Jain recipes: no onion, garlic or root vegetables

2,805

2805 Jain recipes with no onion, garlic, potato, carrot, fresh ginger or other root vegetables, and no mushrooms, eggs or honey. Hing, dry ginger and turmeric powder are fine. Each has photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Apfelschorle, takes 2 minutes. Most take around 40 minutes.

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Mashed matooke for babiesMashed green banana for babies

Matooke, the green cooking banana trucked into Kampala's Owino and Nakasero markets in great bunches, is Uganda's everyday staple, and the first food most Ugandan babies eat. The fingers are peeled, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed until they turn soft and golden, then mashed with a little of the steaming water into a smooth, mild, slightly earthy purée. Families feed it at the midday meal, on its own at first and later with groundnut sauce. Nothing is added for babies: no salt, sugar or honey. It is free of the major allergens. Chef's tip: oil your hands and knife before peeling; green matooke oozes a sticky sap that stains skin and boards.

60 minEast African Sides

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Lito (sarbottam pitho porridge)

Ask a mother in Kathmandu, Pokhara or a hill village what her baby eats after the pasni rice-feeding ceremony, and the answer is often lito: porridge made from sarbottam pitho, a 'super flour' that families roast and grind themselves from two parts soybean to one part each of maize and wheat. Cooked with water it becomes a smooth, nutty, toast-coloured porridge with more protein than plain rice. For babies there is no salt, sugar, jaggery, honey or ghee needed. It contains soya and wheat (gluten). Chef's tip: roast the grains separately, each until it smells nutty and cracks between your teeth, then grind and sieve; the beans need longest.

12 min

Nepali Breakfast & Brunch

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Sabudana kanji for babiesSago porridge for babies

Sabudana (sago) is pantry food in Pune and Ahmedabad homes, best known for fasting khichdi, but mothers in Maharashtra and Gujarat also cook the pearls into a thin, soothing kanji for babies, especially in the hot weeks before the monsoon. The pearls are soaked, simmered until every one is glassy and clear, then blended so there is nothing for a baby to choke on. It tastes very mild and is mostly energy, so offer it alongside iron-rich foods rather than instead of them. No salt, sugar, jaggery or honey for babies; it is free of the major allergens. Chef's tip: a white dot in the middle of a pearl means it is still raw; simmer until none are left.

35 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Steamed Nendran banana mash

Nendran is the long, golden plantain of Kerala, sold in hands at every market from Palakkad to Thiruvananthapuram, and a steamed ripe Nendran is one of the first fruits a Malayali baby tastes. Raw, it is too firm and starchy for a six-month-old, so it is steamed in its skin until the flesh turns soft and orange-gold, the dark string of seeds in the centre is pulled out, and the rest is mashed smooth. It is naturally sweet, so nothing is added: no sugar, jaggery, honey or salt. It is free of the major allergens. Chef's tip: wait until the skin is fully yellow with black freckles; a green Nendran stays chalky however long you steam it.

15 min

Indian Desserts

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Order a koffie verkeerd in any Dutch café or bruin café and you get a tall glass that is mostly steamed milk with a strong shot of coffee poured in, the 'wrong' way round compared with a normal black coffee. It is the Dutch morning cup at home and at work, usually with a speculaas biscuit on the saucer. The common mistake is boiling the milk, which makes it taste cooked and kills the foam; heat it only until it steams and small bubbles form at the edge, about 65 °C. Chef's tip: froth the milk by shaking it in a jar with the lid on before warming it in the microwave, and you get café-style foam without a machine.

6 min

Dutch Drinks

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Rolete de cana (sugarcane on a stick)

On the sand at Porto da Barra in Salvador, and in the crowds of the Festa de Iemanjá in Rio Vermelho every February, vendors walk with buckets of ice and bundles of skewers threaded with pale sugarcane discs. You chew each piece to squeeze out the cold, grassy-sweet juice, then spit out the fibre. It is the simplest snack there is and very refreshing in the heat. Not for small children, as the fibres are a choking risk. Chef's tip: cut between the knobbly joints, not through them; the nodes are hard as wood.

