Jain recipes: no onion, garlic or root vegetables

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HoppangRed bean steamed buns

When the first cold snap hits, Korean convenience stores bring out glass steamer cabinets full of hoppang, and office workers grab one for breakfast on the way to the subway. The bun is soft, slightly sweet yeasted dough wrapped around a thick, smooth red bean paste, steamed until pillowy and eaten piping hot. Making them at home takes a morning but they freeze perfectly. The usual mistake is opening the lid too early or steaming over too fierce a heat: the buns collapse and wrinkle, so keep a steady medium heat and leave them to rest 5 minutes before lifting the lid. Contains wheat. Chef's tip: let the shaped buns rise on squares of baking paper; you can move them into the steamer without squashing them.

120 min

Korean Baking

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SciattBuckwheat cheese fritters

Sciatt means "toads" in the dialect of Valtellina, the Alpine valley near Sondrio, because of their lumpy shape. They are buckwheat batter fritters, each hiding a cube of Valtellina Casera cheese that melts as they fry, served on a bed of chicory salad. Mountain huts and village festivals serve them hot from the pan in autumn and winter. Local cheeses are usually made with animal rennet; choose a vegetarian melting cheese if you need to. Chef's tip: make the batter with very cold sparkling water and a splash of grappa, as locals do; the bubbles and alcohol make a lighter, crispier crust. The alcohol mostly cooks off in the frying; leave it out for an alcohol-free version.

35 min

Korean Breakfast & Brunch

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Jat jukPine nut porridge

Jat juk is a pale, silky porridge of ground rice and pine nuts, once served to the royal household in Seoul and still made by Korean families for anyone recovering from illness, for elderly parents and as a gentle breakfast. Pine nuts from Gapyeong, Korea's pine nut capital, give it a rich, buttery taste with nothing more than salt. Pine nuts are a tree-nut allergen. The common mistake is adding the pine nut milk too early; its oil makes the rice starch thin out, so the porridge turns watery. Chef's tip: thicken the ground rice first and stir in the pine nut purée only for the last few minutes.

35 min

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Hobak jukPumpkin porridge

Hobak juk is the golden pumpkin porridge sold in thermos-sized portions at Seoul's Gwangjang market and cooked in temple kitchens through the cold months, when stored pumpkins are at their sweetest. Steamed pumpkin is blended smooth, thickened with glutinous rice flour and dotted with chewy little rice-cake balls, giving a velvety, naturally sweet bowl that is soothing for convalescents and children alike. The rice balls are soft and sticky, so cut them small for young children to avoid choking. The common mistake is adding the rice-flour slurry in one go to boiling porridge, which makes lumps. The optional pine-nut topping is a tree-nut allergen; leave it off for anyone with a nut allergy. Chef's tip: roast or steam the pumpkin rather than boiling it in water; less water means a deeper colour and sweeter taste.

50 min

Korean Soups

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Radicchio trevigiano ai ferriGrilled radicchio

Treviso, north of Venice, is famous for its radicchio tardivo, long crimson leaves with white ribs that are harvested in December and forced in cold spring water until they are crisp and only gently bitter. In the Veneto it is often grilled on a griddle over the fire, dressed with olive oil, salt and a few drops of vinegar, and served next to grilled meat or polenta. The heat softens the bitterness and adds a smoky sweetness. Chef's tip: cut the heads lengthways through the root so the leaves stay joined and don't fall through the grill.

17 min

Italian Sides

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StrattuSun-dried tomato paste

In late August in western Sicily, around Trapani and Palermo, tomato purée is spread on large wooden boards and left in the hot sun for several days, stirred by hand until it turns into a thick, dark-red paste that smells of sun and sweet tomatoes. Strattu, short for "estratto", is used a spoonful at a time to give depth to sauces and stews. This home version dries the passata slowly in a low oven over a day. Chef's tip: spread the purée thin, no more than 1 cm, and stir it every hour; thick layers dry on top and stay wet underneath.

520 min

Italian Basics

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Tartufo di PizzoChocolate hazelnut gelato ball

In 1952, in the seaside town of Pizzo in Calabria, a gelato maker ran out of moulds for a wedding banquet and shaped gelato by hand in his palm, around a centre of molten chocolate, then rolled it in cocoa. The tartufo, named for its resemblance to a truffle, is now protected as a local speciality, and the cafés on Pizzo's main piazza serve it in summer to crowds of visitors. Contains nuts. Chef's tip: work in a cold kitchen with chilled cling film and refreeze between each step; the gelato must stay firm enough to hold its ball shape.

60 min

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Gelato alla nocciolaHazelnut gelato

Piedmont's Langhe hills grow the Tonda Gentile hazelnut, prized for its sweet, toasty flavour, and the region's gelaterie turn it into a deep, nutty, caramel-coloured gelato that many Italians consider the king of flavours. Turin is also where hazelnut and chocolate were first combined, in gianduja. In winter the same paste goes into cakes and biscuits. Contains nuts. Chef's tip: toast the hazelnuts until dark golden right through; under-toasted nuts give a flat, green flavour.

35 min

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Gelo di melloneWatermelon jelly pudding

Gelo di mellone is the summer dessert of Palermo, eaten above all on 15 July for the feast of Santa Rosalia, the city's patron saint. Fresh watermelon juice is set with starch into a soft, wobbly pink pudding, scented with cinnamon and sometimes jasmine flowers, and topped with chocolate chips and chopped pistachios that look like watermelon seeds. It is served chilled in small bowls or as a tart filling. Contains nuts in the topping. Chef's tip: strain the watermelon juice through a fine sieve; any pulp clouds the jelly and stops it from setting smoothly.

30 min

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Yeonnip bapLotus leaf sticky rice

Yeonnip bap is a Buddhist temple dish from South Jeolla, where monasteries near the lotus ponds of Muan and the old temples of Jangseong wrap sticky rice in lotus leaves for festival days and visiting guests. Glutinous rice studded with chestnuts, jujubes, black beans and pine nuts is folded into a leaf parcel and steamed, so it comes out chewy, faintly sweet and scented with the green, tea-like aroma of lotus. Like all temple cooking, it uses no garlic, onion or other pungent alliums. Pine nuts are a tree-nut allergen. The common mistake is under-soaking the rice: it steams up hard in the middle however long you cook it. Chef's tip: sprinkle the rice with salted water halfway through steaming; it seasons every grain evenly and keeps the top layer from drying out.

85 min

Korean Rice & Grains

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Burrata con pomodoriniBurrata with cherry tomatoes

Burrata was born in the dairies around Andria in northern Puglia as a way to use the scraps of mozzarella curd, wrapped in a pouch of stretched curd and filled with cream. In Bari and the towns of the Murge it is eaten the day it is made, often as the first thing on the table at Sunday lunch, torn open over the sweetest summer tomatoes. The outside is soft and springy; the inside, called stracciatella, spills out like thick cream. Mozzarella and burrata are usually made with calf rennet, so look for a vegetarian-rennet burrata if that matters to you. Chef's tip: take the burrata out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving; straight from the cold it tastes of very little.

10 min

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Asazuke (overnight cucumber and cabbage pickle)Quick cucumber and cabbage pickle

Asazuke means shallow pickle, and it is the quick, fresh pickle that Japanese home cooks make the night before, tucked in a plastic bag in the fridge door and served with breakfast rice and miso soup. Cucumber and cabbage are rubbed with salt and pressed with kombu, a few slivers of chilli and yuzu or lemon peel, so they stay crunchy, juicy and only gently seasoned. It takes 15 minutes to make. The common mistake is not squeezing out the liquid before serving, which leaves the pickle watery and salty. Chef's tip: rub the salt in firmly with your hands for a full minute; bruising the vegetables a little is what lets them season through in a few hours.

15 min

Japanese Chutneys & Dips

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Gim bugakCrisp fried seaweed

Gim bugak is a temple snack that Buddhist nuns and village cooks in South Jeolla, especially around Damyang and Namwon, still make in large batches in autumn: sheets of laver are painted with glutinous rice porridge, scattered with sesame, dried in the sun and fried until they puff into crackling, savoury chips. It is eaten as a banchan with rice or as a snack with tea. The common mistake is frying it before it is completely dry; any damp patches stay chewy and spit in the oil. Chef's tip: cut the dried sheets with scissors before frying; once fried they shatter if you try to cut them.

180 min

Korean Snacks & Starters

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Gelato al fiordilatteMilk gelato

In every gelateria from Turin to Palermo, fior di latte ("flower of milk") is the plainest flavour in the case and the one gelato makers judge each other by: just fresh milk, cream and sugar, with no eggs and no vanilla, so it tastes clean and milky. It is the base for stracciatella and the perfect partner for fruit sorbets in a cone. Italian children often choose it on summer evenings during the passeggiata. Chef's tip: chill the base overnight before churning; a fully cold base freezes faster into smaller ice crystals, which makes it smoother.

25 min

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Sakura mochiCherry leaf rice cakes

When the cherry trees bloom in late March, every wagashi shop in Japan fills its window with sakura mochi. In the Kansai region around Osaka and Kyoto they are made from coarse dōmyōji-ko, steamed and crushed glutinous rice, tinted soft pink and wrapped around bean paste, then tucked into a salted cherry leaf that perfumes it with an almond-like, floral scent; Tokyo's version is a thin pink crêpe instead. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is not soaking the salted leaves, so the mochi tastes too salty; rinse and soak them for 15 minutes. Chef's tip: the leaf is edible, and eating it with the mochi gives the sweet-salty balance the dish is famous for.

50 min

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Coccoli con stracchinoFried dough with creamy cheese

In Florence, coccoli are little balls of bread dough fried until puffy and golden, piled into a basket and served hot with stracchino, a soft, fresh, slightly tangy cow's-milk cheese, and usually with prosciutto too. They are the start of a meal in Florentine trattorie and a snack at street stalls in the evening. This is the vegetarian way, with cheese only; stracchino is often made with animal rennet, so look for a vegetarian soft cheese if needed. Chef's tip: salt the coccoli the moment they come out of the oil, while they are still glistening, so the salt sticks.

40 min

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Mostarda di CremonaCandied fruit in mustard syrup

Mostarda di Cremona is a jar of jewel-like whole fruits, pears, cherries, figs, clementines and apricots, candied slowly in sugar syrup and then spiked with mustard oil so that each sweet mouthful ends with a sharp, nose-tingling heat. In Cremona and across Lombardy it is served at Christmas with bollito misto (boiled meats) and with cheese, and it fills the tortelli of Cremona and Mantua. Pure mustard essence is hard to buy, so this home version uses strong mustard powder. Chef's tip: candy the fruit over three days, bringing the syrup to the boil each day; slow candying keeps the fruit whole and glossy.

90 min

Italian Chutneys & Dips

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OshirukoSweet red bean soup

On snowy days in northern and eastern Japan, and especially after kagami-biraki on 11 January, when the New Year offering of mochi is broken up, families warm up with a bowl of oshiruko: azuki beans simmered into a sweet, thick soup with a puffed, toasted rice cake bobbing in it. In Kansai a chunky version is called zenzai. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is adding all the sugar at the start, which stops the beans softening; sweeten only once they are tender. Chef's tip: a pinch of salt at the end makes the sweetness taste rounder and the bean flavour deeper.

95 min

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KakigoriShaved ice

Kakigori is Japan's great summer cooler, sold under a flag printed with the character 氷 (ice) at festival stalls and seaside huts and turned into an art in Tokyo dessert cafés, where queues form in July and August. Ice is shaved into soft, snow-like flakes that melt on the tongue, then soaked in fruit syrup, matcha syrup or sweetened condensed milk. Contains dairy if you use condensed milk. The common mistake is using ice straight from the freezer: very cold ice shatters into crunchy shards, so let the block soften for 10 minutes first. Chef's tip: build it in two layers, pouring syrup over the half-full bowl and then again on top, so it is flavoured all the way through.

15 min

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Pizza diavolaSpicy salami pizza

Diavola, the "devil's" pizza, is what most Italians order when they want heat: tomato and mozzarella topped with slices of spicy salami from Calabria or Naples, which curl into small cups in the oven and fill with red, chilli-laced oil. It is a pizzeria staple across the country and a Friday-night favourite. The salami is a cured pork sausage. Chef's tip: add the salami after the pizza has baked for half the time; it crisps at the edges without burning.

30 min

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KkultteokHoney-filled rice cakes

Kkultteok, 'honey rice cake', are the bite-sized coloured balls lined up in the windows of Korean tteok shops and on every Chuseok and birthday tray; bite one and a sweet, runny syrup of brown sugar and sesame bursts out. Despite the name, the filling is usually sugar, which melts into a honey-like syrup as the dumplings cook. The cakes are boiled, cooled in water and glossed with sesame oil. The common mistake is using too much filling or a thin dough, so the balls burst in the pot; keep the wall about 5 mm thick and seal well. Rice cakes are chewy and sticky, a known choking risk: cut them into small pieces for young children and older people and eat them sitting down. The filling is very hot straight from the pot, so let them cool before giving them to children. Chef's tip: let the boiled balls sit 1 minute in ice water; the shell firms up and the syrup inside turns fully liquid.

50 min

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SongpyeonStuffed rice cakes

On the eve of Chuseok, the harvest moon festival, families all over Korea sit around one table pinching songpyeon, and the old saying goes that whoever shapes the prettiest ones will have pretty children. The chewy rice-flour shells are filled with crunchy toasted sesame and sugar that melts into a syrup as they steam, and the batch is laid on fresh pine needles so the cakes pick up a faint forest scent. They go to the ancestral table first, then out to everyone with a cup of tea. The common mistake is a dough that is too dry: it cracks while you shape it and splits in the steamer, so it should feel as soft as an earlobe. Rice cakes are dense and sticky, so cut them small for young children and older people and make sure they eat sitting down: they are a known choking risk. Chef's tip: brush the steamed cakes with sesame oil while they are still hot; it stops them sticking together and gives that glossy finish you see at the market.

85 min

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Zuccotto fiorentinoChilled sponge dome with cream

Zuccotto is said to have been inspired by the dome of Florence Cathedral, or by the shape of a cardinal's skullcap (zucchetto). It is a dome of sponge or savoiardi soaked in syrup, filled with whipped cream studded with chocolate, toasted nuts and candied fruit, half of it flavoured with cocoa, and chilled until set. Florentine families make it for summer Sunday lunch or a birthday. The traditional soak uses alchermes or brandy; this version uses an orange syrup so it is alcohol free. Contains nuts. Chef's tip: line the bowl with cling film first and leave the sponge to set overnight; it turns out cleanly with a neat dome.

45 min

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YokanRed bean jelly

Yōkan is one of Japan's oldest sweets, brought by Zen monks and refined in Edo-period Tokyo into dense, dark blocks that were carried by samurai and are still given as gifts in long wooden boxes. Red bean paste, sugar and agar are cooked down until thick and set into a smooth, firm jelly that slices cleanly, served in thin pieces with bitter green tea. The common mistake is undercooking the agar: it must boil for two full minutes or the yōkan won't set firmly. Chef's tip: cook the paste until a trail drawn across the bottom of the pan holds for a second before closing, which gives the classic firm, glossy neri yōkan.

25 min

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Umeboshi (salted dried ume plums)Salted pickled plums

In the ume orchards of Minabe, in Wakayama's old Kishu province, families salt the June harvest of ripe yellow ume in crocks and then spread them on bamboo mats under the hottest days of late July, the doyo-boshi, before the plums go back into their brine. The result is wrinkled, intensely salty-sour fruit, the classic filling for onigiri and the red sun in the middle of a lunchbox of rice. This is a once-a-year project spread over about two months; the active work is about two hours. Do not cut the salt: below about 15 % of the fruit's weight the plums go mouldy, which is the most common failure at home. Chef's tip: use only fully ripe, yellow, fragrant ume; hard green ones turn tough and bitter.

120 min

Japanese Chutneys & Dips

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Ichigo daifukuStrawberry mochi

Ichigo daifuku appeared in Tokyo sweet shops in the 1980s and quickly became the treat everyone queues for from January to April, when Japanese strawberries are at their best. A whole berry is wrapped in smooth sweet bean paste, then in a thin skin of soft, stretchy mochi, so you get juicy fruit, earthy sweetness and a pillowy chew in one bite. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is wrapping a damp strawberry, which makes the bean paste slide and the mochi split; dry the berries completely. Chef's tip: microwave the mochi dough in short bursts and stir hard between them, until it turns translucent and elastic, rather than in one long blast.

36 min

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YaksikSweet rice with chestnuts

Yaksik began as a dish for Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar year, and is now a standard of Chuseok and Seollal tables and of birthday gifts, cut into neat squares and wrapped in cling film. Glutinous rice is steamed, tossed with dark sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and cinnamon, then steamed a second time with chestnuts, jujubes and pine nuts until it turns a deep caramel brown and holds together like a soft, chewy cake. The usual mistake is skipping the soak: unsoaked rice stays hard in the centre however long you steam it. Contains soy, sesame and pine nuts. Rice cakes are dense and sticky, so cut them small for young children and older people and make sure they eat sitting down: they are a known choking risk. Chef's tip: caramelise a spoonful of the sugar in a dry pan before adding it; that dark caramel gives the traditional colour without needing extra soy sauce.

