Featured recipe

Arroz con pitu de caleya

Soupy rice with chicken

A pitu de caleya is a cockerel raised free in the lanes, or caleyas, of rural Asturias; its firm, flavourful meat needs long stewing, and families around Villaviciosa and Grado still cook it for feast days. The stew is often finished as a soupy rice, so the deep chicken juices go into every grain. Use the best free-range chicken you can find. The braise includes dry white wine; replace it with extra stock and a squeeze of lemon if you want it alcohol-free. Chef's tip: brown the chicken slowly and deeply; that colour is where the flavour of the whole pot comes from.

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Chapor ghontoFried lentil cake vegetable curry

In West Bengal, chapor ghonto is the thrifty, comforting dish that turns up at weekday lunch and on the vegetarian days of the Durga Puja season. Soaked yellow peas are ground and fried into small savoury cakes (chapor), then broken into a slow-cooked mix of potato, pumpkin and banana stem tempered with panch phoron, ginger and a little sugar, until everything turns soft, jammy and lightly sweet. Eat it with plain rice and a squeeze of lime. The usual mistake is stirring the chapor in too early, so they dissolve into mush; add them in the last ten minutes. Chef's tip: soak the banana stem in water with a pinch of turmeric as you slice it and pull away the fibres that wind round your finger, or it stays stringy.

55 min

Indian Vegetarian

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Bobo chickenCold chicken skewers in chilli oil

Bobo chicken came to Chengdu from Leshan and is now sold in snack shops off Chunxi Road and down Jinli, where dozens of bamboo skewers stand in a big clay bowl of chilli oil and you pay by the stick you pull out. It is summer evening food, eaten cold: tender poached chicken, lotus root, potato, mushroom and kelp, all soaked in a sweet, savoury, tongue-tingling red broth. Stalls also skewer chicken gizzards and hearts; this version keeps to chicken thigh and vegetables. It contains sesame and soya. Chef's tip: plunge the poached chicken into iced water; it keeps the meat juicy and the skin pleasantly springy.

60 min

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Fu qi fei pianCold beef and tripe

Fu qi fei pian, "husband-and-wife lung slices", takes its name from a couple who sold it from a shoulder-pole stall in 1930s Chengdu; today's version uses no lung, just beef shin and tripe. It is a cold dish, kept in big trays in the old snack restaurants around Chunxi Road and eaten at lunch or as a starter: paper-thin slices glossy with red chilli oil and numbing Sichuan pepper, with crushed peanuts and celery for crunch. It contains peanuts, sesame and soya. Chef's tip: slice the meat only when completely cold, and as thinly as you can; that is what lets the dressing coat every piece.

180 min

Chinese Meat

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Tian shui mianSweet spiced soy noodles

Tian shui mian, "sweet water noodles", are a fixture of Chengdu's old snack houses around Wenshu Monastery, ordered at lunch in a small bowl alongside dumplings and wontons. The noodles are cut as thick as chopsticks, cooked chewy and served at room temperature, coated in thick spiced soy syrup, red chilli oil, pounded raw garlic and sesame: sweet first, then hot and garlicky. Chef's tip: simmer the sweet soy until syrupy; if it is thin it runs to the bottom of the bowl instead of clinging to the noodles.

45 min

Chinese Pasta & Noodles

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Escabeche de polloChicken in vinegar and carrot

Pollo en escabeche is a home classic in Córdoba and Buenos Aires, a legacy of Spanish preserving that Argentines make on a Saturday to eat cold all week. It comes out of the fridge for a picada before the asado, as a summer lunch with a green salad and crusty bread, or packed for a day in the sierras. Chicken is browned, then gently cooked in oil and vinegar with carrot, onion, red pepper, garlic, bay and black peppercorns, and left to rest at least a day. The meat turns tender and lightly tangy, the carrots keep a little crunch, and the oil carries the flavour of bay and pepper. Because garlic sits in oil, safety matters: the liquid is half strong vinegar (at least 5% acidity, never diluted beyond what the recipe says), and the jar always lives in the fridge, never on the shelf. Eat it within 5 days. The common mistake is letting it boil hard, which makes the chicken dry and stringy; it should barely tremble. It is ready the next day, when the chicken tastes seasoned right through and the oil has turned golden. Chef's tip: take it out 20 minutes before serving so the oil melts back to liquid.