15 min

Brazilian Snacks & Starters

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TojoríPurple corn porridge

Before dawn in Potosí and Sucre, vendors ladle steaming tojorí from big pots into glasses for miners, students and market workers. It is a pourable porridge of ground corn cooked with cinnamon, cloves and sugar; the purple-corn version is mildly fruity and turns a deep violet. It is drunk with buñuelos or a bread roll. Don't stop stirring in the first ten minutes, which is when it sticks and scorches. Chef's tip: toast the corn flour in a dry pan for a couple of minutes before you start; it brings out a roasted, nutty taste.

40 minAndean Breakfast & Brunch

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Sharbat-e rivas (rhubarb sherbet)

For a few weeks in spring, after Nowruz, sellers come down from the Alborz foothills, the mountains of Khorasan and Kurdistan with bundles of rivas, the thick-stalked wild rhubarb. People peel and eat the stalks raw with salt, cook them into khoresh, and boil the rest into syrup to keep the taste of the season into summer. Sharbat-e rivas is pink, sharp and refreshing, like sour cherry and green apple together, softened by sugar and lifted by mint. The common mistake is boiling the rhubarb hard and pressing it through the sieve, which makes the syrup cloudy, brownish and stringy; simmer gently and let it drip on its own. Use only the stalks, never the leaves, which are poisonous. The syrup is ready when it is clear, rose-coloured and coats a spoon in a thin film; it keeps for two weeks in a clean bottle in the fridge, and should be thrown away if it fizzes, smells of alcohol or grows mould. Garden rhubarb is a good substitute for rivas; the reddest stalks give the prettiest colour. Chef's tip: a strip of lemon peel in the pot brightens the colour and stops the syrup tasting flat.

40 min

Persian Drinks

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Maní tostadoRoasted peanuts

Walk along the Malecón or through Parque Central in Havana at dusk and you will hear the manisero before you see him, calling out "¡Maní!" with a basket of warm peanuts rolled into little paper cones. They are the snack for an evening stroll by the sea wall and for long nights in the stands at the Estadio Latinoamericano. Some vendors sell them simply salted, others glazed in a crunchy coat of sugar, so this recipe gives both. The nuts are toasty and crisp with papery skins that flake off as you eat. They contain peanuts, and whole nuts are a choking risk for children under five. Chef's tip: take the tray out when the nuts look a shade too pale; they keep colouring for a few minutes as they cool.

20 min

Cuban Snacks & Starters

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MotogoSoured sorghum porridge

In Botswana, motogo is the soft breakfast porridge made from mabele (sorghum meal), stirred in water until smooth and then soured with a splash of madila or maas, thick cultured milk, and sweetened with sugar. It has a gentle tang and a slightly earthy, nutty flavour, quite unlike oat porridge. The common mistake is adding the sour milk while it is still bubbling, which splits it; take the pot off the heat first. Chef's tip: for an even smoother motogo, soak the sorghum meal in the cold water for 20 minutes before cooking.

28 minSouthern African Breakfast & Brunch

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MelkkosCinnamon milk pudding

Ask a Karoo grandmother what supper was on a cold winter night on the farm and melkkos often comes up: a pot of hot milk thickened with little crumbs of flour and butter, ladled into bowls and dusted heavily with cinnamon sugar. It was the cheap, filling meal made when the cow was milking well, eaten as a pudding or as the whole evening meal with a slice of bread. The texture is soft and slightly lumpy, like a loose rice pudding, with tiny tender dumplings scattered through a silky, faintly sweet milk scented with cinnamon stick. Too much heat is the thing to avoid: milk catches quickly on the base of the pot and a scorched taste runs right through it. Chef's tip: rub the butter into the flour until it feels like coarse breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized bits, because those bigger bits become the best little dumplings.

