No onion, no garlic recipes (Swaminarayan and sattvic)

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Bun butter jamGriddled bun with butter and jam

Bun butter jam is the most-ordered thing at a Tamil Nadu tea kadai after the tea itself: a soft, sweet bun split, griddled in butter until crisp at the edges, then spread with more butter and red fruit jam, eaten mid-morning or after school with a glass of milky tea. It is buttery, crunchy outside and pillowy inside, with sweet jam soaking into the crumb. The mistake is toasting on high heat; the sugary bun scorches before the butter has a chance to crisp it. Keep the tawa on medium-low. Chef's tip: press the bun down gently with a flat spatula as it toasts, the way the tea-shop masters do, for a wider, crunchier golden face.

10 min

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Vaal nu shaakDried field beans with ajwain

During the eight days of Paryushan many Gujarati Jain families stop eating green, leafy and fresh vegetables, so the kitchen turns to dried pulses, and vaal (dried field beans) cooked soft with ajwain and hing is a regular on the thali. This recipe is fully Jain: no onion, no garlic, no fresh ginger and no root vegetables, with dry ginger powder for warmth and amchur instead of tomato for sourness. The beans are creamy and a little bitter-sweet, balanced by jaggery, and are eaten with rotli, rice and kadhi, finished before sunset in strict homes. Common mistake: using beans that have not soaked long enough; they stay hard and split unevenly. Cook them until one squashes easily between your thumb and finger, but not so long that they burst. Chef's tip: ajwain and hing make vaal much easier to digest, so do not skip the tempering; for a gluten-free dish use a gluten-free hing.

60 min

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Farari handvoFasting savoury cake with sago

Farari handvo is what Gujarati families bake in a heavy pan on Janmashtami, Ekadashi and Navratri fast days, when rice, lentils and wheat are off the menu. A batter of ground samo (barnyard millet) and sabudana soured with yogurt is loaded with grated bottle gourd, crushed peanuts, ginger and green chilli, then cooked slowly over a cumin and sesame tempering until a golden crust forms on both sides. Cut into wedges, it is soft and moist inside, nutty and crunchy outside. The common mistake is cooking over high heat: the crust burns before the thick centre sets, so keep the flame low and the pan covered. Chef's tip: squeeze nothing from the dudhi; its juice is what hydrates the samo during the rest.

60 min

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NippattuPeanut rice crackers

Nippattu is the Karnataka tea-time cracker, sold in Iyengar bakeries from Bengaluru to Mysuru and fried at home for Gowri-Ganesha and Deepavali. Unlike the thin, delicate Tamil thattai, nippattu is thicker and chunkier, packed with crushed peanuts and roasted gram (hurigadale) so every bite crunches with nuts. It's spiced with chilli, hing and curry leaves and keeps for weeks. A common mistake is skipping the hot oil rubbed into the flour; without it the crackers turn hard instead of short and crisp. Chef's tip: prick each disc a few times with a fork so it fries flat and crisp right through instead of puffing.

60 min

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PalkovaMilk fudge

Srivilliputhur, the temple town of Andal near Virudhunagar, is so famous for its palkova that it has a protected geographical name. Local cows' milk is reduced in wide iron pans over a wood fire with sugar until it becomes a soft, grainy, pale caramel-coloured fudge, sold on banana-leaf squares and eaten as a sweet with tea or after meals. The mistake is turning the heat up to save time; the milk scorches, tastes burnt and the texture turns tough. Chef's tip: use full-fat milk and a wide, heavy pan, and stir the bottom and sides constantly in the last twenty minutes.

90 min

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BatashaPuffy sugar drops

On Pohela Boishakh, the Bengali New Year in mid-April, the fairs that spring up in Dhaka, across Bangladesh and in West Bengal sell batasha by the basket, and shopkeepers hand them out with sweets as they open their new account books for halkhata. Temples receive them as offerings, and children crunch them on the way home. They are simply sugar boiled hot, then foamed with a pinch of soda and dropped in coins that set airy, crisp and melt-in-the-mouth. The common mistake is pulling the syrup off too early: below the hard-ball stage the drops spread flat and stay sticky. The syrup is ready at about 125 °C, when a drop in cold water forms a firm ball that keeps its shape. Chef's tip: work fast once the soda goes in, because the syrup sets within a minute; ask someone to help you drop them.

25 min

Bangladeshi Desserts

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Kashi halwaAsh gourd halwa

Kashi halwa, also called dumrot, is the sweet that ends Udupi and Karnataka wedding feasts, spooned onto the banana leaf next to payasa. Grated white ash gourd cooks down in its own juice with sugar and ghee until it turns glassy and golden, with saffron for colour and cashews for crunch; it tastes delicate and buttery, not vegetal. The mistake most people make is skipping the squeeze: grate the gourd and leave the water in, and the halwa takes an hour to thicken and goes mushy. Squeeze it well, then cook the gourd in that juice. Chef's tip: add the sugar only after the gourd is soft and translucent; sugar added early firms the shreds and they never turn tender.

60 min

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KanikaSweet ghee rice

Kanika is one of the dishes of the Jagannath temple's mahaprasad in Puri, cooked in clay pots over wood fires and sold at the Ananda Bazaar to pilgrims, and Odia homes make it for Rath Yatra, when the deities ride their chariots through the town. It is a fragrant, glossy rice sweetened with sugar and perfumed with cinnamon, bay leaf and cloves in plenty of ghee, studded with fried cashews and raisins. It sits halfway between a pulao and a dessert and is eaten with dalma or a temple-style mahura. Common mistake: adding the sugar at the start, which hardens the grains; cook the rice almost through first, then add the sugar, and it is done when the syrup is absorbed and the ghee shines on the surface. Chef's tip: use a short-grain aromatic rice such as gobindobhog or the Odia arua rice for the true temple texture; basmati works but gives separate, longer grains.

45 min

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HolanRoasted green chickpeas

In late winter, around the time of Holi, village children in rural Punjab pull up bunches of green chickpea plants from the edge of the field and throw them onto a small fire of dry stalks. Once the pods blacken they rake them out and shell them hot, blowing on their fingers, and the bright green peas inside taste smoky, sweet and nutty. At home you can do the same in a heavy iron kadai. The mistake is leaving them on until the pods are fully burnt; by then the peas inside are dry and hard. Stop when the pods are blistered black in patches and the peas are just tender. Chef's tip: a pinch of salt and chilli with a squeeze of lemon on the shelled peas turns them into a quick chaat.

15 min

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Then mittaiSyrup-soaked rice and urad balls

Then mittai, 'honey sweets', were sold from glass jars at the petti kadai outside every Tamil village school in the 1980s and 90s, glossy red balls that crunch and then squirt sweet syrup. They're nostalgic now and great fun to make at home for children's parties. The mistake is frying too hot, which browns the outside before the centre cooks; they should fry slowly to a crisp shell. Chef's tip: let the fried balls cool for a minute before dropping them into warm, not hot, syrup so they stay crisp instead of going soggy.

60 min

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Vella seedaiJaggery-glazed rice flour balls

Next to the salty seedai on the Gokulashtami tray in Tamil Nadu sit vella seedai, the sweet twin: rice and urad flour kneaded with jaggery syrup, sesame and cardamom, rolled into slightly larger balls and fried to a deep brown crunch. They are offered to Krishna with butter, aval and fruit, then shared with neighbours. Common mistake: using hot syrup, which cooks the flour into a sticky mass and makes the balls burst; the syrup should be strained, cooled to warm and only cooked to a thin, sticky stage, not to a string. They are fried when the oil goes quiet and they turn deep golden-brown. Chef's tip: let the dough rest covered for 30 minutes before rolling; it firms up and the balls hold their shape.

70 min

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Kurkuri bhindiCrispy fried okra strips

Kurkuri bhindi is the dhaba and wedding-buffet side that disappears first: thin, slivered okra tossed in a dry coat of besan, chilli and amchur and fried until it shatters. In Punjabi and Delhi homes it is served as a tea-time snack, scattered over dal-chawal or eaten by the handful while the rest of dinner cooks. The mistake almost everyone makes once is washing the okra and slicing it while still damp: the coating turns into gluey lumps and the strips go limp. Wash it an hour ahead and dry it completely. Chef's tip: toss the slivers with the spices first and add the flours only just before frying, so the okra cannot release liquid into the coating.

27 min

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Talela marchaFried green chillies

Every plate of gathiya, dalvada or bhajiya sold in Gujarat comes with a little heap of talela marcha, green chillies dropped into the farsan seller's kadai for a few seconds until they blister and turn olive green, then shaken with salt and a squeeze of lemon. Bitten between mouthfuls of farsan they give a fresh, smoky hit of heat. Use thick, fairly mild chillies if you can find them. The common mistake is frying wet chillies: water on the skin makes the oil spit violently. Chef's tip: slit them lengthways first so steam escapes and they don't burst in the oil.

13 min

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KodubaleSpicy rice flour rings

In Karnataka homes the Krishna Janmashtami spread of chakkuli, unde and avalakki always has a tin of kodubale beside it: little rings of rice flour, semolina and coconut ground with dried red chilli and cumin, rolled by hand and fried until they snap. They are spicy, nutty and very crunchy, and also go into Diwali and Gowri festival tins. Common mistake: making the ropes too thick, so the rings stay soft inside; roll them pencil-thin and fry on a medium heat until the sizzling dies down and they feel light. Chef's tip: grind the coconut with the chillies to a dry paste with no water; extra moisture makes the rings oily.

60 min

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Tal ni chikkiSesame jaggery brittle

On 14 January every Gujarati rooftop fills with kite-flyers, and somewhere between the manja reels there is always a tin of tal ni chikki, broken into shards. The thinnest kind, tal sankli, is rolled out so fine you can almost see through it; it shatters with a snap and tastes of toasted sesame and dark caramel. It is a two-ingredient sweet where everything depends on the jaggery. Common mistake: pulling the jaggery off the heat too soon; it must reach the hard-crack stage, when a drop in cold water sets instantly and snaps cleanly, or the chikki stays chewy and sticks to the teeth. Chef's tip: work fast and roll on the greased back of a steel thali; if it hardens before you finish, warm it in the pan for a few seconds.

30 min

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Bajri na vadaPearl millet and fenugreek fritters

On Randhan Chhath, the 'cooking sixth' in Gujarat, kitchens work all day frying food for the next day, Shitala Satam, when the stove is cleaned, worshipped and left cold out of respect for the goddess Shitala. Bajri na vada are always in that tin: bajra flour, fresh methi, yoghurt, jaggery, ginger and chilli patted into thick discs and fried, soft inside and crisp-edged, and even better cold with curd and pickle. Common mistake: oil that is too hot, which browns them before the thick middle cooks; fry on a medium heat until they puff, stop bubbling hard and turn deep brown. Chef's tip: wet your palms and pat the discs on a damp cloth or plastic sheet; bajra dough has no gluten and cracks if handled dry.

45 min

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Kakara pithaFried semolina coconut cakes

In Odisha no festival plate is complete without kakara pitha, and during Durga Puja (and on Prathamastami and Dussehra) Odia homes fry them by the dozen to offer and share. A soft semolina dough cooked in sweetened milk-water is wrapped around a filling of fresh coconut, jaggery, cardamom and a surprising pinch of crushed black pepper, flattened into discs and fried in ghee until golden. They are crisp outside, soft and chewy within, with a gently spicy sweet centre. Common mistake: letting the jaggery filling stay wet, which makes it leak and burst in the hot fat; cook it until it gathers into a ball that leaves the pan clean. Chef's tip: knead the cooked semolina while it is still warm with a little ghee on your palms; it turns smooth and pliable and will not crack as you shape the pitha.

60 min

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DindeSteamed chana jaggery parcels

On Nag Panchami in Maharashtra, women draw snakes in turmeric, offer milk and lahya at anthills, and by custom nothing is cut, chopped or fried on the tava that day, so the festival sweet is dinde: wheat-dough squares folded around puran (chana dal and jaggery) and steamed. They are soft, a little chewy and fragrant with nutmeg and cardamom, eaten warm with ghee. Common mistake: wet puran that leaks; cook the dal and jaggery until the mixture is thick and a spoon stands upright in it, then cool before filling. Chef's tip: steam the dinde on a greased banana leaf or plate and keep the seams down, so they keep their square shape.

80 min

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Sharkara varattiJaggery-glazed banana chips

Sharkara varatti sits at the top left of every Onam sadya leaf in Kerala, next to the salty banana chips, and boxes of it travel to relatives abroad every August. Raw nendran bananas are cut into thick half-moons, fried until crisp, then tossed in jaggery syrup cooked to the thread stage with dry ginger, cardamom and cumin, so each piece wears a thin, crackly brown coat. A common mistake is pulling the syrup too early: if it isn't at a firm one-thread stage the coating stays sticky and the chips go soft in a day. Chef's tip: once you add the chips keep stirring off the heat until the syrup turns dry and sandy; that's when it sets crisp.