65 min

Argentinian Chicken

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MbakbkaPasta cooked in spicy lamb sauce

Mbakbka is the Tripoli family's go-to one-pot, made any day of the week and especially loved in winter: short pasta cooked directly in a spicy red sauce of lamb, tomato paste, chickpeas and bzar spice, so it drinks up the flavour and the starch thickens everything. The name echoes the bubbling sound the pot makes. The usual mistake is adding too little water: the pasta should be just covered when it goes in, and needs a stir every few minutes so it doesn't stick. For a vegetarian version, leave out the lamb and add a diced potato and courgette with the chickpeas, using vegetable stock. Chef's tip: let the pot rest off the heat for 5 minutes with the lid on, and the sauce settles into a thick, glossy coat.

65 minAfrican Pasta & Noodles

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Matzah

Matzah is the flat unleavened bread eaten at Passover, recalling the Israelites leaving Egypt in too much haste for their bread to rise, and in Israel and Jewish homes worldwide it is also eaten as a crisp everyday cracker with soups and dips. The dough is only flour and water; by tradition it is mixed, rolled and baked within 18 minutes so it cannot ferment. This home version follows that rhythm but is not certified for Passover use. There is no salt: about 0.0 g salt per sheet. The usual mistake is rolling too thick, which gives a tough, chewy bread; roll until you can almost see the counter through it. Chef's tip: prick the dough all over with a fork before baking so it stays flat and blisters evenly.

20 min

Israeli Breads & Parathas

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Lingondricka (lingonberry cordial)

In Sweden the jug of red lingondricka sits on the table at weekday dinners, in school canteens and at the julbord, poured beside meatballs, pyttipanna or a Saturday pea soup. Lingonberries grow wild in the forests of Norrland and Dalarna, and in late August families pick them by the bucket with a wooden berry rake. Cooked with sugar and strained, they become a cordial that is both sweet and sharp, with a slight bitter-almond edge from the skins, bright enough to cut through rich, creamy food. The common mistake is boiling the berries hard for a long time: the cordial turns jammy and brownish, and the pectin can make it set in the bottle. Bring it just to the boil, crush, then simmer only briefly. The syrup is ready when it is clear ruby, flows like a thin syrup and tastes tart then sweet. Lingonberries are sold frozen in Nordic and Eastern European shops; cranberries work as a substitute, with a little more sugar. Bottled hot into sterilised bottles it keeps 2 months in the fridge, or 6 months frozen. Throw it out if you see mould or it fizzes. Chef's tip: mix one part cordial to five of chilled sparkling water for a party version.

30 minScandinavian Drinks

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Attaya (Senegalese mint tea)

Attaya is less a drink than an afternoon. In Dakar courtyards, Banjul markets and village shade trees across Senegal and the Gambia, someone, usually the youngest man present, sets a tiny enamel teapot on a charcoal burner after lunch and makes three rounds, slowly, for an hour or more while everyone talks. The first glass, lewel, is strong and bitter; the second, naani, is sweeter and softer; the third, ñetteel, is the sweetest and most minty. The saying is that the first is bitter like death, the second gentle like life, the third sweet like love. Each tiny glass carries a thick, pale foam made by pouring the tea back and forth from height. The tea is boiled very strong, so it is high in caffeine: keep the glasses small and do not give it to children. The common mistake is rushing the foam; pour slowly and patiently, from as high as you can control, until a 1 cm head stands on the glass. A round is ready when the tea is dark amber, very sweet-bitter and the foam holds. Chef's tip: warm the empty glasses with a little hot tea first; foam lasts far longer in a warm glass.

60 min

Senegalese Drinks

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Chicharrón cochabambinoPork fried in chicha

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150 minAndean Meat

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Ají de arvejasPeas and potatoes in chilli sauce

Ají de arvejas is a homely Bolivian stew from La Paz and Cochabamba, cooked for weekday lunch or on Fridays and in Lent, when many families eat no meat. Green peas and potatoes simmer in a golden sauce of onion, tomato and ají amarillo (yellow chilli), and cubes of fresh white cheese are stirred in at the end so they soften without melting away. It is served with plain white rice and sometimes a boiled egg. Bolivian queso fresco is often made with animal rennet; for vegetarians, use a paneer or a fresh cheese labelled vegetarian. The usual mistake is boiling the cheese, which turns it rubbery. Chef's tip: cook the ají paste with the onion until it darkens slightly, which takes the raw edge off the chilli.

