolian Salads

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NikujagaBeef and potato stew

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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NimonaFresh green pea curry

When fresh peas fill the markets of Varanasi and Gorakhpur in December, almost every household makes nimona. The peas are coarsely ground and fried in mustard oil until they lose their raw smell and turn a darker, nutty green. Potatoes are then added and everything simmers in a thin, spicy gravy. It is eaten with plain rice on a winter afternoon, and some families add fried moong dal vadis for extra bite. The most common mistake is grinding the peas into a smooth paste; nimona should have texture, like crushed peas rather than soup. Chef's tip: pulse the peas with the green chillies, ginger and garlic in short bursts, and stop as soon as they look like coarse, wet crumbs.

55 min

Indian Curries

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Niter kibbehSpiced clarified butter

Niter kibbeh is the golden spiced butter used across the Ethiopian highlands on non-fasting days, when a spoonful goes into doro wat, kitfo, genfo or a simple pan of scrambled eggs. Butter is melted slowly with onion, garlic, ginger, fenugreek, cardamom, sacred basil (besobela) and other spices, then strained, leaving a fragrant, nutty fat that keeps for months. Because it is dairy it is never eaten during fasts; for those dishes, Ethiopians use plain oil, or you can warm 250 ml vegetable oil with the same spices for 15 minutes and strain it for a vegan spiced oil. Chef's tip: keep the heat very low; the butter should barely shiver, and if the milk solids burn the whole batch tastes acrid.

40 min

Ethiopian Basics

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Groundnut soup (nkatenkwan)Peanut soup

Nkatenkwan is the Sunday soup of Ghanaian homes, simmered while families are at church and eaten afterwards with omo tuo (soft rice balls) or fufu. Roasted groundnut paste is cooked slowly in a peppery tomato and ginger broth until the oil separates and turns the soup a rich orange-brown. It usually carries chicken or goat; here garden eggs (small African aubergines) and mushrooms keep it meaty without meat. Chef's tip: cook the groundnut paste long and slow; it is ready only when reddish oil rises and pools on top, and rushing it leaves a raw, pasty taste.

60 min

Ghanaian Soups

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NokedliSoft egg dumplings

Nokedli, also called galuska, are the small, soft, irregular egg dumplings that sit under almost every paprikás in Hungary, from Budapest lunch canteens to Sunday tables in the villages of the Great Plain. Unlike German Käsespätzle, they are not baked with cheese: they are a plain, buttery side whose job is to soak up a red, sour-cream sauce. Grandmothers scrape the batter off a wet board with a knife, but a nokedli grater (nokedliszaggató) or a colander with large holes is quicker at home. Serve them with gombapaprikás or lecsó, or toss them with fried egg for a quick supper. Chef's tip: let the batter rest for 10 minutes before cooking; the flour hydrates and the dumplings hold together instead of dissolving into the water.

25 min

Hungarian Pasta & Noodles

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Nom banh chok with green curry brothRice noodles in green curry broth

Before seven in the morning, women carrying baskets on shoulder poles sell nom banh chok across Cambodia; around Siem Reap there is even a lane of stalls near the temples known for it. Soft, slippery rice noodles are piled into a bowl, ladled with a pale green broth of kroeung and coconut milk, then buried under shredded banana blossom, cucumber, beansprouts, long beans and handfuls of herbs. The market version thickens the broth with pounded fish; here pumpkin and creamy white beans give it the same body. Chef's tip: be generous with the raw vegetables and herbs; the dish is meant to be more garden than noodle, and the cool crunch is what balances the warm broth.

60 min

Cambodian Pasta & Noodles

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Nom krokCoconut rice cakes

Nom krok are a street snack you hear before you see: the hiss of batter hitting a charcoal-heated cast-iron pan full of small round hollows, outside markets and schools across Phnom Penh in the late afternoon. Each little cake has a lacy, crunchy rice-flour shell and a molten top of salted coconut cream with spring onion, and two halves are pressed together to eat hot from a banana leaf. A Danish aebleskiver or Japanese takoyaki pan works perfectly at home. Chef's tip: let the pan get properly hot before the first batter goes in, about 4 minutes on a medium-high heat; a cool pan makes pale, sticky cakes that won't come out cleanly.