60 min

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BooreluChana dal and jaggery dumplings

Boorelu, also called poornalu, are the sweet that Telugu homes fry for Sankranti, Varalakshmi Vratam and weddings, and that a bride's family traditionally sends to her in-laws by the basketful. A soft ball of cooked chana dal, jaggery, coconut and cardamom is dipped in a thick batter of urad dal and rice and fried until the shell is crisp and blistered while the filling stays fudgy. They are eaten warm, split open with a spoon of ghee for those who take dairy. The usual mistake is a filling that is too wet: it bursts through the batter in the oil and splatters, so cook the dal and jaggery until it holds a firm ball. Chef's tip: grind the batter thick like idli batter and add salt; the slight saltiness of the shell is what makes the sweet filling sing.

90 min

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Thavala vadaiMixed dal and rice fritters

Thavala vadai belongs to the old Brahmin kitchens of Thanjavur and Kumbakonam, where it is fried for the afternoon 'tiffin' or for guests on festival days. Four dals and a little rice are ground coarse with pepper, then studded with tiny coconut cubes, so each vadai is rough and pebbly outside and soft and nutty within. The usual mistake is grinding it as smooth as medu vada batter; thavala vadai wants a gritty, semolina-like texture, so keep the grinder on pulse. Chef's tip: shape them small and thick with a dent in the middle using your thumb, so the centre cooks through before the outside darkens.

50 min

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Dibba rottiUrad dal and rice semolina cake

Dibba rotti, also called minapa rotti, is the thick breakfast cake of the Godavari and Krishna districts, cooked low and slow in a heavy iron pan until the top and bottom are crackling brown and the middle is soft like an idli. It is made from the same urad dal and idli rava that go into idli, but the batter is used fresh and very thick, so there is no fermenting to wait for. Families serve it hot in wedges with allam pachadi (ginger chutney), coconut chutney or a spoon of podi and sesame oil. A common mistake is cooking on high heat: the crust burns before the inside sets, so keep the flame at its lowest and give it time. Chef's tip: the batter must be stiff enough to hold a spoon upright; a runny batter gives a flat, gummy rotti.

45 min

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ChegodiluCrunchy rice flour rings

Chegodilu are the little hollow rings sold by weight in every sweet-and-savoury shop from Hyderabad to Warangal, and Telangana homes fry a big tin of them for Sankranti and for the long evenings of the monsoon. Unlike Karnataka's kodubale, which is a raw flour dough rolled into thin ropes, chegodilu start with rice flour cooked in boiling water with oil, cumin, sesame and soaked moong dal, so they puff slightly and fry up with a blistered, shattering crust and bits of nutty dal inside. They are eaten with tea or a cup of filter coffee, a handful at a time. The most common mistake is frying in oil that is too hot: the outside browns in seconds and the inside stays raw and chewy, so keep the heat medium and be patient. Chef's tip: after shaping, let the rings dry uncovered on a cloth for 15 minutes; a dry skin is what gives that brittle snap.

70 min

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SaruchakliThin rice and urad dal crêpes

In Bengal, Poush Sankranti in mid-January is pithe-puli day, when the new rice and the first nolen gur (date-palm jaggery) of winter turn into a table of pithas, and saruchakli is the plain, savoury-leaning one that starts the meal. A thin batter of soaked rice and urad dal is spread on a hot pan to make delicate, lacy crêpes with crisp edges and a soft centre, eaten rolled with nolen gur or with a light potato curry. Common mistake: a batter that is too thick; it should pour like single cream so it spreads thin, and the crêpe is ready when the edges lift and turn golden and the top looks dry. Chef's tip: brush the pan with a cut half potato dipped in oil between each saruchakli; it greases evenly and stops sticking.

40 min

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SunnundaluRoasted urad dal laddus

Sunnundalu are the protein-rich laddus of Andhra Pradesh, made in every Telugu home for Sankranti and Diwali and given to new mothers and growing children for strength. Whole skinned urad dal is dry-roasted until it smells nutty, ground fine with jaggery, and bound with warm ghee into balls that are sandy at first bite and then melt. They are a tea-time sweet that keeps for weeks. The common mistake is under-roasting the dal; raw urad tastes beany and sticks to the teeth, so roast until golden right through. Chef's tip: shape the laddus while the ghee is still warm, pressing firmly; once the mix cools it will not hold together.

30 min

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Bhuni chhalliRoasted corn on the cob

When the first rains cool Punjab in July, the smell of chhalli roasting over coal braziers drifts across every busy road, and the vendor fans the embers with a straw mat until the kernels pop and blacken. The cob is then rubbed with half a lemon dipped in salt and red chilli, so you get smoke, sour, salt and heat in one bite. Desi field corn is chewy and starchy rather than sweet, which is exactly why it chars so well. The common mistake is roasting on a low flame, which steams the kernels soft without colour; you want high, direct heat and constant turning. Chef's tip: keep a few husks on as a handle and dip the lemon in the masala fresh for every cob.

20 min

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KaradantuEdible gum and jaggery slab

Karadantu is the famous sweet of Gokak in Belagavi district, sold in sweet shops near the Gokak falls and carried home as a gift, and also made in north Karnataka homes for new mothers and in winter. Edible gum is fried in ghee until it puffs like popcorn, then bound with jaggery syrup, dry coconut, poppy seeds and plenty of dry fruit and pressed into slabs. It's dense, chewy-crisp and deeply caramel-tasting. A common mistake is frying the gum on high heat; it browns outside and stays hard and glassy inside. Chef's tip: fry the gum a few pieces at a time in warm ghee and wait for each to swell to three times its size before lifting.

60 min

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UkkaraiSteamed dal and jaggery sweet

Ukkarai is the Chettinad Deepavali sweet that sits on the tray beside adhirasam: moong and chana dal are soaked, ground coarse, steamed like an idli, crumbled and fried in ghee, then tossed in jaggery syrup with coconut and cashews. The result is loose, granular and fudgy at once, tasting of roasted lentils, ghee and molasses. It is eaten warm with a spoon or pressed into small lumps. The common mistake is grinding the dal to a fine paste, which turns it into a gummy cake rather than crumbs; keep it as coarse as rava. Chef's tip: crumble the steamed dal while it is still warm and rub it through your fingers; cold dal sets hard and won't separate.

60 min

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KadambuttuSteamed rice and coconut balls

Kadambuttu are the steamed rice balls of Kodagu (Coorg), made in every Kodava home for breakfast and in great heaps for Puttari, the rice harvest festival in late November or early December. Broken rice is cooked to a thick porridge with coconut, rolled into balls and steamed, so they're dense, slightly sticky and mild, the perfect sponge for a fiery curry; at home they go with pandi curry, but a spicy kadala or mushroom curry works beautifully too. A common mistake is using whole rice flour or fine semolina; you need coarse broken rice, or the balls turn gluey. Chef's tip: wet your palms between each ball so the dough stays smooth and doesn't crack.

55 min

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Seepu seedaiFried rice flour coconut curls

Seepu seedai is one of the small crunchy snacks Tamil families fry for Krishna Jayanthi, laid out on the puja plank with uppu seedai, murukku and butter. The dough is enriched with coconut milk and pressed through the 'comb' (seepu) disc, then each ridged strip is curled into a ring, giving a delicate, mildly sweet crunch. A common mistake is skipping the roasting of the rice flour: damp flour makes seedai that burst in the oil. Chef's tip: press several strips at once onto a plate, then curl them quickly before they dry and crack.

60 min

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MoodeSteamed idli in leaf cylinders

Moode is the festive idli of Mangaluru and Udupi, made for Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi and big family breakfasts. The batter goes into tall cylinders woven from kedige (screwpine) leaves, which perfume the soft, spongy rice cake with a floral scent you can't get any other way; markets on the coast sell the woven moulds ready to fill. Slice it into thick rounds and serve with coconut chutney, sambar or a spicy chana gassi. The common mistake is filling the leaf moulds to the brim: the batter rises as it steams and spills out, leaving a dense cake. Fill them only two-thirds full. Chef's tip: if you can't find screwpine leaves, roll banana leaves into tight cones and tie them with string; the shape and steaming are the same, only the scent is milder.

60 min

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MurkiPuffed rice in jaggery

Nabanna, the 'new rice' festival of late autumn in Bangladesh and West Bengal, celebrates the first harvest of aman paddy, and the season's first date-palm jaggery arrives just in time. Murki is the treat every village makes for it: crisp puffed rice tossed in a pan of thick, boiling khejur gur until each grain is coated in a thin, crackly glaze, with a hint of dry ginger. It is offered to guests on Nabanna and on Bijoya and Lakshmi Puja, and children eat it by the handful. The common mistake is undercooking the syrup, which leaves the murki chewy and clumped; overcook it and it tastes burnt. The syrup is ready when large, slow bubbles cover the surface and a drop in cold water sets into a ball you can roll. Chef's tip: toss with two spatulas, lifting from the bottom, and keep going until the grains separate and stop sticking.

20 min

Bangladeshi Desserts

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Kai murukkuHand-twisted rice flour spirals

Manapparai near Tiruchirappalli is famous for kai murukku, hand-twisted spirals made by women who can loop the dough between thumb and finger faster than you can watch. They are fried for Deepavali, weddings and seemantham baskets, and the good ones shatter with a clean crunch and taste lightly of cumin and sesame. The usual mistake is using flour that isn't sifted and roasted dry, which leaves raw-tasting murukku that bubble and burst. Twisting takes practice, so start with a simple three-loop ring. Chef's tip: shape them on a damp cloth and fry from the cloth, so the rings don't stick or tear.

90 min

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Uppu seedaiCrunchy fried rice flour balls

For Gokulashtami, Tamil households draw tiny rice-flour footprints from the doorway to the puja room as if baby Krishna had walked in, and the trays set before him always hold uppu seedai, marble-sized balls of rice and urad flour with coconut, sesame and butter, fried until hard and crunchy. They keep for weeks in a tin. Common mistake, and a famous one: damp flour or trapped air makes seedai burst in the oil, so the rice flour is dried, the coconut squeezed, and each ball rolled smooth without cracks; they are done when the bubbling almost stops and they sound hollow when stirred. Chef's tip: prick each ball once with a needle before frying, and fry the first two alone as a test.

60 min

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Ambalappuzha paal payasamSlow-cooked rice milk pudding

The Krishna temple at Ambalappuzha in Alappuzha is famous for one offering: a paal payasam of rice, milk and sugar boiled in huge bronze vessels until it turns a soft pink. Kerala families make a smaller pot at home for Vishu and Onam, and it is the simplest payasam there is, with no nuts, raisins or spice in the temple style. The colour comes only from long, patient simmering, as the milk sugars slowly caramelise. The common mistake is adding the sugar too early; the rice stays firm and the milk sticks to the base, so wait until a grain crushes to nothing between your fingers. It is ready when it has reduced by about half, coats the spoon thickly and has turned from white to a light rosy beige. Chef's tip: keep it at a steady, lively simmer rather than a low murmur, and stir right across the base every few minutes; the movement is what gives the creamy texture.

150 min

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KundaCaramelised milk sweet

Kunda is the pride of Belagavi, where sweet shops near the old market have made it for over a century, and boxes go to weddings and Diwali visits across north Karnataka and Goa. Milk is reduced with a little curd so it turns grainy, then cooked with sugar that has been partly caramelised, ending as a soft, crumbly, toffee-brown sweet that tastes of burnt milk and cardamom. A common mistake is caramelising all the sugar; only a third should be darkened, or the kunda turns bitter instead of rich. Chef's tip: use full-fat milk and a wide heavy pan, and scrape the browned bits from the sides back in; they carry most of the flavour.

90 min

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Jamnagari kachoriDry sweet-spicy kachori

Jamnagari kachori are the little dry kachori that travel: Gujarati families buy them by the box in Jamnagar and carry them abroad, because the filling has no water in it and they keep for a month. The pastry is short and crisp, and the filling is a crumbly mix of roasted besan, dry coconut, sesame, fennel, coriander seed, sugar, raisins and a hit of chilli and dry mango, sweet, sour and hot at once. They are a tea-time snack and part of every Diwali tray. The common mistake is frying them fast; they need a long, slow fry on low heat so the pastry cooks crisp all the way through. Chef's tip: roast the besan for the filling until it smells nutty and just darkens, or the kachori taste raw and floury.

90 min

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KachariyuBlack sesame and date sweet

In Saurashtra the oil mills (ghani) run day and night through the Uttarayan season, and the first sesame pressed is mixed with dates and jaggery and sold as kachariyu, a dark, sticky, crumbly sweet that tastes of toasted seeds and spice. Families make it at home too and eat a spoonful every winter morning, and a bowl is always out on kite-flying day. The sesame is crushed until it releases its own oil, so it is rich but not greasy. Common mistake: grinding the sesame to a smooth paste; pulse it only until it turns damp and clumps, which keeps the texture grainy. The seeds are toasted enough when they crackle and a few start to jump out of the pan. Chef's tip: add a little ganthoda (pipli root) powder if you can find it, the traditional warming spice in Kathiawadi kachariyu.