Pez is the plainest food in a Goan kitchen and one of the most loved: red parboiled rice simmered in plenty of water until the grains burst and the liquid turns milky. Fishermen and farmers ate it before a day's work, mothers serve it to anyone who feels unwell, and on heavy monsoon evenings it comes with a spoon of mango or lime pickle, a roasted papad and sometimes a dry fish or vegetable on the side. The mistake is cooking it in too little water so it becomes a sticky porridge; good pez has whole soft grains floating in thin, starchy broth. Chef's tip: stir in a little salt only at the end and let everyone add buttermilk or coconut milk to their own bowl.

45 min

Indian Rice & Grains

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Pan de aguaWater bread

In San Juan, Ponce and every small town in between, the panadería opens before sunrise and people line up for long loaves of pan de agua, a thin-crusted, airy white bread made with only flour, water, yeast, salt and a pinch of sugar. Torn warm, buttered and dunked in café con leche, it is the island's breakfast. The trick is steam: the dough is brushed with water and baked over a tray of hot water, which gives the light, crackly crust. The common mistake is adding too much flour while kneading; a sticky dough makes the open, airy crumb. Chef's tip: let the shaped loaves rise in a cold oven above a tray of just-boiled water, then remove them while the oven heats; the warm, humid air gives a fast, even rise.

180 min

Puerto Rican Breads & Parathas

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Kawa zbożowaRoasted grain coffee

In Polish kindergartens, school canteens and grandmothers' kitchens, kawa zbożowa is the breakfast "coffee" everyone can drink: a blend of roasted rye, barley, chicory and sometimes sugar beet that tastes toasty and malty with no caffeine at all. It is usually drunk milky and a little sweet alongside bread and butter. The common mistake is brewing ground grain coffee like espresso: it needs a few minutes of simmering to give up its flavour, or it tastes like weak tea. Chef's tip: let the pot stand off the heat for 2 minutes after simmering so the grounds sink, then pour gently and you won't need a filter at all.

7 min

Polish Drinks

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ManganeChana dal and sago pudding

In Goan Hindu homes, especially around Ganesh Chaturthi, a pot of mangane is cooked for the naivedya and handed round warm after the aarti. Soft chana dal and glassy sago pearls sit in a thick, caramel-coloured sauce of coconut jaggery and fresh coconut milk, scented with cardamom and studded with cashews. The common mistake is boiling the dal hard after the thick coconut milk goes in, which splits it into oily curds; once the first milk is added the pot should only steam gently. Serve it warm in small bowls, or cool so it sets a little and spoon it up like a soft pudding. Chef's tip: soak the sago only until the pearls just give when pressed, or they melt into glue in the pot.

55 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Chai nabat (saffron rock candy tea)

Pilgrims leaving Mashhad carry home boxes of saffron nabat, crystals of rock candy grown on a string and tinted gold with Khorasani saffron. Across Iran a glass of chai nabat is what you are handed when you feel unwell, after a shock, after an exam, or late at night when the evening meal sits heavy; it is traditionally drunk to settle the stomach and warm you up. The tea is brewed strong in a teapot that sits on top of the kettle, then poured clear and amber into small glasses, and the nabat stick is stirred until it softens the tea with a gentle, honeyed sweetness and a faint saffron aroma. Black tea has a moderate amount of caffeine, so give children a weaker glass. A common mistake is boiling the leaves or letting them steep on direct heat, which turns the tea bitter and murky; Persian tea is "dam" — brewed gently on steam. It is ready when the leaves have sunk, the tea is clear and reddish-amber and it smells of bergamot or cardamom. Chef's tip: hold the glass up to the light; if you can't see through it, top it up with hot water, as Iranians do.