95 min

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Bresaola, rucola e granaCured beef with rocket and cheese

Bresaola is beef cured with salt and spices and air-dried in the cool mountain valleys of the Valtellina, near Sondrio in Lombardy. Locals serve it as a light lunch or an antipasto before pizzoccheri: thin dark-red slices dressed with lemon and olive oil, topped with peppery rocket and flakes of Grana Padano. It takes five minutes and needs nothing else but bread. Chef's tip: dress the bresaola with lemon 5 minutes before serving; the acid softens the edges of the slices and brings out the meat's sweetness, but much longer and it turns grey.

10 min

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PittuleFried dough balls

In the Salento, the heel of Puglia, pittule are fried on the night of 7 December, the eve of the Immaculate Conception, to open the Christmas season, and again on St Martin's Day in November when the new wine is tasted. The dough is so wet it can't be shaped; it is dropped from a spoon or a wet hand into hot olive oil, puffing into soft, irregular golden balls. Plain ones are dusted with sugar; savoury ones hide olives, capers or cherry tomatoes. Chef's tip: dip your hand or spoon in water before each scoop so the sticky dough slides off into the oil.

40 min

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Kashiwa mochiOak leaf rice cakes

On 5 May, Children's Day, families in Tokyo and across eastern Japan eat kashiwa mochi: soft, flat rice cakes folded over sweet bean paste and wrapped in an oak leaf. Oak trees keep their old leaves until new ones bud, so the leaf stands for a family line carrying on. The leaf isn't eaten; it adds a faint woody scent and keeps the mochi moist. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is steaming the dough too briefly, which leaves it pasty; steam until it turns slightly translucent, then knead. Chef's tip: dried oak leaves from Japanese grocers need a 10-minute simmer and a rinse before use; if you can't find them, wrap in cherry or bamboo leaves or baking paper.

55 min

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Pizza ai quattro formaggiFour-cheese pizza

Four-cheese pizza is a pizzeria classic from Milan to Palermo, a pizza bianca (no tomato) where each cheese does a different job: mozzarella for stretch, gorgonzola for a blue tang, fontina from the Aosta Valley for creaminess and Parmigiano for a salty crust. It is the order for winter evenings, often with a drizzle of honey or a few walnuts on top. Most of these cheeses are made with animal rennet; choose vegetarian versions of each if you need to. Chef's tip: cut the cheeses into small cubes rather than slices and scatter them unevenly; they melt at different speeds and give pockets of flavour.

30 min

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Gelato al pistacchioPistachio gelato

Real Sicilian pistachio gelato is not bright green; it is a dull, olive-brown colour and tastes intensely of roasted nuts, especially when made with pistachios from Bronte on the slopes of Mount Etna. In Palermo and Catania it is eaten in a brioche for breakfast or as a cone after dinner. The secret is pure pistachio paste, with no added colour or flavourings. Contains nuts. Chef's tip: if you can't find pistachio paste, blend roasted pistachios with a spoon of oil for 5 minutes until it runs smooth; any graininess shows up in the gelato.

30 min

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Mitarashi dangoSoy-glazed rice dumplings

Mitarashi dango are said to come from Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, where they were sold at the midsummer purification festival; today they are the snack of shrine fairs, flower-viewing picnics and station kiosks all over Japan. Chewy little rice-flour balls are threaded on skewers, toasted until speckled, and coated in a translucent, sweet-salty soy glaze that tastes a little like caramel. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is a runny glaze: it must simmer until it turns clear and thick, or it slides off. Chef's tip: mix silken tofu into the rice flour instead of some of the water; the dumplings stay soft for hours instead of hardening as they cool.

30 min

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AnmitsuAgar jelly with red bean

Anmitsu became a craze in Tokyo's Ginza and Asakusa tea rooms in the 1930s and is still the classic summer order in kanmidokoro, the sweet cafés of old Tokyo. Clear, firm cubes of agar jelly are piled into a bowl with seasonal fruit, a scoop of sweet bean paste and boiled red peas, then drenched in dark, smoky kuromitsu syrup. The common mistake is using gelatin, which melts; agar jelly stays firm and refreshing at room temperature. Chef's tip: make the kuromitsu with Okinawan kokuto black sugar if you can; it gives a deep, almost liquorice-like flavour that muscovado only gets close to.

30 min

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Pinsa romanaOval Roman flatbread

Pinsa is a modern Roman creation inspired by the flatbreads of ancient Rome: an oval base made from a mix of wheat, rice and soy flour (or in this home version, wheat and rice), with a lot of water and a long rest in the fridge. The result is crisp outside, light as a cloud inside and easy to digest. Pinserie in Rome top it with everything from buffalo mozzarella to courgette flowers; this version uses cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. Mozzarella is usually made with calf rennet; vegetarian versions are easy to find. Chef's tip: shape the pinsa by pressing with your fingertips on a floured board, never stretching it; you want to keep all the bubbles.

55 min

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Riso al saltoCrisp fried saffron risotto cake

In Milan, nobody throws away risotto alla milanese. The next day it is pressed into a hot buttered pan and fried until it forms a thin, crackling golden disc, flipped "al salto" (with a jump) like a pancake. Old Milanese trattorie near the Brera district served it late at night after the theatre, and it is still a favourite way to use up saffron risotto. The cheese in the leftover risotto is usually made with animal rennet. Chef's tip: use cold risotto straight from the fridge and press it thin; warm or thick risotto won't crisp and falls apart when you flip it.

20 min

Italian Rice & Grains

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Fave e pecorinoRaw broad beans with pecorino

On 1 May, Romans head out to the parks and the Castelli Romani hills with a sack of fresh broad beans still in their pods and a hunk of young Pecorino Romano, and spend the afternoon shelling, nibbling and talking. The pairing is simple and very Roman: sweet, grassy raw beans against salty, sharp cheese, often with a glass of something cold and a hunk of bread. Only the youngest, smallest beans work raw, so this is a dish for a few weeks of spring. Traditional pecorino uses animal rennet; choose a vegetarian sheep's cheese if you need to. Chef's tip: taste a bean before you buy; if it is starchy or bitter rather than sweet, braise those beans instead.

10 min

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Pizza a portafoglioFolded street pizza

In the narrow streets of Naples's historic centre, pizzerie sell a small margherita folded in four like a wallet, wrapped in paper and eaten while walking, for a couple of euros. It is the city's original fast food and still a lunch for students and workers around Via dei Tribunali and the Spanish Quarter. The pizza is small and soft so it folds without cracking. Mozzarella is usually made with calf rennet; vegetarian versions are easy to find. Chef's tip: take the pizza out while the crust is still soft and a little pale; a crisp pizza snaps when you fold it.

28 min

Italian Fast Food

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DalgonaHoneycomb toffee

Dalgona, or ppopgi, was the 1970s and 80s snack of Seoul alleyways, where an old man with a little stove melted sugar in a ladle and stamped a star or umbrella into it; if you could break the shape out without cracking it you won a free one. It is just sugar and a pinch of baking soda, puffed into a crisp, toffee-brown honeycomb that tastes faintly bitter-sweet. The common mistake is adding too much baking soda, which leaves the candy bitter and soapy; a tiny pinch on the tip of a chopstick is all it needs. Melted sugar reaches about 160 °C and burns badly, so children should watch while an adult does the melting, and should only press shapes once the candy has set a little. Chef's tip: use a stainless-steel ladle or small pan, not non-stick, and keep the flame low; the moment the sugar is clear and amber, take it off.

7 min

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KuromameSweet black soybeans

No osechi box, the lacquered stack of cold dishes Japanese families share over the first three days of January, is complete without kuromame: plump black soybeans simmered so slowly in syrup that they stay whole, wrinkle-free and shining like jet. The word 'mame' also means hard work and good health, so eating them wishes for a diligent year. They are soft, sweet and gently savoury, with a deep bean flavour. The common mistake is letting the beans touch the air while cooking, which wrinkles their skins; keep them submerged under a drop-lid the whole time and top up with water. Chef's tip: soak the dry beans directly in the hot seasoned syrup overnight rather than in plain water, which seasons them from the inside and keeps the skins smooth.

250 min

Japanese Sides

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OhagiSweet red bean rice balls

Ohagi are made twice a year, at the spring and autumn equinoxes (higan), when Japanese families visit ancestors' graves and leave these rice balls as offerings; in spring they are called botamochi. Sticky rice is cooked and only half-pounded, so you can still see the grains, then shaped into ovals and coated in chunky red bean paste, roasted soybean flour (kinako) or black sesame. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is pounding the rice smooth like mochi; ohagi should keep a rustic, grainy texture. Chef's tip: wet your hands and squeeze out cling film between shaping, so the rice never sticks.

70 min

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Baci di damaHazelnut shortbread sandwiches

Baci di dama, "lady's kisses", were born in Tortona in Piedmont in the 1800s: two small domes of buttery hazelnut shortbread pressed together with dark chocolate, like two lips meeting in a kiss. They are sold in every pastry shop in Piedmont and eaten with coffee or as a gift at Christmas. The local Piedmont hazelnuts are some of the best in the world. Contains nuts. Chef's tip: weigh each ball of dough so they're all the same size; matching domes make neat kisses.

45 min

Italian Baking

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Carciofi alla giudiaCrisp fried artichokes

Carciofi alla giudia come from Rome's old Jewish Ghetto, where for centuries the restaurants along Via del Portico d'Ottavia have fried them from February to April, when the round Roman romanesco artichokes are in season. The artichokes are trimmed, fried once slowly until tender, then opened like flowers and fried again in hotter oil until the leaves are bronze and crunchy like crisps, while the heart stays soft. Chef's tip: before the second fry, flick a few drops of cold water into the oil from your fingers, standing well back; Roman cooks say the spatter is what makes the leaves extra crisp. Do this carefully.

55 min

Italian Sides

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Polenta taragnaBuckwheat polenta with cheese

High in the Valtellina valley near Sondrio, where wheat struggles but buckwheat grows well, polenta is made grey-brown and nutty with a mix of buckwheat and cornmeal. Taragna gets its name from the tarell, the long wooden stick used to stir it in a copper pot over the fire. At the end, butter and cubes of the local Valtellina Casera or Bitto cheese are stirred in until they melt into strings. It is winter food for cold mountain evenings, eaten with mushrooms or sausages on the side. Local cheeses are usually made with animal rennet; a vegetarian melting cheese works. Chef's tip: stir the flour into the boiling water in a slow rain with a whisk; once it is all in, switch to a wooden spoon and keep stirring.

60 min

Italian Rice & Grains

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Granita di gelsi neriBlack mulberry granita

In late June and July the black mulberry trees of Sicily, especially around Messina and Acireale, drop their dark, juicy fruit, and the bars turn them into a granita the colour of ink, sweet and tangy, served in a glass with a warm brioche. Mulberries stain everything, so locals eat it carefully. If you can't find black mulberries, blackberries make a very similar granita. Chef's tip: add a squeeze of lemon; it brightens the berry flavour and keeps the colour vivid.

25 min

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Granita al caffè con pannaCoffee granita with cream

In Sicily, and in Rome at the famous Tazza d'Oro café near the Pantheon, coffee granita is served in a glass layered with unsweetened whipped cream: cream at the bottom, coffee ice in the middle and more cream on top. It is a summer breakfast or afternoon pick-me-up, eaten with a long spoon or a brioche. It contains caffeine, so it isn't for children. Chef's tip: make the coffee strong and sweet; flavours fade when frozen, so it should taste almost too sweet before it goes in the freezer.

15 min

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Passata di pomodoroBottled tomato purée

At the end of August, all over southern and central Italy, families gather for the "giornata della salsa", the day of the sauce: crates of ripe plum tomatoes are washed, cooked, passed through a hand-cranked mill and bottled in hundreds, with a basil leaf in each bottle. The passata lasts until the next summer and is used for every ragù and pizza. For home bottling, add lemon juice to each jar and process in a water bath, as tomatoes alone are not acidic enough to be safe at room temperature. Chef's tip: use only fully ripe, deep red plum tomatoes; underripe tomatoes give a pale, sour passata.

150 min

Italian Basics

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GaraetteokLong cylinder rice cakes

Garaetteok are the long white rice-cake logs that Korean mills churn out before Seollal, when families queue with their own rice to have them pressed and then slice them into ovals for tteokguk, the New Year soup. The length is meant to wish for a long life. Freshly made, they are soft and chewy and eaten warm, dipped in honey or toasted over a grill; once they firm up they are sliced for soup or cut into sticks for tteokbokki. Making them at home is simple, though the logs come out a little less glossy than machine-pressed ones. The usual mistake is rolling the dough when it has cooled: it must be hot to stay smooth. Rice cakes are chewy and sticky, a known choking risk: cut them into small pieces for young children and older people and eat them sitting down. Chef's tip: leave the logs to firm overnight before slicing on the diagonal; they cut cleanly instead of squashing.

45 min

Korean Basics

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Mujigae tteokRainbow rice cake

Mujigae tteok is the rice cake of children's birthdays and school picnics in Korea, with soft stripes of pink, yellow, green and white that stand for harmony and happiness; it is also a fixture on the doljanchi first-birthday table. Each layer is the same lightly sweet, fluffy steamed rice flour, coloured naturally. The common mistake is packing the layers down: press too hard and the cake turns dense and the colours bleed, so spread each layer and just level it with a scraper. Rice cakes are chewy and sticky, a known choking risk: cut them into small pieces for young children and older people and eat them sitting down. Chef's tip: colour each portion of flour before sieving it, so the colour is even with no streaks.

70 min

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Fiori di zucca ripieni frittiFried stuffed courgette flowers

Every Roman pizzeria a taglio and friggitoria has a tray of fiori di zucca in summer: courgette flowers stuffed with a stick of mozzarella, dipped in a thin cold batter and fried until they shatter. Romans usually tuck in an anchovy fillet, but this vegetarian version swaps it for a little lemon zest and a caper, which gives the same salty spark. They are eaten as an antipasto before pizza or as a snack standing at the counter. Mozzarella is usually made with calf rennet; vegetarian versions are easy to find. Chef's tip: make the batter with ice-cold sparkling water and leave a few lumps; a smooth, warm batter fries heavy and soft.

40 min

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Gelato alla stracciatellaChocolate chip gelato

Stracciatella was invented in 1961 at the Gelateria La Marianna in Bergamo's upper town, inspired by stracciatella soup, where egg is stirred into broth in little rags (stracci). The gelato maker drizzled melted dark chocolate into churning fior di latte, where it froze instantly into thin, crisp shards. It became one of the best-loved flavours in Italy, a favourite with children. Chef's tip: drizzle the chocolate in a thin stream right at the end of churning; it must hit the cold gelato and set at once, or it forms hard lumps.

25 min

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JeolpyeonStamped rice cakes

Jeolpyeon are the patterned rice cakes Korean tteok shops press with carved wooden stamps called tteoksal, so each piece carries a flower or a wish for long life; they appear at weddings, 60th birthdays and Dano, the early-summer festival, when they were made green with mugwort or Korean ox-eye daisy. The cakes are plain and only lightly salted, firm yet chewy, and glossy with sesame oil. The common mistake is pounding too little: the dough must be kneaded until completely smooth, or the stamp won't leave a clean pattern and the cakes crack. Rice cakes are chewy and sticky, a known choking risk: cut them into small pieces for young children and older people and eat them sitting down. Chef's tip: no stamp? Press the base of a decorative glass or a clean biscuit mould into each piece.

50 min

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HwajeonFlower rice cake pancakes

In April, when the azaleas bloom on Korean hillsides, women in Joseon times climbed to picnic spots for hwajeonnori, the flower-cake party, frying little rice cakes with fresh petals pressed into them on the spot. Hwajeon are still made for spring festivals and Samjinnal, the third day of the third lunar month. The cakes are soft and chewy, barely crisp at the edges, and brushed with syrup. The common mistake is frying over too high a heat: the cakes should stay white with the flower bright, so keep the pan low and turn only once. Use only flowers you know are edible and unsprayed, such as pansies, violas or azalea (jindallae) petals; never ornamental shop flowers. Rice cakes are chewy and sticky, a known choking risk: cut them into small pieces for young children and older people and eat them sitting down. Chef's tip: press the flower on after you flip the cake, so it warms through and sticks without browning.

40 min

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SirutteokRed bean steamed rice cake

Sirutteok, named after the earthenware siru steamer, is the rice cake Koreans make to bless a new home, open a shop or mark the autumn harvest at a village gosa ceremony; the red adzuki beans were believed to chase away bad luck, and a slice is often left at the door. Layers of fluffy rice flour are steamed between layers of coarse, salted red bean crumble, so every bite is soft, a little sweet and earthy. The common mistake is mashing the beans to paste: the crumble should stay dry and grainy or the layers turn soggy. Rice cakes are chewy and sticky, a known choking risk: cut them into small pieces for young children and older people and eat them sitting down. Chef's tip: cook the beans until just tender, drain them, then dry them out in the pan over a low heat until the crumble falls apart.