40 min

Cambodian Snacks & Starters

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LebkuchenSpiced gingerbread cookies

Nuremberg has been the German capital of Lebkuchen since the Middle Ages, when the city sat on the spice trade routes, and at its Christkindlesmarkt the stalls are piled with them every Advent. The finest kind, Elisenlebkuchen, contain almost no flour: they're made mostly of ground nuts, candied peel, eggs, sugar and a warm spice mix, baked on thin Oblaten wafers so they stay soft and chewy inside, then glazed with chocolate or sugar. They keep for weeks in a tin and get better as they rest. Chef's tip: bake them only until just set; a common mistake is baking until firm, which makes them dry and hard by the next day.

50 min

German Baking

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Num ansom chekBanana sticky rice parcels

Num ansom chek are wrapped by the dozen in April for Khmer New Year and again in autumn for Pchum Ben, when families carry them to the pagoda as offerings. A ripe banana is hidden inside a jacket of glutinous rice that has been seasoned with coconut milk and dotted with black beans, then the whole thing is rolled tightly in banana leaf and boiled until the rice turns sticky and the banana goes jammy and blush-pink. Unwrapped, they're eaten at room temperature or sliced and grilled the next morning. Chef's tip: use bananas that are fully yellow with a few brown freckles; green ones stay chalky and the pink colour never comes.

90 min

Cambodian Desserts

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Oromo with pumpkinSteamed pumpkin roll

Oromo, or orama, is a big rolled dumpling: a thin sheet of dough spread with filling, rolled into a long coil and steamed in a multi-tiered mantovarka. It's a home dish across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, quicker than shaping dozens of manti. In autumn, when Kyrgyz gardens in the Chüy Valley are full of squash, it's filled with grated pumpkin and onion, which turn sweet and juicy. Serve in thick slices with sour cream or a garlicky tomato sauce. Chef's tip: grate the pumpkin coarsely and salt it only just before rolling; salted too early it weeps and makes the dough soggy.

80 min

Kazakh Vegetarian

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Nyama chomaSlow-grilled goat or beef

Nyama choma, "roasted meat" in Swahili, is the centre of every weekend gathering in Kenya: at roadside joints on the edge of Nairobi you choose your goat ribs or beef by the kilo, it is grilled slowly over charcoal, chopped on a wooden board and brought to the table with salt, kachumbari (tomato and onion salad) and ugali. The meat is meant to be firm and chewy, smoky and simply salted. The mistake is grilling over fierce flames; the outside chars before the inside is tender, so keep it over glowing coals and turn it often. Chef's tip: leg of goat or lamb on the bone is easiest at home; rub it with salt and a little lemon only.

110 minEast African Meat

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Nyonya chap chyeBraised cabbage with glass noodles

In Peranakan homes in Melaka and Penang, chap chye (mixed vegetables) is cooked in a big pot for Chinese New Year and family prayer days. Cabbage, dried shiitake, wood ear, lily buds and beancurd skin are braised with garlic and tau cheo, the salty fermented soybean paste, until everything is soft and the glass noodles have soaked up the savoury gravy. Many families add pork belly or prawns, but the vegetarian pot is just as traditional for the first day of the new year. It tastes better the next day. Chef's tip: fry the tau cheo with the garlic until it smells nutty before anything else goes in.

50 min

Malaysian Vegetarian

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Obi nonTandoor bread

Every Uzbek meal starts with bread torn by hand and passed round the table, and obi non is the everyday loaf: a round with a thick, soft rim and a thin, crisp centre pricked with a patterned stamp called a chekich. In Samarkand and Tashkent it comes out of clay tandoors at dawn, and across the border in Kazakhstan the same bread is sold as tandyr nan. Bread is never cut with a knife and never laid face down. A very hot oven and a baking stone or upturned tray come close to the tandoor at home. Eat it warm with green tea, achichuk salad, soups and plov. Chef's tip: press the centre really thin and prick it all over; if you don't, it puffs into a ball like pitta and you lose the flat, crackly middle.

