Roast suckling pig
Porceddu is Sardinia's feast: a whole suckling pig spit-roasted for hours beside an open wood fire at weddings, village saints' days and Ferragosto, then laid on a bed of myrtle branches so the hot meat soaks up their scent. The skin turns glass-crisp and the pork underneath is soft and juicy. Suckling pig and fresh myrtle are hard to find outside Sardinia, so this home-oven version uses a skin-on piece of pork belly or shoulder, with bay leaves and rosemary standing in for myrtle. Serve with bread, roast potatoes and a salad. Chef's tip: salt the dried skin and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight; dry skin is the secret to real crackling.
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A quick party bread made from ready pizza bases, spread with a garlic, green chilli and herb butter, sprinkled with chilli flakes and baked until crisp. Make the spread ahead and bake the bread just before serving, cut into triangles.
A silky, deep orange soup of carrots and onion with plenty of fresh ginger, sweetened with a little honey and finished with butter. It's light, warming and good for a cold day. Serve it topped with fine shreds of fresh ginger and some bread sticks.
A Kenyan coast favourite: freshly fried chips tossed in a hot, tangy 'pussin' sauce of melted margarine, paprika, chilli and lemon juice. Toss them while the chips are still hot so they soak up the sauce, and serve straight away.
Golden fried cashews tossed in a hot wok with spring onions and red and green chillies. Ready in five minutes and gone just as fast. Serve hot.
A light, sweet-and-sour soup made from ash gourd (kadu) stock, thickened with cornflour and seasoned with tomato and chilli sauces, vinegar and black pepper. Lightly fried carrot, cauliflower and spring onion go on top for crunch. Serve it with hot buns. Bottle gourd works just as well as ash gourd.
The famous East African potato bhajiya: wafer-thin potato slices coated in a garlicky, chilli gram-flour batter and fried until crisp. Make them in small batches so the batter doesn't go watery. Serve hot with maru bhajiya chutney.
Crunchy little fritters packed with grated paneer, sweetcorn, cabbage, onion and cashews in a spiced gram-flour and semolina batter. Topped with grated cheese and dots of chilli sauce, they make a filling party starter. Serve hot.
Small samosas with a South Indian twist: the filling is sautéed onion with fresh coconut, coriander and green chilli, tempered with mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. Serve hot with red, green and tamarind chutneys.
A proper home-made ketchup: fresh tomato puree boiled down with sugar and a muslin bag of whole spices, then sharpened with vinegar. It's thick, glossy and gently spiced. It keeps for a long time in the fridge and is great in pasta dishes.
A rich, egg-free mayonnaise whisked from fresh cream, mustard and oil and sharpened with vinegar. It's thick enough to dress coleslaw, potato salad and sandwiches. Keep it covered in the fridge and use within 3 days.
This is home-made yogurt hung in muslin until all the whey drips away, leaving a thick, spreadable cheese a little like labneh. Use it for dips, sandwich spreads, shrikhand and cheesecakes. Pressing it through a sieve before you use it makes it silky-smooth.
Sugar syrup (chashni) is the base of many Indian sweets, and recipes ask for it at different stages. A light syrup is for soaking sweets and sweetening drinks. One-thread and two-thread syrups are boiled longer so the sweet sets. You can make it with milk instead of water for some sweets.
The classic white sauce behind pasta bakes, lasagne, baked vegetables and creamy soups. Butter and flour are cooked together first so the sauce tastes of nothing raw, then milk is whisked in until it turns thick, glossy and smooth. Use it straight away, or keep it covered in the fridge for up to 2 days.
A bright red, tangy Gujarati masala, like a dry pickle masala made with split mustard and fenugreek seeds and sharpened with lemon. It's sprinkled over steaming khichu (khichi), and it's just as good with theplas or a drizzle of oil as a quick dip.
Five ingredients and fifteen minutes. The secret is to cook the garlic slowly so it turns sweet and pale gold, then toss everything with a splash of starchy pasta water so the oil turns into a glossy sauce that clings to every strand.
The basic method for any dried pasta, from penne to spaghetti. A large pan of salted boiling water keeps the pasta from sticking, and you cook it only until just done, with a little bite left. Use it in salads, bakes or with any sauce.
A hearty stock that's simmered for 2 hours, then blended and strained, so the potato gives it body. Its deeper flavour suits thick soups, gravies and stews. Freeze it in portions so it's ready when you need it.