40 minAndean Vegetarian

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Chichi dangoCoconut milk mochi

Chichi dango are the soft, pastel-pink mochi squares made for Girls' Day, birthdays and graduations in Hawaii's Japanese-American families, and sold in little boxes at manapua shops and crack seed stores in Honolulu. Mochiko (sweet rice flour) is mixed with coconut milk and sugar, baked until set, then cut and dusted with potato starch. They are chewy, milky and lightly sweet. A common mistake is cutting them warm with a dry knife, which tears them; cool fully and use a plastic knife dusted with starch. Chef's tip: wrap the tin tightly in foil while baking so the top stays soft and smooth.

70 minPacific Islander Desserts

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ChichingaSpicy peanut beef kebabs

As the sun goes down on Oxford Street in Osu, Accra, chichinga sellers fan their charcoal grills at the roadside and the smell of spiced beef and roasting peanuts pulls in the evening crowd. The skewers came south with traders from northern Ghana and are close cousins of Nigerian suya: chunks of beef rubbed with a hot powder of ground peanuts, ginger and chilli, grilled with onion and green pepper and eaten with a sprinkle of extra spice, sliced tomato and a cold drink. It contains peanuts. Chef's tip: dust on most of the peanut spice in the second half of grilling; over fierce coals it scorches if it goes on too early.

50 min

Ghanaian Meat

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Maksym (Kyrgyz grain drink)

On summer days in Bishkek and Osh, blue and yellow street barrels sell maksym by the glass, next to chalap and kymyz. It is a sour grain drink of Kyrgyz herders: barley (or millet or corn) is toasted, ground and cooked with fried wheat flour into a thin gruel, then left overnight with a little of yesterday's batch until it turns pleasantly sour and slightly sparkling. It is drunk cold with plov, samsa or simply to cool down in July heat. It tastes nutty, like toast and rye bread, with a yogurt-like tang and a gentle salty edge; the texture is thicker than kvass, about like thin buttermilk. Like all ferments it develops a trace of alcohol, well under 1% when drunk young. The classic mistake is adding the starter while the gruel is still hot, which kills it; wait until it feels just warm, about 30 °C. It is ready when small bubbles rise, it smells pleasantly sour and a foamy cap forms. Keep it in the fridge in a loosely capped jug for 3–4 days; it gets sourer and more alcoholic as it sits. Discard if you see coloured mould, slime or smell anything rotten. Contains gluten. Chef's tip: toast the barley until it smells like coffee for the deepest flavour.

95 min

Kyrgyz Drinks

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Chilcano de piscoPisco and ginger ale highball

When Lima's grey winter finally lifts and summer reaches the beaches south of the city, the chilcano takes over from the pisco sour: lighter, longer and made for an afternoon. Peru even gives it a Semana del Chilcano each January, and it is poured at weekend lunches with chifa or fried fish. This is a highball for adults only: pisco poured over a tall glass of ice with fresh lime and ginger ale, finished with a few drops of bitters. It should taste crisp and fizzy, with the ginger and lime lifting the floral grape notes of the pisco rather than hiding them. The common mistake is using too little ice and warm ginger ale, which gives a sweet, diluted drink that goes flat in minutes. Fill the glass to the top with ice and keep the ginger ale in the fridge until the last second. It is ready when the glass is frosty, the bubbles race up the sides and the bitters drift through the top as a pink haze. Light it may be, but drink responsibly. Chef's tip: try a fruit-infused pisco, made by steeping passion fruit or mandarin peel in the bottle for a few days; Limeños love a chilcano de maracuyá.