40 min

Uzbek Breads & Parathas

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Obleas con arequipeWafers with dulce de leche

Obleas are the giant, paper-thin round wafers sold from street carts in Bogotá's parks and around Floridablanca in Santander, where they began. The vendor spreads two wafers with arequipe, Colombia's dulce de leche, and adds whatever you choose: blackberry jam, grated cheese, condensed milk or sprinkles, then presses them together. They are crisp, sticky and fun to make with children. Look for oblea wafers in Latin American shops. Chef's tip: assemble them right before eating; the wafers soften within an hour.

10 min

Colombian Desserts

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Ofe onugbuBitter leaf soup

Ofe onugbu is the soup Igbo families in Anambra and Enugu make for Sunday lunch and for visitors coming home at Christmas. Washed bitter leaf gives a gentle, pleasant bitterness, cocoyam paste thickens it, and beef, shaki (tripe), stockfish and dried fish add layer after layer of savoury flavour, all coloured by palm oil. It is eaten with pounded yam, eba or fufu, pinched up with the fingers. The mistake to avoid is using bitter leaf that hasn't been washed enough; it should taste only mildly bitter before it goes in. Chef's tip: frozen pre-washed bitter leaf from African grocers saves an hour of squeezing and rinsing.

130 min

Nigerian Soups

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Oil downBreadfruit and salt fish one-pot

Oil down is what Grenadians cook on the beach, at village fêtes and on Sunday afternoons, often in a big iron pot over a wood fire with everyone waiting around it. Breadfruit, salt fish and soft flour dumplings are layered with callaloo and turmeric (called 'saffron' on the island), then steamed in coconut milk until the milk is drunk up and only a golden oil coats the pot, which gives the dish its name. Many cooks add salted pig tail or chicken; this version keeps to salt fish. The mistake to avoid is stirring, which breaks the layers into mush; shake the pot instead. Chef's tip: put the Scotch bonnet in whole and lift it out at the end, so it scents the pot without burning everyone's mouth.

95 minCaribbean Fish

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Ojingeo bokkeumSpicy stir-fried squid

Around the harbours of the Chungcheong coast on the Yellow Sea, seafood restaurants fry freshly landed squid in a sticky red sauce, and the same dish turns up in lunch canteens and home kitchens all over Korea. Bright with chilli, it's on the table in about twenty minutes and is often piled straight onto rice as ojingeo deopbap. The sauce is gochujang and chilli flakes sweetened with a little sugar, and the vegetables stay crisp. Serve with rice and a bowl of light soup to cool things down. Chef's tip: mix the sauce before you light the hob, because the squid cooks so fast that there is no time to measure anything once it's in the pan.

20 min

Korean Fish

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Ojingeo sundaeRice-stuffed squid

Abai Village in Sokcho, on Gangwon's east coast, was settled by people from Hamgyeong province in the north who could not go home after the Korean War. With squid plentiful in the East Sea, they stuffed it the way they had once stuffed pork casings for sundae, and the dish is now sold in the village's small restaurants and at Sokcho's Jungang market. The squid is filled with sticky rice, tofu and vegetables, steamed, cut into rounds and fried in beaten egg until golden. It makes a good sharing plate with a soy and vinegar dip. Chef's tip: mix a little glutinous rice into the filling; it binds the slices so they don't fall apart in the pan.

90 min

Korean Fish

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Ojja with merguezSpicy tomato sauce with sausage

Ojja is the quick supper of Tunis cafés and home kitchens: a pan of tomato, peppers, garlic and harissa, cooked down until thick, with slices of spicy lamb merguez and eggs set softly on top. It is scooped up with crusty bread straight from the pan. The mistake is stirring the eggs in too early; they should go in once the sauce is thick and be left alone to just set. Chef's tip: brown the merguez first so its spiced fat flavours the sauce. If you can't get merguez, use any spicy lamb or beef sausage.

30 min

Tunisian Meat

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Oka i'aRaw fish in coconut cream

Oka i'a is the raw fish salad served at every Samoan to'ona'i, the big Sunday lunch after church in Apia and the villages of Upolu and Savai'i, and in Samoan homes in Auckland. It is close to Fiji's kokoda but usually uses tuna, a shorter citrus soak and more vegetables, with a finish of spring onion. As a raw fish dish it is written here as a safer version: buy very fresh, previously frozen sashimi-grade tuna, keep it cold and eat within 2 hours. Raw or citrus-cured fish is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system; for them, sear the tuna as described in the steps. The mistake is cutting the fish too small, so it goes mushy; keep the cubes about 1.5 cm. Chef's tip: chill the coconut cream and the bowl, so the salad is cold and refreshing.

