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Agedashi tofu
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Agedashi tofu

Fried tofu in warm broth

Agedashi tofu (揚げ出し豆腐) is a classic izakaya dish eaten all over Japan: cubes of soft tofu dusted in potato starch, fried until they form a thin, crisp shell, then bathed in a hot, savoury broth. The coating turns silky as it soaks up the sauce while the tofu inside stays creamy. Usually topped with bonito flakes; here it's grated daikon, ginger and spring onion with a kombu-shiitake broth instead. Chef's tip: coat the tofu in starch right before it goes into the oil, not ahead of time; if it sits, the starch turns damp and the coating fries up gummy instead of crisp.

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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 AmericanVegetarianGluten free
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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 minPortugueseMeatGluten free
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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 AmericanSnacks & StartersGluten free
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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 minMauritianChickenGluten free
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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 minItalianSidesVeganGluten free
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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 minSwissMeat
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Töltött káposztaStuffed cabbage rolls

Töltött káposzta is the dish Hungarians make for Christmas and the wedding feasts of the countryside, a huge pot that tastes better each day. It is a pork dish: soured cabbage leaves are rolled around a filling of pork mince, rice, onion and paprika, then layered with chopped sauerkraut and smoked pork ribs or sausage and simmered for hours. It is served with a dollop of soured cream and bread. Chef's tip: look for whole soured cabbage heads (sold for this dish in Eastern European shops); if you cannot find them, blanch fresh savoy leaves and add extra sauerkraut.

195 minHungarianMeatGluten free
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CaponataSweet and sour aubergine stew

Caponata is the agrodolce dish of Sicily: cubes of fried aubergine, crisp celery, green olives and capers in a glossy tomato sauce sharpened with vinegar and softened with a little sugar. Palermo families keep a bowl in the fridge through late summer and eat it at room temperature as an antipasto, a side or on bread, and many say it is best on the second day. The sweet-sour balance shows the Arab influence on Sicilian cooking. Chef's tip: blanch the celery for 2 minutes before frying; it keeps a pleasant crunch without tasting raw.

45 minItalianSidesVeganGluten free
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Cape Malay koesistersSpiced syrup doughnuts

Koesisters are Cape Town's Sunday-morning ritual: in the Bo-Kaap and on the Cape Flats, families buy or make a batch to eat with tea after the week's work is done. They are nothing like the plaited, crunchy Afrikaner koeksister. These are soft, cake-like, oval dumplings flavoured with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, aniseed and naartjie (tangerine) zest, fried, briefly boiled in a thin syrup and rolled in desiccated coconut. Chef's tip: fry them over a moderate heat so they cook through to a fluffy centre before the outside turns dark; they should be a rich brown, not black.

150 minSouth AfricanDesserts
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Tom yum goongHot and sour prawn soup

Steaming bowls of this prawn soup land on almost every table in central Thailand, from riverside shophouses in Ayutthaya to family dinners in Bangkok, where it sits in the middle to be shared with rice and two or three other dishes. The broth is thin but loud: sour from lime, salty from fish sauce, hot from crushed bird's eye chillies, and perfumed by bruised lemongrass, galangal and torn makrut lime leaf, which flavour the soup but are left in the bowl. This is the clear style (nam sai) with a spoonful of roasted chilli paste for colour and a gentle sweetness; the creamy nam khon style adds evaporated milk, which we leave out to keep it dairy free. Serve it piping hot with plain jasmine rice. Chef's tip: simmer the prawn heads and shells for five minutes before anything else goes in, and the soup tastes of the sea rather than of water.

25 minThaiSoupsGluten freeSpicy
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Tomaat-garnaalTomatoes stuffed with grey shrimp

Along the Belgian coast, from Ostend to De Panne, tomaat-garnaal is the starter that tells you you are at the seaside: a hollowed raw tomato heaped with tiny, sweet North Sea grey shrimp in homemade mayonnaise, served with lettuce, lemon and often a few chips. The shrimp are caught and boiled on the boats, so they come ready-cooked and peeled. Because the dish has so few parts, everything depends on good ripe tomatoes and very fresh shrimp. The thing people often get wrong is drowning the shrimp in mayonnaise; use just enough to bind them so their sweetness comes through. Chef's tip: salt the hollowed tomatoes and turn them upside down for 10 minutes so they do not leak water onto the plate.

