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Botwinka
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Botwinka

Young beetroot soup

June markets in Kraków and Tarnów are piled with bunches of baby beetroot still wearing their leaves, and those bunches go straight into botwinka. The whole plant is used: the small roots, the rosy stalks and the greens, simmered quickly so the soup stays bright pink and fresh-tasting rather than earthy. It is finished with sour cream, lots of dill and a squeeze of lemon, and often eaten with new potatoes and a halved boiled egg. A common mistake is boiling it for too long, which turns the leaves khaki and dulls the colour. Chef's tip: add the lemon juice before the cream; the acid locks in the ruby colour.

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50 minCanadianDesserts
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Poulet bicycletteGrilled free-range chicken

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Poulet DGChicken with plantain and vegetables

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90 minCameroonianChickenGluten free
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180 minMexicanSoupsGluten freeSpicy
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Vegetarian pozole verdeGreen hominy soup

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Ptichye molokoSoufflé cake with chocolate glaze

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Ptitim was invented in Israel in the 1950s, when rice was scarce and the Osem factory was asked to make a wheat substitute; the little toasted pasta pearls soon became the dish every Israeli child grew up on. In homes from Haifa to Be'er Sheva it is cooked like a pilaf, first toasted in oil until nutty, then simmered in stock until plump and chewy. This version folds in courgette, red pepper and peas for a quick weeknight dinner or lunchbox side. Chef's tip: toast the dry ptitim until it smells like popcorn and turns light gold; it gives a much nuttier flavour than boiling it like pasta.

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Puerto Rican sofritoHerb and pepper cooking base

Open a freezer anywhere in Puerto Rico, or in the Puerto Rican neighbourhoods of New York and Orlando, and you'll find a tub or ice-cube tray of green sofrito. It is the start of almost everything savoury on the island: beans, rice, stews, soups and sauces. Unlike the slow-cooked Spanish sofrito, this one is raw, blended from culantro (recao), cilantro, little sweet ajíes dulces, cubanelle peppers, onion and lots of garlic. It smells grassy and sharp in the jar and turns mellow and savoury as soon as it hits hot oil. Chef's tip: if you can't find ajíes dulces, use extra red pepper and a tiny piece of seeded scotch bonnet; you want their fruity perfume, not heat.

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PukhleinFried rice flour and jaggery cakes

Pukhlein are the sweet treats of Khasi tea stalls and celebrations in Meghalaya: a batter of rice flour and jaggery fried into round, puffed cakes that are crisp and caramelised on the outside and chewy within. They are made for Christmas and family gatherings and are sold at Shillong's Iewduh (Bara Bazaar) with red tea. They taste a little like a cross between a doughnut and an Indian anarsa. Chef's tip: rest the batter for at least an hour; the rice flour hydrates and the cakes puff instead of spreading.

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PulihoraTamarind rice

Pulihora is the rice Andhra families cook for Ugadi, Sankranti and every temple festival in between, and it's also the dish wrapped in banana leaves for long train trips because it keeps all day. The Telugu version is sharper and hotter than Tamil puliyodarai or Karnataka puliyogare: cooked rice is tossed with a thick tamarind paste, turmeric, mustard and a hefty tempering of peanuts, chana dal, green and red chillies and curry leaves, with no sweet spice powder. It's sour, hot, nutty and fragrant with sesame oil. Eat it at room temperature with curd or a crisp papad. Chef's tip: cook the tamarind paste until oil separates at the edges; under-cooked tamarind gives the rice a raw, puckery sourness.

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Pulpo a la gallegaOctopus with paprika and potatoes

Pulpo a feira is fair-day food in Galicia: at markets and village fiestas, pulpeiras boil whole octopus in big copper pots, snip it with scissors onto round wooden plates and finish it with coarse salt, pimentón and olive oil. The town of O Carballiño in Ourense holds an octopus festival every August, and you'll find the dish in pulperías across the region all year. At home it is simpler than it looks; the secret is that a frozen octopus is a tender one, because freezing breaks down the tough fibres. Chef's tip: use the octopus cooking water to boil the potatoes, which picks up its flavour and pink colour.

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PumaloiSteamed rice cakes

Pumaloi is the everyday breakfast of the Khasi Hills: coarse powdered rice, lightly moistened, packed into a tall steamer (traditionally a bamboo or metal 'khiew') and steamed into a soft, crumbly cake. In Shillong it is sold warm at morning stalls with a cup of sweet tea, and at home it is served with tungrymbai, a vegetable stew or a chilli chutney. It is plain on purpose, like Kerala's puttu but drier and lighter. Chef's tip: the flour should feel like damp sand, holding a shape when squeezed but crumbling easily; any wetter and the cake goes gluey.