25 minPacific Islander Fish

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Okayama barazushiScattered sushi with vegetables

Okayama families make a big shallow platter of barazushi for the autumn shrine festivals, Girls' Day in March and other celebrations, and it is sold in station lunch boxes all year. A local story says it began when a lord ordered people to eat only one side dish, so cooks hid everything in the rice instead. The seasoned rice is mixed with simmered vegetables and topped with seafood from the Seto Inland Sea. This version uses cooked prawns, gently simmered squid and egg threads, plus ready-made vinegared mackerel, which is cured but not cooked. Use very fresh, sushi-grade fish from a trusted fishmonger; not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Leave the mackerel out, or add extra prawns, to make it fully cooked. Chef's tip: fold the vinegar into the rice while it is hot and fan it as you go; the rice soaks up the seasoning and turns glossy instead of wet.

60 min

Japanese Rice & Grains

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OkroshkaCold vegetable and kvass soup

When Moscow swelters in July, okroshka replaces every hot soup: a bowl of finely chopped radishes, cucumber, potato, egg and a forest of green onion and dill, with ice-cold kvass poured over at the table. It is the lunch of dacha weekends and of hot afternoons on the Volga, and families argue over whether kvass or kefir is the right base (kefir works well and is less sweet). The name comes from kroshit, to crumble, since everything is chopped small. Chef's tip: rub the spring onions and dill with salt first until they give off juice; it releases a green, pungent flavour that tastes of summer.

45 min

Russian Soups

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OlanAsh gourd and cowpea stew

Olan is the quietest dish on a Travancore sadya leaf, the banana-leaf feast served in southern Kerala for Onam, weddings and temple festivals. Thin, glassy slices of ash gourd and soft red cowpeas sit in coconut milk with nothing louder than green chilli and curry leaves, and its job is to cool the palate between the tangy, fiery curries around it. The flavour comes from coconut milk added in two stages and a spoonful of raw coconut oil poured over at the end. Eat it with plain rice, or ladle it beside appam on an ordinary weekday. Chef's tip: slice the ash gourd as thin as a coin so it turns translucent in the time the coconut milk takes to thicken.

60 min

Indian Curries

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OliebollenRaisin fritters

On the last day of December the queues outside the oliebollenkraam, the caravan-like stalls that pop up in every Dutch town, stretch round the block. Oliebollen ('oil balls') are the food of Oudejaarsavond, New Year's Eve: round, yeasted fritters full of raisins, currants and apple, deep-fried and buried in icing sugar. Families fry big batches at home in the afternoon and eat them with champagne at midnight. They are best within a few hours. Chef's tip: dip your two scooping spoons in the hot oil before each ball; the sticky dough slides off cleanly and the balls come out round instead of ragged.

60 min

Dutch Desserts

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Olla de carneBeef and vegetable pot

Olla de carne, "pot of meat", is the Costa Rican Sunday soup, cooked slowly in the Central Valley around San José and in country homes: beef shin and short ribs simmered for hours in a clear broth with big pieces of yuca, chayote, green plantain, corn, carrot and taro. The broth is served first, then the meat and vegetables, with rice on the side. The mistake is putting all the vegetables in together; add the hard ones first and the soft chayote and corn last. Chef's tip: use a little bone with the beef; it gives the broth body without any stock cube.

180 minCentral American Soups

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Olluquito con charquiOlluco and dried beef stew

Olluco is a glossy yellow-and-pink tuber grown high in the Andes, crunchy when raw and silky when cooked, and in Lima's market eateries it is cut into fine matchsticks and stewed with charqui, sun-dried meat that was the travel food of Inca messengers. The dish is gently spiced with ají panca and finished with fresh parsley, and it is always served with white rice. Latin shops sell olluco in jars; if you can't find it, firm new potatoes or courgette give a similar texture, and beef brisket stands in well for charqui. Chef's tip: cut the olluco and rinse it well; the slippery sap washes off and the stew won't turn slimy.

