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Tourtière
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Tourtière

Spiced pork and beef pie

Tourtière is the meat pie of Quebec, served after midnight mass at the Christmas Eve réveillon and through the holidays, from Montreal to the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region (where a deep, layered version is also called tourtière). This dish contains pork. Minced pork and beef cook slowly with onion, a little potato and warm spices — cinnamon, cloves, allspice and savory — then are baked in a flaky double crust and served with ketchup or fruit chutney. The mistake is a wet filling that makes the bottom crust soggy; cook it until the liquid has almost gone and cool it before filling. Chef's tip: a grated potato in the filling soaks up the juices and holds the slices together.

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15 minEast AfricanSaladsVeganGluten free
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Peynirli pideBoat-shaped cheese bread

Along the Black Sea coast, from Samsun to Trabzon, the pide salon is where families go on a Friday night, and the oven man shapes each boat of dough by hand before sliding it onto the hot stone floor of a wood-fired oven. The Black Sea way is generous: a pool of melted kaşar and white cheese held inside a rim of soft bread, an egg cracked into the middle for the last few minutes and a knob of butter dropped on as it comes out. Children love tearing off the crusty ends to drag through the cheese. Chef's tip: heat a heavy baking tray or pizza stone in the oven for a full 30 minutes; the hot base is what gives a crisp underside rather than a soft one.

120 minTurkishPizza
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PhagshapaPork with radish and chilli

High in the hills of Sikkim, where winters are long and cold, Bhutia and Lepcha households make phagshapa from fatty strips of pork, white radish and fiery dried red chillies. Traditionally it uses no oil at all: the pork renders its own fat, and the radish soaks it up and turns meltingly soft. It is everyday warming food in Gangtok kitchens, eaten with rice and a bowl of clear soup. Chef's tip: cut the radish thick, in batons, so it holds its shape through the long simmer.

80 minIndianMeatGluten freeSpicy
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Kachri ki chutneyWild melon and chilli chutney

Kachri is a small wild melon that grows on its own in the sandy fields of southern Haryana and western Rajasthan. Sliced and sun-dried, it keeps for a year and has a sharp, sour taste that farmers' families grind with garlic and red chilli into this fiery chutney. A spoonful goes with bajra roti and white butter on a winter afternoon, or with dal and rice when there is nothing else in the house. Dried kachri and kachri powder are sold in Indian grocers. Chef's tip: taste a piece of dried kachri first; occasionally one batch is bitter, and that bitterness will ruin the whole jar.

30 minIndianChutneys & DipsVeganGluten freeSpicy
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Pho boBeef noodle soup

Before Hanoi's offices open, pavement pho stalls are already busy, with diners on low plastic stools bent over bowls of rice noodles in a clear, spiced beef broth. The northern style is restrained: brisket and thin slices of raw beef that cook in the bowl, spring onion and a little coriander, with lime and chilli on the side rather than a heap of herbs and sauces. The work is in the broth, simmered slowly from bones with blackened onion and ginger and a small bag of toasted spices. Make it on a weekend; it keeps for three days and the bowls then take ten minutes. Chef's tip: char the onion and ginger until they are properly black in patches, because that smoky sweetness is what makes the broth taste of pho rather than plain beef stock.

240 minVietnameseSoups
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Pho cuonBeef rice noodle rolls

On Ngũ Xã, a little island of streets between Trúc Bạch lake and West Lake in Hanoi, whole rows of restaurants sell nothing but pho in different shapes, and phở cuốn is the one people order by the plateful in the evening. Instead of cutting the fresh rice-noodle sheet into ribbons, the cooks leave it whole and roll it round seared beef, lettuce and herbs. The rolls are soft, cool and slightly chewy, and you dip them in a light, sweet fish sauce with pickled carrot. Look for fresh rice-noodle sheets in the chiller of an Asian supermarket, often sold for Chinese ho fun. Chef's tip: if the sheets are stiff from the fridge, steam or microwave them for 30 seconds under a damp cloth before separating, or they tear.