120 min

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BaekseolgiWhite steamed rice cake

Baekseolgi, 'white snow cake', is the plain steamed rice cake that Korean families share out on a baby's baek-il, the 100th day, and at the doljanchi first-birthday party, where its pure white colour stands for a clean, long life. Custom says it should go to a hundred neighbours. It has a fine, crumbly-soft, cake-like texture and a mild, milky rice sweetness, best eaten the day it is made with a cup of barley tea. The usual mistake is skipping the sieving: unsieved flour steams into a heavy, patchy cake, so push it through twice. Rice cakes are chewy and sticky, a known choking risk: cut them into small pieces for young children and older people and eat them sitting down. Chef's tip: score the raw cake into portions before steaming; it cooks more evenly and you can lift pieces out cleanly.

55 min

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InjeolmiSoybean-coated rice cake

Injeolmi is the rice cake you meet everywhere in Korea, from the tteok shop by a Seoul subway exit to the trays handed round at weddings, Chuseok and housewarmings. Glutinous rice is steamed, pounded until it stretches like soft taffy, then cut into pillows and rolled in nutty, sweet roasted soybean powder. Bingsu cafés now pile it on shaved ice too. The common mistake is under-steaming the dough, which leaves powdery white specks that never turn chewy; keep cooking until it is evenly translucent. Rice cakes are chewy and sticky, a known choking risk: cut them into small pieces for young children and older people and eat them sitting down. Chef's tip: oil the knife and your hands, and cut the warm slab with a dough scraper pressed straight down rather than a sawing knife.

45 min

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Granita di mandorlaAlmond granita

On summer mornings in Catania, Messina and the towns around Mount Etna, Sicilians have granita for breakfast: a glass of soft, flaky ice made from almond milk and sugar, eaten with a warm brioche col tuppo (with a little bun on top) for dunking. The almond granita is the most traditional flavour, white, sweet and fragrant. It is made without a machine, just scraped with a fork as it freezes. Contains nuts. Chef's tip: stir the granita every 30 minutes without fail; that's what gives it the soft, creamy flakes instead of a solid block.

20 min

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Bharwa lal mirch ka acharStuffed red chilli pickle

In winter, when the fat, fleshy red chillies of Banaras and Rajasthan come to market, families in Varanasi, Lucknow and Jaipur set aside a day to make bharwa lal mirch. The chillies are large and only mildly hot, more like a long pepper, so they are emptied, packed with a sharp masala of coarse yellow mustard, fennel, fenugreek, nigella and amchur (dried mango powder), and cured under smoked mustard oil in the sun. After a week the skins soften and the filling turns tangy and pungent, almost a meal in itself; one chilli sliced beside dal-chawal, puri-sabzi or a plain paratha is plenty. Wear gloves for the cutting, and make sure the chillies are fresh, glossy and firm. Common mistake: stuffing chillies that are still damp inside after washing; dry them for a few hours, cut side down, or the jar will spoil. Keep them under oil, use only a dry spoon or tongs and discard if mould appears. Chef's tip: a spoon of lemon juice in the filling helps it cling and gives a brighter tang.

60 min

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Urad dal papadPeppery lentil crisps

Bikaner and the old Punjabi bazaars of Amritsar have made black-pepper urad papads for generations, and summer is when home kitchens still roll them: the dry heat crisps a whole tray on the terrace in a day or two. The dough is unlike any bread dough. It is stiff, grey-cream, seasoned hard with crushed pepper, cumin and asafoetida, and given its snap by papad khar (an alkaline salt sold at Indian grocers), then pounded until it turns smooth and stretchy. Rolled thinner than a chapati and sun-dried, the discs keep for months. Roast one over a gas flame and it blisters and curls in seconds, ready to eat beside dal-chawal, kadhi or a Rajasthani thali, or to crush into papad churi and papad ki sabzi. These are large, spicy and meant to be roasted; for the small, plain, coconut-oil-fried kind from Kerala, see pappadam. Chef's tip: dry the papads in light shade for the first hour before moving them into full sun; straight into harsh sun, the edges dry before the middle and they crack and curl.

135 min

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Khichiya papadRice flour crisps

Every Gujarati kitchen knows khichu, the soft, steaming rice-flour dough cooked with cumin, green chilli and papad khar and eaten hot with a drizzle of groundnut oil and methia masala. Khichiya papad is what happens when the same dough is pressed paper-thin and dried on the terrace through April and May, a job that once filled whole lanes in Surat and Ahmedabad with women working in groups. Fried or roasted, khichiya puffs into a light, crunchy, faintly salty disc with flecks of cumin and a mild chilli warmth. It is eaten with Gujarati dal-bhaat-shaak, crumbled over khichdi, or turned into masala khichiya at the farsan shop: brushed with oil and topped with chilli powder, chaat masala, onion and sev. Chef's tip: press the khichu while it is still warm and soft. Once it cools, it firms up and cracks at the edges, so work in small batches and keep the rest covered in the pan.

110 min

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Jalebi

On Uttarayan morning in Ahmedabad and Surat, queues form outside every farsan shop for two things: undhiyu and hot jalebi, sold by the kilo for the terrace party. This is the plain fermented jalebi, not the mawa or instant kind: a batter of maida, a little gram flour and curd left overnight until it smells sour and bubbly, piped in tight double coils into ghee, fried until crisp and dropped into warm saffron syrup. Good ones crackle when bitten, then flood the mouth with syrup, with a gentle tang from the ferment. Eat them hot with undhiyu, with fafda on Dussehra, or with rabri. The common mistake is syrup that is too thick or too cold; it then sits on the surface and the jalebi stays dry inside. Keep the syrup warm and at just one string. Chef's tip: if the batter spreads in the ghee, it is too thin; whisk in a spoon of maida. If the coils break, it is too thick; add a spoon of water.

60 min

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Danyachi amtiPeanut curry

On fast days in Maharashtra, when dal is off the menu, danyachi amti takes its place. Roasted peanuts are ground smooth with green chilli, then simmered with water, a cumin tadka, kokum and a little jaggery into a pale, creamy curry with a sour, slightly sweet and spicy taste. It is ladled over sabudana khichdi or vari tandul (barnyard millet) bhagar, loosening them and adding protein to a fasting meal, and it goes well with upvasachi batata bhaji on the side. Use sendha namak so it suits the fast; ghee is the usual fat in many homes, oil keeps it vegan. It thickens a lot as it stands, so thin it with hot water before serving. Chef's tip: grind the peanut paste really smooth and whisk it into the water before heating; a coarse grind leaves the amti gritty and it splits as it boils.

30 min

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Dhani khajurPopped jowar and dates

On Holika Dahan night, Gujarati families circle the bonfire with coconut, water and a plate of dhani, dalia and khajur, toss a handful into the flames, and then share the rest. The popped jowar is light and crunchy, the roasted chana nutty and mealy, and the dates bring a chewy, caramel sweetness, so together they make a surprisingly satisfying snack. The idea passed down by elders is practical: as the season turns from winter to summer, dates give warmth and energy, and the dry grains settle the stomach. It is also the first thing handed to children when they come home with coloured faces the next morning. Buy fresh dhani in the weeks before Holi, when Gujarati grocers and street sellers have it by the sackful. Chef's tip: shake the dhani in a sieve before mixing; it loosens the papery husks and the hard unpopped kernels that can crack a tooth.

15 min

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MathriFlaky savoury crackers

In Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan the Holi tin is never complete without a stack of mathri next to the gujiya. These are thick, rough-edged discs of maida made very short with ghee, flecked with carom seeds and crushed black pepper, and fried slowly over a low flame for nearly twenty minutes until they turn pale gold and crumble into flaky layers. They taste savoury and peppery, a little like a buttery cracker, and they are meant for dipping in hot masala chai or eating with a sliver of mango or lemon pickle. Unlike the papad-thin Gujarati mathiya of moth bean flour, mathri is a sturdy wheat cracker that keeps for a month and travels in every child's luggage back to hostel. Chef's tip: don't knead the dough smooth; just press it together. Over-kneading builds gluten and makes mathri hard instead of flaky.

60 min

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Gul poliJaggery-stuffed flatbread

Puran poli belongs to Holi and Gudi Padwa, but Makar Sankranti in Maharashtra is the day of gul poli. The filling here is not chana dal at all: it is grated jaggery mixed with roasted sesame, roasted gram flour, poppy seeds and dry coconut, which melts inside the dough as the poli cooks and then sets slightly as it cools. A good one is thin, with crisp brown spots, and does not leak. It keeps for a week, so many Pune households make a stack on Bhogi and eat them through the festival, warm with a spoon of ghee or cold with milk. The mistake most beginners make is using sticky, wet jaggery, which melts into a puddle and bursts the poli; choose dry, crumbly jaggery and grate it fine. Chef's tip: roll on a sheet of plastic or rice flour and cook on a low to medium heat; jaggery burns fast and leaks if the tawa is too hot.

65 min

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Ghila pithaFried rice and jaggery cakes

Magh Bihu in January closes the harvest in Assam with bonfires, feasts and plates full of pitha. Ghila pitha takes its name from ghila, the kneecap, because the little cakes are pressed into rounded discs that puff in the middle as they fry. Sticky bora or plain rice is soaked, dried and ground to a damp flour, then kneaded with melted jaggery and fried in mustard or vegetable oil. Outside they are dark brown and crisp; inside chewy and soft like a doughnut, with the deep flavour of jaggery. They keep a few days, so they are stacked in steel tins for visitors and eaten with black tea or with doi and jolpan. Some cooks add a pinch of fennel or sesame. The common mistake is oil that is too hot: jaggery darkens and burns long before the inside is cooked, so fry slowly. Chef's tip: let the dough rest for 30 minutes after kneading; the rice flour drinks up the syrup and the cakes hold together.

45 min

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KadboliCrunchy savoury rice and lentil rings

Kadboli is the Maharashtrian answer to chakli for people without a press: the same kind of roasted multi-grain flour, called bhajani, is rolled into ropes on a wooden board and twisted into rings by hand. Grandmothers in Kolhapur and Satara can turn out hundreds in an afternoon, each with the faint ridges of the board on it. The flavour is deeper and more toasty than a plain gram-flour snack, thanks to rice, chana, urad and moong all roasted before grinding, with coriander and cumin roasted in. They are hard-crunchy, spicy and moreish, eaten from the faral dabba with tea through Diwali week. Ready-made kadboli bhajani from a Maharashtrian grocer saves the roasting steps. Chef's tip: knead with water that is just off the boil; the heat partly cooks the starch and gives a pliable dough that rolls into smooth ropes without cracking.

60 min

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Kimami seviyanDry saffron vermicelli

On Eid ul-Fitr morning in Lucknow, after namaz, every Awadhi household sets out kimami seviyan, the dry, glossy cousin of the milky sheer khurma. Hair-thin vermicelli is roasted in ghee until deep golden, then cooked in a kimam (sugar syrup) scented with saffron, cardamom and kewra until each strand is separate, shiny and just tender. It is finished with crumbled khoya, fried dry coconut, almonds, pistachios, chironji and raisins, and often topped with silver leaf. The texture is chewy and buttery rather than soupy, more like a sweet pulao of noodles. Serve it warm in small plates to guests, with sheer khurma or a cup of tea. The common mistake is adding too much syrup or water, which turns the seviyan soft and lumpy; it should look dry with every strand coated. Chef's tip: use the finest unroasted seviyan from a Muslim bazaar if you can and roast them yourself in ghee; ready-roasted ones give a flatter taste.

40 min

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Aam kasundiMango mustard relish

Kasundi was once made in Bengali homes only by women of the household on a particular day in spring, with elaborate rules; today most families make this quicker aam (mango) version and keep it in the fridge through summer. Soaked black and yellow mustard seeds are ground with sour raw mango, green chilli, turmeric and salt, then loosened with mustard oil and left in the sun for a few days so the flavours mellow and sharpen at the same time. It is nose-tingling, sour, salty and a little bitter, the dip for beguni, alur chop, fish fry, mochar chop and the snack plates of a Kolkata evening, and a spoon in jhalmuri lifts it straight away. Common mistake: grinding the mustard too long or in a hot blender jar, which makes it bitter; grind in short bursts with cold water and something sour. Keep the jar under a thin film of mustard oil, use a clean dry spoon and discard if mould appears. Chef's tip: soak the mustard in water with a pinch of salt and turmeric; it tames the bitterness and gives a brighter yellow.

35 min

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Punjabi aam ka acharRaw mango pickle

Drive through Punjab in June and you will see rooftops lined with glass barnis of mango pickle warming in the sun. The Punjabi style is bold and oily: firm raw mango is chopped with its stone, dried until leathery at the edges, then tossed with coarse saunf (fennel), kalonji (nigella), methi dana, yellow mustard, turmeric and red chilli, all bound by mustard oil heated until it smokes. A week of sun mellows the oil's bite and softens the mango, giving a pungent, fennel-sweet pickle with a strong mustard-oil kick, quite different from the sesame-oil avakaya of Andhra or a Gujarati methia keri. It is the pickle for aloo paratha with white butter, dal-chawal and rajma. Common mistake: using mustard oil straight from the bottle; it must be heated to smoking and cooled, or the pickle tastes harsh. Keep all the pieces under oil, use a dry spoon and discard the jar if mould forms. Chef's tip: cut the mango with a heavy cleaver so each piece keeps a sliver of the soft stone; families fight over those bits.

50 min

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Karuveppilai podiCurry leaf powder

Grandmothers in Tamil Nadu make karuveppilai podi as much for health as for taste; curry leaves are said to be good for the hair and the blood, and this is the most delicious way to eat a whole bunch at once. Big handfuls of leaves are roasted until crisp and crumbly, then ground with roasted urad and chana dal, red chillies, a little tamarind for sourness and pepper. The powder is dark, fragrant, savoury and slightly tart. Mix it into hot rice with sesame oil or ghee for a quick lunch with a vegetable poriyal, or sprinkle it over idli and dosa. Common mistake: using leaves that are still damp after washing. The podi then traps moisture, loses its colour and can turn mouldy in the jar. Chef's tip: wash the leaves a few hours ahead and spread them on a cloth to air-dry until they feel papery, then roast them on the lowest heat until they crack between your fingers.

25 min

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Tilgul ladooSesame and jaggery balls

On Makar Sankranti in Maharashtra, neighbours, colleagues and old rivals swap tilgul and say 'tilgul ghya, goad goad bola': take this sesame and jaggery, and speak sweetly. Sesame and jaggery both warm the body in the coldest weeks of January, which is why the ladoo appears in every Pune and Mumbai home, often next to halwa sugar beads. These are the softer, chewy kind: sesame and peanuts are roasted separately, then bound with jaggery cooked just to the soft-ball stage and rolled quickly while warm. They taste nutty and toffee-like with a hint of cardamom. Hand them out in small bags or eat one after lunch. The common mistake is overcooking the jaggery: it sets rock hard and the ladoos can crack a tooth. Grease your hands with a little oil rather than ghee to keep them vegan. Chef's tip: test the jaggery by dropping a little into cold water; it should gather into a soft ball you can squash between your fingers.

30 min

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KalakandMilk cake

Alwar in Rajasthan built its reputation on kalakand, and the town's sweet shops still sell it by the slab, moist and crumbly, somewhere between fudge and fresh cheese. The texture comes from two dairy elements cooked together: fresh chhena, curdled with lemon so it stays in fine, soft crumbs, and full-fat milk reduced to a thick cream. Sugar loosens it, then it is cooked down until it just holds together and spread to set. It tastes of sweet milk and cardamom, with tiny grains that melt as you chew. It is a favourite for Diwali, Raksha Bandhan and any good news. Serve it at room temperature, cut into squares. Chef's tip: stop cooking while it still looks a little moist; kalakand firms up a lot as it cools, and overcooking turns it dry and chewy.

60 min

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Gunda nu athanuGum berry pickle

Gunda (lasoda or Indian cherry, Cordia myxa) appear in Gujarati markets for only a few weeks in early summer, and a jar of gunda nu athanu is the reward for catching them. Each green berry is slit and its sticky seed pulled out, then stuffed with the same kuria-based masala used for methia keri, along with small pieces of raw mango for sourness. Under groundnut oil the berries soften in a few days into a tender, slightly chewy pickle with a mild sweetness of their own and plenty of chilli heat. It is loved alongside bhakhri, thepla, khichdi and kadhi, and many families make it as keri-gunda, half mango, half berries. Getting the seed out is the only tricky part, because the flesh is gluey: dip your knife and fingertips in salt and the seed slips out cleanly. Pick firm, fully green berries with no brown patches. Common mistake: washing and stuffing straight away; any water left inside the berry will spoil the jar, so dry them completely first. Keep everything submerged under oil, always use a dry spoon, and discard if you see mould. Chef's tip: gunda soften faster than mango, so make a smaller jar and eat it within three months.