20 minBelgianFishGluten free
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Zürcher GeschnetzeltesSliced veal in mushroom cream sauce

Zürcher Geschnetzeltes is the signature dish of Zurich's old guild restaurants and a favourite Sunday meal in homes across German-speaking Switzerland. Thin strips of veal are seared quickly, then the pan is deglazed with white wine and finished with cream and mushrooms into a pale, glossy sauce, and the whole thing is served beside a golden, crisp rösti. The wine adds alcohol (most cooks it off); for an alcohol-free version use the same amount of chicken stock with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. The usual error is cooking the veal in the sauce until it toughens; sear it fast, take it out, and only warm it through at the end. Chef's tip: boil the potatoes for the rösti a day ahead and chill them; cold, firm potatoes grate cleanly and fry up crisp.

65 minSwissMeatGluten free
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Cao lauPork and noodle bowl

You will really only find proper cao lầu in Hội An, the old trading port on Vietnam's central coast, where it's sold in small family eateries and along the riverside at lunch. The noodles are yellowish and unusually chewy, made with lye water that locals traditionally link to the town's ancient Bá Lễ well. They come almost dry, topped with slices of sweet five-spice pork, raw greens and crisp squares of fried dough, with just a spoonful of the pork juices. Because the real noodles are very hard to buy outside Hội An, this home version uses thick udon noodles, which give a similar bouncy chew; it is a substitute, not the original. Chef's tip: rinse the cooked udon in cold water, then dip briefly in hot water just before serving, so they are warm but firm.

60 minVietnamesePasta & Noodles
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Tomato pappuTomato dal

Pappu (dal) is the backbone of an Andhra meal, and tomato pappu is the one most Telugu households cook on an ordinary weekday. Toor dal is cooked with plenty of ripe tomatoes, onion, green chillies and a little tamarind, then mashed to a thick, rustic consistency and finished with a fierce garlic and red chilli popu (tempering). It's tangier and hotter than a North Indian dal, and it's mixed into hot rice with a spoon of ghee and eaten with avakaya pickle and a crisp fried vegetable. Chef's tip: mash the dal and tomatoes together with a whisk or a wooden mathu while hot; it gives the creamy, slightly rough texture that blending never does.

40 minIndianCurriesVeganGluten free
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Tomato rasamTomato tamarind soup

Rasam is the thin, sour, peppery broth that runs through every Tamil Nadu meal, poured over rice after sambar or sipped from a tumbler when you have a cold. This tomato version is the everyday kind: ripe tomatoes and tamarind simmered with crushed garlic, black pepper and cumin, then lifted with a tempering of mustard seeds, dried chilli and curry leaves. It's light, warming and ready in 25 minutes. Serve it with plain rice and a dry vegetable, or on its own in a cup. Chef's tip: once you add the spice mix, take the rasam off the heat as soon as it froths up; boiling it hard turns the flavour flat and the pepper harsh.

25 minIndianSoupsVeganGluten free
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ZoboHibiscus and pineapple drink

Zobo is the deep crimson drink sold ice-cold in recycled bottles at Nigerian bus parks, markets and parties, and in Ghana the same drink is called sobolo, often made punchier with extra ginger and grains of selim. Dried hibiscus calyces are boiled with pineapple peel, fresh ginger and cloves, then strained and sweetened, giving a tart, fruity, gently spicy drink. It is drunk fresh and alcohol-free, very cold, especially in the dry heat before the rains. Chef's tip: sweeten the drink once it is strained and still warm, tasting as you go; hibiscus tastes much sharper hot than when it is chilled, so leave it a touch sweeter than you think.