20 min

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Ajma na pan na bhajiyaBorage leaf fritters

Ajma na pan, the thick, fuzzy, thyme-scented leaves of the Indian borage plant (also called karpooravalli or Mexican mint), grow in pots on balconies all over Gujarat, and on rainy evenings they are picked straight into the bhajiya batter. Each leaf is dipped whole in thin spiced besan and fried into a crisp, lacy fritter with a soft, herbal centre that tastes of ajwain and pepper. The usual mistake is a thick batter: it hides the leaf and fries doughy, so keep it like pouring cream and let excess drip off. Chef's tip: pat the leaves completely dry after washing, or the batter will slide off in the oil.

25 min

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Dahi churaFlattened rice with curd and jaggery

Dahi chura belongs to Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh: it is the traditional Makar Sankranti breakfast, but on summer nights in Patna and Gaya it is also the supper that needs no stove at all. Thick chura (flattened rice) is rinsed, mixed with creamy set curd and sweetened with jaggery, then eaten with a spicy potato sabzi or a pinch of pickle alongside. It is cool, mildly sweet and gently chewy. The usual mistake is soaking the chura in water, which leaves it soggy and dilutes the curd. Chef's tip: rinse the chura and let it drain for two minutes so the flakes swell from the water clinging to them, then add the curd.

5 min

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Bellam gavvaluShell-shaped dough in jaggery syrup

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Sankranti is a three-day harvest festival of muggulu (rangoli) in front of every door, haridasu singers in the lanes and tins of fried sweets, and gavvalu are among the first to be made. Small pieces of dough are rolled over a ridged gavvala board or the back of a fork so they curl into little shells (gavvalu means cowrie shells), fried crisp, then tossed in jaggery syrup until each one is glazed with a dry, sugary crust. Common mistake: syrup that is not cooked far enough; it must reach the hard-ball stage, when a drop in water rolls into a firm ball, or the shells turn sticky instead of crisp-coated. Chef's tip: keep tossing after adding the shells until the syrup turns opaque and dry; that is the moment to tip them out.

65 min

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Khari bundiSalted gram flour pearls

Khari bundi is the salted boondi that Gujarati cooks keep in a jar for raita, bhel, dahi puri and Diwali farsan mixes, and that farsan shops in Ahmedabad sell by the kilo. A pourable gram flour batter is tapped through a perforated ladle into hot oil, where it puffs into crunchy little pearls, then tossed while warm with salt, red chilli and black pepper. The common mistake is getting the batter consistency wrong: too thick and the drops grow tails, too thin and they spread flat, so test a few drops before frying the whole lot. Chef's tip: hold the ladle about 10 cm above the oil and tap its edge, never press the batter through.

40 min

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Sing ni chikkiPeanut jaggery brittle

Peanut chikki is the sweet every Gujarati child grows up with, and in the week of Uttarayan, when the sky over Ahmedabad is crowded with kites, households make it by the tray to hand round on the terrace. Halved roasted peanuts are bound in dark jaggery and cut into neat slabs that snap cleanly and taste of caramel and toasted nuts. Common mistake: undercooking the jaggery; it is ready only when a drop in cold water hardens into a ball that cracks when pressed, and when the syrup is foaming and has darkened by a shade. Undercooked syrup gives chikki that bends and pulls out fillings. Chef's tip: rub the skins off the roasted peanuts and split them in half; halves pack together far better than whole nuts and the slabs don't crumble.

30 min

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Hara bhara kebabSpinach and pea patties

Hara bhara kebab is the vegetarian starter of Delhi's Punjabi restaurants and every wedding cocktail hour, a bright green patty of spinach, peas and potato with ginger and green chilli, pan-fried until crusty and topped with a single cashew. It is soft inside, crisp outside and mild enough for children, served with mint chutney before a big meal. The usual mistake is not squeezing the blanched spinach dry: the mix turns wet, the patties won't hold and they fall apart in the pan. Wring it out in your fist until no more water comes. Chef's tip: dip the spinach in iced water right after blanching; it keeps the patties a vivid green instead of khaki.

45 min

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Gond ke ladduEdible gum and flour laddus

When the January cold sets in around Lohri, Punjabi and Marwari kitchens make a tin of gond ke laddu, one of which is eaten each morning with hot milk to keep warm through winter. Edible gum (gond, from the acacia tree) is fried in ghee until it puffs into light crunchy nuggets, then crushed and mixed with ghee-roasted wheat flour, jaggery, dry ginger and plenty of nuts, so the laddus are rich, crumbly and crackle as you bite. Common mistake: frying the gum in oil that is too hot; it browns outside and stays glassy and chewy in the middle, so fry it on a medium heat until each piece swells to twice its size and turns opaque white. The flour is done when it smells nutty, turns golden and the ghee loosens at the edges. Chef's tip: roll the laddus while the mixture is still warm; once it cools it will not bind.

55 min

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Ulundu kozhukattaiUrad dal-filled rice dumplings

On Vinayaka Chaturthi, Tamil kitchens make two kinds of kozhukattai side by side: sweet ones with coconut and jaggery, and these savoury ulundu kozhukattai, filled with a crumbly, peppery urad dal 'usili'. The thin rice-flour shell turns translucent when steamed, and the filling is soft, savoury and fragrant with curry leaves. The mistake is a wet filling: if the ground dal isn't steamed and then crumbled dry in the pan, it leaks and the shells split. Chef's tip: make the shells as thin as you can while still holding the filling; thick shells taste stodgy.

75 min

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Kobi na muthiaCabbage steamed dumplings

When the dudhi runs out, Gujarati cooks reach for a head of cabbage, and kobi na muthia appear for breakfast in Vadodara and Rajkot homes. Finely shredded cabbage is bound with wheat and gram flour, ginger, green chilli and a touch of sugar, steamed into logs, sliced and crisped in a sesame and mustard tempering. Cabbage gives a sweeter, more delicate flavour and a slightly lacy texture. The mistake to avoid is shredding the cabbage coarsely; thick shreds poke out of the logs and the slices fall apart, so chop it as fine as you can or pulse it briefly in a food processor. Chef's tip: let the salted cabbage sit for 10 minutes before adding flour so it softens and gives up enough water to make the dough.

60 min

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Vishu kattaCoconut milk rice squares

Around Thrissur and Palakkad the Vishu breakfast table is not complete without katta, rice cooked slowly in coconut milk until it can be spread on a plate, set and cut like a cake. Families eat the squares two ways: with a pour of dark jaggery syrup for sweetness, or with a hot, sour curry for those who prefer savoury on a festival morning. Set, it is soft, rich and faintly salty, with the scent of cumin. The common mistake is rushing it on a high flame; the coconut milk splits and the rice catches before it turns creamy. It is ready when the whole mass comes away from the sides of the pan and holds a ridge when you draw a spoon through it. Chef's tip: smooth the top with a piece of banana leaf or the back of a wet spoon, and cut the katta only once it is fully cool, or the squares will tear.

50 min

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Suran nu shaakYam with cumin and peanuts

Suran, the knobbly elephant-foot yam, is a favourite of the Gujarati farali table on Mahashivratri and Ekadashi: boiled until tender, then stir-fried with cumin, green chilli and crushed peanuts and sharpened with lemon. It is filling and earthy, a little like a dense potato, and goes well with rajgira thepla or farali kadhi. Because suran is a root vegetable it is not eaten by Jains, so this is a Hindu fasting dish only; some families also skip cumin on a fast. Raw suran contains crystals that make the hands and throat itch, so wear gloves when peeling and always boil it with something sour. Common mistake: under-boiling to keep the cubes firm; undercooked suran scratches the throat. Boil until a cube is soft right through when pierced. Chef's tip: a few pieces of kokum in the boiling water work as well as lemon and give a pleasant blush to the yam.

45 min

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Tekeli pithaSteamed coconut jaggery rice cake

In Assamese homes the nights before Magh Bihu are spent making pitha, and tekeli pitha is the one named after the pot it is cooked on: a cloth is tied over the mouth of a tekeli (a small clay water pot), and damp rice flour, coconut and jaggery are piled on top and steamed by the water boiling underneath. It comes off as a soft, crumbly cake, sweet in the middle and plain at the edges, eaten warm with tea on Bihu morning or packed into the bhogali spread. Any narrow-necked pot or saucepan works at home. Common mistake: using dry shop rice flour straight from the packet; it needs to be just damp enough to clump when pressed, or the cake falls apart, and it is done when the top looks matt and a skewer comes out clean, about 10–12 minutes. Chef's tip: soak and grind your own rice flour if you can; flour from soaked rice, dried for an hour, gives the softest pitha.

45 min

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Obbattu saaruSpiced dal water rasam

Gowri Habba, Karnataka's version of Hartalika, comes the day before Ganesha Chaturthi, and the feast centres on obbattu (holige), flatbreads stuffed with chana dal and jaggery. Nothing goes to waste: the water the dal was boiled in, plus a spoon of the sweet filling, becomes obbattu saaru, a thin, sweet-sour-spicy rasam with tamarind, a coconut-spice paste and a mustard tadka, poured over rice beside the holige. Common mistake: boiling it hard after the coconut paste goes in, which dulls the flavour and makes it split; bring it just to a froth on top and switch off. Chef's tip: if you are not making holige, boil 50 g chana dal in 700 ml water, keep the water and mash a spoon of the dal with a little jaggery as the 'filling'.

30 min

Indian Soups

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Lilo chevdoPotato straw snack mix

Lilo chevdo is a speciality of Vadodara and Surat farsan shops, bought in big bags for Diwali guests and long journeys: fine potato straws fried crisp, then coated in a green paste of chilli and coriander with sugar, raisins, cashews and sesame. It is sweet first, then hot, then salty and tangy, and is quite different from the yellow, turmeric-tinted chevdo. The common mistake is adding the wet chilli paste to the potato straws: it makes them soggy within a day, so fry the paste in oil until completely dry and crumbly before tossing. Chef's tip: rinse the cut potato straws in cold water until the water runs clear and dry them well; the starch rinsed away is what lets them fry crisp and pale.

65 min

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Chakka varattiJackfruit jaggery preserve

Vishu arrives in April when Kerala's jackfruit trees are heavy, and homes turn the glut into chakka varatti, a dark, glossy jam stirred for well over an hour in a wide uruli. It is eaten by the spoon, spread on dosa, and kept in jars for the payasam and ada made at festivals through the year. The taste is deep and caramel-like, with the floral sweetness of ripe jackfruit. The common mistake is cooking it on a high heat to save time: jaggery burns quickly and turns the whole batch bitter. It is done when the ghee starts to separate and shine at the edges, the colour is a dark mahogany brown, and the mass rolls round the pan as one lump. Chef's tip: use only very ripe, fragrant jackfruit bulbs, and if your jackfruit is the firm varikka type, steam it first so it purées smoothly.

120 min

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Lakri mithaiSugar-coated spiced dough sticks

Diwali is a public holiday in Fiji, and Indo-Fijian families spend the week before it frying sweets by the tin to share with friends and neighbours; lakri, 'wooden sticks', is the one children reach for first. Short sticks of dough flavoured with ginger and cardamom are fried until hard and crisp, then tossed in a sugar syrup cooked until it seizes, so each stick is coated in a dry, frosty white crust. Common mistake: tossing too early or too late; cook the syrup to the soft-ball stage, when a drop in cold water forms a soft ball, then keep stirring the sticks off the heat until the syrup turns white and grainy and clings. Chef's tip: let the fried sticks cool completely before coating, so they stay crunchy under the sugar.

60 minPacific Islander Indian Sweets

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Sandwich dhoklaLayered dhokla with green chutney

Sandwich dhokla is the party showpiece of Ahmedabad farsan shops and Gujarati wedding counters: white, fermented rice and urad dal dhokla steamed in two layers with a thin band of coriander chutney in between, so every square shows a bright green stripe. It is soft, tangy from the ferment and a little peppery, and is cut into neat squares for parties and evening tea. The usual mistake is pouring the top layer while the first is still raw; the chutney sinks and the stripe smudges, so steam the bottom layer until just set before adding the rest. Chef's tip: make the chutney thick, almost like a paste, and spread it with the back of a spoon wetted in water.

70 min

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Dudhi na muthiaBottle gourd steamed dumplings

Dudhi na muthia are the everyday steamed farsan of Gujarati kitchens, made on a weekday afternoon for evening tea or packed for the next morning's breakfast. Grated bottle gourd is kneaded with coarse wheat flour, gram flour and spices, shaped by fist (muthi) into logs, steamed, sliced and then crisped in a tempering of mustard and sesame. The slices are soft inside with golden edges, savoury, gently sweet and sharp with lemon. The classic mistake is squeezing out the dudhi juice and then adding water: the juice is the only liquid you need, so add the flours little by little to the undrained gourd. Chef's tip: steam the logs a day ahead and chill them; cold muthia slice cleanly and crisp much better.

55 min

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Kul er chutneyJujube chutney

Many Bengali families do not eat kul (Indian jujube, or ber) all winter until it has been offered to Goddess Saraswati, so on Saraswati Puja the first taste usually comes as this glossy chutney at the end of the khichuri bhog. Fresh or dried kul is simmered with jaggery, a tempering of panch phoron and dried red chilli in mustard oil, and finished with a touch of roasted spice powder, giving a sticky, sweet, sour and mildly hot relish. Dried kul gives a darker, chewier chutney; fresh kul is brighter and tangier. Common mistake: cooking it too thick on the stove; the chutney sets firmer as it cools, so stop when the syrup coats a spoon and runs off slowly. Chef's tip: prick each fresh kul with a fork before cooking so the syrup gets inside instead of the fruit bursting.