55 min

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SuvaliSweet milk and sesame puris

Open any Gujarati steel dabba in Diwali week and suvali will be near the top, stacked between chorafali and mathiya. Families fry them on the days around Dhanteras and Kali Chaudas, then hand them to every guest who drops by on Bestu Varas, the Gujarati New Year, with a cup of masala tea. The dough is short with ghee and sweetened by sugar dissolved in milk, so the puris snap cleanly and melt into a gentle sweetness rather than tasting like a biscuit. Sesame gives a nutty crunch, cardamom the festive smell. They should stay ivory with only the faintest blush of colour. Eat them with tea, or the way many grandparents do, with a spoonful of chhundo or sweet mango pickle. Chef's tip: roll every suvali before you start frying and keep them under a damp cloth, so you can give the pan your full attention and keep the heat low and steady.

60 min

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BhakarwadiSpiced coconut pastry pinwheels

Pune claims bhakarwadi as its own, and the queues outside the city's old sweet-and-farsan shops at Diwali prove it. Thin sheets of spiced pastry are spread with tamarind, sprinkled with a roasted filling of dry coconut, sesame, poppy seeds, coriander, fennel and chilli, rolled up tight and sliced into spirals before frying. Each bite is crisp, then sweet, then sour, then hot, which is why one is never enough. Gujarati farsan shops sell a sweeter cousin, but the Maharashtrian version keeps the chilli forward. They keep for weeks, travel well and make a good tea-time snack all year. Chef's tip: press the filling into the dough with the rolling pin before you roll the log; loose filling falls out when you slice and the spirals unwind in the oil.

90 min

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ChorafaliCrisp besan and urad strips

Chorafali is the snack Gujarati children wait for in Diwali week, because it is made in the last days and vanishes first. The dough of gram flour and white urad flour is kneaded, then pounded with a pestle until it turns pale and elastic, rolled out almost transparent and cut into strips. In hot oil the strips swell into crunchy, bubbled ribbons in under a minute, and a shower of red chilli, dry mango powder and kala namak while they are hot makes them tangy, salty and sharp. It is a Surat and Saurashtra favourite and comes out alongside suvali, mathiya and ghughra for guests on the New Year. Eat it on its own or with tea. Chef's tip: roll with oil on the board and pin, never dry flour; loose besan burns in the oil and leaves bitter brown flecks on the strips.

60 min

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Choddo shaakFourteen leafy greens stir-fry

On Bhoot Chaturdashi, the night before Kali Puja and Diwali, Bengali homes light fourteen lamps for their ancestors and eat a dish of fourteen greens at lunch to keep illness and restless spirits away. Markets in Kolkata sell bundles already mixed for the day: spinach, red and green amaranth, Malabar spinach, water spinach, fenugreek, mustard and radish greens, bathua, jute leaves, pumpkin leaves, helencha and a few neem leaves for bitterness. Fried briefly in mustard oil with nigella and dried chilli, they cook down to an earthy, slightly bitter, faintly sweet tangle. It is eaten as the first course with hot rice and a drizzle of ghee for those who want it. If you can't find all fourteen, use what your grocer has; the mix matters more than the exact list. Chef's tip: cook it uncovered after the first wilt so the water evaporates; choddo shaak should be dry and glossy, not stewed.

40 min

Indian Sides

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Sakkare acchuMoulded sugar figures

Every Sankranti plate in Karnataka carries a few of these little sugar figures beside the ellu bella: an elephant, a temple gopuram, a parrot, a coconut. The wooden moulds, two halves tied with string, are soaked in water overnight so the sugar does not stick, and the syrup is clarified with a splash of milk until it is crystal clear. It is cooked to a thick stage, then stirred until it turns cloudy and pours like thin cream, and poured fast before it sets. Children love making them almost as much as eating them; they melt on the tongue like a soft fondant. The milk makes them vegetarian rather than vegan. The common mistake is pouring before the syrup has been beaten enough: it stays clear and sets like brittle glass that sticks in the mould. Chef's tip: work in small batches of about 150 g sugar so the syrup does not set in the pan while you are still pouring.

55 min

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Rava ladooSemolina and coconut sweet balls

Ask a Maharashtrian or South Indian family which Diwali sweet goes first and rava ladoo is a strong answer. It needs no khoya and no special flour, just semolina toasted gently in ghee with coconut until it smells biscuity, then soaked with a hot cardamom sugar syrup. After a short rest the rava drinks up the syrup and can be rolled into soft, slightly grainy balls that firm up as they cool, studded with golden cashews and plump raisins. In Mumbai they sit in the faral platter next to chakli and karanji; in Tamil homes they are a quick Deepavali or Krishna Jayanthi offering. They keep for about a week, less if you use fresh coconut. Chef's tip: shape them while the mixture is still warm; if it cools and crumbles, sprinkle over a tablespoon of warm milk and it will bind again.

30 min

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KansarWheat and sugar sweet

At a Gujarati wedding the first mouthful the new couple share is kansar: the bride's mother sets a thali in front of them and each feeds the other a pinch, a ritual called kansar jamadvo. The same sweet turns up for a griha pravesh, a new job or any shubh occasion at home. It is made from jada ghau no lot (coarse, almost gritty wheat flour), roasted in ghee and steamed in sugared water until every grain swells and stays separate, so it is crumbly and loose rather than a set halwa. It is never sweet enough on its own: at the table everyone pours over a spoon of hot melted ghee and sprinkles bura (powdered sugar) to taste. Serve it warm, with dal, bhaat, a shaak and kadhi for a festive lunch. Common mistake: stirring it like sheera once the water goes in. Kansar has to be left covered on a low flame to steam, and only fluffed with a fork; beating it turns it into paste. Chef's tip: if you cannot find kansar flour, use 150 g coarse rava (sooji) mixed with 50 g ordinary atta, which gives the same loose, grainy texture.

30 min

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Ribbon pakodaCrisp rice flour ribbons

Tamil households fire up the murukku press in the week before Deepavali, and ribbon pakoda is usually the first thing through it because it is the most forgiving. The dough of rice flour and gram flour is spiced with red chilli, sesame and asafoetida and squeezed through a flat slit plate straight into the oil, where the ribbons fry into crunchy, ridged strips that break into bite-sized pieces. It is lighter and crisper than thenkuzhal, savoury with a little heat, and fills the tins for guests and neighbours. Children eat it by the handful with evening coffee. Use gluten-free asafoetida, as many brands are cut with wheat, and check your press is free of wheat dough. Chef's tip: listen to the oil; when the loud sizzle around the ribbons dies to a whisper, the moisture is gone and they are done.

45 min

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Gor keriSweet mango pickle

Gor keri is the sweet sister of methia keri, and in most Gujarati homes both jars are filled in the same week of May. The mango is salted and dried in the same way, but the masala is milder, with methi kuria, a little rai kuria, hing and Kashmiri chilli for colour, and the star is desi gor (jaggery). Over 4–6 days the jaggery melts in the mango's own juices into a dark, glossy syrup that covers the pieces and keeps them, so it needs only a little oil. It tastes sweet, sour and gently warm, and children who refuse spicy pickle eat it by the spoonful. Serve it with thepla, puri, khichdi, or dal-bhaat on a hot afternoon. Choose soft, dark, fresh jaggery that breaks easily; hard, pale blocks never fully melt. Common mistake: wet mango, which thins the syrup and invites mould. If the syrup still looks thin after a week, warm the pickle gently on the stove for 5 minutes and cool before jarring again. Use only a clean dry spoon, and throw it out if you see mould. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of lightly crushed fennel (variyali) adds a lovely fragrance, as many Kathiyawadi families do.

45 min

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Bengali boriSun-dried lentil dumplings

Winter mornings in rural Bengal used to mean bori-making: the household gathered on the roof with a big bowl of freshly ground, hand-whipped urad dal and dropped little peaked dollops onto cloth in neat rows. In Medinipur the women even pipe them into lace-like gohona bori, a folk art of its own. The everyday kind is simpler, a cone the size of a marble, sun-dried until rock hard. Fried in mustard oil, a bori turns crisp and golden outside and slightly spongy inside, and it soaks up gravy beautifully. A handful goes into shukto, into a maacher jhol with potatoes, into lau ghonto (bottle gourd) or into a simple vegetable chorchori. Common mistake: grinding the dal with too much water; the paste then spreads flat on the cloth instead of holding a peak. Chef's tip: check the whipped paste by dropping a little into a bowl of water. If it floats, it has enough air and the bori will be light; if it sinks, keep beating.

50 min

Indian Basics

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PeradGuava cheese

Goan grandmothers make perad when the guava trees are full in winter, and it sits in a tin on the dresser all through Christmas, cut into dark pink squares for the kuswar plate. The name and the method come from the Portuguese goiabada: ripe guavas are cooked, sieved, then boiled down with sugar and lime juice for the best part of an hour until the paste is thick, glossy and comes away from the pan in one mass. Set in a tray, it slices cleanly and tastes intensely of guava, sweet and slightly tart, with a chewy, jelly-like bite. Eat it on its own, with a piece of cheese, or on bread. The common mistake is stopping too early: it looks thick in the pan but stays soft and sticky once cool. Test a little on a cold plate; it should hold its shape and peel off cleanly. Chef's tip: choose fragrant pink-fleshed guavas and add a couple of slightly under-ripe ones; they carry more pectin and help it set.

95 min

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Tandalachi bhakriRice flour flatbread

Along the Konkan coast, from Alibag down to Sindhudurg, the everyday bread isn't wheat at all but tandalachi bhakri, a soft round of rice flour and water, the natural partner to a coconut-rich Malvani fish curry, kombdi rassa, a bowl of usal or plain pithla with sol kadhi. Unlike Karnataka's akki rotti, it has no onion, coconut or chilli in the dough: just rice flour, salt and hot water, kneaded smooth and patted out thin by hand. Cooked on a hot iron tawa and finished over an open flame, it puffs up like a balloon and stays soft and pliable, with a faint sweetness and toasty spots. Common mistake: mixing the flour with cold or warm water. Rice flour has no gluten, so it needs boiling water to gelatinise and bind; otherwise the bhakri cracks all round the edges. Chef's tip: knead each portion again just before patting; a dough that sat still dries on the surface and cracks.

40 min

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Ladi pavSoft pull-apart bread rolls

Pav came to Mumbai with the Portuguese and was taken up by the city's Goan and Irani bakeries, and today it is the bread every street snack depends on: vada pav, misal pav, bhurji pav, dabeli and pav bhaji. A ladi is a slab of rolls baked touching each other, so their sides stay pale and fluffy and they tear apart with soft white edges and a thin golden top. This home version uses milk and a little butter for a tender, slightly sweet crumb that holds up to a buttery tawa toast. It bakes in an ordinary oven at 190 °C (170 °C fan). Common mistake: baking the pav too long or too hot, so the crust turns hard and brown; take it out the moment the tops are golden and brush with butter at once. Chef's tip: cover the hot ladi with a clean cloth as it cools; the trapped steam is what gives that typical bakery softness.

50 min

Indian Baking

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Warqi parathaFlaky laminated flatbread

Warq means a thin leaf, and this is the paratha of the Awadhi and Hyderabadi dastarkhwan, where the old royal kitchens laminated dough like a pastry chef. A soft dough of maida, milk and ghee is rolled out very thin, brushed with soft ghee, dusted with flour and folded again and again until there are dozens of layers. Cooked slowly on a tawa, it puffs and shatters into crisp, buttery flakes on the outside while the inside stays tender and layered. It is rich and slightly sweet, made for scooping up Lucknowi qorma, nihari, haleem or a vegetarian shahi paneer at Eid and wedding feasts, and it is quite different from the soft, saffron-sweet sheermal of the same city. Common mistake: using melted, runny ghee for the layers; it soaks into the dough instead of separating it. Chef's tip: let the ghee set to a soft, creamy paste, and chill the folded dough for 15 minutes before the final rolling so the layers stay distinct.

85 min

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Sama ke chawal ki kheerBarnyard millet milk pudding

Sama, also called samak or vrat ke chawal, is barnyard millet, a tiny grain that North Indian families treat as rice on fast days because it isn't a true cereal for the purposes of the vrat. Cooked slowly in milk, the grains swell, burst and release their starch, so the kheer turns thick and creamy in about twenty minutes, much faster than rice kheer, with a mild, nutty flavour. Ghee-fried cashews and raisins add crunch and sweetness. It is made for Navratri, Ekadashi and Karva Chauth, and served warm after the evening puja or cold the next day. Sama sticks to the pan quickly, so use a heavy-based pan and keep stirring once the grains go in. Chef's tip: rinse the sama in several changes of water until it runs clear; the dusty starch on the grains makes the kheer gluey and slightly bitter.

35 min

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Rajgira ladooPopped amaranth jaggery balls

Before Mahashivratri and Navratri, sweet stalls in Maharashtra pile up trays of rajgira ladoo, and they are one of the few sweets that suit a strict fast and a vegan diet at once. Amaranth seeds puff like tiny popcorn in a hot pan; mixed with jaggery cooked to a firm syrup, they set into light, crunchy balls with a toffee-like, molasses sweetness and a toasty grain flavour. They are eaten as an energy-giving snack on fast days, given as prasad, and packed for long temple queues. Ready-popped rajgira is easy to find in Indian shops; popping your own seeds (a spoonful at a time in a hot, dry, lidded pan) takes about 10 minutes more. Chef's tip: wet your palms with cold water and shape the ladoos while the mix is very warm; once the jaggery cools, it sets hard and won't bind.

25 min

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Nimbu ka acharLemon pickle

Lemon pickle is the one achar that North Indian grandmothers hand over without a speech, because there is almost nothing to it: lemons, salt, a few spices, a jar and patience. No oil goes in. The quartered lemons sit in salt and their own juice, in a sunny window or on the roof, and over three or four weeks the peel turns soft, translucent and brown, and the juice becomes a thick, sweet-sour syrup. This version is the khatta-meetha kind, with sugar, ajwain, black salt and chilli, loved with parathas, khichdi and as a cure for an upset stomach; leave out the sugar and double the chilli for the salty, sharp version. Use thin-skinned, juicy lemons (kagzi nimbu) and wash and dry them thoroughly. Common mistake: being impatient; the peel is bitter and hard until it has fully cured, so wait until it squashes easily. Keep the pieces pressed under the juice, use only a dry spoon and discard the jar if mould appears. Chef's tip: shake the jar every day rather than opening it; less air and fewer spoons mean less risk of spoilage.

30 min

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Singhare ka halwaWater chestnut flour pudding

Singhara, water chestnut, is dried and ground into a pale flour that North Indian homes keep for fasts, and this halwa is what many make first on Navratri Ashtami, Janmashtami or Ekadashi, often as the bhog offered before the fast is broken. It comes together in twenty minutes: the flour is roasted in ghee until it smells toasty and darkens a shade, hot sugar water goes in, and with fast stirring it swells into a soft, glossy halwa that is earthy, sweet and slightly chewy. Serve it warm, on its own or with kuttu puri and aloo for a full fasting meal. It uses only ingredients allowed on most fasts. Chef's tip: dissolve the sugar in the water and keep it at a boil; cold liquid makes the flour seize into lumps the moment it hits the pan.

25 min

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ChiroteLayered rose pastries

Chirote are what a Maharashtrian or Kannadiga family makes to show off at a wedding or Diwali. Thin sheets of maida dough are spread with satha, ghee whipped with rice flour, stacked, rolled into a log and sliced, so each piece opens in the hot fat like a many-petalled flower. Done well they shatter when you bite them, light and buttery, with sweetness only from the dusting of cardamom sugar on top. In Pune they appear on the faral platter beside karanji and anarse; in Karnataka the chiroti is often served at weddings drenched in warm saffron-almond milk. This takes patience and a cool kitchen, so set aside an unhurried morning. Chef's tip: whip the satha until it is white and fluffy like whipped cream; a dense, oily paste won't keep the layers apart and they fuse into a single chewy disc.

75 min

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Katachi amtiSweet-sour chana dal stock curry

When Maharashtrian homes cook chana dal for the puran on Holi, the cooking liquid is drained off before the dal is sweetened, and nothing goes to waste: that starchy, nutty stock, the kat, becomes katachi amti. Tempered with mustard, cumin and curry leaves, then simmered with roasted dry coconut, goda masala, tamarind and jaggery, it turns into a thin, hot, sweet-and-sour dal that is poured over puran poli or drunk from a bowl alongside it. The spice balances the rich sweet bread perfectly, which is why the two always appear together on Holi and Gudi Padwa thalis. If you are not making puran poli, cook 150 g chana dal in 1 litre of water until soft, drain off the liquid for this and use the dal for something else. Use gluten-free asafoetida and a goda masala made without wheat for a gluten-free amti. Chef's tip: keep it thin, like rasam; it is meant to soak into the poli, not sit on it.