10 min

Peruvian Drinks

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ChilenitosDulce de leche biscuit sandwiches

Chilenitos are small, fragile sweets from the bakeries and convent traditions of Chile's countryside: two paper-thin, crisp biscuits sandwiched with manjar and coated on top with a glossy white meringue. They are a fixture of once, christenings and the sweets table at weddings. The biscuits must be rolled almost transparent; thick dough gives a hard, dry chilenito. Chef's tip: use an Italian meringue (whites whisked with hot sugar syrup); it sets smooth and shiny and the eggs are cooked by the syrup, so it is safe to serve to everyone.

100 min

Chilean Baking

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ChileroPickled vegetable and chilli relish

Sit down in any soda in Costa Rica, from San José to the Caribbean coast at Limón, and next to the napkins you will find a jar of chilero: small dice of carrot, cauliflower, onion and green beans with hot chile panameño, swimming in vinegar. Costa Ricans shake the spicy vinegar over gallo pinto at breakfast, spoon the crunchy vegetables onto a lunchtime casado of rice, black beans, plantain and salad, and add a splash to olla de carne on a rainy afternoon. It is more vinegar than vegetable, sharp and clean, with crunchy, sour bites and a fruity heat that grows the longer the jar sits. Unlike Guatemalan escabeche, nothing is blanched; the hot vinegar alone softens the vegetables slightly. The usual mistake is cutting the vegetables too big, so they will not come out of the bottle and do not pickle through; dice them no larger than 5 mm. It is ready after three days, when the vinegar has turned faintly yellow and tastes hot and the cauliflower is sour all the way through. Chef's tip: add a few strips of the vinegar-softened chile to your rice, but warn your guests.

35 minCentral American Chutneys & Dips

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Chintha chiguru pappuDal with young tamarind leaves

Every spring the tamarind trees of Telangana put out soft, coppery new leaves, chintha chiguru, and housewives in Hyderabad and the districts strip them by the handful for a few weeks of this pleasantly sour dal. The leaves give the tang that tamarind pulp gives the rest of the year, and the pappu is eaten with hot rice, ghee and a crisp papad. The common mistake is adding all the leaves at the start; they lose their fresh sourness, so stir half in near the end. Chef's tip: if tamarind shoots are out of reach, use a mix of sorrel and a teaspoon of tamarind paste.

35 min

Indian Curries

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Chirimoya alegreCherimoya in orange juice

Chileans call it 'happy cherimoya': ripe custard-apple pulp dropped into fresh orange juice and served ice-cold. It turns up as the summer dessert after a big lunch in the Central Valley and in the Aconcagua valley, where much of Chile's cherimoya grows. The fruit should be soft like a ripe avocado; a hard one tastes starchy. The most common mistake is preparing the fruit ahead without juice, so it turns brown and loses its perfume: drop each piece straight into the orange juice. Remove every black seed, as the seeds must not be eaten or crushed. Chef's tip: squeeze the oranges yourself and taste before you sweeten; good juice often needs no sugar at all.

15 min

Chilean Desserts

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Chivo en cocoGoat in coconut milk

Goats graze the dry scrub of the Guajira peninsula, and in Zulia the meat is stewed in fresh coconut milk with a sofrito of onion, ají dulce and garlic until it falls from the bone. It's party and Sunday food in Maracaibo, served with fried ripe plantain, white rice or arepas to soak up the sauce. The common mistake is boiling the coconut milk hard, which splits it into a greasy sauce. Chef's tip: add the coconut milk only for the last 40 minutes and keep the pot at a gentle bubble.

180 min

Venezuelan Meat

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Chłodnik litewskiChilled beet leaf soup

In Podlasie and the lake country of north-east Poland, chłodnik is the soup of hot June and July days, when young beets are pulled with their leaves still tender. The beet greens and baby beets are cooked briefly, chilled, then stirred into kefir with cucumber, radish, spring onion and lots of dill, so the soup turns shocking pink, tangy and cold. It is served as a starter or a light lunch with half a hard-boiled egg in each bowl. Suitable as part of a balanced diet. About 170 kcal and 13 g carbohydrate per portion. The usual mistake is mixing the kefir into warm beets, which makes it split and dulls the colour, so chill them completely first. Chef's tip: add a squeeze of lemon to the cooking beets; the acid keeps the colour a vivid pink instead of brownish.