15 min

Persian Drinks

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Makhaniya lassiSaffron lassi with butter

Around the clock tower and old city of Jodhpur, lassi shops churn this rich drink all day in summer: chilled set curd whisked with sugar, saffron and cardamom, poured into tall glasses and crowned with a spoon of fresh white butter (makhan) and a layer of malai. You drink the cool lassi and eat the butter and cream with a spoon. It is a meal in itself. The common mistake is thinning it with too much water or ice, which loses the thick, almost spoonable texture that makes it Jodhpuri. Chef's tip: use curd set from full-fat milk the night before and whisk it by hand or with a few pulses only.

10 min

Indian Drinks

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Moong thalMoong dal flour fudge

Moong thal is a Diwali tray sweet of Bikaner and Marwari homes, made by roasting coarsely ground moong dal in a generous amount of ghee, then setting it with sugar syrup and mawa and topping with nuts. It is richer and grainier than besan barfi, with a deep, toasty flavour. Marwari families in Kolkata and Mumbai still make it for Diwali boxes. The common mistake is under-roasting the moong, which leaves a raw, beany taste. Chef's tip: roast until the mixture turns light and frothy and the ghee releases from it; that is your sign it is cooked through.

60 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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HallullaFlat round bread

If marraqueta is Santiago's crusty roll, hallulla is its soft, flat partner: a pale round about the size of a saucer, enriched with a little fat and pricked all over, with a fine, tight crumb that is perfect split and toasted with butter or filled with cheese and avocado at once. Bakeries traditionally use lard; this vegetarian version uses vegetable shortening or butter. Many home bakers let the rounds over-prove and get puffy buns; give them a short rise only. Chef's tip: fold and roll the dough several times before cutting, as bakery rollers do, to get the fine, layered crumb.

138 min

Chilean Breads & Parathas

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Pan amasadoHand-kneaded country rolls

Pan amasado means simply 'kneaded bread', and in the countryside of the Central Valley and the south it is still made at home, in big batches, often baked in a mud-brick wood oven and sold by the side of the road in a basket under a cloth. The rolls are round, slightly flattened and pricked, with a thin crust and a dense, tender crumb, best warm with butter and jam or with pebre. Traditionally they are made with lard; this vegetarian version uses butter or vegetable shortening. Under-kneading is the usual mistake: the crumb stays heavy. Chef's tip: knead for a full 15 minutes, the way the name says, until the dough is smooth and springs back when poked.

152 min

Chilean Breads & Parathas

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Sharbat-e bidmeshk (willow blossom sherbet)

70 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Aval kanji for babiesRice flake porridge for babies

In Tamil homes from Madurai to Chennai, aval (flattened rice, the same poha sold in every kirana shop) is one of the first grains a grandmother reaches for when a baby turns six months. The flakes are dry-roasted until they smell like puffed rice, ground to a fine powder and simmered with water into a thin, pale porridge with a gentle toasted flavour, usually given as a mid-morning feed. For babies it is made with no salt, sugar, jaggery or honey. It is free of the major allergens: no milk, egg, gluten, nuts, soya, sesame or fish. Chef's tip: roast a whole cup of aval at once, grind it and keep the powder in a dry jar for up to two weeks, so each feed takes five minutes.

15 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Chhena kheeriFresh cheese in sweet milk

Chhena kheeri is one of the dishes of the Jagannath temple's chhappan bhog in Puri, and Odia households make it for festivals, birthdays and the evening Rath Yatra meal. Soft, freshly made chhena is crumbled into milk that has been simmered down until creamy and sweet, then scented with cardamom and a little camphor in temple style, or simply nutmeg at home. The common mistake is adding the chhena too early and boiling it hard, which makes it rubbery; it should go in at the end and simmer only briefly. Chef's tip: crumble the chhena by hand into pieces the size of rice grains, so every spoonful has some.

75 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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On Galle Face Green at sunset, and at every Vesak fair, the bombai motai seller walks with a glass box of pink candyfloss and a little bell, handing it out in small cones. You can spin a home version without a machine: sugar boiled to the hard-crack stage, then flicked from a fork in thin threads over two spoon handles. Children love to watch, but they must stay well back while the sugar is hot. Contains no major allergens. Chef's tip: make it on a dry day; humidity melts the threads back into sticky sugar.