A light, clear vegetable stock with leek, celery, parsnip and fresh herbs, ready in under an hour. Use it as the base for soups, risottos and sauces. It keeps for 3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.
Classic short crust pastry, rubbed together by hand so it bakes crisp and crumbly. The secret is keeping everything cold and handling the dough as little as you can. This amount lines a 23 cm tart tin or tops a pie. Each recipe gives its own baking time and temperature.
Samosa chapaties (patti) are paper-thin wrappers for crisp samosas. Two rounds are rolled out together with oil and flour between them, lightly roasted, then peeled apart into two very thin sheets. Cut them into strips for samosas, or squares for spring rolls.
Fresh fillo (filo) pastry is stretched and rolled until you can almost see through it. It's soft, pliable and easier to work with than frozen. Use it for baklava, spring rolls, samosas, strudel and savoury pies. Keep the sheets under a damp cloth all the time, because they dry out quickly.
Chaat masala is the tangy, salty, slightly sulphurous sprinkle that makes chaat taste like chaat. Dried mango (amchur) gives the sourness and black salt the distinctive savoury edge. Sprinkle it over fruit, salads, raita, chips and street-food snacks.
The spice blend that turns a cup of tea into masala chai. It's built on cardamom, with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and nutmeg. Add a pinch (about ¼ tsp per cup) to tea while it boils.
The South Indian spice powder that gives sambhar its body and flavour. Roasted lentils add a nutty thickness, with coriander, red chillies, curry leaves and sesame seeds. Use it in the sambhar served with idli and dosa.
A Gujarati dal masala with whole spices roasted in a little oil, plus star anise, black cardamom and dagad phool (stone flower) for depth. A teaspoon gives dals, kadhi and khichdi a warm, rounded flavour. The recipe makes a big batch, so it's worth making once a season.
An everyday curry powder that's built on coriander seeds, so it's fragrant rather than fiery. Fennel, star anise and bay give it a sweet warmth, with just two red chillies for heat. Season curries with it when you want flavour without much heat.
A heady North Indian garam masala heavy with cardamom, cumin and pepper, rounded out with mace, nutmeg and fennel. The spices are ground raw rather than roasted, so the blend stays bright and perfumed. Use it in rich Punjabi curries such as chole, rajma and paneer makhani.
Home-made garam masala is far more fragrant than shop-bought. The whole spices are roasted until crisp, then ground, giving a warm, slightly hot blend with dry ginger and red chilli. Add a pinch to curries, dals and rice dishes towards the end of cooking.
Two reliable ways to cook plain rice. Method 1 lets the rice soak up all its water, for soft, fluffy rice to serve with curry and dal. Method 2 boils it in plenty of water and drains it, giving separate grains for fried rice, pilau and salads. Soaking first helps the grains cook evenly.
Sprouting whole green grams makes them crunchier, quicker to cook and more nutritious. All you need is muslin, water and a warm spot, and they're ready in 3–4 days. Use them in salads, bhel, usal and stir-fries. Any other whole pulse sprouts the same way.
A home-made stand-in for golden syrup, from sugar caramelised until amber and boiled with water to a two-thread syrup. Use it in any recipe that needs golden syrup, such as flapjacks, biscuits and treacle tarts.
A soft, spreadable fresh cheese made the same way as paneer, but blended until creamy instead of pressed. Spread it on crackers, or use it in dips, cheesecakes and the eggless mayonnaise.
Set yogurt (dahi) at home with just milk and a spoonful of yogurt from the last batch as the culture. It sets overnight in a warm spot. Scale it up to any amount of milk: allow ½ tsp of yogurt for each cup.
Draining yogurt on muslin over a thick towel turns it into a thick, tangy sour cream. Use it plain, or stir in garlic, coriander and seasoning for a spicy dip. Serve the dip with crackers, tortilla chips or hard toast.
Fresh coconut milk is sweeter and richer than tinned, and it's easy to make with a blender. The first soak gives a thick milk for finishing curries and desserts. The second soak gives a thinner milk for simmering vegetables, rice and dals.
Fresh tomato puree tastes brighter than tinned, and you need only tomatoes and boiling water. The tomatoes are scalded so their skins slip off, then blended smooth. Use it in curries, pasta sauces, soups and the home-made tomato ketchup.
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