30 min

Polish Soups

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Frozen Christmas pudding

In the heat of an Australian December, many families swap the steamed pudding for a frozen one, ice cream packed with fruit, nuts and chocolate and set in a pudding basin so it still looks the part on the Christmas table in Brisbane or Perth. It is made days ahead and turned out just before serving. A common mistake is letting the ice cream melt too much while mixing, which makes it icy when refrozen; soften it only until stirrable. Chef's tip: soak the fruit in orange juice the night before so it stays soft when frozen.

30 min

Australian Desserts

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Blåbärssoppa (warm bilberry drink)

Every first Sunday of March, the 90-kilometre Vasaloppet ski race from Sälen to Mora is fuelled by blåbärssoppa: volunteers at the feeding stations hand thousands of skiers paper cups of the warm purple drink, and Swedes drink it from thermoses on winter hikes, after skating and on the ski slopes. It is made from wild bilberries, the small dark forest berries with purple flesh, cooked with sugar and thickened with potato starch so it is just thick enough to coat the cup. It is sweet, softly tart and tastes intensely of berries, with a silky, almost glossy body. The common mistake is stirring the starch straight into the hot pot: it forms jelly lumps at once. Always mix potato starch with cold water first, take the pot off the boil, then stir it in and bring back just to a bubble; long boiling thins it again. It is ready when it turns glossy and coats a spoon in a thin film. Bilberries are sold frozen in Nordic shops; cultivated blueberries work too, with a squeeze of lemon for sharpness. Chef's tip: it is just as good cold the next day, or served as a soup with whipped cream and almond biscuits.

20 minScandinavian Drinks

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Grünkohl mit PinkelBraised kale with smoked sausage

In Bremen and Oldenburg, Grünkohl mit Pinkel is the dish of the winter Kohlfahrt, when groups walk out into the frosty countryside and finish at an inn for kale, smoked pork and Pinkel, a smoked sausage of pork, bacon and oats. The kale is braised for hours with onions, lard and smoked pork until dark, soft and almost creamy, then the sausages warm through on top. Serve with boiled potatoes or small caramelised ones and mustard. The usual mistake is cooking the kale briefly like a vegetable side; it needs the long braise to lose its bitterness. Chef's tip: kale is best after the first frost, which makes the leaves sweeter; frozen chopped kale is a good shortcut.

160 min

German Meat

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Batata nu rasawalu shaakPotato curry in thin gravy

Batata nu rasawalu shaak is the potato curry that arrives with hot puris at Gujarati wedding breakfasts, Sunday brunches and festival thalis, and it is one of the first curries children in Gujarat love. Soft potato chunks float in a thin, red, sweet-and-sour gravy with mustard seed, curry leaves and hing, lightly spicy and very comforting. Serve with puri, rotli or plain rice. The usual mistake is cutting the potatoes in uneven pieces, so some fall apart while others stay hard; cut them all the same size. Chef's tip: once the potatoes are cooked, mash a few against the side of the pan; the starch gives the rasa (gravy) body without any flour.

30 min

Indian Vegetarian

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Kumaoni rasMixed dal broth

In the hill villages of Kumaon in Uttarakhand, ras is cooked through the cold months in a heavy iron kadhai that sits on the fire for hours; the iron turns the broth dark and earthy, and families drink it with rice or mandua (finger millet) roti. Several whole dals, here horse gram (gahat), black soybeans (bhatt), black urad and green moong, are simmered until their liquid becomes a rich, brown, silky broth, lightly thickened with ground rice and finished with a crackling mustard-oil tempering of jakhya seeds. The cooked dal solids are eaten too, as a dry side. The usual mistake is hurrying: the broth needs long, slow simmering to turn silky and full-flavoured. Chef's tip: jakhya (wild mustard seed) is sold in Uttarakhand shops; cumin is a fair stand-in.

105 min

Indian Curries

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Mâncare de dovleceiStewed courgettes

In Romanian homes, from Moldova to Oltenia, mâncare de dovlecei is the summer stew made when the garden is full of courgettes, and it fills a pot on fasting days when Orthodox families eat no animal products. Courgettes are cooked down slowly with onion, peppers and tomato until soft and sweet, then finished with a fistful of dill and garlic. Eat it warm or at room temperature with bread or a slice of mămăligă. The usual mistake is adding too much liquid: courgettes release their own water, and a watery pot loses its flavour. Chef's tip: let the onion and pepper soften properly before the courgettes go in; that sweetness is what seasons the whole stew.