35 min

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Kavuni arisiBlack rice sweet

Kavuni arisi is the deep purple-black sweet that every Chettiar wedding feast in Karaikudi begins with, a nod to the trading families' old links with Burma, where the black rice came from. The rice is soaked overnight, cooked until soft but still chewy, then mixed with sugar, plenty of fresh grated coconut and a spoon of ghee, so it is nutty, gently sweet and pleasantly sticky. It is eaten warm or at room temperature in small portions. The usual mistake is cooking black rice like white rice; it needs a long soak and a long cook, or the grains stay hard at the centre. Chef's tip: mash a quarter of the cooked rice lightly with the back of a spoon before adding sugar, which makes it hold together the way it does in Chettinad.

55 min

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Thiruvathira puzhukkuTubers and plantain with coconut

On Thiruvathira, in the Malayalam month of Dhanu, Kerala women keep a vow for Shiva and Parvati: they stay off rice, dance the thiruvathirakali in a circle at night and eat a plate built from the earth's tubers instead. Puzhukku is the heart of that plate, a thick, gently spiced mash of elephant-foot yam, colocasia, sweet potato, raw plantain and red cowpeas folded through a coarse paste of coconut, green chilli and cumin, then finished with raw coconut oil and curry leaves. Each tuber goes in at its own time so the pieces end up tender but still recognisable. Common mistake: stirring hard once everything is soft, which turns it into glue; it is done when a piece of yam crushes easily against the side of the pot and the water has almost gone, then you only fold. Eat it warm with koova payasam or a glass of buttermilk. Chef's tip: undercooked yam and colocasia can make the throat itch, so taste a piece before adding the coconut and keep cooking if it is still firm in the centre.

60 min

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Kadhi chutneyGram flour buttermilk dip

Order fafda-jalebi on a Sunday morning in Ahmedabad or Rajkot and alongside it comes a small bowl of pale yellow kadhi chutney, a thin, sweet-sour dip of gram flour and buttermilk simmered with green chilli and ginger. It is runnier than a kadhi you would eat with rice, so the crisp farsan can be dunked and dragged through it. The flavour is gentle, a little tangy and a little sweet, which balances salty, peppery snacks. The common mistake is letting it boil hard right after adding the buttermilk, which makes it grainy and split. Chef's tip: it thickens as it cools; loosen it with a splash of water to a pouring, single-cream consistency before serving.

15 min

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Arisi upmaBroken rice and dal upma

Arisi upma is the old Tamil country breakfast and evening dinner, especially in Tirunelveli and Madurai homes, made from rice and toor dal coarsely broken at home and cooked in a heavy pot. The best part is the 'kaanthal', the crisp golden crust that forms on the bottom, which families fight over. The mistake is too much water, which gives a sticky porridge; use about two and a half times the volume of the broken rice. Chef's tip: once cooked, leave it on the lowest heat with a lid for ten minutes, undisturbed, to build that crust.

40 min

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Paal paniyaramFried dumplings in sweet coconut milk

Paal paniyaram is the Chettinad wedding dessert served on the banana leaf at the end of a Karaikudi feast: small marble-sized dumplings of rice and urad are fried pale, dipped briefly in hot water to soften them, then left to soak in sweetened, cardamom-scented coconut milk. They are soft, spongy and cool, eaten with a spoon, chilled or at room temperature. A common mistake is frying until brown and crusty: the dumplings then refuse to soak up the milk. Fry them only until set and barely coloured. Chef's tip: the quick dip in hot water after frying washes off surface oil and opens them up to drink the coconut milk.

55 min

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Ambe dalChana dal with raw mango

Through the month of Chaitra, which opens with Gudi Padwa, Maharashtrian women invite each other home for haldi-kunku, and the plate they send guests away with nearly always holds ambe dal with a glass of kairi panha. It is not a cooked dal at all but a cool, crunchy salad: chana dal soaked for hours, pulsed coarse with green chilli, then tossed with grated raw mango, coconut and a hot mustard tadka. It tastes sour, fresh and gently hot, and it is filling enough for an afternoon visit. The common mistake is grinding it with water into a paste; the dal must stay in tiny separate grains, like coarse couscous, and feel just tender when you bite one. The long time on this recipe is almost all soaking. Chef's tip: grate the mango only just before mixing and add the salt at the end, or the dal turns watery as it stands.

250 min

Indian Salads

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Bhinda ni kadhiYogurt kadhi with fried okra

Bhinda ni kadhi is a summer and monsoon favourite in Gujarati homes from Ahmedabad to Surat, when okra is cheap: the familiar sweet, tangy yogurt kadhi gets a handful of okra rounds fried until crisp at the edges, which soak up the sauce and add body. It is poured over steamed rice or khichdi for a light lunch. Frying the okra first keeps it from going slimy. The common mistake is boiling the kadhi fast before it has thickened, which curdles the yogurt; keep stirring and keep the heat low until it reaches a simmer. Chef's tip: add the okra only in the last few minutes so the rounds stay whole and a little crisp.

30 min

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Vellai paniyaramWhite rice and urad puffs

Vellai paniyaram, 'white paniyaram', is the tiffin of Chettinad that surprises outsiders: a rice and urad batter thinned with a little milk-free water is spooned into hot oil and pulled out while it is still pale and pillowy, crisp only at the very edge. In Karaikudi homes it comes to the table at evening tiffin with spicy kara chutney, a tomato kosamalli or kathirikai gothsu. The key mistake is overheating the oil: the paniyaram browns and loses its signature white colour, so keep the heat at medium and fry quickly. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of sugar in the batter helps the puffs rise without colouring, and spooning oil over the top makes them balloon.

50 min

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Gato cravateBow-tie pastries

Gato cravate, 'tie cakes', are named for their shape: little strips of sweet dough slit down the middle and pulled through themselves into a twisted bow. In Mauritius they are fried by the tin in the week before Divali and packed with other sweets onto the plates that neighbours exchange on the night of the lamps; they also turn up at weddings and tea time. The pastry is lightly sweetened with sugar and vanilla, fried until blistered and crisp, then tossed in cinnamon sugar. Common mistake: rolling the dough thick, which gives a hard, bready bow; roll it as thin as a coin and fry until pale gold and the bubbling has nearly stopped, a sign the moisture has cooked out. Chef's tip: toss them in sugar while still warm so it sticks, and let them cool on a rack so they stay crisp.

50 min

Mauritian Indian Sweets

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Kolkata vegetable chopCrumbed vegetable croquettes

Walk between Kolkata's Durga Puja pandals in the evening and the smell that follows you is of telebhaja stalls frying vegetable chop. These are oval croquettes of mashed potato with grated beetroot, carrot and roasted peanuts, spiced with ginger, chilli and bhaja moshla, coated in a flour-water batter and breadcrumbs and fried until shatteringly crisp; inside they are soft, sweet and a vivid pink. They are eaten hot with kasundi, ketchup or sliced cucumber and onion. Common mistake: leaving the filling wet, which makes the chops split in the oil; cook the beetroot mix until it is dry enough to roll without sticking. Chef's tip: coat the chops twice (batter, crumbs, batter, crumbs) and chill them for 20 minutes before frying; the double coat is what gives the pandal crunch.

55 min

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Bharwan tandoori alooPaneer-stuffed roasted potatoes

Bharwan tandoori aloo is a party piece from the kebab houses of Delhi and Punjab: large potatoes par-boiled, hollowed and filled with a sweet-spicy stuffing of paneer, scooped potato, raisins and cashews, then coated in a tandoori marinade and roasted until charred. It is served as a starter at weddings and festive dinners, and at home it makes a vegetarian centrepiece for a Diwali or Lohri spread. The common mistake is boiling the potatoes until soft, so they split when you scoop them; take them out while a skewer still meets a little resistance in the centre. Chef's tip: keep the hollowed-out potato for the filling, which makes it creamy without needing extra paneer.

65 min

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Lauki ki kheerBottle gourd milk pudding

Lauki ki kheer is the light pudding many North Indian families make on Mahashivratri, Navratri and Ekadashi, when rice is off the menu: grated bottle gourd stands in for the grain, softens in ghee and then simmers in milk until it turns pale, creamy and almost translucent. It tastes delicate and milky, with cardamom and a crunch of nuts, and is eaten warm after the evening puja or chilled the next day. Taste a sliver of the raw gourd first; a bitter one can make you ill and must be thrown away. Common mistake: adding the sugar too early, which stops the gourd softening and can make the milk split; add it only once the milk has reduced by about a third and the lauki is tender. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated lauki lightly before cooking, but keep the juice and add it to the milk, so none of the flavour is lost.

45 min

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Rauh di kheerRice in sugarcane juice

In Punjabi villages the cane harvest is in by Lohri, and on the night of the bonfire a pot of rice is set to cook slowly in fresh sugarcane juice (rauh) with no milk and no added sugar. The custom is to leave it to cool overnight and eat it cold the next morning, on Maghi, so you will often hear 'poh rinni, magh khaadi': cooked in Poh, eaten in Magh. It sets into a soft, brown, gently caramel pudding that tastes of cane. Common mistake: cooking on a high heat; the juice catches and turns bitter, so simmer it low and stir from the bottom, and it is done when the rice is very soft and the kheer coats the back of a spoon thickly. Chef's tip: skim off all the grey scum as the juice first comes to the boil, or the kheer tastes earthy.

120 min

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KulerBajra ghee jaggery balls

On Nag Pancham, Gujarati women draw a snake in kumkum on the wall or visit a nag temple and offer kuler with milk and cotton: a raw sweet of fine bajra flour rubbed with ghee and jaggery, rolled into soft balls. Since the day is a cold-food day in many homes, nothing is cooked; the bajra simply soaks up the ghee. It is soft, earthy, sweet and slightly sandy. Common mistake: using coarse or stale bajra flour, which tastes bitter and gritty; use fresh, finely ground flour, and the mix is ready when a handful holds together when squeezed. If you prefer, you can lightly roast the flour first, though that is not the traditional way. Chef's tip: grate the jaggery very finely, or melt it with the ghee and cool slightly, so it blends evenly.

15 min

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AggalaRice flour and coconut balls

When the astrologers' auspicious hour for Aluth Avurudu, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, arrives in April, Sri Lankan families light the hearth, boil kiribath and lay out a table of sweets, and small dark aggala balls are one of the easiest to make. Roasted rice flour and toasted coconut are bound with hot kithul treacle and a surprising amount of black pepper, which gives a warm bite after the sweetness. They are dense, soft and slightly crumbly. The common mistake is under-roasting the flour, which leaves a raw, pasty taste; roast it until it smells like biscuits and flows loosely off the spoon. The treacle is ready when it bubbles all over and thickens slightly. Chef's tip: shape them while the mixture is still warm, with lightly oiled palms, because they harden and crack as they cool.

35 min

Sri Lankan Desserts

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Farari dhoklaFasting dhokla with sago

On Ekadashi, Shravan Mondays and Navratri fasts, Gujarati homes swap the usual rice and dal dhokla for this farari version made from samo (barnyard millet) and sabudana. Both are ground to a coarse flour, soaked briefly in sour yogurt and steamed into soft, slightly chewy squares with a nutty flavour, finished with a cumin and green chilli tempering. Rock salt replaces table salt and there is no turmeric or hing, as many fasting households avoid them. The common mistake is steaming straight after mixing: the samo needs at least 30 minutes to drink up the yogurt, or the dhokla turns gritty. Chef's tip: grind the sago to a fine powder first, then add the samo, so no hard pearls survive.

35 min

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Alwar milk cakeGrainy reduced-milk sweet

Sweet boxes swapped on Raksha Bandhan in Rajasthan very often hold Alwar milk cake: a dense slab of full-fat milk reduced for hours with sugar, then left to set slowly in its own heat so the middle caramelises dark brown while the edges stay pale and grainy. Unlike kalakand, it uses no chhena at all; the grain comes from souring the milk just a little as it reduces, and the colour from long, patient cooking. It is fudgy, milky and toffee-like. Common mistake: hurrying the last stage on a high flame, which scorches the base instead of browning it; the mass is ready when it leaves the sides of the pan as one sticky lump and the ghee starts to show at the edges. Chef's tip: wrap the filled tin in a thick towel and leave it overnight; that slow cooling is what browns the centre.

155 min

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SitabhogChhena strands in syrup

Sitabhog belongs to Bardhaman in West Bengal, and families there and across Bengal like to serve it for Bhai Phonta and at Bijoya: it looks like a bowl of fine white rice, but every grain is a strand of chhena and rice flour pressed into ghee, fried pale and soaked in syrup, then tossed with tiny saffron-tinted nikuti dumplings. It is light, soft and fragrant, best eaten with a spoon at room temperature. Common mistake: frying too hot, which colours the strands; sitabhog should stay ivory, so keep the ghee gentle and lift the strands out as soon as they are firm. The syrup should be at the one-thread stage, so a drop pulled between thumb and finger forms a single short thread. Chef's tip: gobindobhog or any short-grain rice ground to a fine flour gives the most authentic, fragrant strands; sieve it twice.