45 min

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Motichoor ladooBoondi sweet balls

Halwais in Jaipur, Indore and old Delhi sell mountains of these during Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali and every wedding season, and Ganesha himself is usually shown holding one. The difference from ordinary boondi laddu is size: the gram-flour batter is dropped through the finest jhara, so each pearl is no bigger than a mustard seed and the finished laddu is soft, moist and almost melts on the tongue. A light syrup of one-string consistency, saffron, cardamom and a little melon seed is all it needs. Serve them as prasad, in a festive mithai box, or after a thali. The classic mistake is a batter that is too thick: the drops come out with tails and stay chewy instead of round. Being made only from gram flour, sugar and ghee, these are gluten-free as long as no hing or wheat goes near the batter. Chef's tip: shape the laddus while the boondi is still warm and syrupy; once it cools, the pearls will not stick together and the laddus crumble.

75 min

Mauritian Breads & Parathas

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Mkatra foutraCoconut milk flatbread

Before dawn in Moroni, women set heavy pans over charcoal to make mkatra foutra, and during Ramadan stacks of it appear at every iftar table. The dough is soft and sticky, raised with yeast and made rich with coconut milk instead of water, then patted into a thick round, scattered with sesame and baked slowly in a covered pan. It comes out golden and speckled outside, with a fluffy, slightly sweet, faintly coconutty crumb. Tear it with sweet spiced tea for breakfast, or use it to mop up a fish curry or mtsolola. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and the lid on; a hot pan burns the base long before the thick middle has cooked through, which is the most common mistake.

120 min

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Murmura ladooPuffed rice jaggery balls

On Uttarayan, the whole of Ahmedabad climbs onto its rooftops to fly kites from dawn to dusk, and the steel dabbas that come up the stairs are full of chikki, til ladu and these mamra na ladu. Puffed rice is crisped in a pan, then tossed in jaggery cooked to the hard-crack stage and pressed quickly into balls that crunch loudly and taste of caramel. Children love them, they cost almost nothing and they keep for weeks. In North India the same sweet is made for Lohri and Sankranti as murmure ke laddu. The common mistake is undercooking the jaggery: the ladoos then turn chewy and soft after a day. A drop in cold water must snap cleanly. Grease your hands with oil and a splash of water to keep them vegan. Chef's tip: shape them fast and with wet, oiled hands, a few at a time; the syrup sets within a minute and the last balls crumble if you dawdle.

20 min

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SannasSteamed rice cakes

Sannas are to a Goan Catholic feast what idli is to a Chennai breakfast: soft, pillowy steamed rice cakes, made for Christmas, weddings and village feast days to mop up sorpotel, xacuti or a coconut curry. They are fluffier and slightly sweeter than idli, because ground coconut and a little sugar go into the rice batter, and they are traditionally risen with fresh coconut toddy (sur). This version uses dried yeast in place of toddy, so it contains no alcohol, and the long overnight ferment still gives the faint sour note that makes them taste right. Serve them warm with any Goan curry (vegetable xacuti or chana ross keep it vegetarian) or with jaggery and coconut milk for tea. The common mistake is overfilling the moulds; sannas rise a lot and spill over. Fill each two-thirds full. Chef's tip: grind a handful of cooked rice or soaked poha into the batter; it gives that cotton-soft, spongy texture that plain rice batter lacks.

60 min

Indian Sides

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DoodhpakRice milk pudding

Doodhpak and puri is the classic pairing of a Gujarati jamanvar (feast), served at weddings, at Sharad Purnima and, in many families, cooked for pitru paksha (shraddh) to remember the ancestors. Unlike a thick kheer, doodhpak is pourable and silky: a small amount of rice cooks in milk that has been reduced by about a third, so each grain is soft but still whole, and the milk turns creamy and faintly golden from saffron. Charoli (chironji, small almond-like seeds), slivered almonds and pistachios give it bite, and cardamom with a little nutmeg (jaiphal) is the true Gujarati flavour. It thickens a lot as it cools, so take it off the heat while it still looks thin. Serve warm in winter or chilled in summer, with hot puris, dal-bhaat and a dry shaak. Common mistake: adding sugar before the rice is fully soft; the sugar stops the grains cooking and they stay chalky. Chef's tip: rub the soaked rice with a teaspoon of ghee before it goes in, so the grains stay separate and do not form lumps on the base.

75 min

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Kerala pappadamPlain lentil crisps

No sadya on a banana leaf in Thrissur or Kottayam is complete without a pappadam, and nobody eats it whole: it gets crushed over rice with parippu (dal) and ghee, or with payasam at the end of the meal. The Kerala kind is small, about the size of a saucer, and plain. There is no pepper or cumin, just urad dal, salt and pappada karam (papad khar), so the flavour is clean and lentilly. It is dried only briefly, which keeps it pliable, and when it hits hot coconut oil it puffs into a blistered, bubbly dome that shatters at a touch. That is the opposite of the big, peppery north Indian urad papad, which is sun-dried hard and roasted over a flame. Pappadam makers in Kerala are a whole craft community, but a home batch is very doable. Chef's tip: fry in coconut oil at about 180 °C and press the pappadam down for a second with a slotted spoon; it should puff in under 5 seconds and stay pale gold.

90 min

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ImartiSyrup-soaked lentil spirals

Imarti (jangiri in Tamil Nadu) is the stately cousin of jalebi: instead of a fermented flour batter it uses soaked urad dal, whipped until airy, piped into hot oil in a ring of small loops like a flower, and plunged into warm saffron syrup. The result is crisp at first and then pleasantly chewy, juicy inside but not soggy, and less tangy than jalebi. Halwais in Jaunpur, Agra and across Rajasthan fry it in desi ghee for weddings, Diwali and Holi, often served warm with rabri. This version is fried in oil so it stays vegan; use ghee if you prefer the halwai taste. The batter is the whole secret: grind the dal with very little water, then beat it by hand until a drop floats in water. Common mistake: frying on high heat, which browns the outside before the inside is set, so the imarti go limp in the syrup. Keep the oil at a gentle medium-low and expect them to take a couple of minutes. Chef's tip: practise the shape on a plate first; a ketchup bottle or a piping bag with a 3–4 mm round nozzle is far easier than the traditional cloth with a hole.

65 min

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Kadumanga acharBaby mango pickle

In late February the mango trees of Kerala drop tiny, thumb-sized green fruit with soft stones, and those tender mangoes (kanni manga) become one of the pickles on a Kerala sadya leaf, beside the inji puli and naranga. They are salted whole until they wrinkle and sit in their own brine, then dressed with a tempering of gingelly (sesame) oil, mustard, Kashmiri chilli, roasted fenugreek and hing. The brine turns thick and red, and the little mangoes stay crunchy and sour, with a bitter-sharp bite under the chilli. Kadumanga literally means strong mango, and in some sadya kitchens the name also covers a quicker pickle of finely cut raw mango in the same masala; this is the whole-fruit version. Eat a mango with kanji (rice gruel), curd rice or the sadya rice. Common mistake: pricking or cutting the mangoes; they must stay whole with a bit of stalk so the brine does not turn slimy. Keep them fully covered, use a dry spoon and discard if mould appears. Chef's tip: let the chilli and fenugreek cool in the oil before mixing; added hot, they scorch and taste bitter.

40 min

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Moong dal halwaMoong dal pudding

At Rajasthani and Marwari weddings in winter, the halwai's moong dal halwa is the dish people go back for. It is also made at home for Holi, when it is cooked in big kadhais and passed around warm. Soaked yellow moong dal is ground to a coarse paste and roasted in ghee for the best part of an hour, first clumping into a heavy mass, then breaking down into golden grains that smell of toasted nuts and ghee. Hot saffron milk and sugar go in at the end and are cooked back until the ghee glistens. The result is rich, grainy, buttery and fragrant, best served warm in small bowls with slivered almonds. It needs steady stirring and a strong arm, so share the job. Chef's tip: grind the dal with as little water as possible; a wet paste takes far longer to roast and turns sticky instead of grainy.

75 min

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Nolen gurer payeshRice pudding with date palm jaggery

In Bengal winter means nolen gur, the new date-palm jaggery that arrives in clay pots in December and January and smells of caramel and smoke. Kolkata sweet shops put it in everything, but at home the best use is a pot of payesh for Poush Sankranti or a birthday. Short, buttery gobindobhog rice is fried briefly in ghee with a bay leaf, then cooked slowly in full-fat milk until the grains break down and the milk reduces to a creamy, spoonable pudding. The jaggery goes in last and turns it a soft brown. Serve warm or cold, in small bowls or clay bhar, with pithe on the side. Common mistake: adding the gur while the milk is boiling, which almost always curdles it; take the pot off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes first. Chef's tip: no nolen gur? Use liquid date-palm jaggery (jhola gur) or a soft palm jaggery; cane jaggery works but the flavour is flatter.

70 min

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Sabudana papadSago crisps

When Ashadhi Ekadashi, Navratri or a Monday fast comes round in Pune and Nashik, the upvas plate needs something crunchy, and these sago papads are it. They are made in the hottest weeks of summer: soaked sabudana is boiled into a thick, glassy porridge with cumin, green chilli and rock salt, spooned onto plastic sheets and left in the sun until it turns into thin, translucent discs. In hot oil they expand to nearly double, go snow-white and crackle when you bite. They sit next to sabudana khichdi, varyache tandul (sama rice) with peanut amti, or plain farali potato bhaji. The recipe keeps to fasting rules: no grains, no turmeric or asafoetida, and sendha namak (rock salt) instead of regular salt; fry them in groundnut oil or ghee, as your household allows. Chef's tip: cook the sago until there is not a single white dot left in the pearls; any uncooked centres stay hard and chalky after drying and never puff.

70 min

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Besan ladooGram flour sweet balls

Every North Indian and Gujarati kitchen has its besan ladoo argument: coarse or fine flour, boora or caster sugar, nuts or not. What nobody argues about is the roasting. The gram flour has to cook in ghee on a low flame for half an hour, going from a stiff lump to a loose, flowing paste the colour of sand, until the raw beany smell is gone and the kitchen smells like roasted peanuts. That patient roast gives a ladoo that is melt-in-the-mouth, faintly grainy and rich, never pasty. They are made for Diwali, offered to Ganesh on Chaturthi and packed for travellers because they keep for weeks. Use besan packed without wheat if you need it gluten-free. Chef's tip: let the roasted besan cool until just warm to the touch before the sugar goes in; hot besan melts the sugar and your ladoos slump into flat discs.

45 min

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Soan papdiFlaky threaded sweet cubes

Long before it came in gift boxes, soan papdi was a halwai's showpiece in the bazaars of western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Hot sugar syrup is pulled like taffy, then worked into a warm paste of gram flour and maida roasted in ghee, and the folding stretches it into hundreds of fine threads. The result is airy, flaky and crumbly, with a toasty, cardamom-sweet flavour, nothing like the stale boxes passed around offices at Diwali. It is genuinely a two-person job at home: one person pulls while the other keeps the flour warm. Wear clean kitchen gloves rubbed with ghee if your hands are sensitive to heat, and keep children away from the syrup. Chef's tip: keep the roasted flour on the lowest possible heat the whole time; the moment it cools, it stops coating the sugar threads and you get dense, chewy lumps.

90 min

Mauritian Snacks & Starters

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Breadfruit chipsBreadfruit crisps

Roadside kiosks on La Digue and the Victoria market sell paper cones of chips friyapen, still warm, to people walking back from the beach. Breadfruit fries up lighter than potato, with a faintly nutty, bready taste and a crunch that shatters, and islanders say whoever eats breadfruit will come back to the Seychelles. Use a fruit that is mature but still firm, with green skin and no soft patches; ripe, yielding breadfruit is too sweet and wet and the slices go leathery. Breadfruit has no gluten at all, so the chips suit coeliac friends if the oil is fresh. Eat them as they are with a cold drink, or alongside grilled fish and a sharp tomato chutney. Chef's tip: rub a little oil on your knife and hands before cutting, because the white sap is sticky and hard to wash off.

30 min

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Gulab jamun

No Diwali sweet box, wedding thali or birthday party in India feels complete without a gulab jamun or two. This is the classic halwai version made with khoya, milk reduced to a dense crumbly solid, kneaded with a little flour and fried slowly in ghee until the outside is deep mahogany and the inside cooked through. Soaked in light syrup scented with rose and cardamom, the balls swell and become soft and spongy, with a faint caramel milkiness. Serve them warm on their own, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a spoonful of rabri. Buy soft, unsweetened khoya (mawa) for this; dry, hard khoya makes dense jamuns. Chef's tip: fry one test ball first; if it cracks, knead in a teaspoon of milk, and if it spreads, add a pinch more flour.

60 min

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RabriThickened sweet milk

Halwais in Mathura, Varanasi and Lucknow make rabri in wide iron kadhais, fanning the surface so a skin forms fast, then pushing each layer of malai to the cooler sides of the pan. After an hour or more, the milk has shrunk to a quarter, and the layers are scraped back in to give a thick, spoonable sweet full of soft, chewy ribbons of cream. It is much thicker than Gujarati basundi, which is stirred smooth. Rabri is served chilled in kulhads, or spooned over hot jalebi or malpua at Holi, the hot-cold contrast being the whole point. Use the widest heavy pan you own; the bigger the surface, the more malai and the faster it reduces. Chef's tip: add the sugar only at the end; sugar added early makes the milk catch and stops the skins forming properly.

90 min

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Chakka pradhamanJackfruit coconut milk pudding

When the jackfruit trees of Kerala hang heavy in summer, families cook the ripe bulbs with jaggery and ghee into chakka varatti, a dark, sticky preserve that keeps for months. Come Onam in August or September, a jar of varatti is all that stands between them and chakka pradhaman, the richest payasam on the sadya leaf. The preserve is melted into thin coconut milk, simmered, then finished with the thick first pressing, dry ginger, cardamom and coconut slivers fried in ghee. It tastes of caramelised fruit and toffee, smooth and heavy, with crunchy bits of coconut. Serve it warm in small cups or on the leaf with a crushed pappadam and a slice of banana, as Malabar families do. Do not let the pot boil once the thick coconut milk goes in: it splits and turns oily. Chef's tip: if you have ready varatti, use 250 g and skip the first stage; the slow-cooked jackfruit is what gives the deep colour, so do not rush it.

65 min

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PathiriThin rice flatbreads

When the call for maghrib rings out in Kozhikode and Malappuram during Ramadan, families break the fast with dates and juice and then sit down to a stack of pathiri with chicken curry or mutton stew. Also called nice pathiri, these are the thinnest breads in Kerala: a dough of fine rice flour scalded with boiling water, rolled almost see-through, cooked on a dry tawa until they puff, and then dipped in thin coconut milk so they turn soft and silky. They taste mild and slightly sweet, made only to soak up gravy. The usual mistake is adding the flour to water that has stopped boiling; the dough stays crumbly and the pathiri crack. Rice flour has no gluten, so these suit anyone avoiding wheat. Serve them warm, folded into quarters, with any curry (they are vegan as made here; the curry is up to you). Chef's tip: knead the scalded dough while it is still hot, using the heel of your hand and a little oil, until it is as smooth as a baby's cheek.

50 min

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LadobPlantain in sweet coconut milk

Sunday lunch on Mahé often ends with a pot of ladob carried warm to the table: thick slices of ripe plantain, sometimes breadfruit or sweet potato, stewed in coconut milk until they turn soft and amber. The sauce reduces to a pale, silky cream scented with vanilla, which grows on the islands, and a scrape of nutmeg. Families eat it warm in bowls, or cold from the fridge the next afternoon, and children like it best with the sauce spooned over a little extra. Pick plantains with black-speckled or nearly black skins; yellow-green ones stay starchy and never go sweet and tender, which is the most common disappointment. Chef's tip: simmer gently and never let the coconut milk boil hard, or it splits and the sauce turns oily instead of creamy.

40 min

Mauritian Desserts

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Methia keriRaw mango pickle

If a Gujarati home makes only one athanu each summer, it is methia keri. Rajapuri or other firm raw mango is cut with its skin, salted overnight, dried, then coated in a masala built on methi kuria (split fenugreek) and rai kuria (split mustard), with Kashmiri chilli, hing, turmeric and salt, and covered with groundnut oil. The kuria swell and soften in the oil, so the fenugreek turns pleasantly bitter-nutty instead of hard. In a week the mango is tender but still has bite, and the pickle is tangy, hot and aromatic with hing. It goes on the side of every thali, with khichdi-kadhi, thepla, bhakhri or a simple dal-bhaat. Buy kuria rather than splitting seeds yourself; Rajkot and Kanda-style methi kuria sold in Gujarati shops are ideal. Common mistake: leaving any moisture on the mango, the jar or the spoon; a single damp spoon can bring mould to a whole jar. Keep the oil 2 cm above the pieces at all times, and discard if you see mould or smell anything sour or off. Chef's tip: pour a little hot oil over the hing in the middle of the kuria and cover it for a minute; the bloomed hing perfumes the whole masala.

50 min

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Arisi vadamSun-dried rice crisps

Chithirai and Vaikasi, the blazing months of a Tamil summer, are vadam season. In Madurai and the older Chennai neighbourhoods, terraces are covered with white sheets and rows of pressed rice-dough spirals, ribbons and stars, guarded from crows by whoever is on duty. Fried, the vadams puff into light, crunchy curls with a hint of chilli, cumin and lime. They come out on the side of a lunch of vatha kuzhambu, mor kuzhambu or rasam with rice, where they do the job a papad does in the north. The dough is a cooked rice-flour koozh, and it has to be pressed through the vadam (murukku) press while warm. Common mistake: making the koozh too thick; the press becomes impossible to turn and the strands break. It should feel like soft, sticky mashed potato. Chef's tip: lime juice is not just for flavour, it keeps the vadams bright white as they dry.