40 min

Romanian Vegetarian

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Chura matarFlattened rice with peas

When fresh peas pile up in the markets of Varanasi and eastern Uttar Pradesh in winter, breakfast becomes chura matar: thick flattened rice tossed in ghee with sweet green peas, ginger, green chilli and a pinch of sugar, finished with lemon and coriander. It is softer and richer than poha, and is often eaten on the ghats with a cup of chai. The mistake is soaking the chura in water; it turns mushy. Rinse it quickly in a sieve and let it rest, and it softens just enough. Chef's tip: crush half the peas lightly with the back of a spoon in the pan so they coat the rice and make each mouthful sweeter.

25 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Chura sabjiFermented cheese curry

High in Tawang, Monpa families make chura sabji from chhurpi, a cheese of yak or cow's milk left to ferment until it is pungent and soft, cooked down with green chillies and onion into a creamy, fiery curry. It is everyday food in the cold months, eaten with rice or buckwheat bread. The usual mistake is cooking on high heat once the cheese goes in, which splits it into oily curds; melt it gently. Chef's tip: if you cannot get fermented chura, use a strong, crumbly blue or feta mixed with a spoon of curd to imitate the tang.

23 min

Indian Vegetarian

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Anijsmelk (aniseed milk)

When the canals of Friesland freeze hard and the whole of the Netherlands goes out on skates, koek-en-zopie stalls appear on the ice selling erwtensoep, warm sausage and steaming cups of anijsmelk. At home it is a winter bedtime drink for children and grandparents alike, made either by crushing aniseed into simmering milk or, as many Dutch families do, by stirring in anijsblokjes, sugar cubes flavoured with aniseed. It tastes softly sweet and liquorice-like without being sharp, and it is smooth and warming, with a faint warmth on the tongue. The common mistake is boiling the milk: it rises over the pan, scorches on the base and forms a thick skin. Heat it slowly and stop when tiny bubbles appear around the edge. It is ready when the milk smells clearly of anise after steeping and has turned faintly ivory. Anise seeds are sold in spice shops; in a pinch use one star anise, though it tastes stronger and less sweet. There is no caffeine, which is why Dutch parents serve it at bedtime. Chef's tip: crush the seeds just before using, the oils fade quickly once ground.

10 min

Dutch Drinks

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Passionfruit sponge

The passionfruit sponge is the star of the Australian country show cake table and every Sunday afternoon tea, made from the vines that cover back fences from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast. Two airy, fatless sponges are filled with whipped cream and topped with a tangy passionfruit icing. A common mistake is knocking the air out when folding in the flour; use a light hand and a big metal spoon. Chef's tip: beat the eggs and sugar for a full 8–10 minutes until thick enough to hold a trail.

55 min

Australian Baking

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Gevulde koekAlmond-filled cookie

A gevulde koek is two discs of short, buttery dough sandwiching a thick layer of almond paste (spijs), glazed with egg and crowned with half an almond. Every Amsterdam bakery has a stack of them, and they are the classic koffie snack at about eleven in the morning, or something to eat on the bike home from the Noordermarkt. The pastry is crumbly and the middle soft, fragrant and lemony. It contains wheat, egg, milk and almonds. Chef's tip: make the almond paste a day ahead; it firms up and is much easier to shape into neat discs.

60 min

Dutch Baking

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Ka'i ladrilloPeanut molasses bricks

Ka'i ladrillo — 'monkey brick' in Guaraní — is the sweet sold by vendors on Asunción buses and at country fiestas: roasted peanuts bound in boiled cane molasses and set in brick-shaped blocks, crunchy and dark with a slightly smoky toffee taste. It contains peanuts, so keep it away from anyone with a peanut allergy. The common mistake is taking the syrup off too soon, so the bricks stay sticky and never set. Chef's tip: test the syrup by dropping a little into cold water; it is ready when it sets into a brittle thread that snaps.