90 min

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Gobhi pakoraCauliflower fritters

When the first winter cauliflowers arrive in the Punjab sabzi mandi, half of them end up as gobhi pakore, fried on a rainy afternoon or on a cold Sunday evening and eaten straight from the kadai with mint chutney and a steaming glass of tea. The batter is thick and rough with ajwain, chilli and a spoon of rice flour, so it fries into a craggy, crunchy shell around a soft, sweet floret. The usual mistake is dropping raw, thick florets into the oil: the batter is brown long before the stalk is cooked, so give the florets a two-minute dip in boiling salted water first and dry them well. Chef's tip: fry them once until pale gold, rest for five minutes, then fry again for a minute just before serving; the second fry keeps them crisp for much longer.

40 min

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Kheer kadamKhoya-coated chhena balls

Kheer kadam, named after the round kadam flower, is a sweet-shop showpiece that Bengali families buy, or proudly make, for Bhai Phonta: a small rasgulla-like chhena ball is soaked in syrup, squeezed, wrapped in a layer of sweetened khoya and rolled in more grated khoya so it looks fuzzy like the flower. You bite through dense, milky fudge into a juicy centre. Common mistake: wrapping the balls while they are still full of syrup; the khoya slides off and goes sticky. Squeeze them gently until they feel damp, not wet. The centres are cooked when they have doubled in size and sink in cool water. Chef's tip: cook the khoya only until it stops sticking to the pan and holds together; overcooked khoya cracks when you shape it.

100 min

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SunthavadaDry ginger, coconut and sugar mix

At exactly noon on Ram Navami, when Maharashtrian temples and homes rock a decorated cradle to mark Rama's birth, each person is handed a spoonful of sunthavada: dry ginger powder, toasted dry coconut, poppy seeds and sugar pounded together into a fragrant, warming powder. The same mix is given at Janmashtami midnight. It is sweet, nutty and gently fiery from the ginger. Common mistake: burning the coconut; it should be toasted on a low heat only until it turns pale gold and smells sweet, then cooled before grinding so it does not turn oily. Chef's tip: grind in short pulses; long grinding releases the coconut oil and the powder clumps.

15 min

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Thunka puriGiant puffed puris

Every Kartik Purnima, Cuttack holds Bali Jatra on the banks of the Mahanadi, a huge open-air fair that remembers the Odia sailors who once set off for Bali and Java; families float little paper and banana-bark boats at dawn and spend the day eating at the stalls. Thunka puri is the fair's famous snack: puris rolled as big as a plate, which balloon into hollow golden domes in the oil and are torn open over a bowl of hot ghugni (yellow pea curry), onion and tamarind chutney. Common mistake: oil that is not hot enough or dough that is too soft; the puri then drinks oil and stays flat. Get the oil to about 190 °C, so a pinch of dough rises at once, and it is done when it is puffed and pale gold on both sides. Chef's tip: slide the puri in, then gently press the centre with a slotted spoon and splash hot oil over the top; it will puff fully within seconds.

45 min

Indian Breads & Parathas

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Rajkoti lili chutneyGreen chilli and peanut chutney

Rajkot is known across Gujarat for its green chutney, sold in little pouches by farsan shops and carried home by every visitor: a hot, smooth paste of green chillies and roasted peanuts with lemon, sugar and a pinch of turmeric, and no coriander at all, which is why it keeps a week in the fridge without turning dark. It is spread in sandwiches, spooned over khichiya papad and served with gathiya, dhokla and bhajiya. The common mistake is adding too much water, which dilutes the heat and makes it spoil faster. Chef's tip: grind it in short bursts so the blender doesn't heat the peanuts and turn the chutney oily.

10 min

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Gato zinzliSesame caramel sweets

Zinzli is the Mauritian Creole word for sesame, and gato zinzli are the little amber squares or drops of toasted sesame set in caramelised sugar that crowd the edge of every Divali plate on the island, next to moutaille and cravate. They are close to the til chikki of India but made with white sugar, a squeeze of lime and a little vanilla, so they are glassy, crunchy and nutty. Common mistake: taking the caramel off too early, which gives chewy sweets that stick to your teeth; cook the sugar to a light amber, about the hard-crack stage, when a drop in cold water snaps cleanly. Chef's tip: have everything oiled and ready before you start, because once the sesame goes in you have only a minute or two to shape it.

30 min

Mauritian Indian Sweets

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Sattu ke ladduRoasted gram laddus

Kajli Teej in Bundi, Rajasthan, falls in the dark fortnight of Bhadrapad, when women fast for their husbands and break the fast in the evening by moonrise with sattu: roasted gram flour mixed with ghee, sugar and nuts and pressed into laddus or one large decorated cake called a sattu pinda. The laddus are nutty, soft, powdery and very filling. Common mistake: using plain besan instead of sattu, or under-roasting the sattu, which tastes raw; roast gently in ghee until it smells biscuity and the ghee starts to separate at the edges. Chef's tip: shape while the mix is warm but cool enough to hold, and press each laddu firmly in your palm so it does not crumble.

25 min

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Chushi pithaRice flour strands in milk

When the new rice is in and the date palms start giving their winter sap, Bangladeshi families make pitha for Nabanna and through the cold months, and chushi pitha is the one grandmothers roll by hand, an evening of small grain-shaped strands rubbed out between the palms. The strands are cooked in reduced milk with bay leaf and cardamom, then sweetened with fresh khejur gur, giving a pale caramel pudding with soft, slightly chewy pieces. The common mistake is adding the jaggery while the milk is still boiling: it can curdle it, so take the pan off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes first. The strands are done when they float, turn translucent at the edges and are soft right through. Chef's tip: let the rolled strands dry on a tray for 15 minutes before cooking; they hold their shape instead of dissolving into the milk.

75 min

Bangladeshi Desserts

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Mangai pachadiRaw mango and jaggery relish

Every Tamil New Year plate in April has a small heap of mangai pachadi, sweet, sour, hot and bitter at once, so that the first meal of the year tastes of everything life will bring. Chunks of raw mango are cooked soft, simmered in jaggery and finished with a mustard tempering and a pinch of fried neem flowers. It is glossy and thick, eaten in small spoonfuls with rice, sambar and payasam. The common mistake is cooking it down too far: it thickens a lot as it cools, so stop when the syrup coats the spoon but still drips off slowly. Cook the mango first until a piece mashes easily; jaggery added to hard mango stops it softening. Chef's tip: choose firm, very sour mangoes; sweet, half-ripe ones go mushy and lose the sharp contrast.

30 min

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Tala methi na muthiaFried fenugreek dumplings

In Surat and the towns of South Gujarat, winter means undhiyu, and undhiyu means a big batch of fried methi muthia. These little finger-shaped dumplings of fresh fenugreek, gram flour and coarse wheat flour are crisp outside and soft inside, sweet-sour from sugar and lemon, with the pleasant bitterness of methi. Many families fry extra to eat as a snack with tea or with green chutney. The common mistake is frying in oil that is too hot; the outside browns while the centre stays raw and pasty, so fry them at a steady medium heat. Chef's tip: a little hot oil rubbed into the flour (moyan) is what makes them crumbly-crisp rather than hard.

40 min

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Parsi batasaSalted butter tea biscuits

Batasa come from the wood-fired Parsi bakeries of Navsari, Udvada and Surat, where they are baked low and slow until dry and pale gold, then sold by the tin for morning chai. They are domed, flaky-crumbly and buttery, with just a whisper of salt and sugar, and they are made to be dunked. Bakeries traditionally raise the dough with toddy; this home version uses yogurt and a little baking powder for the same light, short crumb. The usual mistake is baking them hot and fast, which browns the outside while the inside stays soft; batasa need a long, gentle bake to dry right through. Chef's tip: switch the oven off at the end and leave the biscuits inside with the door ajar for 20 minutes so they crisp completely.

100 min

Indian Baking

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Kacha kela na vadaRaw banana fritters

In Jain homes in Ahmedabad, Palanpur and Mumbai's Gujarati neighbourhoods, raw green banana takes the place of potato, so these vada are the Jain answer to batata vada, made for paryushan-season tea and for guests. The bananas are boiled, mashed and spiced with dry ginger, green chilli, lemon and a little sugar, rolled into balls, dipped in gram flour batter and fried. They taste much like batata vada but are slightly firmer, sweeter and fruity. There is no onion, garlic, potato or fresh ginger in this version. The common mistake is overboiling the bananas until they are waterlogged; the filling then goes sticky and the vada split in the oil, so cook them only until a knife slides in. Chef's tip: mash the bananas while warm with a potato masher, not a blender, so the filling stays light.

45 min

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Ugadi pachadiSix-taste new year relish

On Ugadi morning in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, the first thing anyone eats after the oil bath and prayers is a spoonful of this pachadi, handed round in a small steel cup. Each ingredient stands for a feeling the coming year will bring: jaggery for joy, bitter neem flowers for sorrow, sour tamarind for disgust, raw mango for surprise, pepper for anger and salt for fear, so tasting them together is a quiet promise to accept whatever comes. In Maharashtra, Gudi Padwa begins with a close cousin, tender neem leaves ground with jaggery, cumin and tamarind. The finished pachadi is thin, sweet first, then sharp and faintly bitter. The common mistake is a heavy hand with neem: half a spoon too much and bitterness drowns every other taste. Stir until the jaggery has dissolved completely and no grains crunch against the spoon. Chef's tip: make it on the morning itself, as the cut mango softens and the neem turns muddy if it sits overnight.

15 min

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Thiruvathirai kaliRice and moong dal with jaggery

On Arudra Darshan in the Tamil month of Margazhi, temples across Tamil Nadu, Chidambaram above all, celebrate Shiva as Nataraja, and homes offer him kali with ezhu kari kootu at dawn. The rice and a little moong dal are dry-roasted until fragrant, ground to a coarse rava and then cooked in jaggery water until soft and set, a loose, grainy sweet rather than a smooth halwa. Grated coconut, cardamom and plenty of ghee finish it. Common mistake: grinding the roasted rice to a fine flour, which cooks into a sticky paste; you want grains like fine semolina, and the kali is done when it leaves the sides of the pan and the ghee glistens on top. Chef's tip: roast the rice only until it smells like popcorn and turns faintly golden; any darker and the kali tastes bitter.

50 min

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Shakkariya nu shaakSweet potato with peanuts

Gujarati families keeping the Mahashivratri upvas often fill the thali with shakkariya nu shaak, a quick dry curry of sweet potato cubes tempered with cumin and green chilli, finished with crushed roasted peanuts, a little sugar and a squeeze of lemon. It is sweet, tangy and gently hot, and is eaten with rajgira puri, sabudana khichdi or a bowl of farali kadhi. Only rock salt and green chilli are used here; many households avoid turmeric and red chilli powder on fasting days, and some do not eat cumin either, so adjust to your own family's custom. Common mistake: stirring too hard once the cubes soften, which turns the shaak into mash; turn gently, and stop cooking when a cube gives way when pressed but still holds its shape. Chef's tip: soak the cubes in water while you prepare the rest; it rinses off surface starch so they brown instead of sticking.

28 min

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Moong dal dhoklaSteamed moong dal squares

Across Gujarat, moong dal dhokla is the lighter cousin of khaman: the breakfast plate in Ahmedabad homes, the tiffin snack that travels well, and a regular on the table when someone in the house is eating light. Split yellow moong is soaked, ground with ginger and green chilli and steamed into pale, springy squares, then splashed with a hot tempering of mustard seeds, sesame and curry leaves. It is mild, savoury and slightly sweet from the dal itself, and best with green chutney. A common mistake is grinding the dal to a thin, watery paste; the dhokla then steams flat and dense, so keep the batter thick enough to drop slowly from a spoon. Chef's tip: stir in the fruit salt only when the steamer is already boiling and the tray is greased, because its fizz fades within a couple of minutes.

45 min

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ChooriCrumbled roti with ghee and sugar

In Punjabi villages choori is what a grandmother makes when a child comes home hungry before dinner: a warm roti or leftover paratha crumbled by hand into ghee and shakkar until it turns into soft, sweet, buttery crumbs. It is eaten with a glass of tea or milk in the late afternoon, and in many homes a bowl is set aside as an offering on Sankranti and at the gurdwara. The common mistake is using cold, leathery rotis straight from the box: the ghee won't soak in and the sugar stays gritty. Warm them on the tawa first until they are soft and just crisp at the edges. Chef's tip: a pinch of crushed fennel and some chopped almonds turn it into a little treat for guests.

15 min

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KandarappamPuffed rice, urad and jaggery cakes

Kandarappam is one of the grand sweets of the Chettiar houses of Karaikudi and Kanadukathan, fried by the dozen for weddings and for Deepavali and kept in big brass tins. A ground batter of raw rice, urad dal and chana dal is sweetened with jaggery and cardamom and ladled into hot oil, where each cake puffs up, turns dark golden and gets a crisp, lacy edge around a spongy middle. They are eaten at room temperature with coffee, often the day after frying, when the flavour has settled. A common mistake is grinding the batter too thin; it spreads into flat discs that soak up oil, so keep it like a thick pancake batter. Chef's tip: fry one test cake first, and if it doesn't puff, add another spoon of rice flour to the batter.