80 min

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Rumali rotiHandkerchief-thin flatbread

Watch a rumali roti maker at a Mughlai stall in Old Delhi's Jama Masjid lanes or Lucknow's Aminabad and it looks like a magic trick: a ball of dough is flattened, tossed and stretched over the backs of the hands until it is translucent and almost a metre wide, then laid over a huge domed iron griddle for a few seconds. Rumal means handkerchief, and the finished bread is folded into quarters like one: silky, soft, slightly chewy and very thin. It is the bread for kebabs, korma, nihari and shahi paneer. At home, an upturned wok over a high flame does the job, and you can roll most of the way and stretch the last bit by hand. The dough is mainly maida with some atta, kept very soft and well rested. Common mistake: a firm or under-rested dough tears the moment you start stretching. Chef's tip: wipe the hot kadai with salted water before each roti; the hiss means it's hot enough, and the salt film stops the roti from sticking or blistering.

60 min

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Makhana kheerFox nut milk pudding

Most of India's makhana comes from the ponds of Mithila in north Bihar, where the lotus-like seeds are harvested by hand, roasted and popped into the airy white puffs sold everywhere. For fasts across North India, from Navratri to Janmashtami and Mahashivratri, makhana kheer is the sweet of choice because it needs no grain at all. The fox nuts are roasted in ghee until crisp, half crushed, then simmered in reducing milk, where they soften into a creamy, slightly chewy texture with a gentle nuttiness. Cardamom and a few nuts finish it. Serve it warm after a fasting meal, or chilled on hot evenings. It thickens as it cools, so loosen it with a splash of milk if needed. Chef's tip: roast the makhana until one crushes easily between your fingers; under-roasted puffs stay spongy and taste raw in the kheer.

35 min

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Amla murabbaGooseberry preserve

Murabba is the old North Indian way of keeping amla through the year, and a single gooseberry in syrup each morning is still the winter habit of many grandparents in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, who swear by it for digestion and colds. Fresh amla are sour and astringent; pricked, briefly steamed and simmered in sugar syrup, then left to steep overnight, they turn golden, translucent and soft, sweet with a sour heart and a gentle bitterness at the end. Cardamom, black pepper and saffron perfume the syrup. Eat one on its own, chopped into yogurt, or with a paratha. Choose large, firm, unblemished amla in November–February, when they are in season. Common mistake: steaming them too long; they split into segments and fall apart in the syrup. Steam only until they turn pale and the lines on the skin show clearly. Store in a dry, sterilised jar with the amla under the syrup, use a clean dry spoon, and discard if mould or fermentation bubbles appear. Chef's tip: the overnight rest is what lets the syrup soak right to the centre; reboil the syrup the next day so it thickens again.

60 min

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AmchurDry mango powder

Every Punjabi and UP kitchen keeps a jar of amchur next to the jeera and haldi, and the homemade version smells far fresher and sourer than most shop powder. In villages around Saharanpur and Malihabad, the raw mangoes that fall in early-summer storms are peeled, sliced and spread out to dry, and the brittle slices (amchur khatai) are either stored whole or ground. Amchur gives a fruity, mouth-puckering sourness without any liquid, which is why it goes into dry dishes where tomato or tamarind would make things soggy: bhindi masala, stuffed karela, samosa and kachori fillings, chole, chaat masala and pav bhaji masala. A kilo of mangoes gives roughly 100 g of powder. Common mistake: grinding slices that still bend; even slight moisture makes the powder clump into hard lumps in the jar. Chef's tip: choose small, rock-hard, very sour green mangoes with white flesh, not ones starting to turn yellow; riper fruit dries into a brown, sweetish powder.

40 min

Indian Basics

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Goan chana dal doceChana dal and coconut fudge

Doce de grão is one of the oldest sweets on the Goan Christmas kuswar platter, made in Catholic homes from Margao to Mapusa in the weeks before Christmas and also for weddings. Chana dal is boiled and ground with fresh coconut, then cooked with sugar in a wide pan, stirred constantly for the best part of an hour, until it turns into a thick, glossy dough that leaves the sides of the pan. Spread on a plate, cut into diamonds or pressed into small moulds, it is dense, fudgy and nutty, with a soft coconut flavour. Some families add a little ghee at the end for shine, and that makes it vegetarian rather than vegan. The usual mistake is taking it off the heat too soon: it stays sticky and never sets. Push a spoon through the middle; it is ready when the line holds and the mixture rolls into a ball. Chef's tip: grind the coconut and dal together while the dal is warm and without water; a wet paste takes twice as long to cook down.

90 min

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VattayappamSteamed rice and coconut cake

In Syrian Christian homes in Kottayam and Thiruvalla, vattayappam is the sweet that appears on Christmas and Easter mornings and goes in boxes to every neighbour. A batter of raw rice and coconut is fermented until airy, sweetened, flavoured with cardamom and steamed in a round plate until it rises into a fluffy, honeycombed cake. It is light, moist and gently sweet, with a faint tang from the ferment. Grandmothers used kallu (coconut toddy) to ferment it; this recipe uses dried yeast instead and contains no alcohol at all. Eat it warm with tea, or alongside chicken stew for breakfast. The common mistake is a batter that is too thick: it steams heavy and dense. It should pour like thick pancake batter. Rice and coconut only, so it is naturally gluten-free and vegan. Chef's tip: cook a spoon of the soaked rice into a soft porridge (kurukku) and grind it in; that is what gives vattayappam its fine, silky crumb.

60 min

Indian Baking

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Athela marchaQuick pickled green chillies

On a Gujarati table there is nearly always a small steel bowl of athela marcha beside the thali, the quick daily pickle that makes plain khichdi, dal-bhaat, thepla or a plate of fafda taste complete. Thick, mild chillies (Bhavnagri or the pale green ones sold for bhajia) are slit, tossed with rai kuria (split mustard), salt, turmeric and hing, and soused with lemon juice. Within a few hours the mustard blooms and turns pleasantly pungent, the lemon softens the chillies and the colour turns olive green. They stay crunchy for about a week in the fridge, so most homes make a small batch every few days. Use thin, hot chillies if your family likes the heat. Common mistake: washing the chillies and using them damp, which waters down the masala and turns the pickle slimy; dry them completely before slitting. Always serve with a clean, dry spoon and throw the jar out if it turns cloudy, mouldy or smells off. Chef's tip: a pinch of methi kuria and half a teaspoon of sugar round out the sharpness if the lemons are very sour.

17 min

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KurdaiSun-dried wheat starch spirals

Kurdai is one of the great Marathi summer projects, the kind that takes the whole family and most of the week. In Marathwada and Khandesh, whole wheat grains are soaked for three days, ground, and strained to collect the fine starch (chik), which settles and slightly ferments. That starch is cooked into a glossy paste and pressed through a kurdai press into flat spirals that dry hard and translucent in the April sun. Fried, they swell into airy, rippled curls, crisp and almost melting, with a faint tang from the fermentation. Kurdai turns up on the side of a Maharashtrian thali with varan-bhaat, at festivals, and as a tea-time crunch. Note that it is made from wheat, so it is not gluten-free. Chef's tip: change the soaking water morning and evening without fail. Skip it and the wheat starts to smell sour and musty instead of clean and yeasty, and the kurdai will taste of it.

120 min

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PanchakhadyaCoconut, jaggery and poppy seed offering

Walk into a Maharashtrian home during the ten days of Ganeshotsav and the evening aarti ends with a spoonful of panchakhadya pressed into your palm. Pancha means five and khadya means things to eat: dry coconut (khobra), jaggery, poppy seeds, dry dates (kharik) and dry ginger (sunth) powder, all toasted and pounded together into a loose, sweet crumble. Some families add a few raisins or almonds, but the five are the heart of it. It is warming, chewy and gently spicy from the sunth, and it keeps for weeks, which is why it is made in a big tin at the start of the festival. Eat it by the spoon, or sprinkle over hot milk. The common mistake is grinding everything together into a sticky paste; the jaggery should be grated and stirred in at the end so the mixture stays crumbly. Chef's tip: dry kharik are rock hard; soak them for 10 minutes in hot water, then pat dry and chop, or buy ready kharik powder.

15 min

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Talniche modakFried coconut jaggery dumplings

Steamed ukadiche modak may be the star of Ganesh Chaturthi in Konkan homes, but across Pune, Nashik and Vidarbha the plate of twenty-one for Bappa is just as often fried. Talniche modak use a short dough of wheat flour and fine semolina, pleated by hand around the same coconut, jaggery and poppy-seed saran, then fried slowly until they turn pale gold and shatter when bitten. Because they are dry and crisp they travel well: they go into the steel dabba for relatives and last through all ten days of the festival. The filling is sticky and fragrant with cardamom and nutmeg, the shell flaky like a karanji. Serve them at room temperature with a cup of tea or as part of the naivedya thali. The usual mistake is frying in oil that is too hot, which browns the outside in a minute and leaves the inner pleats raw and doughy. Chef's tip: rub the ghee into the flour until it holds in a clump when pressed; that moyan is what makes the shell blister and flake rather than turn hard like a puri.

65 min

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Ellu bellaSesame and jaggery mix

'Ellu bella thindu olle maathadi': eat sesame and jaggery and speak only good words. On Sankranti morning, girls in Bengaluru and Mysuru dress in new silk and carry small steel plates of ellu bella, a sugarcane stick, a banana and a sugar figure (sakkare acchu) from house to house, a custom called ellu birodhu. The mix itself is uncooked once its parts are roasted: white sesame, tiny cubes of dry coconut and jaggery, peanuts and putani (roasted gram), sometimes with a few fried gram-dal sugar beads. It is crunchy, nutty and sweet in small bursts. Families make a kilo at a time to give away. The common mistake is mixing it while the sesame is still warm, which melts the jaggery and turns everything into a lump. Chef's tip: cut the copra and jaggery to the same small size as the peanuts so every spoonful has a bit of everything.

20 min

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Namak pareSalted dough diamonds

Namak pare are the easiest thing in the festive tin, and usually the first to run out. A simple salted dough with a little ghee, ajwain and black nigella seeds is rolled thin, cut into small diamonds and fried until golden and crunchy. They are much thinner and crisper than mathri, with a satisfying snap rather than a flaky crumble, and the kalonji gives a slightly oniony, peppery note. Punjabi and UP homes make big batches before Holi and Diwali, but they also turn up on train journeys, at kitty parties and with evening tea. Sprinkle with chaat masala for a tangier version. Chef's tip: roll the dough evenly, about 3 mm; thin spots burn while thick ones stay soft, and even sheets give every piece the same crunch.

45 min

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ChhundoSweet grated mango preserve

Every May, when rajapuri mangoes arrive hard and green, Gujarati terraces fill with muslin-covered jars of chhundo slowly cooking in the sun. Grated raw mango is salted, mixed with sugar and left out for a week or more, stirred each day, until the sugar melts into a clear, glossy syrup and the shreds turn translucent. Red chilli and roasted cumin go in at the end, so it is sweet first and then warm. It is what children spread inside a thepla or a rotli for the school dabba, and it sits beside khakhra, puri and dal-bhaat all year round. No terrace or no sun? It cooks just as well on the stove in 25 minutes; both methods are below. Use rajapuri (or another firm, sour, fibre-free raw mango) and grate it on the large holes so the shreds hold. Common mistake: cooking past one-string; the syrup keeps thickening as it cools and the chhundo sets hard like candy. Store it in a dry, sterilised jar and always use a clean, dry spoon; discard it if you ever see mould or it smells fermented. Chef's tip: mix part Kashmiri chilli for colour and part hot chilli for heat, and add the chilli only after the syrup is ready so it stays bright red.

55 min

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Aam papadMango fruit leather

Children in Lucknow, Varanasi and across Uttar Pradesh grew up tearing strips off aam papad from the corner shop, but the homemade kind, made when Dussehri and Langra mangoes are cheap and overripe in June, is in another league: thick, glossy, chewy, deep orange and properly mango-tasting, with a sour edge. Ripe pulp is cooked down with a little sugar and lemon until thick, then spread thinly on greased thalis and left on the terrace. Many families add a new layer every day for a week to build up a thick slab. Eat it as a sweet snack, cut into squares or rolls, or tuck it into a lunchbox. Common mistake: spreading the pulp in one thick layer to save time; the outside dries while the centre stays sticky and can turn mouldy. Chef's tip: no sun? Spread it on a lined tray and dry it in the oven at 60–70 °C, door slightly ajar, for 6–8 hours.

55 min

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Madras mixtureCrunchy savoury snack mix

In Chennai sweet shops the glass jars of mixture sit beside the murukku, and at Deepavali most Tamil families make their own. It is built from separately fried parts: thin besan omapodi-style sev, little spiced kara boondi pearls, thick poha fried to a crunch, fried gram, peanuts and a big handful of curry leaves, all tossed with chilli and asafoetida while warm. The flavour is salty, peppery and savoury, with no sugar and no raisins, which is what sets it apart from Gujarati chevdo. Each part has a different crunch, so every handful is different. Serve it with filter coffee or tea. Use gluten-free asafoetida if you need it gluten-free. Chef's tip: fry everything in the same oil in order, from lightest to heaviest flavour: poha and peanuts first, then boondi, then sev; that keeps the oil clean and every part tastes fresh.

75 min

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Kopra pakFresh coconut fudge

Kopra pak is the sweet a Gujarati home makes when a coconut has been broken for a puja and there is too much to use. It is ready in under an hour: fresh coconut is cooked with milk until the milk is soaked up, then with sugar until the mixture comes away from the pan, and it is spread in a thali to set. The result is soft and moist, with the clean, milky sweetness of fresh coconut and a little chew, quite different from dry desiccated barfi. It appears at Diwali, Sharad Purnima and on Bestu Varas, and as prasad after Satyanarayan katha. Use only the white part of the coconut for a pale barfi. Chef's tip: grate the coconut finely or pulse it briefly; coarse shreds make a loose barfi that crumbles when you cut it.

40 min

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Idli podiLentil and chilli powder

Pack idlis for a train journey out of Chennai Central and they travel already smeared in milagai podi and gingelly oil, which is why Tamilians call this the travel chutney. At home, a small mound sits on the side of every breakfast plate: you make a well in it, pour in sesame oil and drag hot idli or crisp dosa through the paste. A good podi is coarse and sandy rather than floury, nutty from slow-roasted urad and chana dal, toasty from sesame, smoky from the chillies and lifted by curry leaves and asafoetida. Mix byadgi chillies for colour with a few hotter ones for bite. Common mistake: grinding the dals while still warm; the steam turns the podi damp and lumpy and it loses its crunch in a week. Chef's tip: roast each ingredient separately on a low flame, because the dals, chillies and sesame all brown at different speeds.

25 min

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ThattaiCrisp rice flour crackers

Thattai means flat, and that is the whole secret: these Tamil rice crackers are patted out so thin you can see light through them, then fried until they crack like glass. Soaked chana dal pops inside each one for little nubs of crunch, torn curry leaves crisp in the oil, and roasted urad powder gives a savoury, biscuity depth. They fill tins for Deepavali and Gokulashtami across Tamil Nadu; in Karnataka a thicker cousin with peanuts is called nippattu, and in Andhra chekkalu. Many homes add butter to the dough; this version uses hot oil, which keeps it vegan and just as crisp. Use gluten-free asafoetida for a gluten-free batch. Chef's tip: pat them out on a sheet of oiled plastic or a banana leaf, then peel each one straight into the oil; lifting by hand tears thin dough.

65 min

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Kanji vadaLentil dumplings in mustard water

Around Holi, glass jars of cloudy water sit on rooftops across Jaipur, Jodhpur and old Delhi, fermenting in the spring sun. That water is kanji: boiled water with ground mustard seed, salt and chilli, which turns sour, pungent and faintly fizzy in two or three days. Small moong dal fritters are soaked in hot water to soften, then dropped into the kanji, where they drink up its tang and turn spongy. Served chilled in clay kulhads with a vada or two in each, it is a cooling, appetite-sharpening drink-snack that cuts through the rich Holi sweets. Ferment only in a clean, sterilised glass or ceramic jar, stir with a clean dry spoon, and discard the batch if you see mould or it smells rotten rather than pleasantly sour. Chef's tip: grind the mustard seed coarsely and fresh; pre-ground mustard powder goes bitter and dull.

65 min

Chilean Breads & Parathas

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MarraquetaCrusty split bread rolls

Chileans eat more bread than almost anyone, and in Santiago the bread is marraqueta (called pan batido or pan francés in other cities): a crackling, airy roll made of two twin halves, each scored deep so the whole thing breaks into four pieces. It is bought warm from the corner bakery for breakfast and for once, the evening tea, and filled with avocado, cheese or butter. The most common mistake at home is baking without steam: the crust comes out pale and leathery instead of thin and shattering. Chef's tip: press the oiled handle of a wooden spoon right down into each pair of balls, almost to the work surface; a shallow groove disappears as the roll rises.