40 min

Paraguayan Desserts

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Chhena tarkariFried cheese cube curry

In Odia homes, from Cuttack to Puri, chhena tarkari is the special curry for a Sunday lunch, a guest or a festival day when the household eats no onion or garlic. Fresh chhena, the soft cheese Odisha also turns into rasagola, is pressed, cut into cubes and fried golden, then simmered with potato in a thin gravy of tomato, ginger and roasted cumin. The cubes stay soft and soak up the sauce, and the dish is eaten with rice, puri or paratha. Chhena is made by curdling milk with lemon juice, so it contains no rennet. The usual mistake is boiling the gravy hard after the chhena goes in, which breaks the cubes into crumbs. Chef's tip: fry the chhena cubes until golden on two sides only, then rest them in warm water for five minutes; they swell and turn spongy, just like an Odia grandmother's.

45 min

Indian Curries

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Peameal bacon sandwich

The peameal bacon sandwich is Toronto's signature breakfast, served from the stalls of St Lawrence Market since the early 1900s. Peameal bacon is cured but unsmoked pork loin rolled in yellow cornmeal (once ground dried peas, hence the name). Thick slices are griddled until golden and piled into a soft kaiser roll with yellow mustard. It is a Saturday market ritual. A common mistake is slicing too thin, which dries it out; aim for 5 mm. Chef's tip: cook it over a medium heat, not high, so the cornmeal crisps without burning before the pork is cooked.

17 min

Canadian Fast Food

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Colada moradaPurple corn and berry drink

Every year in the days before 2 November, the Día de los Difuntos, Quito's kitchens and bakeries fill with the smell of colada morada: a warm, spoon-thick drink of purple corn flour cooked with blackberries, blueberries, pineapple and a bundle of fragrant herbs and spices. It is deep violet, sweet-tart and full of chopped fruit, and it is always served with guaguas de pan, the bread babies, often shared with family at the cemetery. The most common mistake is stirring the corn flour straight into hot liquid, which makes lumps: whisk it into cold water first. Chef's tip: lemon verbena and lemongrass give the authentic perfume; if you can find naranjilla or a few orange leaves, add them to the spice pot too.

100 minAndean Drinks

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Bibim dangmyeonSpicy glass noodles

At the crossing of Gukje Market and BIFF Square, near Nampo-dong, women sit behind low tables mixing bibim dangmyeon to order for shoppers perched on plastic stools. Chewy sweet-potato noodles are piled with seasoned spinach, carrot, yellow pickled radish and strips of Busan fish cake, then drenched in a sweet, tangy chilli sauce that you mix with chopsticks. It is a quick, cheap bowl, eaten year round, cold in summer. Chef's tip: rinse the noodles in cold water straight after cooking; it stops them clumping and keeps them bouncy.

25 min

Korean Pasta & Noodles

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ChapeaRed beans with plantain and sausage

Chapea comes from the countryside of the Cibao and the south of the Dominican Republic, where it is cooked for big Sunday lunches and family gatherings: red beans stewed with auyama squash and ripe plantain, smoky pork longaniza or salami, then rice cooked right in the bean broth until it is soft and creamy, somewhere between a moro and a stew. The sweet plantain melts into the pot and gives the rice a gentle sweetness. Dried red kidney beans must be soaked and then boiled hard for 10 minutes before the gentle simmer, to destroy a natural toxin; tinned beans are already safe. The usual mistake is adding the rice to too little liquid, which leaves it hard; it should be swimming at first. Chef's tip: fry the sofrito until it smells sweet and the oil turns red before the beans go in, as that is where chapea gets its depth.

115 min

Puerto Rican Curries

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Kari gros poisButter bean curry

In Mauritius, gros pois (butter beans) are a pantry staple, and kari gros pois is cooked in Creole and Indo-Mauritian homes alike for weekday lunches and Friday meat-free meals. The beans simmer in a curry of onion, tomato, garlic and ginger, flavoured with curry powder, fresh thyme and curry leaves, so it tastes of both India and the island's French side. It is served with rice, farata flatbreads and a tomato or chilli chutney. The usual mistake is frying the curry powder on high heat; it scorches in seconds and turns bitter. Pressure cooker option: cook the soaked beans for 15 minutes at pressure. Chef's tip: crush a few beans into the sauce at the end, which thickens it without any flour.