65 min

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Mangodi ki sabziMoong dal nuggets in yogurt gravy

Mangodi are little sun-dried nuggets of ground moong dal that Rajasthani women make in summer and store for months; during Paryushan, when Marwari Jain homes give up green vegetables, they become the sabzi itself. Here they are fried golden, then simmered in a spiced yoghurt gravy with no onion, garlic, fresh ginger or tomato, so the dish is fully Jain. The nuggets soak up the tangy gravy and turn soft but still a little chewy; serve with phulka or bajra roti. Use freshly set curd, as many Jains avoid curd kept overnight. Common mistake: pouring yoghurt straight into a hot pan, which makes it split into grainy curds; whisk it with gram flour first and keep stirring until it comes to the boil. Chef's tip: fry the mangodi until deep golden; pale ones stay hard in the middle however long they simmer.

40 min

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Makai pauva no chevdoCorn flake snack mix

Makai pauva no chevdo is the quickest chevdo in a Gujarati farsan shop, and the one that disappears first from Diwali trays. Raw, unsweetened corn flakes (makai pauva) are fried in batches until they puff and blister, then tossed with fried peanuts, roasted chana, curry leaves, raisins, a little sugar and chilli. It is light, crunchy and sweet-salty, perfect with afternoon tea. The common mistake is using breakfast cereal flakes, which are sugared and burn at once; buy the plain makai pauva sold in Indian grocers. Chef's tip: fry a small handful at a time; they puff and turn crisp in seconds and need to come out before they darken.

30 min

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Sing ni chutneyPeanut yogurt chutney

On ekadashi, Shivratri and Navratri fasts, Gujarati homes serve farari pattice, sabudana vada and sweet potato chips with this thick, creamy peanut chutney, and it is just as good the rest of the year with thepla. Roasted peanuts are ground with green chilli, cumin and lemon, then loosened with yogurt into a nutty, tangy dip with a slow chilli warmth. For fasting it is seasoned with rock salt, and it has no onion, garlic or grain. The common mistake is grinding the peanuts with the yogurt from the start; they never break down properly. Chef's tip: grind the peanuts dry first, then add the yogurt and pulse just to mix.

10 min

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Thatte idliLarge flat plate idli

Thatte idli comes from Bidadi, on the old highway from Bengaluru to Mysuru, where roadside hotels steam plate-sized idlis on round thatte trays from dawn for travellers' breakfast. Poha in the batter makes them soft and spongy, and they are served with a knob of butter melting on top, coconut chutney and a thin sambar or podi. A common mistake is a stiff batter: thatte idlis need a looser, pourable batter than ordinary idli or they turn dense in the wide plate. Chef's tip: grind the urad dal with ice-cold water until it is light and almost doubled; that air carries the whole idli.

50 min

Trinidadian Indian Sweets

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GojhaSweet coconut half-moon pastries

When Divali comes to Trinidad, Hindu families light rows of clay deyas along bamboo frames, and the kitchen fills up with sweets to share with neighbours of every faith: kurma, parsad, barfi and gojha. Gojha are the Caribbean cousin of the North Indian gujiya: a short dough rolled thin, filled with grated coconut cooked with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, folded into half-moons, crimped and fried golden; the same tray reappears at Phagwah, the spring colour festival. Common mistake: frying in oil that is too hot, which browns the outside while the pastry stays raw; keep the oil at about 170 °C and fry until the bubbles slow and the gojha are evenly golden. Chef's tip: seal the edges with a dab of water and crimp them tightly, or the filling leaks and spits in the oil.

60 min

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Kappa varuthathuTapioca chips

Kappa varuthathu, crisp tapioca chips, are sold by weight in Kerala bakeries from Thiruvananthapuram to Kozhikode and fried at home whenever fresh tapioca is cheap after the monsoon. Peeled roots are shaved very thin, fried in coconut oil with a splash of salt water, and dusted with chilli powder while still hot. They are lighter and crunchier than banana chips, with a faint sweetness under the heat. A common mistake is crowding the pan: the slices stick together and steam instead of crisping, so fry a single handful at a time. Chef's tip: soak the slices in cold water for 10 minutes and dry them thoroughly; it washes off surface starch so the chips stay pale and separate.

50 min

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Mochar chopBanana flower croquettes

Mochar chop is the more patient cousin of the vegetable chop: croquettes of finely chopped banana flower cooked with potato, coconut and Bengali spices, crumbed and fried. Bengali families make them at home for Durga Puja evenings and Bijoya visits, when a plate of chops goes round with tea, and the best telebhaja shops in north Kolkata sell them through the festival. The filling is earthy, slightly sweet and nutty, under a very crisp crust. Common mistake: not removing the hard stamen and the papery hood from each floret, which stay tough and bitter however long you cook them. Chef's tip: oil your hands and drop the chopped flower straight into water with turmeric and a little salt; it stops the florets turning black and keeps your hands from staining.

75 min

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Meethe pudeJaggery fennel pancakes

Teeyan, Punjab's monsoon festival of Teej, is when married daughters visit their parents, girls swing from neem trees and dance giddha, and the food that comes out on rainy afternoons is kheer with meethe pude: thin wheat-flour pancakes sweetened with jaggery and fennel, shallow-fried in ghee until lacy at the edges. They are soft in the middle and crisp round the rim. Common mistake: a thick batter, which gives heavy, doughy pude; it should pour like single cream, and each pancake is ready to flip when the edges brown and lift from the pan. Chef's tip: rest the batter for 20 minutes so the flour hydrates; the pude spread thinner and crisp better.

50 min

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Malida (Telangana)Crumbled roti with jaggery and ghee

Bathukamma is Telangana's nine-day flower festival before Dasara, when women stack marigold, celosia and tangedu flowers into towering cones, sing around them in the evening and float them on a lake. On the final day, Saddula Bathukamma, everyone carries a little bundle of saddulu (flavoured rice) and sweet malida to share by the water. Malida is the simplest sweet there is: soft wheat rotis cooked fresh, torn and blitzed while still warm, then rubbed with jaggery, ghee, cardamom and nuts until it clumps like soft crumble, sometimes pressed into balls. Common mistake: letting the rotis go cold and crisp, which gives a dry, dusty powder; they should still be warm and pliable, and the malida is right when a handful squeezed together holds its shape. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of roasted poppy seeds or dry coconut gives the Telangana village touch.

30 min

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Gota sheddhoBoiled whole moong and winter vegetables

Gota sheddho is cooked by West Bengali families on the night of Saraswati Puja and eaten cold the next morning, on Sheetal Shashthi, a day when the stove is left to rest. Everything goes into the pot whole, which is what gota means: roasted green moong, small potatoes, sweet potatoes, flat beans, peas, baby aubergines and a handful of spinach, boiled with green chillies and salt and finished with raw mustard oil. It is simple, mild and surprisingly good, with the pungent oil lifting the soft vegetables and creamy moong. Common mistake: cutting the vegetables; they must stay whole so they hold their shape overnight. Cook until the moong is tender and a potato is soft when pierced, but the aubergines still hold together. Chef's tip: dry-roast the moong until it smells nutty before boiling; it gives the whole pot a toasty depth.

60 min

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KummayamRoasted urad and moong halwa

Kummayam, also called aadi kummayam, is the sweet Chettinad homes make in the Tamil month of Aadi (July to August), when it is offered at the temple and shared with family. Urad dal, moong dal and rice are dry-roasted and ground into a flour, then cooked in thin jaggery syrup with ghee until it becomes a soft, glossy, dark halwa that pulls away from the pan. It tastes of roasted lentils and molasses and is eaten warm. The most common mistake is adding the flour to hot syrup in one go, which makes stubborn lumps; whisk it into cool syrup first, then cook. Chef's tip: add the ghee a spoonful at a time towards the end and stop when the halwa turns glossy and comes together in one mass.

40 min

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DresilSweet rice with butter and raisins

On the first morning of Losar, Tibetan and Sherpa households in the Himalaya and in Kathmandu greet the year with a bowl of dresil: rice tossed with melted butter, sugar, raisins and droma, the small sweet roots of a wild silverweed gathered on the high pastures. It is eaten with butter tea before visits begin, and a little is offered at the family shrine first. The rice is fluffy and glossy, gently sweet and buttery, with chewy bursts of fruit. The common mistake is cooking the sugar in with the rice, which makes it sticky and likely to catch; cook the rice plain, then fold everything in. It is ready when every grain is coated and separate and the raisins have plumped. Chef's tip: droma is hard to find outside Tibetan shops; chopped dried dates and a few toasted cashews give a similar sweet, earthy chew.

40 min

Nepali Rice & Grains

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Koova payasamArrowroot pudding

In central Kerala, the morning of Thiruvathira begins with a bath before dawn and a bowl of koova, arrowroot starch that many families still pound and wash out from their own garden roots. Cooked with jaggery and coconut milk, it turns into a glossy, wobbly pudding that is light on the stomach for a day without rice. The texture should be silky and pourable while hot, thickening as it cools. Common mistake: tipping the powder straight into hot liquid, which gives lumps you can never whisk out; slake it in cold coconut milk first and stir all the time, and it is ready when it turns from cloudy white to clear and coats the back of a spoon. It is fasting-safe as written (arrowroot, jaggery, coconut and cardamom only), and Gujarati farari cooks use the same starch; check your own family's fasting rules if you add anything else. Chef's tip: melt and strain the jaggery separately and let it cool a little before adding, so the coconut milk does not split.

30 min

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BhakraFried yogurt semolina cakes

Bhakra are the thick, sweet fried cakes that Parsi families of Navsari and Udvada make for the Navjote and wedding days, for Jamshedi Navroz and to pack for long journeys, because they keep for a couple of weeks. The old recipe rises with toddy; this alcohol-free version uses sour yogurt and a little baking soda, which gives the same faint tang and a close, cakey crumb. Outside they fry to a deep mahogany crust, inside they are firm, buttery and fragrant with cardamom and nutmeg. The most common mistake is frying in oil that is too hot: the outside browns in a minute while the centre stays raw and doughy. Chef's tip: fry them low and slow, and break one open before you do the rest of the batch.

65 min

Indonesian Snacks & Starters

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Emping melinjoMelinjo nut crackers

Emping are pale, crisp crackers from Banten and Java, made by cracking melinjo nuts, flattening them with a hammer and drying them; at Lebaran a bowl of fried emping sits beside the opor ayam and ketupat. They taste lightly bitter and nutty, and a sweet-spicy coating is popular for the snack jars. Most cooks buy dried raw emping and fry them at home, which is what this recipe does, with the hand-pressing method for anyone who finds fresh nuts. Chef's tip: fry only a handful at a time and lift them out the moment they puff; emping go from perfect to burnt in seconds.

60 min

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KesraSemolina pan bread

Kesra is the flat semolina bread of Algerian homes, and in Ramadan a fresh round sits on almost every iftar table, cooked on a clay tajine and torn into pieces to dip into hot chorba frik. This unleavened version is a thin, crumbly-edged galette, golden in patches and slightly chewy in the middle, with a nutty taste from the olive oil. It is made in minutes before sunset so it reaches the table still warm. Chef's tip: work the dough only until it holds together; kneading it like a yeast bread makes kesra tough instead of tender.

40 min

Algerian Breads & Parathas

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Sabeel sharbatRose milk with basil seeds

In the first ten days of Muharram, and above all on Ashura, volunteers in Pakistani towns set up sabeel stalls at the roadside and pour free cups of cold sweet milk for anyone passing, in memory of the thirst of Imam Husain's family at Karbala. The drink is pale pink, lightly rose-scented and dotted with swollen basil seeds, and it is made in huge steel pots at the stalls; this is the home-sized jug. Chef's tip: soak the basil seeds in water first, never straight in the milk, or they stay hard and clump.

10 min

Pakistani Drinks

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PepitadaToasted melon seed milk

Greek and Turkish Jews end the Yom Kippur fast with a glass of pepitada, a pale, gentle 'milk' made from melon seeds that were saved, washed and dried through the summer. The seeds are toasted, ground, soaked overnight in water wrapped in muslin, then squeezed to give a mild, nutty drink sweetened with a little sugar and scented with rose or orange-blossom water. It is soothing on an empty stomach after a day without food or water. The common mistake is toasting the seeds too dark, which makes the drink bitter. Chef's tip: start the night before; the long soak is what draws out the creamy flavour.

750 min

Israeli Drinks

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MuffolettaFennel seed rolls with cheese

On 2 November, the Day of the Dead in Sicily, Palermo families eat muffoletta: soft, round rolls scented with fennel seed, split warm and dressed 'cunzata' with olive oil, oregano, salt, pepper, anchovy or caciocavallo cheese. The custom recalls when the dead were said to bring gifts to children, and bakers make them only around this time. The bread itself is egg-free and dairy-free; dress it with just oil and oregano for a vegan version. Sicilian caciocavallo and pecorino are usually made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian hard cheese if that matters to you. Chef's tip: dress the rolls while still warm so they drink in the oil.