180 min

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BotaMaize porridge with peanut butter

Before school buses leave Bulawayo and Gweru, pots of bota are already ticking on the stove: a thin, pourable porridge of white maize meal, much looser than the stiff sadza eaten later in the day. A good spoonful of peanut butter turns it pale gold and gives it a toasty, slightly savoury richness, and a little sugar makes it a favourite with children. Some families stir in lacto, the Zimbabwean sour milk, or squeeze in lemon for tang; this version keeps it plant-based. Lumps are the classic fault, and they come from tipping dry meal into boiling water. Chef's tip: always whisk the maize meal into cold water first, then heat it, and the porridge stays velvet-smooth.

20 minSouthern African Breakfast & Brunch

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Aate ka halwaWholewheat flour halwa

Across Marwar, this simple halwa is the one cooked for temple prasad, for Satyanarayan katha and for women in the weeks after giving birth, when ghee and jaggery are thought to build strength. Wholewheat flour is roasted slowly in plenty of ghee until it turns a deep nutty brown, then cooked with hot water and sugar or jaggery until soft and glossy. The whole thing takes 30 minutes. The common mistake is rushing the roast on high heat, which leaves the flour raw-tasting inside and scorched outside. Chef's tip: roast on low heat until the colour is like milky tea and the ghee starts to separate and bubble around the flour.

30 min

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ChigumuBanana maize cake

Chigumu is village baking from the Shire Highlands and the lakeshore near Mangochi: a thick batter of maize flour, overripe bananas and sugar poured into a greased pot, set on embers with more coals heaped on the lid, and left to bake slowly. The result is a dense, moist, golden loaf with a slightly gritty, cornbread-like crumb and a deep banana sweetness, cut into wedges for children after school or carried on journeys. An oven and a loaf tin give the same result at home. The usual mistake is using under-ripe bananas, which leave the cake dry and bland. Chef's tip: pick bananas with skins more black than yellow, and mash them to a liquid before adding the maize flour.

75 minSouthern African Baking

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Anjeer pakFig and nut fudge

Gujarati families make anjeer pak for Diwali boxes and for fast days, when it gives quick energy without any grain or refined sugar. Soaked dried figs are cooked down in ghee into a thick jammy paste, mixed with toasted almonds, cashews and pistachios, and rolled into logs that slice into pretty pink-and-green rounds. It keeps for two weeks in the fridge. The common mistake is under-cooking the fig paste, which leaves the logs soft and sticky so they never slice cleanly. Chef's tip: keep stirring until the paste rolls into a ball that no longer sticks to the pan or your greased palm.

40 min

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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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Mishri mawaSweet milk flakes

Mishri mawa is the pride of Jaipur's old sweet shops near Johari Bazaar: full-fat milk boiled down slowly with sugar and a little alum until it splits into tiny, sparkling grains, then set loosely so it breaks into soft flakes that melt on the tongue. It is bought for Diwali, weddings and when guests arrive from far away. Unlike kalakand, it is very white and only lightly set, with saffron and cardamom. The common mistake is letting the milk catch at the bottom; even a little scorching turns it beige and smoky. Chef's tip: use a wide, heavy pan and scrape the base and sides with a flat spatula every minute once the milk has halved.

115 min

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Dalimbi usalSprouted field bean curry

In Konkan and Pune homes, dalimbi usal is a festival dish, cooked for Ganesh Chaturthi, weddings and thread ceremonies and served on the thali beside puran poli and rice. Dalimbi are dried field beans (val) that are soaked, sprouted and peeled; the work takes two days but turns them creamy and sweet. They are simmered gently with fresh coconut, goda masala, kokum and a little jaggery, without onion or garlic. Field beans must always be cooked until fully soft; never eat them raw or half-cooked. The usual mistake is boiling them hard, which bursts the soft peeled beans into mash; keep the simmer gentle. Chef's tip: soak the sprouted beans in warm water for 30 minutes before peeling, and the skins slip off with a pinch.

60 min

Venezuelan Breakfast & Brunch

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MandocasCorn and plantain ring fritters

Maracaibo breakfasts often start with mandocas, chewy loops of corn dough sweetened with mashed ripe plantain and dark panela, fried until almost mahogany and eaten with butter, salty white cheese and a cup of coffee. They are sold hot from bakeries and street carts all over Zulia. Venezuelan white cheeses are usually made with animal rennet; feta-style or other vegetarian salty cheeses work. The mistake most people make is frying too hot: the panela darkens and turns bitter before the dough cooks through. Chef's tip: the riper the plantain, with black skin, the softer and sweeter the mandocas.

50 min

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Dulce de lechosaPapaya in clove syrup

No Venezuelan Christmas plate is complete without a spoonful of dulce de lechosa beside the hallaca, pan de jamón and ensalada de gallina: strips of green papaya simmered in a dark panela syrup with cinnamon and cloves until translucent, sweet and gently chewy. Families make big jars in mid-December to share. The common mistake is cutting the strips too thin, so they fall apart in the syrup. Chef's tip: soak the strips in water with bicarbonate for 30 minutes first; it firms them so they keep their shape.

120 min

Venezuelan Desserts

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Sing pakPeanut fudge

Sing pak is the Gujarati fasting-day fudge: peanuts roasted, skinned and ground coarse, then cooked into a one-string sugar syrup with ghee and cardamom and set in a tray. Because it uses no grain, it is made for Ekadashi, Shravan Mondays and Navratri, and children love it any day. It is soft, rich and a little crumbly. The common mistake is cooking the syrup too far; past one string it sets rock-hard and grainy. Chef's tip: pinch a drop of syrup between finger and thumb (carefully, after cooling it on a spoon): one thin thread should form as you pull them apart.

30 min

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Neem begunNeem leaves with aubergine

Neem begun opens a traditional Bengali lunch in spring, especially around Poila Baisakh, when the neem trees of West Bengal put out soft new leaves. A few tender leaves are fried crisp in mustard oil, then tossed with small cubes of fried aubergine so the bitterness is softened by the creamy brinjal. Eat a spoonful or two with the first mouthfuls of rice, before the dal. It is suitable as part of a balanced diet and is meant to be eaten in small amounts, as Bengali cooks always have. About 110 kcal and 7 g carbohydrate per portion. The usual mistake is frying the neem too long, which turns it black and acrid; it needs only seconds. Chef's tip: dry the leaves completely on a cloth before they go into the oil, or they spit and steam instead of crisping.

20 min

Indian Sides

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BabakauFried dough balls

Babakau are the fluffy fried dough balls sold at Fijian market stalls and village canteens at breakfast time, eaten with a mug of milky tea or hot koko before school or work in Suva and Nadi. The dough is lightly sweet and the balls puff up as they fry, golden outside and soft as a bun inside. A common mistake is oil that's too hot, which leaves raw centres; 170 °C is right. Chef's tip: wet your fingers to drop spoonfuls of dough into the oil so it slips off cleanly.

35 minPacific Islander Breakfast & Brunch

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Koko alaisaCocoa coconut rice

Koko alaisa is a Samoan breakfast and Sunday to'ona'i (after-church lunch) favourite, rice simmered in koko Samoa, the island's own roasted cocoa paste, with coconut cream, sugar and sometimes orange leaves for perfume. It is rich, chocolatey and comforting, like a warm chocolate rice pudding, and is often eaten alongside savoury food. If you can't find koko Samoa in a Pacific shop, use unsweetened 100% cocoa chocolate. A common mistake is letting it catch on the bottom; stir often in the last 15 minutes. Chef's tip: a strip of orange peel simmered with the rice gives the true island aroma.

40 minPacific Islander Breakfast & Brunch

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Lolo bunsCoconut cream baked buns

Lolo buns are the Sunday treat of Fijian kitchens, made for church lunches and family get-togethers in Lautoka and Suva: soft yeast buns packed into a tin and baked in a bath of sweetened coconut cream (lolo), which soaks into the bottoms and bakes into a sticky, caramel-edged sauce. Everyone pulls one out warm from the tin. A common mistake is pouring the coconut cream on too early; add it just before baking so the buns have risen fully. Chef's tip: use thick, full-fat coconut cream for a rich glaze.

65 minPacific Islander Baking

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KabalagalaBanana and cassava pancakes

Street sellers in Kampala pile these small, dense golden rounds into plastic tubs and sell them warm by the handful, and a whole lively neighbourhood of the city shares their name. Over-ripe sweet bananas are mashed into cassava flour, scented with cardamom and a pinch of chilli, then fried until crisp outside and soft and chewy within, a little like a doughnut that forgot to rise. Children eat them after school, adults dunk them in milky spiced tea at breakfast. The usual mistake is adding too much flour: the dough should be soft and just stop sticking to your hands, or the pancakes turn heavy and dry. Chef's tip: use bananas with black-speckled skins; the riper they are, the less sugar you need and the better they brown.

35 minEast African Snacks & Starters

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Jhinge postoRidge gourd with poppy seeds

Jhinge posto is a summer staple of West Bengal and especially the Bankura and Birbhum districts, where poppy seed (posto) goes into almost every everyday lunch. Ridge gourd is cooked in its own juices with nigella seeds and green chilli, then coated in a creamy paste of ground white poppy seeds, giving a mild, nutty, slightly sweet dish. Serve it with rice and dal, or with a millet roti for a lower-GI plate. It is suitable as part of a balanced diet. About 150 kcal and 9 g carbohydrate per portion. The usual mistake is adding water: the gourd releases plenty, and extra water makes the posto runny. Chef's tip: soak the poppy seeds in hot water for 20 minutes before grinding so the paste is smooth, not gritty.

40 min

Indian Vegetarian

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Kadle manoliBlack chickpea and coconut curry

Kadle manoli is a Konkani dish from Mangaluru and Udupi, cooked for festive meals, Saturday temple days and family gatherings, where it sits beside rice, dalitoy and papad. Black chickpeas and quartered ivy gourd are cooked together, then tossed in a coarse, roasted masala of coconut, byadgi chillies and coriander, a little tamarind and a coconut-oil tempering. It is dry-ish, coating each piece rather than swimming in gravy. The usual mistake is cutting the ivy gourd into rounds; slice it lengthwise into quarters so it stays crunchy-tender. Slow-cooker: cook the soaked chana and gourd with 500 ml water on low for 7 hours, then stir in the masala and heat through. Chef's tip: grind the masala coarse, with very little water, so it clings to the chickpeas and stays fragrant.

70 min

Italian Breads & Parathas

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Pane toscanoUnsalted Tuscan bread

Pane toscano, called pane sciocco ('foolish' or 'bland' bread) in Florence and Siena, is the saltless loaf that Tuscans have eaten for centuries; legend blames a medieval salt tax. It has a thick, crackly crust and an open, chewy crumb, and it is made to be eaten with salty prosciutto, pecorino and ribollita, or soaked in panzanella and pappa al pomodoro. There is no salt in the dough: about 0.0 g salt per slice. The usual mistake is under-proving: without salt the dough rises fast, and with too little rest it tastes floury; a starter and a slow rise give it flavour. Chef's tip: bake with steam (a tray of boiling water in the oven) for the first 15 minutes, which is what gives the crust its proper Tuscan crunch.

70 min

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Mupunga unedoviPeanut butter rice

Ask someone who grew up in Masvingo or a Harare township about Sunday rice and many will describe mupunga unedovi: white rice cooked a little past fluffy, then beaten with dovi, the peanut butter that sits in every Zimbabwean kitchen. The grains turn creamy and almost risotto-like, savoury and nutty with a whisper of salt, and it is what a grandmother makes when there is no meat in the house. Eat it from a bowl on its own, or spoon it beside a tomato and onion relish, covo greens or a pot of sugar beans. The usual mistake is adding the peanut butter while the rice is still boiling hard, so it catches on the base of the pot and tastes scorched. Chef's tip: loosen the peanut butter with a ladle of the hot rice water first, so it melts into the grains instead of sitting in lumps.

30 minSouthern African Rice & Grains

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Pineapple gojjuSweet and sour pineapple gravy

Pineapple gojju turns up on banana leaves at Kannada weddings, housewarmings and Ugadi feasts, where its bright sweet-sour-hot taste cuts through the rice, saaru and payasa. Ripe pineapple is simmered with tamarind and jaggery, then thickened with a roasted paste of sesame, coconut, chilli and lentils until glossy. It is eaten in small spoonfuls with rice or chapati, or as a relish on the side. The usual mistake is adding the jaggery too early and boiling it hard, which makes it sticky and dull; let the pineapple soften first. It keeps for 4 days in the fridge. Chef's tip: toast the sesame seeds separately and add them last, so they stay nutty and you can hear them crackle.

40 min

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ThorSugar-coated fried dough discs

At the Shrinathji temple in Nathdwara, near Udaipur, thor is one of the dry prasads that pilgrims carry home in paper parcels, because it keeps for weeks. A very short dough of flour, semolina and plenty of ghee is shaped into thick discs, fried slowly in ghee until cooked right through, then coated in sugar syrup that dries to a crisp white glaze. It crumbles like shortbread. The common mistake is frying in hot fat; the outside browns while the thick centre stays raw. Chef's tip: the ghee should be only warm when the discs go in, rising slowly to medium, so they take a full 15 minutes.

65 min

Venezuelan Breads & Parathas

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Arepa peladaHand-peeled corn arepas

Before bagged flour reached every shop, arepas in Lara and across the Llanos began with whole dried corn boiled with a spoon of food-grade lime until its skins slipped off; 'pelada' means peeled. The dough has a deeper, slightly smoky corn taste and a coarser crumb than flour arepas, and on cattle ranches it is still eaten at breakfast with butter or avocado. Handle the lime (calcium hydroxide) with care: keep it off your skin and away from children. The common mistake is rinsing too lightly, which leaves the dough yellow, soapy and bitter. Chef's tip: grind the corn twice and add water a spoonful at a time; a dough that is too wet slumps on the griddle.

180 min

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Capsicum rice (capsicum bath)

Every Bengaluru darshini has its own capsicum bath, and at home it is a favourite for office lunch boxes because the peppers stay crunchy until noon. Green peppers are sautéed just until glossy, then tossed with rice and a freshly roasted powder of coriander seeds, chana dal, dry coconut and red chillies. The mistake is cooking the peppers until soft; they release water and the rice turns soggy, so keep them bright and crisp. Chef's tip: add the powder to the hot oil off the heat for a few seconds before the rice goes in; it blooms the spices without burning the coconut.

35 min

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Verkadalai sadam (peanut rice)

Peanut rice is the filling variety rice that Tamil and Kannada parents send when the school day ends with games: roasted peanuts, dry coconut, sesame and red chillies are ground into a coarse powder and tossed through rice in a curry leaf tempering. It tastes a little like a savoury peanut brittle, and it stays good at room temperature for hours. The mistake is grinding the peanuts too long; they turn into peanut butter and the rice clumps. Pulse in short bursts and stop while it is still sandy. Chef's tip: keep a few whole roasted peanuts aside and add them at the end for crunch.

23 min

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MaputiPopped maize

Sold by the cupful from enamel basins at Mbare bus terminus and passed around at rural beer-hall gatherings and funerals alike, maputi is maize popped in a dry, lidded pot until the kernels split into white, crunchy clouds. It tastes plainer and more of corn than cinema popcorn, with just salt and sometimes a few roasted peanuts tossed through. Children carry pockets of it to school; adults eat it with a mug of sweet tea in the afternoon. Abroad, popping corn gives the most reliable result; dried field maize from African grocers pops less, with more half-open kernels, which some people prefer. The mistake to avoid is lifting the lid while the kernels are still popping, which lets the heat escape and leaves a pot of hard duds. Chef's tip: shake the pot constantly over the flame so no kernel sits on the hot base long enough to burn.

12 minSouthern African Snacks & Starters

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TequicheCornmeal and coconut baked pudding

Tequiche comes from the shores of Lake Maracaibo, where coconut palms are everywhere: toasted cornmeal is cooked with coconut milk, milk and sugar, then baked into a soft, golden pudding with a nutty, almost caramel taste. In Zulia homes it's cut into warm squares for an afternoon snack with coffee. The usual mistake is toasting the cornmeal too little, which leaves a raw, floury flavour. Chef's tip: keep toasting until it smells of popcorn and turns a light tan; that toast is the whole character of the dish.

65 min

Venezuelan Desserts

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Dousha bao (red bean buns)

All over China, from Beijing breakfast stalls to Shanghai school bags, dousha bao are the sweet buns people grab in the morning and tuck into a lunch box for later: fluffy white yeasted dough wrapped around smooth red bean paste and steamed until springy. They freeze beautifully, so families make a big batch on Sunday. The mistake is opening the steamer lid as soon as the timer goes; the sudden cold makes the buns wrinkle and collapse. Turn off the heat and wait five minutes before lifting the lid. Chef's tip: chill the bean paste and roll it into balls before wrapping; a firm filling is much easier to seal neatly.