30 minNigerianDrinksVeganGluten free
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CantucciTwice-baked almond biscuits

Cantucci, also called biscotti di Prato, are the hard almond biscuits of Prato, near Florence, where bakeries have sold them since the 1800s. The dough is shaped into logs, baked, sliced on the diagonal and baked again until crisp and golden, so they keep for weeks. In Tuscany they end a meal dipped in a small glass of Vin Santo; with coffee works just as well. The traditional recipe has no butter or oil, only eggs, sugar, flour and whole almonds. Chef's tip: slice the logs while still warm with a serrated knife and a firm sawing motion; once cold, they crumble.

60 minItalianBaking
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CannoliFried shells with sweet ricotta

Cannoli were once a Carnival treat in Palermo; now Sicilian pastry shops fill them all year, piping the sweet sheep's-milk ricotta cream into the crisp, bubbly shells only when you order, so they never go soft. The ends are dipped in chopped pistachios, candied orange or chocolate chips. Traditional shells are fried with lard; this version uses butter in the dough and sunflower oil to fry. You need metal cannoli tubes. Chef's tip: drain the ricotta overnight and push it through a sieve; it makes a silky cream that holds its shape instead of a runny, grainy filling.

90 minItalianDesserts
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CanjeeroSpongy 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.

40 minSomaliBreakfast & BrunchVegan
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Bacalhau à BrásSalt cod with egg and potatoes

Lisbon's Bairro Alto taverns claim this dish, said to be named after a tasca owner called Brás, and it is still a weeknight favourite in homes all over the city. Flaked salt cod is softened with slowly cooked onion, tossed with a heap of fine straw-cut fried potatoes, then bound at the last second with beaten egg so everything stays creamy and loose. Black olives and parsley go on top. A green salad is all it needs. Chef's tip: take the pan off the heat the moment you add the eggs; they should finish cooking from the warmth of the potatoes, like a soft scramble.

60 minPortugueseFishGluten free
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Bacalao al pil pilSalt cod in garlic oil sauce

Bacalao al pil pil belongs to Bilbao and the rest of Bizkaia, where it fills restaurant menus in Lent and Holy Week and reappears on Christmas Eve tables. It is made from just four things: desalted salt cod, olive oil, garlic and a dried chilli. The trick is the sauce. The cod gives off gelatine as it cooks gently in warm oil, and swirling the clay dish round and round turns that oil into a thick, pale, mayonnaise-like emulsion; the name comes from the 'pil pil' sound of it bubbling. Plan ahead, because thick salt cod needs 24–48 hours of soaking in the fridge. Chef's tip: buy thick, skin-on loins (lomos); the gelatine that makes the sauce comes from the skin.

60 minSpanishFishGluten free
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Caldo de resBeef shank soup

Ask almost any family in Mexico about Sunday lunch or a cold, rainy afternoon and caldo de res comes up: bone-in beef shank simmered for hours, then filled with big pieces of corn on the cob, carrot, potato, courgette and cabbage, so each bowl is a meal. Fondas from Monterrey to Mexico City sell it at midday with Mexican red rice, warm tortillas and a dish of chopped serrano and onion. The marrow from the shank bones enriches the clear broth. Chef's tip: add the vegetables in stages, the hard ones first, so everything is tender at the same time and nothing turns to mush.

205 minMexicanSoupsGluten free
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Arancini with mushrooms and peasMushroom and pea rice balls

Arancini are the pride of Sicilian rosticcerie, eaten mid-morning or as a snack on the ferry across the Strait of Messina; in Palermo they are round and called arancine, in Catania they are cone-shaped. The rice is cooked with saffron, cooled, then wrapped around a filling and fried until the crust is crackling gold. The best-known filling is meat ragù; this vegetarian version uses a thick tomato ragù of mushrooms and peas with a cube of caciocavallo or mozzarella, which is also found in Sicilian bars. Chef's tip: let the filling cool completely and keep it thick; a wet filling seeps through the rice and makes the balls split.