85 min

Mauritian Curries

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Capeletis a la CarusoStuffed pasta in cream sauce

Capeletis a la Caruso were created in a Montevideo restaurant in the 1950s and named after the great tenor, and they are still a Sunday lunch favourite in Uruguayan homes: little stuffed pasta hats in a rich sauce of cream, cooked ham (pork), mushrooms and onion, finished with grated cheese. Buy good fresh capeletis or tortellini; the sauce is what you make. The usual mistake is boiling the cream sauce hard, which makes it oily and grainy. Chef's tip: cook the mushrooms in a dry hot pan first until they squeak and brown, before any butter goes in, for a deeper taste.

35 min

Paraguayan Pasta & Noodles

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MutakuraBeans, cowpeas and maize

Mutakura is old Zimbabwean country food, cooked in rural Mashonaland after harvest from the store of dried beans, cowpeas, groundnuts and maize kernels, and eaten as a filling lunch or snack, often at gatherings and ceremonies. Everything is soaked, boiled for hours until tender, then simply seasoned with salt, so the beans are creamy, the maize chewy and the groundnuts soft and rich. Suitable as part of a balanced diet. About 340 kcal and 45 g carbohydrate per portion. The usual mistake is cooking everything together from the start: the maize needs a long head start, and the dried red beans must be boiled hard for 10 minutes to be safe. A pressure cooker cuts the maize time to about 40 minutes. Chef's tip: soak everything overnight in separate bowls; the maize and groundnuts need it most.

160 minSouthern African Vegetarian

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Ginataang puso ng sagingBanana blossom in coconut milk

Every banana tree in the Philippine countryside gives a heavy purple flower, and in Bicol, Batangas and the Visayas it is shredded and stewed in coconut milk as an everyday ulam for lunch with rice. The banana blossom has a tender, slightly flaky texture and soaks up the ginger, garlic and chilli. The traditional version includes shrimp or fish; this one is vegan. The usual mistake is skipping the salt rub: unrubbed banana blossom stays bitter and turns the sauce grey, so squeeze out its dark sap first. Chef's tip: keep the shredded blossom in water with a spoon of vinegar while you work, so it stays pale.

35 min

Filipino Vegetarian

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Mula ko tarkariRadish curry

In the hills around Kathmandu and Pokhara, long white winter radishes are pulled with their leaves still on, and both go into this simple tarkari served beside dal-bhat. The radish is cut into thin batons and cooked down in mustard oil with a sizzle of fenugreek seed, turmeric and tingly timur pepper until it turns sweet and translucent, while the greens wilt in at the end. The usual mistake is adding too much water: radish releases plenty of its own juice, and extra water turns it into a bland soup. Chef's tip: let the fenugreek seeds turn dark brown, almost black, before the radish goes in; that toasty bitterness is what makes Nepali radish taste right.

30 min

Nepali Vegetarian

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Da chang bao xiao changSausage in a sticky rice bun

'Big sausage wraps small sausage' is one of the most photographed snacks at Shilin and Raohe night markets in Taipei. A plump, garlicky glutinous-rice sausage is grilled until crisp, split like a hot-dog bun and stuffed with a sweet Taiwanese pork sausage, pickled cucumber, sliced raw garlic, basil and a smear of sauce. This home version shapes the sticky rice in cling film instead of casing, so you do not need intestines. The Taiwanese sausage is pork and must be cooked through. Contains soy and peanuts. Chef's tip: chill the steamed rice log overnight; it slices and grills cleanly and holds its crust.

60 min

Taiwanese Fast Food

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Heukimja-jukBlack sesame rice porridge

This charcoal-grey porridge of roasted black sesame and rice is one of Korea's gentlest breakfasts, often made for elders, for people getting over a cold, or simply on a slow weekend morning. It is nutty, lightly sweet and smooth as cream. The mistake is burning the sesame: the seeds are already black, so you cannot judge by colour; toast them only until they crackle and smell nutty, or the porridge turns bitter. Chef's tip: grind the toasted seeds with a little of the soaked rice and water rather than on their own, which turns them into a smooth paste instead of an oily clump.

40 min

Korean Rice & Grains

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