20 min

Sri Lankan Desserts

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Calia e simenzaRoasted chickpeas and pumpkin seeds

Calia (toasted chickpeas) and simenza (salted pumpkin seeds) are sold together in twisted paper bags by the old caliari of Palermo, at the Festino of Santa Rosalia in July, along the Foro Italico seafront and outside the Teatro Massimo after a show. You crack the seeds with your teeth and chase them with the crunchy, nutty chickpeas, a habit that can last a whole evening. This home version roasts soaked dried chickpeas and salted seeds in the oven. Chef's tip: dry the soaked chickpeas really well; any surface water steams them instead of making them crunchy.

60 min

Italian Snacks & Starters

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Beijing douzhiFermented mung bean drink

Douzhi is the most famous acquired taste in Beijing: a hot, grey-green, sour drink made from the liquid left when mung beans are ground for starch, then fermented. Old Beijingers sip it at breakfast with crisp jiaoquan rings and shredded salted mustard pickles, and visitors either love it or never try it twice. At home you make a small batch by blending mung beans, settling out the starch and fermenting the cloudy water for a day. The mistake is letting it boil hard: it separates into watery and thick layers, so keep it at a gentle bubble. It must smell cleanly sour like yogurt; throw it away if it smells rotten, has mould, or turns pink or slimy. Chef's tip: stir it continuously as it heats and add a splash of the thinner liquid at the end, which keeps the classic smooth, slightly thick texture.

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

40 min

Korean Rice & Grains

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Kombu dashi is where Japanese weaning starts: the gentle, savoury water that thins jūbai-gayu (rice porridge) and vegetable purées, so babies learn umami instead of salt. Japanese parents make a jug every few days, and baby-food counters in Osaka department stores sell frozen cubes of it. Kombu is very high in iodine, so this broth is used a spoonful or two at a time to flavour a meal, a few times a week, never as a drink. Nothing else goes in: no salt, soy sauce, bonito or stock powder. It is free of the major allergens. Chef's tip: lift the kombu out just before the water simmers; boiled kombu turns slimy and gives a bitter, sea-weedy taste.

On hot afternoons along the Lungomare and in Piazza Sannazaro, the old acquafrescai kiosks squeeze half a lemon into a glass of sparkling water, then add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. The drink foams up and over the rim, so you have to lean forward with your legs apart to drink it without soaking your shoes, which is where the cheeky name comes from. It tastes sharp, salty-fresh and very fizzy, and Neapolitans swear by it after a heavy lunch. Chef's tip: have the glass at your lips before you stir in the bicarbonate; the foam rises in seconds.

5 min

Italian Drinks

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Nilagang saba mash for babiesBoiled banana mash for babies

Saba, the short, square-edged cooking banana piled in every palengke from Quezon City to Davao, is boiled in its skin for nilagang saging, a merienda (afternoon snack) eaten with a cup of coffee. For babies, the same boiled saba is peeled and mashed into a soft, peachy, honey-sweet purée, and it is one of the most common first foods in Filipino homes. Saba is firmer and starchier than an eating banana, which is why it is always cooked. Nothing is added: no salt, sugar or condensed milk under one. It is free of the major allergens. Chef's tip: pick saba whose skins are yellow with black spots; green ones are too starchy and can upset small tummies.

Pink, round and glossy, napolitaines sit in the front window of every pâtisserie in Port Louis and Quatre Bornes, and they come out at birthday teas, christenings and school fêtes. Two discs of tender, barely sweet butter shortbread are glued together with strawberry jam and dipped in a thin pink icing that sets to a crisp shell; the biscuit should crumble against the sweet glaze, not snap. The common mistake is baking them until golden: they must stay pale, or the shortbread turns hard and tastes toasted. Look for a vegetarian red food colouring, as many red colourings are made from cochineal insects. Chef's tip: chill the cut rounds for 15 minutes before baking so they keep their sharp edges and do not spread.