180 min

Italian Breads & Parathas

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SkābputraSoured barley porridge drink

Skābputra, 'sour porridge', is one of the oldest Latvian foods, and at Jāņi, Midsummer on 23–24 June, it is served cold alongside caraway cheese, pīrāgi and wreaths of flowers. Pearl barley is cooked soft, then soured with buttermilk or kefir for a day or two until it is tangy and fresh-tasting, and it is thinned with milk into a thick, cooling drink sipped or eaten with a spoon on hot summer days. This home version uses bought live buttermilk to start the souring safely. Chef's tip: use clean jars and utensils, and taste it each day; once it is pleasantly sour, chill it so it stops souring.

60 minBaltic Drinks

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VornGreen gram and coconut milk sweet

On 8 September, Mangalorean Catholics celebrate Monti Fest, the feast of Mary's Nativity, which is also a harvest festival: new ears of grain are blessed at church and shared at home, and the family eats a vegetarian feast of new-season vegetables. Vorn, a pudding of split green gram (moong) cooked with coconut milk, jaggery and cardamom, is the sweet that ends it. It is like a gentle payasam, vegan and gluten free. Chef's tip: dry-roast the moong dal until fragrant before cooking it, which gives vorn its nutty flavour.

60 min

Pakistani Chutneys & Dips

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Chirov plavRice pilaf with dried fruit

Chirov plav, rice pilaf with dried fruit ('chir'), is the Armenian Easter dish: after the long Lenten fast, families gather on Easter Sunday to eat this glossy, buttery pilaf, often served beside fried or baked fish and red-dyed eggs. The rice is cooked separately so every grain stays loose, then layered with dried apricots, raisins and prunes warmed in butter, with a golden crust (tahdig-style) at the bottom. Chef's tip: rinse the rice until the water runs clear, and parboil it in plenty of salted water, as that keeps the grains separate.

65 min

Armenian Rice & Grains

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Aloo bukhara chutneyDried plum chutney

Wherever a Pakistani wedding serves biryani and qorma, a little bowl of glossy aloo bukhara chutney sits alongside to cut the richness. Dried sour plums are softened, then cooked with sugar, a touch of vinegar, ginger, chilli and warm spices into a jammy, sweet-sour relish, dark and shining. It keeps for weeks and is made in big jars before the shaadi. Chef's tip: stop cooking while it still looks a little loose; it thickens a lot as it cools.

35 min

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FasaliLayered butter pastry with honey

Fasali is a festive breakfast in Azerbaijan, made on Novruz mornings and other holidays when the house is full: a thin dough is brushed with melted butter, folded again and again into many layers, then cooked slowly in a covered pan until crisp outside and flaky within. It comes to the table cut in wedges with honey, syrup or a glass of sweet tea. The common mistake is cooking over a high heat, which burns the outside before the inner layers have cooked through. Chef's tip: chill the folded parcel for 10 minutes between folds and the butter stays in clean layers.

70 min

Azerbaijani Baking

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Kulche khetayeeCardamom pistachio shortbread

When guests come to an Afghan home over Nowruz or the days of Eid, they are poured green tea and offered a plate of kulche khetayee, crumbly round shortbreads that dissolve on the tongue. In Kabul the dough is made with clarified butter or oil, icing sugar and cardamom, and each biscuit is topped with a pinch of ground pistachio before baking very gently so they stay pale. The common mistake is baking too hot: the biscuits should be cream-coloured, not golden, or they lose their melting texture. Chef's tip: let them cool fully on the tray, because they are too fragile to move while warm.

50 min

Afghan Baking

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Kue satuMung bean flour sweets

Kue satu are the little pale sweets that fill glass jars on Javanese and Sumatran tables when families open their doors for Lebaran visits at the end of Ramadan. Mung-bean flour is dry-toasted until it smells nutty, mixed with icing sugar and a whisper of pandan, then pressed into carved wooden moulds of flowers and leaves and left to dry until crumbly. They melt on the tongue with a sweet, beany, vanilla-like flavour and are offered with tea to every guest. Chef's tip: toast the flour until it is a shade darker and smells like popcorn, because raw-tasting flour is the most common reason kue satu taste flat.

60 min

Indonesian Desserts

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Chana dal halwa

At Punjabi weddings in Lahore and Faisalabad in the cold months, the dessert table often carries a big tray of chana dal halwa beside the gajar halwa. Soaked split chickpeas are ground and fried slowly in ghee until they smell of roasted nuts and turn deep golden, then cooked with milk, sugar and cardamom into a rich, grainy halwa that keeps for days. It takes patience and a strong arm. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and scrape the bottom constantly; the dal catches fast once it starts to brown.

90 min

Pakistani Indian Sweets

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Potoler dormaPaneer-stuffed pointed gourd

Potoler dorma is a showpiece of the Bengali vegetarian table, cooked for Durga Puja Navami lunches, weddings and the jamai shoshti feast. Pointed gourds (potol) are scraped, hollowed, fried, stuffed with paneer, raisins and spices, then simmered in a cashew, yoghurt and tomato gravy that is rich, gently sweet and fragrant with garam masala and ghee. This version keeps to the puja's no-onion, no-garlic style. Common mistake: cutting the gourds open lengthwise; for a dorma you slit only one end and scoop through it with a small spoon, so the filling stays inside while it simmers. The gourd is done when a toothpick slides in easily but the skin is still green and holds its shape. Chef's tip: chop the scooped-out seeds and flesh and cook them into the filling, which adds flavour and wastes nothing.

65 min

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Torrone dei mortiChocolate hazelnut bar

In Naples, the weeks around All Souls' Day on 2 November are 'torrone time': pastry shops pile up the torrone dei morti, a soft bar of white or dark chocolate filled with a creamy hazelnut or chocolate centre and studded with whole toasted hazelnuts, which friends bring as a gift when visiting. Despite its name it contains no nougat. This homemade version layers dark chocolate around a white-chocolate and hazelnut-paste filling. It is gluten free; some versions add liqueur, this one doesn't. Chef's tip: let the chocolate shell set fully in the fridge before filling, so it doesn't melt through.

40 min

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MämmiRye and malt Easter pudding

Mämmi is Finland's Easter dessert, a dark, almost black pudding of rye flour and malted rye, sweetened slowly by the malt's own enzymes and by a little molasses, then baked for hours in birch-bark boxes or small dishes. It looks unusual but tastes mild, malty and gently sweet, and is eaten cold with cream and sugar on Easter Sunday. It is vegan, and it was once eaten through Lent. You need powdered rye malt from a baking supplier or Nordic shop. Chef's tip: keep the porridge warm (around 60 °C) for two hours before baking so the malt can sweeten it; skip this and mämmi tastes bitter.

330 minScandinavian Desserts

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Olivette di Sant'AgataAlmond paste olives

Olivette are tiny green 'olives' of almond paste rolled in sugar, sold in Catania for the feast of St Agatha in early February. A legend tells that as the young saint was led to her trial she stopped to tie her shoe, and a wild olive tree sprang up on the spot and fed her. The sweets are made from ground almonds, sugar and a little water, coloured green and shaped in the palm. They are gluten free and dairy free, and children love to help shape them. Use a natural green such as matcha or spinach powder if you prefer. Chef's tip: knead the paste only until smooth, as overworking draws out the almond oil and it turns greasy.

40 min

Italian Snacks & Starters

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QuittengeleeQuince jelly

Quinces are too hard and sour to eat raw, so in Germany they are turned into Quittengelee, one of the jewel-coloured jars set out with the pumpkins and sheaves of wheat for Erntedank, the October harvest thanksgiving. The fruit is simmered whole in pieces, the juice drips through a cloth overnight, and then it is boiled with sugar until it sets into a clear jelly the colour of rosé, with a perfume like pear, honey and roses. Eat it on bread rolls, with cheese, or melted as a glaze for apple tart. Chef's tip: quince skin and cores are full of natural pectin, so cook them in with the flesh rather than peeling.

180 min

German Chutneys & Dips

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CaldarrosteRoasted chestnuts

From October to St Martin's Day on 11 November, Italian towns hold chestnut festivals, the sagre delle castagne, and the smoke of caldarroste drifts from street braziers where chestnuts are shaken in long-handled pans with holes. At home they are roasted in the same way on the hob or in the oven and eaten hot from a paper cone, sweet, floury and smoky, with a glass of new wine for adults or warm milk for children. Chef's tip: wrap the hot chestnuts in a damp tea towel for 5 minutes; the steam loosens the inner skin so they peel cleanly.

35 min

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SulaimaniSpiced lemon black tea

In Kozhikode, sulaimani is the clear amber tea poured after a heavy biryani, and in Ramadan it is the glass that follows the dates at iftar. A little loose black tea is brewed with cardamom, clove and cinnamon, then sweetened and sharpened with fresh lime so it is light, warming and gently fragrant. Chef's tip: steep the tea for only two minutes; sulaimani should be bright and clear, never strong and bitter.

10 min

Indian Drinks

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ApfelkrautApple syrup

In the Rhineland, apples from the autumn harvest are pressed and boiled for hours in copper cauldrons into Apfelkraut, a dark, glossy, sweet-sour syrup that is spread on Schwarzbrot with butter and quark, and that families bring to the Erntedank harvest thanksgiving in October. It needs no added sugar at all: the apples' own sugar and pectin concentrate until the juice is as thick as treacle and tastes like baked apple and caramel. Eat it on rye bread, with potato pancakes (Reibekuchen) or in a sauce for Sauerbraten. Chef's tip: use a mix of sweet and tart apples; the tart ones give the tang and the pectin that makes it set.

450 min

German Chutneys & Dips

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Es timun suriIced cucumber melon drink

Timun suri, a large cucumber-melon, appears in Indonesian markets only during Ramadan, piled high at roadside stalls for families to buy before iftar. Scraped into strands and floated in iced syrup with basil seeds and lime, it makes es timun suri, one of the most refreshing ways to break the fast. It tastes gently sweet, melony and cool. Cantaloupe or galia melon is a good stand-in outside Indonesia. Chef's tip: soak the basil seeds fully before adding them, as dry seeds clump into hard lumps in cold syrup.

20 min

Indonesian Drinks

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Persian halvaSaffron rose flour halva

Iranian halva is not the sesame sweet of the Levant but a dense paste of flour toasted slowly in butter and cooked with a saffron and rose-water syrup. It is spread on plates and patterned with a spoon for Ramadan iftars, for mourning gatherings and as nazri, food made and shared with neighbours to fulfil a vow in Muharram. It tastes deeply nutty, floral and not too sweet. Chef's tip: patience with the flour is everything; toast it until it is the colour of peanut butter, never rushing on a high heat.

40 min

Persian Desserts

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ZhavoronkiLark-shaped buns

On 22 March (9 March in the old calendar), the Orthodox feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste falls during Lent, and in Russian villages it was the day the larks were said to return. Children were given zhavoronki, little bread larks, and ran outside to toss them in the air and call the spring. The dough is a lightly sweet yeast dough, and because it is Lent it was made without eggs or butter, so this version is vegan. Raisins or peppercorns make the eyes. Chef's tip: tie a simple knot from a dough rope for each bird and snip the tail; it is quicker than sculpting and keeps the shape.

60 min

Russian Baking

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BurasaCoconut rice cakes in banana leaf

Burasa is the Lebaran rice cake of the Bugis and Makassar people of South Sulawesi: rice half-cooked in salted coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves, tied in pairs and boiled for hours until it sets firm and rich. On Eid morning it is sliced and eaten with coto Makassar, opor or a spicy beef dish, and it travels well for visits to relatives. Chef's tip: wrap the parcels only half full and tie them firmly, because the rice swells and a full parcel bursts open in the pot.

240 min

Indonesian Rice & Grains

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KipingLeaf-shaped rice wafers

Every 15 May, the town of Lucban in Quezon province celebrates San Isidro Labrador, patron of farmers, with the Pahiyas festival, when houses are covered in rice, vegetables and kiping: bright, translucent wafers of ground rice dough pressed onto leaves so they take the leaf's shape and veins, then dried. After the procession, the kiping are taken down and grilled or fried and eaten crisp, sometimes with sugar. This home version presses the dough thinly onto baking paper with a leaf-shaped cutter and the back of a clean banana leaf for texture. It is vegan and gluten free. Chef's tip: spread the dough as thin as you can, almost see-through, so it dries crisp.

60 min

Filipino Snacks & Starters

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Manisan kolang-kalingSugar palm fruit in pandan syrup

Kolang-kaling are the chewy, translucent seeds of the sugar palm, and in Indonesia they are a sure sign of Ramadan, piled in buckets at markets and simmered in syrup to go into iftar drinks, kolak and es buah. They have a soft, jelly-like bite and soak up whatever colour and flavour they are cooked in: green for pandan, red for rose syrup. Chef's tip: simmer them slowly and leave them in the syrup overnight; rushing gives pale fruit with a watery middle.