40 minVietnameseSnacks & Starters
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Pho gaChicken noodle soup

In Hanoi some shops sell nothing but chicken pho, and locals often choose it over beef for a gentler breakfast or a late bowl after an evening out. The broth is lighter than the beef version, made in about an hour from a whole bird with a few charred aromatics and only a hint of spice. The northern signature is a tangle of makrut lime leaf, cut as fine as thread, scattered over the hot chicken just before serving. It's a good first pho to make at home, since the timing is forgiving and the chicken poaches in the same pot. Chef's tip: plunge the cooked chicken into iced water for 5 minutes; the skin turns firm and slightly springy, the way Hanoi cooks like it.

90 minVietnameseSoups
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Phutkal saagStir-fried fig-tree leaves

In spring, before the rains, the phutkal tree (a wild fig) puts out tender pink-green shoots, and women across Jharkhand climb or hook them down to cook as saag. The leaves are naturally sour, so the dish needs no tomato or tamarind: they are boiled, squeezed and fried with garlic, dried chilli and mustard oil. Much of the harvest is dried in the sun and sold in Ranchi markets to cook through the year, and dried phutkal is what most people outside the state can find. Chef's tip: boil and squeeze the leaves well; this tames any bitterness and keeps the saag from turning watery.

40 minIndianSidesVeganGluten free
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PiadinaGriddled flatbread

Piadina is Romagna's everyday bread, cooked on a hot griddle (traditionally a terracotta testo) in chalet-style kiosks from Rimini to Ravenna and eaten folded around soft squacquerone cheese and rocket, or with grilled vegetables. It needs no yeast and is ready in half an hour, which is why families make it at home for quick suppers. The old recipe uses lard; olive oil gives a lighter, vegetarian result. Chef's tip: let the griddle get properly hot and cook the piadina dry, without oil; you want brown freckles and a few blisters, not a fried bread.

30 minItalianBreads & Parathas
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Pian'er chuan noodlesNoodle soup with pickled greens

Ask a Hangzhou local what they eat at a noodle shop and the answer is often pian'er chuan, a quick bowl named for its sliced (pian) pork and bamboo that are flash-cooked (chuan) in the broth. Salty, crunchy pickled mustard greens give it its savoury depth, the bamboo adds a clean sweetness, and the thin noodles soak up a cloudy, peppery soup. It is everyday lunch food, eaten at speed. A common mistake is skipping the rinse on the pickled greens; unrinsed, they make the whole bowl too salty. Chef's tip: slice the pork as thinly as you can while it is half-frozen, so it cooks in seconds and stays tender.

30 minChineseSoups
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PiayaMuscovado-filled flatbread

Piaya is the sweet everyone brings home from Bacolod and the sugar-growing island of Negros: a thin, flaky round of unleavened dough with a layer of dark muscovado inside, cooked on a dry griddle until blistered, and dotted with sesame seeds. The sugar melts and turns chewy as it cools. It is eaten with coffee in the afternoon, and newer shops fill it with ube. Lard is traditional in the dough; vegetable shortening gives the same flakiness. Chef's tip: roll the filled dough gently from the centre outward and keep it thin, or the sugar bursts through.

70 minFilipinoBakingVegan
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Kacchi biryaniRaw-marinated mutton biryani

Kacchi biryani is the wedding dish of Old Dhaka: at every Bangladeshi biye the huge copper pots come out, and the lanes around Nazira Bazar are famous for it. 'Kacchi' means raw: the mutton goes into the pot uncooked, marinated in yogurt and spices, under a layer of half-cooked aromatic rice and fried potatoes, and everything steams together for over an hour so the meat juices cook the rice. Serve it with borhani, the spiced yogurt drink, and a salad of sliced cucumber and onion. The common mistake is under-marinating or using lean meat cut too large; small pieces of shoulder with some fat, marinated overnight in the fridge, cook through in time. Chef's tip: seal the lid with a rope of dough; if no steam escapes, the meat at the bottom becomes tender without you ever opening the pot.

150 minBangladeshiRice & Grains
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Picadillo vegetarianoLentil and mushroom picadillo

Picadillo a la habanera is Havana's everyday savoury hash, sweet with raisins, salty with olives and capers and sharp with tomato and sofrito. This vegetarian version swaps the meat for brown lentils and finely chopped mushrooms, which give the same crumbly, juicy texture and a deep savoury flavour. Spoon it over white rice with fried ripe plantain, or use it to fill empanadas and stuffed peppers. Chef's tip: let the mushrooms fry until all their liquid has gone and they turn brown; that browning is what makes it taste rich.

40 minCubanVegetarianVeganGluten free
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