75 min

Mauritian Baking

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Ardeh shirehTahini and grape molasses spread

In Iranian homes, especially in Yazd and the central provinces, a small dish of ardeh shireh sits on the winter breakfast spread: smooth tahini swirled with dark grape molasses into a marbled, sticky spread that tastes like a grown-up peanut butter and jam. It is mopped up with warm flatbread and washed down with tea. The mistake is beating the two together until uniform; you lose the swirls and the spread turns dull. Fold just a few times. Chef's tip: stir the tahini jar well first, because the oil separates, and use runny, well-stirred tahini for the best ribbons. Serve with flatbread, or gluten-free crackers if you need it gluten free.

3 min

Persian Breakfast & Brunch

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Firi firiCoconut doughnuts

Firi firi are the twisted figure-eight doughnuts of Tahiti, sold every morning at the Papeete market and roadside stands, and eaten with a coffee or dipped in hot chocolate on Sunday mornings. The dough is made with coconut milk instead of dairy, so they're lightly sweet and coconut-scented with a soft, chewy inside. A common mistake is twisting the dough too tightly, which makes it spring back; let it rest first. Chef's tip: give them a short second rise after shaping so they fry up light.

50 minPacific Islander Breakfast & Brunch

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TitiyasCoconut milk flatbread

Titiyas are the soft, slightly sweet flatbreads of Guam and the Marianas, cooked on a griddle and eaten warm at breakfast, with fiesta food or rolled round a piece of grilled meat. Flour titiyas are made with coconut milk, which keeps them tender and gives a faint coconut taste; there is also a corn version (titiyas mai'es). A common mistake is rolling them too thick; 5 mm cooks through without burning. Chef's tip: cook on a dry, medium-hot pan and wrap each one in a towel as it comes off so they stay soft.

30 minPacific Islander Breads & Parathas

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Fa'apapaDense coconut bread

Fa'apapa is a dense, chewy Samoan coconut bread, once baked wrapped in banana leaves in the umu (earth oven) for Sunday lunch, and now often made in a tin in home ovens in Apia and Pacific Auckland. It is made from flour and freshly grated coconut with coconut cream, so it is rich, slightly sweet and very filling, best eaten warm in thick slices. A common mistake is expecting it to rise like bread; it's meant to be heavy and moist. Chef's tip: wrap the dough in banana leaf before putting it in the tin for a gentle, smoky aroma.

65 minPacific Islander Baking

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Carpentras, at the foot of Mont Ventoux, has been France's linden capital for over a century. In late June the flowering lime trees are harvested by hand, the blossoms and their pale papery bracts dried in the shade, and in July the town's linden market sells them by the sack. In French homes a tisane de tilleul is what you drink after dinner, at the end of a long day or before bed, often with a slice of lemon or a little honey; Proust's famous madeleine was dipped in one. It tastes softly floral and sweet, a little like honey and fresh hay, with a smooth, almost silky feel. The common mistake is using fully boiling water and steeping for fifteen minutes: the tea turns dull brown and slightly astringent. Let the kettle settle to about 90 °C and steep for 5–7 minutes, covered. It is ready when the infusion is pale gold and smells of a summer garden. It is traditionally drunk to unwind; if you take regular medication, have a heart condition, or want to give it to young children, check with a doctor first. Chef's tip: keep the pot covered while it steeps so the scented oils stay in the tea instead of the kitchen.