95 min

Peruvian Curries

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Omegi tteokMillet rice cakes with red bean

Omegi tteok (오메기떡) are Jeju's best-known rice cakes: small dark-green rounds of glutinous millet and rice dough flavoured with mugwort, filled with sweet red bean, and rolled in a coat of mashed red beans or toasted nuts. Jeju farmers grew millet on fields too stony for rice, and the dough was once fermented into omegi-sul, the island's rice wine. Now they are bought in boxes at Seogwipo's Olle market as the island's favourite gift, kept in the freezer and thawed for tea time. Chef's tip: knead the dough with boiling water while it is still hot; mugwort and millet need the heat to bind into a smooth, stretchy dough.

55 min

Korean Desserts

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Mushroom or lamHerb stew with aubergine and mushrooms

Or lam belongs to Luang Prabang, the old royal town on the Mekong, where it is cooked for long family lunches and served at almost every restaurant that makes local food. It is a thick, rustic stew of aubergine, long beans, mushrooms and greens, thickened with a little sticky rice and flavoured with sakhan, a peppery wood that numbs the lips like Sichuan pepper, plus heaps of dill and lemongrass. The usual dried buffalo skin and meat are swapped for two kinds of mushroom here. Eat it with sticky rice and a jeow. Chef's tip: if you can't find sakhan, a few lightly crushed Sichuan peppercorns give the same tingle; add them early so the tingle spreads through the broth.

75 min

Lao Vegetarian

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Orecchiette con cime di rapaOrecchiette with turnip tops

In Bari the old women of Arco Basso still shape orecchiette on wooden boards in the street, and the dish everyone cooks them with is cime di rapa: the bitter, leafy turnip tops sold in big bunches from autumn to early spring. The greens and pasta boil in the same pot, then get tossed with garlic, chilli and good olive oil. Pugliese cooks usually melt in anchovies; this vegan version uses golden fried breadcrumbs (mollica), the 'poor man's cheese' of southern Italy, for crunch and savour. Chef's tip: add the chopped stalks first and the leaves a few minutes later, so everything is tender at the same moment as the pasta.

30 min

Italian Pasta & Noodles

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Öröm with breadClotted cream on bread

In Mongolian summer, when the herds are milked several times a day, families on the steppe gently heat fresh milk in a wide pan, ladling and pouring it back to froth it, then leave it overnight. By morning a thick, wrinkled, pale-gold skin of cream has formed: öröm. Lifted off and folded, it's spread on boortsog (fried dough) or bread with a sprinkle of sugar and eaten with milk tea. It's rich, slightly nutty and very simple. Chef's tip: use the widest, heaviest pan you own and the lowest possible heat; öröm needs a large surface and patience, not boiling.

130 min

Mongolian Breakfast & Brunch

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Osmania biscuitsSweet and salty butter biscuits

Osmania biscuits are named after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, and they have been baked in the city's Irani bakeries for generations: round, crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth butter biscuits that are gently sweet with a distinct salty edge and a hint of cardamom. In old-city cafés, men linger over a plate of them and a cup of Irani chai in the early morning or after the evening prayers, dunking each one until it is just about to collapse. Chef's tip: chill the dough before cutting and baking; it keeps the biscuits round and thick instead of spreading thin.

47 min

Indian Baking

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Ossobuco alla milaneseBraised veal shanks

Thick cross-cut slices of veal shank, each ringed around a hollow bone full of marrow, are browned and then braised slowly in white wine and stock until the meat is soft enough to cut with a spoon: this is Milan's great winter Sunday dish. The old Milanese way, 'in bianco', keeps tomato out, so the sauce stays golden and savoury. Just before serving it gets a shower of gremolata, a sharp mix of lemon zest, garlic and parsley that wakes up the rich braise. Serve it with risotto alla milanese, the saffron risotto that is its traditional partner (one of the few times a Milanese risotto shares the plate), or with soft polenta. Chef's tip: snip through the thin skin around each shank in three or four places before browning, so the slices stay flat in the pan instead of curling up.

150 min

Italian Meat

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Otak-otakGrilled spiced fish mousse

Drive through Muar in Johor and you will see roadside grills stacked with slim green parcels, sold by the dozen in paper bags for the journey home. Inside each is a soft, bright-orange custard of pounded mackerel, coconut milk and egg, flavoured with a chilli-lemongrass rempah and kaffir lime leaf, which turns smoky and slightly charred at the edges from the grill. Melaka's Nyonya cooks make a fatter, steamed version, but this one is grilled in banana leaf. Eat it warm, peeled straight out of the leaf, with white bread, rice or nasi lemak. Chef's tip: chill the fish mixture for 15 minutes before wrapping; it firms up and is far easier to spoon onto the leaves.