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Pumpkin samsaPumpkin pastries

In autumn, when piles of orange pumpkins appear in the Chorsu bazaar in Tashkent, bakers switch some of their samsa from meat to oshqovoq somsa: crisp, flaky triangles filled with diced pumpkin, onion, cumin and a little sugar, baked against the tandoor wall. They are a street snack eaten hot from paper with green tea, and a fasting-friendly favourite at home. The pastry here is the quick laminated dough Uzbek home cooks use, rolled thin, buttered and coiled. Chef's tip: dice the pumpkin small (1 cm) and don't pre-cook it; raw pumpkin steams inside the pastry and stays in tender, distinct pieces instead of turning into purée.

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Punjabi chole samosa chaatSamosas with chickpea curry and yogurt

Samosa chaat is how the street stalls of Punjab and Delhi turn yesterday's samosas into the best snack of the day. Samosas are broken open on a plate, covered with a ladle of hot, tangy chole, then cooled down with sweet whisked yogurt, green and tamarind chutneys, raw onion, crunchy sev and a dusting of chaat masala. Every spoonful is hot and cold, crisp and soft, sweet, sour and spicy at once. Use bought samosas or the site's own samosa recipe. Chef's tip: warm the samosas in the oven until crisp before you crush them; a soggy samosa makes a heavy chaat, a crisp one soaks up the chole and still crunches.

20 minIndianSnacks & StartersSpicy
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Punjabi lassiSweet yogurt drink with cream

In Amritsar and on the highways across Punjab, lassi comes in a tall steel or brass glass, churned so thick a spoon nearly stands up in it, with a raft of malai (clotted cream) floating on top. It is a summer drink, but Punjabis drink it all year with a stuffed paratha breakfast or after a heavy lunch. This is the plain sweet kind, with no fruit, so the tang of good full-fat yogurt is the whole point. Chef's tip: chill the yogurt, milk and glasses beforehand; cold lassi stays thicker.

5 minIndianDrinksGluten free
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Punjene paprikeStuffed peppers

When late-summer markets in Novi Sad and Belgrade fill up with pale yellow and light green peppers, Serbian kitchens make big pots of punjene paprike to eat for several days. The peppers are packed with seasoned beef and pork mince and rice, stood upright and simmered slowly in a light tomato sauce until meltingly soft. They are served with a dollop of sour cream and bread to mop up the sauce. This recipe contains pork. The easy mistake is stuffing the peppers too tightly: the rice swells and splits them, so leave the top 2 cm empty. Chef's tip: plug each pepper with a slice of potato or tomato before simmering, so the filling stays inside.

105 minBalkanMeatGluten free
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PunuguluDosa batter fritters

Punugulu are the bite-sized, golden fritters sold by the paper-cone along the streets of Vijayawada and Guntur on wet evenings, and made at home whenever the idli or dosa batter has gone a little too sour. A spoonful of thick batter with onion, green chilli and cumin is dropped into hot oil, where it puffs into a round ball with a crackly shell and a soft, spongy middle. Serve them hot with peanut chutney, ginger chutney or plain ketchup and a cup of chai. Chef's tip: add a spoonful of rice flour to the batter; it gives punugulu their crunch and stops them soaking up oil.

30 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Pupusas de queso y frijolCheese and bean stuffed corn cakes

In El Salvador pupusas are a Sunday-night ritual: families queue at the pupusería, where cooks pat the dough between wet palms with a soft clapping sound, and the second Sunday of November is National Pupusa Day. These thick masa cakes are stuffed with stringy cheese and smooth refried black beans, griddled until speckled, and eaten with your hands, topped with curtido and a thin tomato salsa. Chef's tip: keep a bowl of water with a splash of oil beside you and wet your hands before every pupusa, so the dough stays supple and the seams don't crack.

65 minCentral AmericanSnacks & StartersGluten free
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PutoSteamed rice cakes

Puto are small steamed rice cakes found at every Filipino party and merienda table, with countless town styles from Biñan's flat rounds to Calasiao's tiny bites in Pangasinan. Traditionally the batter is fermented ground rice; this home version uses rice flour and baking powder for a quick, reliable rise and a fine, cottony crumb. A strip of cheese on top melts into the cake as it steams. They go with dinuguan in Luzon, but a cup of coffee or hot chocolate is just as good. Chef's tip: wrap the steamer lid in a tea towel so condensation doesn't drip onto the cakes and leave pockmarks.

40 minFilipinoDessertsGluten free
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Puttu and kadala currySteamed rice cylinders with chickpea curry

Puttu and kadala is Kerala's most loved breakfast: tall cylinders of steamed rice flour layered with fresh coconut, served with a dark, earthy curry of black chickpeas (kadala) cooked in a masala of coconut roasted until deep brown. Puttu itself is plain and crumbly, so you break it up with your fingers and mash it into the curry, often with a ripe banana and pappadam on the side. The chickpeas make it filling and protein-rich. Chef's tip: the puttu flour should feel like damp sand that holds when squeezed and crumbles when poked; too wet and the puttu turns dense and gluey.