10 min

French Drinks

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Thambili (king coconut water)

All along Sri Lanka's roads, from Galle Road in Colombo to the highways into Kandy and the beaches of the south coast, vendors stack bright orange king coconuts in pyramids under umbrellas. The thambili is a variety grown on the island for drinking: smaller than a green coconut and sweeter, with a faint saltiness that makes it more refreshing than any bottled drink. It is drunk any time of day in the heat, after a long bus ride, after a cricket match, and given to people recovering from a fever because it is gentle on the stomach. The water is clear, lightly sweet and nutty, and the soft jelly inside is eaten with a spoon made from a slice of the husk. The common mistake is hacking at the side of the nut; the blade glances off and the water spills. Trim the pointed top with downward strokes until a pale circle shows, then pierce it. It is ready to drink when a small hole opens straight into the water without husk fibres. Outside Sri Lanka, young green or Thai coconuts are the nearest substitute. Chef's tip: chill the coconuts for a few hours before opening; the water tastes sweeter cold, and use a heavy knife and a towel, keeping fingers well clear.

5 min

Sri Lankan Drinks

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KabokPuffed rice and sesame balls

15 min

Filipino Drinks

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Kafae boran (old-style Thai coffee)

Before espresso bars reached Bangkok, coffee in Thailand meant kafae boran from Hainanese-Chinese shophouses and market carts: a dark robusta roast mixed with toasted grains, poured through a long cotton sock called a tung tom and stirred into thick sweetened condensed milk. Uncles still order it hot at 6 am with patongko dough sticks, and in the afternoon heat the same brew is poured over crushed ice and topped with evaporated milk as oliang or kafae yen. The taste is strong, roasty and slightly smoky, sweet and creamy, with a faint caramel-cereal edge from the grains; the iced version is silky and cold. The common mistake is brewing it like filter coffee with too little grounds: once milk and ice go in, it tastes thin. Use plenty, steep it in the sock and pour it through twice. The brew is ready when it is opaque, nearly black and leaves a brown film on a white spoon. It is high in caffeine, so not one for children or late evenings. Chef's tip: rinse the cloth sock in hot water only, never soap, and keep it in a jar of clean water in the fridge between uses so the coffee oils season it.

10 min

Thai Drinks

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Ratlami sevPeppery gram flour sev

Ratlam in western Madhya Pradesh is so proud of its sev that it carries a GI tag, and every Malwa household keeps a tin for poha, usal and chai-time munching. What makes it different is the spice: ground clove, black pepper and ajwain give a warm heat that builds slowly, and the sev is pressed thick and fried until deep gold. The common mistake is frying in oil that is too hot, which browns the outside while the centre stays soft and soon goes chewy. Chef's tip: cool completely before you store it in an airtight tin; it keeps crisp for three weeks.

40 min

Indian Snacks & Starters

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Nam lamyai (longan drink)

Longan orchards cover the valleys of Chiang Mai and Lamphun, and every August the harvest is smoked and dried in big brick ovens so the fruit lasts all year. That dried lamyai is the base of nam lamyai, sold in plastic bags with a straw at Warorot Market, at roadside stalls on the way to Doi Suthep and in school canteens across the north, especially in the hot season from March to May. It tastes like toffee and smoked honey with a light floral note, and each glass comes with a few plump, chewy longans at the bottom to fish out. The common mistake is boiling the fruit too long with all the sugar at the start: the drink turns syrupy and the longans go mushy. Simmer the fruit first, sweeten at the end and taste before adding everything. It is ready when the liquid is clear amber-brown, the longans have swollen back to roughly their fresh size and the kitchen smells of caramel. It keeps 4 days in a closed jug in the fridge. Chef's tip: a tiny pinch of salt is the street-vendor trick that makes the sweetness taste rounder and brings out the smoky edge.

30 min

Thai Drinks

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Lepcha and Nepali households in Sikkim shred tender bamboo shoots in the monsoon, when they push up fresh, and pack them tightly into glass jars or hollow bamboo to sour for one to two weeks. The finished mesu is eaten as a sharp pickle with rice and dal through the rest of the year. A common mistake is leaving shoots above the brine, which invites mould; press them down hard so the liquid always covers them. Keep the jar at 20–28 °C out of direct sun and taste from day 7: it is ready when pleasantly sour and pale yellow. Discard the batch if you see fuzzy, pink or black mould, if it smells putrid rather than sour, or if the shoots feel slimy. Chef's tip: short of time, buy ready-fermented bamboo shoot from a Northeast or Asian grocer and go straight to the tempering.