120 minItalianSnacks & Starters
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CalabacitasCourgette and corn sauté

Calabacitas a la mexicana is the everyday summer side dish of kitchens all over Mexico: young squash (calabacitas) cooked quickly with sweetcorn, tomato, onion and strips of roasted poblano until tender and juicy, finished with crumbled fresh cheese. Mexican grey squash is milder and more tender than courgette, but young courgettes work beautifully. Eat it with rice and beans, roll it into tacos, or fill quesadillas with it. Use queso fresco made with vegetarian rennet. Chef's tip: cook over a high heat and don't cover the pan for long; you want the courgette to fry and keep a bite, not steam into a puddle.

20 minMexicanSidesGluten free
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Café cubanoSweet Cuban espresso

Café cubano, or cafecito, is the tiny, intensely sweet coffee poured into thimble-sized cups at every ventanita (walk-up window) in Miami and in homes across Cuba, often shared around the office at 3 o'clock. The secret is the espumita: the first few drops of coffee beaten hard with sugar into a pale caramel-coloured cream that floats on top. You need a stovetop moka pot. Chef's tip: catch only the very first, strongest drops for the foam; if you add too much coffee the sugar won't whip up.

7 minCubanDrinksVeganGluten free
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Arabic coffeeCardamom coffee

Pale, fragrant and nothing like espresso, qahwa is the coffee of Gulf hospitality: poured from a brass dallah into tiny handleless cups in majlis sitting rooms from Kuwait to Oman, always beside a bowl of dates. The beans are only lightly roasted, so the drink is golden-brown and herbal, dominated by cardamom with a little saffron and clove. Guests take a few sips at a time, and a small shake of the empty cup tells the host you've had enough. Chef's tip: grind the cardamom just before brewing; pre-ground cardamom has lost most of the perfume that makes qahwa.

15 minGulf ArabianDrinksVeganGluten free
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TorlyBaked mixed vegetables

Torly is a tray of mixed vegetables (potatoes, courgettes, carrots, green beans, peas, peppers) baked in a tomato and garlic sauce until soft and slightly caramelised at the edges. The name is Turkish, a reminder of Ottoman times, but it has long been an everyday Egyptian home dish, usually cooked when the summer markets are full of courgettes and served with white rice or vermicelli rice. Many families add meat; this meat-free version is just as common in fasting seasons. Chef's tip: cut the potatoes and carrots smaller than the courgettes, so everything is tender at the same moment.

75 minEgyptianVegetarianVeganGluten free
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BabruBlack gram stuffed fried bread

Ask anyone who grew up in Shimla about babru and they will mention a paper plate of them in the Lower Bazaar, still puffing from the oil, with a ladle of dark tamarind chutney poured over. Unlike Uttar Pradesh's flaky urad kachori, babru is made from a soft, yeasted wheat dough, so it fries up light and bready, and it is pressed flat and wide rather than shaped into a ball. The filling is whole black gram, soaked and ground with ginger and green chilli. In Himachal homes it is a tea-time and festival snack, and it travels well in a tiffin. Chef's tip: grind the dal coarse and thick, like hummus; a runny paste leaks and makes the babru greasy.

120 minIndianBreads & ParathasVegan
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AyranSalted yogurt drink

Ayran is what Turks drink with lunch: a chilled, foamy blend of yogurt, water and a pinch of salt, poured from copper jugs alongside cheese pide, börek, lentil soup and bean stews. In the Susurluk area of Balıkesir it is whisked so hard that it arrives under a thick head of foam, and roadside cafés all over Anatolia serve it in tin cups on hot summer days. It is tangy, refreshing and cooling with spicy food. Make it just before you sit down and drink it ice-cold. Chef's tip: whisk the yogurt alone with the salt until smooth before adding any water, and you'll get a silky drink with no lumps.

5 minTurkishDrinksGluten free
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CachapasSweet corn pancakes with cheese

Cachapas are the roadside breakfast of Venezuela; along the highways of Aragua and Carabobo, stands called cachaperas grill them on big iron plates from early morning. They are thick, slightly lumpy pancakes made from fresh blended sweetcorn, sweet and savoury at once, folded over a slab of soft, stretchy white cheese (queso de mano) that melts with the heat. Mozzarella works well outside Venezuela. Chef's tip: keep a few whole kernels in the batter; the little bursts of corn are part of a real cachapa.

30 minVenezuelanBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
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