55 min

Chinese Baking

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OgokbapFive-grain rice

Ogokbap is cooked across Korea for Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar year, when families share five-grain rice with nine kinds of dried namul and crack nuts to wish for good health. Sticky rice, millet, sorghum, black soybeans and adzuki beans cook together into a chewy, purple-tinged rice with a nutty, gently sweet flavour. It is good any time of year beside soup and banchan. The usual mistake is putting the adzuki beans in raw with the rice: they stay hard while the rice turns soft, so parboil them first. Chef's tip: keep a little of the adzuki cooking water for the rice, as it gives ogokbap its lovely rosy colour.

70 min

Korean Rice & Grains

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Yukari shiso saltRed shiso rice seasoning

Yukari is the bright purple, salty-sour shaker that Japanese parents sprinkle over plain rice so that a bento looks cheerful and tastes of something even when it has gone cold. Traditionally it is made from the red shiso leaves left after pickling umeboshi plums; this home version gets the same flavour by salting and souring fresh red shiso in early summer. The common mistake is drying the leaves too hot, which turns them brown and bitter. Chef's tip: keep the oven no hotter than 80 °C and leave the door ajar, and the colour stays a jewel-like magenta.

120 min

Japanese Basics

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Cơm nắm muối vừngRice blocks with sesame salt

Before trains, buses and school trips, families in northern Vietnam press warm rice into firm, dense blocks and wrap them in banana leaf or paper with a twist of muối vừng, toasted sesame and peanut salt, for dipping. It is humble, filling and keeps its shape for a whole day's journey. Peanuts and sesame are both allergens. The common mistake is using cold or loose rice, which will not stick; it must be pressed hot. Chef's tip: mix a handful of sticky rice into ordinary jasmine rice before cooking, and the blocks hold together firmly without being gluey.

40 min

Vietnamese Rice & Grains

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DashmiMilk and jaggery flatbread

Dashmi is the bread Maharashtrian mothers make for pilgrimages, school trips and the first days of a long journey: wholewheat dough kneaded with warm milk instead of water and sweetened with jaggery, cooked on a tawa until soft and spotted. Milk and ghee keep it tender for two or three days without a fridge in cool weather, and children eat it plain or with pickle. The common mistake is rolling it too thin and cooking it on a fierce tawa, which makes it crisp like a khakhra; it should stay soft and pliable. Chef's tip: stack the dashmis in a cloth as they come off the tawa, so the trapped steam softens them further.

40 min

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Wakame gohanWakame rice

Wakame gohan is the green-flecked rice that turns up in Japanese school lunches and convenience-store onigiri: plain rice mixed with salted, toasted wakame flakes and sesame. At home you make your own seasoning in five minutes from a pack of dried cut wakame. The common mistake is soaking the wakame first, which gives slimy rice; it should go in dry and crisp so it softens only with the rice's steam. Chef's tip: shape onigiri with wet, salted hands while the rice is hot, then cool them fast on a plate before wrapping for the lunchbox.

10 min

Japanese Rice & Grains

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ShibazukeRed shiso aubergine pickle

Shibazuke comes from Ohara, in the hills north of Kyoto, where summer aubergines, cucumbers and myoga ginger are pressed with salt and red shiso leaves until everything turns a vivid purple and pleasantly sour. A few slivers sit beside the rice in Kyoto bento boxes. This home version is lightly fermented for a day under a weight. The common mistake is too little weight: the vegetables must sit under their own brine or they spoil instead of souring. Chef's tip: rub the shiso with salt and squeeze out its first dark, bitter juice before it ever touches the vegetables.

30 min

Japanese Sides

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Karuveppilai sadam (curry leaf rice)

Around Madurai and Tiruchirappalli this dark, peppery rice comes out when there is a big handful of curry leaves and very little else in the kitchen, and it keeps so well that it goes into lunch boxes and onto long bus journeys. The leaves are roasted until crisp with chana and urad dal, black pepper, cumin and red chilli, then ground into a fragrant podi. The common mistake is roasting wet leaves: they steam instead of crisp, and the powder clumps. Dry them well on a towel first. Chef's tip: grind a double batch of the podi and store it airtight; it keeps for two weeks and makes lunch in five minutes.

23 min

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Dalia chikkiRoasted chana and jaggery brittle

For Uttarayan, the January kite festival, every Gujarati kitchen turns out trays of chikki, and dalia (roasted split chana, the yellow dal sold for chutneys) is the one that gets forgotten until someone tastes it. It is lighter and crunchier than peanut chikki, with a toasty, slightly savoury edge from the dal. It is all about the jaggery syrup. The common mistake is pulling the jaggery off too early; underdone syrup gives sticky, chewy chikki that never snaps. Chef's tip: drop a little syrup into cold water: when it sets hard and cracks cleanly (hard-crack stage), tip in the dalia straight away.

25 min

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Ellu sadam (sesame rice)

In Tamil homes ellu sadam is cooked on Saturdays and temple days, and it is one of the variety rices that keeps best in a school lunch box, because the dry sesame powder soaks up the oil and does not spoil the way coconut rice can. The powder is roasted from black sesame, urad dal and dried red chillies, ground coarse and tossed through plain rice with a nutty gingelly oil tempering. The usual mistake is roasting the sesame too hard: it turns bitter within seconds, so take it off as soon as it starts to pop and smell toasty. Chef's tip: pound the powder rather than blitzing it to dust, so you keep a little crunch from the dal.

20 min

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Badam ka halwaAlmond halwa

In Jaipur, badam ka halwa came out of the royal kitchens and now appears at winter weddings and on cold nights when someone wants a real treat. Soaked, peeled almonds are ground to a coarse paste and cooked slowly in ghee with milk, sugar and saffron until the halwa turns golden, glossy and leaves the sides of the pan. It is very rich, so a small bowl is enough. The common mistake is grinding the almonds too fine, which gives a pasty halwa instead of a soft, grainy one. Chef's tip: stop grinding when the almonds look like wet semolina and add the milk only during grinding, never water.

55 min

Nigerian Breads & Parathas

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GodrogodroCoconut rice flour sweet

Along the northern coast around Antsiranana, and down to Mahajanga, godrogodro is a festival and family-celebration sweet, cut into diamonds and passed round at weddings, circumcision ceremonies and the New Year. Coconut milk, rice flour and dark sugar are stirred for the best part of an hour until the mixture thickens, darkens and pulls away from the pan, then it sets into a dense, sliceable fudge-like block, fragrant with vanilla and cardamom. It is rich, so small squares with a cup of tea are plenty. Stopping too early is the mistake to avoid: undercooked godrogodro stays sticky and pale and will not hold a clean edge. Chef's tip: use a heavy, non-stick pan and a flat wooden spatula that scrapes the whole base, and keep stirring as it thickens, as the bottom scorches easily.

70 min

Malagasy Desserts

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AlkubusSteamed wheat bread

In Kano, Katsina and Sokoto, alkubus is a breakfast bread you steam rather than bake: a soft yeasted wheat dough set in small cups or tins over boiling water until it puffs into fluffy, slightly sticky domes. It is eaten warm, pulled apart and dipped into groundnut oil with yaji, the peanut and chilli spice mix, or with a bowl of miyan taushe or other soup. The common mistake is lifting the lid during steaming; the rush of cold air makes the breads sink and turn dense. Yaji contains peanuts. Chef's tip: wrap the pot lid in a tea towel so condensation can't drip back and leave wet craters on the tops.

95 min

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Lolly cakeNo-bake malt biscuit log

Lolly cake is the no-bake treat every New Zealand child helps make for birthday parties and bake sales, a log of crushed malt biscuits bound with butter and condensed milk, studded with chewy, brightly coloured fruit lollies (fruit puffs) and rolled in coconut. Sliced into rounds, it shows off the colours. A common mistake is crushing the biscuits to dust; leave some small chunks for texture. Many fruit lollies contain gelatine, so choose gelatine-free ones to keep it vegetarian. Chef's tip: wrap the log tightly in cling film and twist the ends so it chills into a neat cylinder.

20 min

New Zealand Desserts

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Marquesa de chocolateNo-bake chocolate icebox cake

In Caracas homes the marquesa is the cake you make for a birthday when nobody wants to switch on the oven: plain tea biscuits dipped in vanilla milk and stacked with a rich chocolate cream, then chilled until it slices like a torte. Older recipes fold in raw egg yolks; this one uses whipped cream instead, so it is safe for everyone. The usual mistake is soaking the biscuits too long, so the cake slumps. Chef's tip: dip each biscuit for one second, then let the cream do the softening overnight.

35 min

Venezuelan Desserts

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Mannaya kashaSemolina porridge

Mannaya kasha is the breakfast of every Russian childhood, served in kindergartens and at home: semolina simmered in milk into a smooth, soft porridge, with a melting knob of butter and a spoon of jam or berries in the middle. The famous mistake, joked about by generations of children, is lumps; they form when semolina is tipped in all at once, so rain it in slowly while stirring. Chef's tip: for a thick porridge use 3 tablespoons of semolina per 250 ml of milk, and for the runny kindergarten style use 2; it thickens a lot as it cools, so take it off the heat a little thinner than you want.

12 min

Russian Breakfast & Brunch

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Biltong

Rugby on the television, a paper bag of biltong passed round the room: few snacks say South Africa so plainly. Thick strips of beef are cured with vinegar, toasted coriander, salt and pepper, then dried until the outside is dark and firm and the inside still a little moist, ready to be sliced thin with a sharp knife. Farmers once hung it in the cold winter wind; this home method first heats the cured strips to 71 °C in a hot oven to make them safe, then dries them low and slow in the oven or a biltong box. Even so, home-dried meat is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. The classic mistake is cutting the strips across the grain, so they crumble when you slice them. Chef's tip: toast the coriander seeds until they smell like orange peel before crushing them; that warm, citrusy note is what makes biltong taste right.

525 min

South African Snacks & Starters

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ChikandaOrchid tuber and peanut loaf

In Kasama and across the Bemba country of northern Zambia, chikanda is cooked for weddings, funerals and family gatherings, then sliced and sold on Lusaka street corners as 'African polony' because it looks like a pale sausage. It is made from the dried, pounded tubers of ground orchids mixed with groundnut flour, chilli and a little bicarbonate of soda, stirred over the fire until thick and then baked until firm. The texture is dense and springy, a little like a savoury jelly, with a nutty, earthy flavour and a gentle heat. Use bought dried chikanda powder from Zambian or Southern African grocers; wild orchids are badly over-harvested, so buy only from a trusted supplier. Too little stirring is the usual mistake, and it leaves raw lumps of powder through the loaf. Chef's tip: let the slices cool completely before frying or eating, as the loaf firms up a lot as it sets.

90 minSouthern African Snacks & Starters

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Harina de maíz dulceSweet cornmeal porridge

In Cuban homes "harina" means cornmeal, and harina dulce is the soft, sweet porridge that grandmothers in Havana and Santiago cooked for children before school, scented with cinnamon and a curl of lime peel the way rice pudding is. It should be smooth and spoonable, like a loose polenta. The usual mistake is pouring the cornmeal into boiling milk, which seizes into lumps at once: start it in cold liquid and whisk as it heats. Chef's tip: take the lime peel out once the porridge thickens, or its oils turn bitter as it sits.

25 min

Cuban Breakfast & Brunch

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Gulab pakRose milk fudge

The sweet shops of Bhuj and Mandvi in Kutch sell gulab pak in pale pink slabs that smell of summer roses, and it is a favourite to carry home after a trip to the Rann or a family wedding. Mawa is cooked down with sugar and gulkand, the sun-cured rose-petal preserve, so the fudge is soft and grainy with little chewy flecks of petal through it. The mistake to watch for is adding the gulkand too early: cooked for long, it darkens and turns the fudge brown and toffee-like. Chef's tip: a few drops of rose water stirred in right at the end lift the perfume without making it taste soapy.

40 min

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MunkoyoFermented maize drink

Munkoyo is the drink of Zambian village afternoons and long bus rides, sold in reused bottles at roadside stands from Kabwe to Mansa: a thin maize porridge sweetened and loosened by the pounded roots of the munkoyo shrub, then left to ferment lightly for about a day. It tastes gently sweet and sour, a little like a thin, cool maize yoghurt drink, and is drunk by everyone, children included, because it is not meant to be alcoholic. Munkoyo root is hard to find outside Zambia, so this recipe uses ground sorghum malt (sold as sorghum malt flour), which carries the same kind of starch-thinning enzymes; barley diastatic malt powder also works but makes it no longer gluten free. The big mistake is adding the root or malt to boiling-hot porridge, which kills the enzymes so it never thins. Chef's tip: drink it within two days and keep it chilled after fermenting, because if it ferments for longer it keeps souring and can start to develop traces of alcohol.

45 minSouthern African Drinks

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Jugo de macaWarm maca drink

Before dawn at markets in Huancayo, Cusco and Lima, juice ladies ladle hot jugo de maca from big pots for workers on their way in: maca root, a turnip relative grown above 4,000 metres in the Junín highlands, simmered with milk, cinnamon and cloves and sweetened with honey or sugar. It tastes malty and toasty, a bit like butterscotch. The common mistake is stirring the powder straight into hot milk, which leaves gritty lumps; whisk it into a little cold milk first. Maca is not usually advised in pregnancy, so ask your doctor first if you are pregnant. Chef's tip: use gelatinised (cooked) maca powder if you can find it; it dissolves smoothly and is gentler on the stomach.

10 min

Peruvian Drinks

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Batido de trigoPuffed wheat shake

Havana cafeterías and Miami ventanitas blend this for breakfast on the run: puffed wheat, cold milk, sugar and ice whizzed into a thick, frothy shake that tastes like a malted milk with toasted cereal. It is one of the most loved Cuban batidos, and quick to make at home. The common mistake is using sweetened, honey-coated cereal, which makes it cloying; plain puffed wheat lets the toasty grain flavour come through. Chef's tip: blend the puffed wheat with half the milk first until completely smooth, then add the ice, so you don't get soggy flecks of cereal.

5 min

Cuban Drinks

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MosbolletjiesAniseed grape buns

Each harvest, wine farms around Paarl and the Boland once used foaming fresh grape must to raise these sweet, tear-apart buns, and some families still bake them every January and dry what is left into rusks for coffee dunking. This home method replaces the must with a starter of pure grape juice, raisins and a little yeast, bubbled overnight; the tiny trace of alcohol the fermentation makes bakes off in the oven. The buns are soft and feathery, gently sweet, scented with aniseed and glazed with a sticky sugar wash. Rushing is the mistake: this dough rises slowly overnight and needs to double properly at each stage, or the buns turn out dense. Chef's tip: use juice with no added preservatives, which stop the starter from fermenting.

105 min

South African Baking

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ChorreadasSweet corn pancakes

In the Costa Rican countryside, from the Central Valley to Guanacaste, chorreadas are made when the corn is fresh and milky: kernels are blended into a thick batter with a little sugar and butter and "poured" (chorrear) onto a hot griddle, then eaten with a dollop of natilla, Costa Rica's soured cream, and a cup of coffee. They are soft, sweet and taste purely of corn. The common mistake is a thin batter that spreads and tears; it should drop thickly from a spoon, so add masa harina if your corn is very juicy. Chef's tip: leave a few kernels only half-blended so the pancakes have little pops of whole corn.

30 minCentral American Breakfast & Brunch

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PinoleToasted corn drink

In the canyons of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua, Rarámuri runners set off at dawn carrying a pouch of pinole, corn kernels toasted on a clay comal and ground fine, to stir into cold water along the trail. Across northern Mexico it is still a breakfast drink, sweetened with piloncillo and cinnamon and stirred into water or warm milk. This version toasts coarse cornmeal at home for the same nutty, popcorn-like flavour. The common mistake is toasting over a high heat: the outside burns and turns bitter before the inside goes golden. Chef's tip: toast a big batch and keep it in a jar, so a morning cup is just two spoonfuls stirred into water.

10 min

Mexican Drinks

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Khajur pakDate and nut fudge

Kutch grows some of India's best dates, and in Bhuj and Anjar homes khajur pak is the sweet made for Diwali boxes and for Ekadashi and other fast days, since it needs nothing but dates, ghee, nuts and coconut. The dates melt in warm ghee into a sticky paste, the nuts give crunch, and the log is rolled in poppy seeds and sliced into neat coins. The common mistake is cooking the dates too long, which dries them out so the log cracks when you slice it. Chef's tip: for a harder winter version, swap a third of the soft dates for chopped kharek (dry dates) soaked overnight in a little milk.

30 min

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Ghadichi poliLayered chapati

In Maharashtrian homes the everyday poli is not a plain chapati but a ghadichi poli: the dough is oiled, folded into a triangle and rolled again, so it puffs into soft, separate layers that stay tender in a dabba until lunchtime. Mumbai's dabbawalas carry thousands of them every day alongside bhaji and dal. The common mistake is a stiff dough, which makes leathery polis; it should be softer than you think. Chef's tip: as soon as each poli comes off the tawa, clap it between your palms to break open the layers, then stack it in a cloth-lined box.

40 min