70 minIndianBreakfast & BrunchVegan
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Pyaaz kachoriOnion-filled fried pastries

Pyaaz kachori is the pride of Jodhpur in Rajasthan, where sweet shops fry them from early morning and sell them by the hundred with tamarind chutney. The crust is khasta: short, layered and crackly, made by rubbing plenty of oil into the flour and frying slowly. Inside is a soft, jammy filling of onions cooked with fennel, coriander seed and nigella, bound with a little gram flour and potato and lifted with dried mango powder. Eat them warm for breakfast or with afternoon chai. Chef's tip: fry them in oil that is only just warm and let them take their time; the slow fry is what puffs the crust into crisp, hollow layers instead of a hard, oily shell.

80 minIndianSnacks & StartersVegan
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Qalb el louzSemolina and almond cake

Qalb el louz ('heart of almond') is the Ramadan sweet of Algiers: a dense, sandy semolina cake with a ribbon of almond filling, cut into diamonds with an almond on top and soaked in syrup while hot. Pastry shops in the Casbah sell it by the tray after iftar, to eat with mint tea or coffee late into the night. The semolina is soaked overnight in butter and water, which gives it its moist, grainy crumb. Chef's tip: pour cold syrup over the hot cake; hot syrup on a hot cake makes it soggy instead of moist.

90 minAlgerianBaking
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QatayefStuffed Ramadan pancakes

Qatayef only really appear in Egypt during Ramadan: in the weeks of the fast, street vendors in Cairo and Alexandria set up big griddles and pour rows of small pancakes that are cooked on one side only, then sold by the kilo for families to fill at home. The pale, bubbly side is folded around chopped nuts and raisins (or a creamy ashta filling), sealed into half-moons, baked or fried until crisp and dipped in syrup. They are eaten after iftar with tea. Chef's tip: cook the pancakes on one side only and don't flip them; the uncooked top stays sticky and is what glues the edges shut.

60 minEgyptianDesserts
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Qishan saozi mianSour-hot noodles with pork

Weddings, birthdays and harvest feasts in Qishan county, west of Xi'an, all call for these little bowls of noodles, and guests may eat ten or twenty small portions in a row. The key is the saozi, diced pork slowly cooked in aged vinegar and chilli until it turns red, tangy and fragrant; the broth is sour, spicy and bright with diced tofu, carrot, wood ear, egg and garlic shoots. The noodles are thin and springy and the bowls deliberately small. Serve it to a crowd as a lively lunch, with a plate of pickled vegetables. Chef's tip: make the saozi a day ahead; it keeps for a week in the fridge and tastes better after a rest.

60 minChineseSoupsSpicy
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Qorma-e sabziLamb with spinach and herbs

Qorma-e sabzi is the green qorma of Kabul: lamb slowly braised with a large amount of spinach, dill, coriander and spring onion until the greens collapse into a dark, silky sauce. Afghan cooks fry the onions slowly until deep brown first, so the stew tastes sweet and savoury against the slightly bitter greens, and a spoon of dried fenugreek leaves adds the typical bitter-sweet scent. It is served on Fridays and for guests with chalaw, plain white rice, or with naan. The common mistake is adding the greens raw and wet in one go, which stews them grey and watery; wilt and squeeze them first. Chef's tip: let the stew simmer uncovered for the last 15 minutes until the oil rises to the top; that is the sign of a well-cooked qorma.

135 minAfghanCurriesGluten free
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Qubani ka meethaStewed apricots with cream

No Hyderabadi wedding feast, or dawat, ends without qubani ka meetha: dried Afghan apricots soaked overnight, then simmered slowly with sugar until they break down into a glossy, deep amber compote, served cold with thick cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. In Hyderabad the kernels from inside the apricot stones are scattered on top; at home, blanched almonds give the same look and taste, and are safer, as some apricot kernels are bitter and shouldn't be eaten in quantity. It is sweet, tart and jammy, and very easy to make for a crowd days ahead. Chef's tip: keep the soaking water and cook the apricots in it; it holds much of their flavour and natural sugar.

60 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Quesadillas de flor de calabazaCourgette flower quesadillas

In Mexico City markets, squash blossoms (flor de calabaza) are sold by the armful in the rainy season and end up in quesadillas: soft corn tortillas folded around the flowers cooked with onion, green chilli and epazote, with stringy Oaxaca cheese. A famous Chilango joke is that a quesadilla there does not automatically come with cheese, so ask for it! The blossoms taste delicately of young courgette and wilt into a silky filling against the toasty corn. Serve them straight off the pan with salsa verde. Choose a cheese made with vegetarian rennet; if you can't find Oaxaca cheese, low-moisture mozzarella melts the same way. Chef's tip: cook the blossoms only until they collapse; any longer and they turn to mush and lose their colour.

20 minMexicanSnacks & StartersGluten free
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