40 min

Indian Chutneys & Dips

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Mag na ladvaMoong dal laddus

Mag na ladva are a Central Gujarat favourite for Diwali and for lunchbox treats, rich with ghee yet light in texture because the moong dal is dry-roasted and ground before it ever meets fat. Cooked slowly in ghee, the ground dal turns sandy and smells of toasted nuts, then powdered sugar, cardamom and chopped nuts bind it into soft, crumbly laddus. The mistake many make is grinding the dal too fine and roasting it too fast, which gives a pasty laddu with a raw, beany aftertaste. Chef's tip: grind the dal to the texture of fine semolina, not flour, for the classic melt-in-the-mouth crumb.

45 min

Indian Indian Sweets

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Caffè lecceseEspresso with almond milk over ice

In Lecce and the towns of Salento, summer mornings start at the bar with a caffè in ghiaccio, and the local version, a fairly recent invention now poured everywhere from Otranto to Gallipoli, adds a pour of latte di mandorla: the sweet almond-milk syrup Puglian bakers have made for generations from local almonds. A short glass is filled with ice, the almond syrup goes in, and a hot espresso is poured straight over so it cracks the ice and blends into a pale, cold, nutty coffee. It is sweet without being sticky, with a marzipan aroma and a clean bitter finish. The common mistake is letting the espresso cool before pouring: it no longer melts and mixes with the dense syrup, which then sits at the bottom. Pull the shot and pour it at once, then stir. It is ready when the drink is evenly caramel-coloured and the glass feels icy. Lecce bars serve it from about May to late September, often with a pasticciotto. Espresso means a fair hit of caffeine. Chef's tip: if you can only find unsweetened almond drink, stir 1 tsp of sugar into it first, but real Puglian almond syrup gives the true taste.

4 min

Italian Drinks

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PatandeSweet wheat and milk crepes

Patande are the special-occasion crepes of Sirmaur district in southern Himachal, poured for Diwali, the Bishu fairs and whenever a guest arrives unexpected. A thin batter of wheat flour and milk, sweetened and scented with cardamom, is spread paper-thin on a large iron griddle and folded into quarters, then eaten warm with ghee or honey. A salty version with green chilli is made too, but the sweet one is the festive favourite. The common mistake is a cold pan, which makes them stick and tear; it must sizzle when the batter touches it. Chef's tip: spread the batter with the back of a flat ladle in a spiral from the centre outwards, as hill cooks do.

30 min

Indian Breakfast & Brunch

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Kangri khattaTangy chickpeas

At a Kangra dham, the leaf-plate feast cooked by botis (Brahmin cooks) for weddings and village festivals, khatta comes towards the end, a dark, sweet-sour dish of chickpeas or pumpkin in a gravy soured with tamarind or dried mango and balanced with jaggery. It is served with rice and has no onion or garlic. The gravy is thin, glossy and almost black from the long-cooked tamarind. The common mistake is adding the tamarind to undercooked chickpeas; the acid stops them softening, so cook them fully first. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of rice flour or gram flour stirred into the gravy gives the dham-style gloss without making it heavy.

50 min

Indian Curries

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Late evening at Ahmedabad's Manek Chowk, milk sellers pour masala doodh from a height between two brass pots to cool and froth it, and on Sharad Purnima families set a pot of it under the full moon before drinking it chilled. It is richer and more fragrant than plain badam milk: a home-ground masala of almonds, pistachios, cardamom, nutmeg and a little black pepper is stirred into milk reduced with saffron and sugar. The common mistake is boiling it hard after the nut masala goes in, which makes it catch and taste scorched. Chef's tip: grind a jar of the masala in one go and keep it in the fridge; two teaspoons turn any glass of milk into a treat.

20 min

Indian Drinks

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