50 min

Malaysian Fish

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Ou khattaElephant apple chutney

Ou tenga, the elephant apple, is a hard, sour green fruit that grows across Assam and turns up in every winter market in Guwahati. Ou khatta is its sweet chutney: slices are boiled until tender, then simmered with jaggery and panch phoron until glossy, sticky and sharp-sweet. It is served in a little mound at the end of a festive Assamese lunch and at Bihu feasts, the way Bengalis end with tomato chutney. Chef's tip: outside the Northeast, use a mix of very sour green apple and a little tamarind; it gets surprisingly close.

45 min

Indian Chutneys & Dips

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Ovocné knedlíkyFruit-filled dumplings

Ovocné knedlíky are the summer main course of Czech childhoods: in July with apricots from South Moravian orchards, in September with blue plums, eaten as lunch rather than pudding. Each soft quark dumpling hides a whole fruit that turns jammy as it simmers, and they are served the old way, rolled in melted butter and buried under grated tvaroh (quark) and icing sugar. Kids compete over who can eat the most. Chef's tip: pinch the dough completely closed with no thin patches; a single gap lets water in and the dumpling bursts in the pot.

45 min

Czech Desserts

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Ovoshchnoe raguSummer vegetable stew

Ovoshchnoe ragu is what happens at a Russian dacha in August, when the garden outside Moscow or Nizhny Novgorod produces more courgettes, cabbage, peppers and new potatoes than anyone can eat. Everything is fried in turn, then stewed together in one heavy pot with tomato until soft and spoonable, and eaten hot with black bread, or cold the next day. It is homelier than French ratatouille or Greek briam: cabbage and potatoes give it body, and dill and garlic go in right at the end. Chef's tip: fry each vegetable separately before stewing; dumping everything in raw gives a watery, boiled taste.

65 min

Russian Vegetarian

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OyakiStuffed steamed dumplings

Oyaki are the everyday snack of Nagano's mountain villages, where rice was scarce and wheat and buckwheat grew better. The plump dumplings are filled with whatever the season gives: pickled nozawana greens in winter, aubergine and miso in summer, sweet squash in autumn. Old farmhouses baked them in the ashes of the irori hearth; today they are browned in a pan and steamed, so they come out crusty on both faces with a soft, chewy middle. They travel well, which made them the lunch of farmers and hikers on the trails around Zenkoji temple. Chef's tip: let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes. A relaxed dough stretches thin around the filling without tearing.

65 min

Japanese Snacks & Starters

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OyakodonChicken and egg rice bowl

The name means 'parent and child bowl', a gentle joke about cooking the chicken and the egg together. A Nihonbashi chicken restaurant in Tokyo says it first served the dish in the 1890s, and today it is a staple lunch in soba shops, office canteens and home kitchens all over the country. Thigh meat and sliced onion simmer briefly in sweet soy dashi, then beaten egg goes in and is taken off the heat while still soft and glossy. Everything slides onto a bowl of hot rice so the sauce seeps into the grains. Chef's tip: beat the eggs with just a few strokes of chopsticks, leaving streaks of white and yolk, as that marbled look and silky texture is what you're after.

25 min

Japanese Chicken

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Pabellón criollo vegetarianoMushrooms, black beans and rice plate

Pabellón criollo is Venezuela's national dish, the lunch plate served in family kitchens and at every Caracas lunch counter: white rice, black beans (caraotas), sweet fried plantain (tajadas) and shredded stewed beef side by side, like the stripes of a flag. This vegetarian version replaces the beef with king oyster mushrooms pulled into strands and stewed in a sofrito with tomato, cumin and a little panela, which gives the same tender, shredded texture. For slow-cooked beans from scratch, see the frijoles negros cubanos page. Chef's tip: shred the mushrooms along the grain with a fork, as you would pull beef; it's what makes them look and eat like carne mechada.

60 min

Venezuelan Vegetarian

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