60 min

Indonesian Desserts

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Pesaha paalCoconut milk and jaggery drink

Pesaha paal ('Passover milk') is the sweet dip served with Pesaha appam at the Maundy Thursday supper in Kerala's Syrian Christian homes. Coconut milk is simmered with melted jaggery, a little roasted rice flour to thicken it, cardamom and dried ginger until it becomes a warm, silky drink. The family dips pieces of the blessed appam into it after the evening prayers. It is vegan and gluten free, and ready in half an hour. Chef's tip: strain the jaggery syrup before adding the coconut milk, as jaggery often carries grit.

30 min

Indian Drinks

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BorstplaatSugar fondant sweets

Borstplaat is the sweet of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands: small, melt-in-the-mouth discs or hearts of boiled sugar and cream or milk with a little butter, flavoured with coffee, vanilla or strawberry. Children find them in their shoes on the morning of 5 December alongside pepernoten and a chocolate letter. They need only a few ingredients and a little care, and are gluten free. Chef's tip: stir the cooled syrup until it turns cloudy and starts to thicken, then pour at once; that stirring forms the fine crystals that make borstplaat creamy.

35 min

Dutch Desserts

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Kuih makmurGhee and peanut cookies

Kuih makmur is one of the oldest Malay Hari Raya cookies, its name meaning 'prosperity', and its tiny ridged domes are baked by the tray-load before Aidilfitri to fill the cookie jars for open houses. Soft, crumbly ghee pastry wraps a filling of roasted ground peanuts and sugar, and the cookies are rolled in icing sugar while still warm, so they melt in the mouth. Chef's tip: bake them pale; makmur should stay white, and browned cookies taste of scorched ghee.

60 min

Malaysian Baking

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Slavski kolačDecorated ceremonial bread

The slava is a uniquely Serbian Orthodox custom: each family honours its own patron saint on that saint's feast day, passed from father to son, with a lit candle, boiled wheat (žito) and the slavski kolač, a round, decorated bread. The priest blesses it; the family turns it, cuts a cross into its base, pours a little wine into the cuts, and breaks it together. It is decorated with dough crosses, the seal 'IC XC NI KA', doves, wheat ears and grapes. It is a plain, vegan bread. Chef's tip: keep the decorations' dough a little stiffer than the loaf, so they hold their shape.

110 minBalkan Baking

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Kæst skataFermented skate

St Thorlak's Day (Þorláksmessa), 23 December, honours Iceland's patron saint, and in the Westfjords and now across the country it is the day for kæst skata: fermented skate, boiled and eaten with potatoes and melted, salty sheep's tallow (hamsatólg) or butter. Its ammonia smell is famous, which is why many families cook it in the garage or eat at a restaurant, then have it the next day as a bracing start to Christmas. Buy skate already fermented from an Icelandic fishmonger; don't try to ferment it at home. Chef's tip: cook it in a lidded pot with a window open, and boil the potatoes in a separate pot.

45 minScandinavian Fish

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Taai-taaiAnise and honey biscuits

In the Netherlands, taai-taai ('tough-tough') are chewy honey and anise biscuits shaped into figures of Sinterklaas, his horse, windmills, sweethearts and animals, eaten from mid-November until his feast on 5 December. They contain no fat or egg, so they are firm and chewy rather than crisp, and they keep well. Bakers once used carved wooden moulds; cookie cutters work fine. Chef's tip: heat the honey only until runny, then let the dough rest overnight; the rest is what makes the chew.

50 min

Dutch Baking

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Pane di San GiuseppeSculpted festival breads

For St Joseph's Day on 19 March, families in western Sicily (Salemi, Trapani, Marsala) build 'tavolate' or altars to the saint, laden with ornate, sculpted breads: beards for Joseph, a staff, flowers, birds, fish and the hand of God. The breads are later given to the poor and to guests. The dough is a firm, plain semolina bread, so it holds fine detail, brushed with egg and scattered with sesame. Shape a few simple ones first; they are as much decoration as food. It is vegan, glazed with water rather than the egg some bakers use. Chef's tip: keep the dough firm and rest it so it doesn't spring back; soft dough loses its shapes in the oven.

120 min

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Bread halwaFried bread halwa

At Tamil Muslim weddings and Eid feasts in Chennai and Madurai, the biryani is followed by a spoonful of bread halwa, sticky, golden and glistening with ghee. Cubes of white bread are fried until crisp, then cooked down with milk, sugar and cardamom until they melt into a soft, jammy halwa studded with cashews. Chef's tip: day-old bread fries crisper and soaks up the milk more evenly than fresh.

40 min

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Etrog marmaladeCitron preserve

After Sukkot ends, many Israeli families keep the fragrant etrog (citron) used during the festival and turn it into marmalade, so its scent lasts into the winter. The thick pith is bitter, so the sliced fruit is soaked overnight and blanched in fresh water before it is simmered with sugar into a golden, bitter-sweet preserve, lovely on challah or with soft cheese. If your etrog was treated with sprays because it was grown only for ritual use, buy an unwaxed one sold for eating. The common mistake is skipping the soaking and changes of water, which leaves the marmalade harsh. Chef's tip: add a lemon for pectin and brightness, since etrogs are dry and set softly on their own.

1515 min

Israeli Chutneys & Dips

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Kumror chhokkaPumpkin, potato and chickpeas

Kumror chhokka is the soft, sweet-savoury pumpkin dish that turns up on the niramish bhog plate at Durga Puja, next to khichuri and luchi, and at Bengali vegetarian feasts all year. Red pumpkin and potato are cooked down with soaked chickpeas, panch phoron (the Bengali five-spice), ginger and a pinch of sugar, until the pumpkin half melts and coats everything. There is no onion or garlic, which keeps it fit for the offering. It is mild, a little sweet and comforting. Common mistake: cutting the pumpkin and potato the same size; pumpkin cooks much faster, so cut it into bigger pieces, and stop when the potato is soft and some of the pumpkin has broken down. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of ghee and a pinch of roasted cumin powder stirred in at the very end makes it taste like the pandal version.

45 min

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KinnathappamSteamed rice and coconut milk squares

Kinnathappam is named after the kinnam, the round steel plate it sets in, and it is one of the soft, wobbly sweets Mappila cooks in Malabar make for iftar and Eid. Rice flour, coconut milk and sugar are stirred into a smooth batter, steamed until just set and cut into glossy diamonds that taste of coconut and cardamom. Chef's tip: strain the batter before steaming; any lumps of rice flour show as white specks in the finished squares.

55 min

Indian Desserts

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KinkélibaKinkéliba leaf tea with mint

Kinkéliba is an herbal tea brewed from the dried leaves of a West African shrub, and in Senegal it is the drink families reach for at the moment of breaking the fast in Ramadan, served hot with bread or dates. The brew is amber, gently bitter and woody, softened with sugar and lifted with fresh mint. Many households also drink it at breakfast all year. Chef's tip: simmer it gently rather than boiling it hard; a fierce boil brings out too much bitterness.

15 min

Senegalese Drinks

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RužiceWalnut pastry roses in syrup

Ružice, meaning 'little roses', are baked for Bajram in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Eid holidays when trays of syrup-soaked sweets are set out for every guest. Thin sheets of pastry are brushed with butter, scattered with walnuts and rolled up, then sliced so each piece opens like a rose in the oven. The baked roses drink up a cold lemon syrup and turn sticky, crisp on top and soft underneath. Chef's tip: pour cold syrup over hot pastry (or hot over cold), never both the same temperature, or the roses go soggy.

90 minBalkan Desserts

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Miel de chiverreSquash strand preserve

Chiverre is a large, pale squash with stringy flesh that Costa Rican families save for Semana Santa. The strands are cooked for hours with tapa de dulce (cane sugar), cinnamon and cloves until they turn into a golden, chewy, sweet preserve called miel de chiverre, eaten on its own or used to fill the Holy Week empanadas and tortas. Spaghetti squash, though milder, is the closest substitute. It is vegan. Chef's tip: soak the squash strands in cold water for a few hours and drain well, which removes the bitterness.

180 minCentral American Desserts

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KhajlaFried pastry rounds in sweet milk

In the old lanes of Lahore and Karachi's Burns Road, sweet shops fry khajla through the night in Ramadan so families can buy it fresh for sehri, the meal eaten before dawn. Each round is a stack of paper-thin layers of ghee-rubbed dough that shatter when you press them, and it is crumbled into a bowl of hot sweetened milk, often with fine pheni, to give slow energy for the fasting day. Chef's tip: keep the oil only medium-hot; khajla must fry slowly so every inner layer turns crisp before the outside browns.

100 min

Pakistani Desserts

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SnobrødBonfire stick bread

On Sankt Hans Aften, Danish Midsummer Eve on 23 June, people gather round huge bonfires on beaches and in gardens, sing the Midsummer song and burn a straw witch, and the children twist ropes of dough round sticks and bake snobrød over the embers. The bread comes out crisp and smoky outside and soft inside, ready to fill with jam, or butter for those who eat dairy. It is just as much fun at any garden fire or campfire. Chef's tip: hold the bread over glowing embers, not flames, and keep turning; flames blacken the outside long before the inside is done.

30 minScandinavian Breads & Parathas

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Bhoger khichuriMoong dal and rice with vegetables

On Maha Ashtami, the eighth day of Durga Puja, every para pandal in West Bengal cooks huge pots of bhoger khichuri, offers it to the goddess at noon and then hands it out on sal-leaf plates to anyone in the queue. It is bhog food, so there is no onion or garlic: the flavour comes from dry-roasted moong dal, short, fragrant gobindobhog rice, ginger, whole spices and a generous finish of ghee. The texture should be thick and spoonable, somewhere between a risotto and a porridge, with soft cauliflower, potato and peas through it. Serve it hot with labra, beguni and tomato khejur chutney. Common mistake: skipping the roasting of the dal, which leaves the khichuri flat and pale; roast it until it smells nutty and turns a light biscuit colour. Chef's tip: gobindobhog rice absorbs a lot of water as it stands, so keep a kettle of hot water by the stove and loosen the khichuri just before serving.

60 min

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Shir berenjRose water rice pudding

Shir berenj, 'milk rice', is one of the gentle sweets of the Iranian Nowruz season, made at home to share with visiting relatives and often given as nazri on special days. Short-grain rice is softened in water first, then cooked slowly in milk until the grains melt into a thick, creamy pudding scented with rose water. It is chilled and served plain, with the sweetness added at the table from a drizzle of grape molasses, date syrup or jam. The common mistake is adding all the milk at once over a high heat, which scorches the bottom and leaves the grains firm. Chef's tip: stir with a wooden spoon in a figure of eight, which reaches the corners where rice likes to stick.

70 min

Persian Desserts

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Tire Sainte-CatherinePulled molasses taffy

On 25 November, Quebec celebrates St Catherine, patron of unmarried women, with tire Sainte-Catherine, a pulled molasses taffy. The custom goes back to Marguerite Bourgeoys, who is said to have made taffy in the 1600s to draw children to her school in Ville-Marie, and today schools and families still 'pull the tire' together. Hot molasses and sugar syrup is cooled, then pulled with buttered hands until it turns golden and satiny, twisted into ropes and cut into pieces. It is gluten free. Chef's tip: pull it as soon as it is cool enough to handle, as it sets fast; work in pairs.

55 min

Canadian Desserts

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TaloaMaize flatbread with ham and cheese

During the Fêtes de Bayonne in July, when the whole town dresses in white with red scarves, stalls in the Pays Basque sell taloa: thick flatbreads of maize and wheat flour cooked on a hot griddle and folded around fillings. The classic is with jambon de Bayonne (a cured pork ham), with sheep's cheese or with ventrèche (cured pork belly), and it's eaten hot in the street. Cheese alone makes a good vegetarian version. Chef's tip: cook the taloa on a dry, very hot pan; it should blister and puff in patches like a tortilla.

30 min

French Breads & Parathas

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Leche de burraMilk, corn and sugar sweet

On 7 December, Nicaraguans celebrate La Purísima and La Gritería, when people go from house to house singing 'Who causes so much joy? Mary's Conception!' to altars set up for the Virgin, and the hosts hand out gifts: oranges, sugar cane, gofio and leche de burra. It is a firm, fudgy sweet of milk, sugar and a little cornmeal cooked until thick, then set in a tray, sometimes swirled with pink or brown, and cut into squares. Despite the name ('donkey's milk') it is made with cow's milk. It is gluten free. Chef's tip: stir constantly in the last 15 minutes, as milk sweets catch quickly.

70 minCentral American Desserts

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Pazham nirachathuCoconut-stuffed fried plantains

Every Malabar iftar spread has a plate of pazham nirachathu: ripe plantains slit open, packed with grated coconut, sugar and cardamom fried with ghee and cashews, then dipped in a thin flour batter and shallow-fried. The outside turns crisp and lacy, the plantain goes soft and caramel-sweet and the coconut stays moist. Chef's tip: slit the plantain without cutting through the far side or the ends, so the filling stays inside the pocket.

30 min

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LepetSticky rice and peanut logs

Lepet is the companion of ketupat on a Javanese Lebaran morning: glutinous rice and peanuts mixed with grated coconut, rolled in spiralled young coconut leaves and boiled for hours into dense, savoury logs. In Javanese tradition the sticky rice is a reminder to forgive and hold together after Ramadan, so it is shared with neighbours and family. It tastes nutty, salty and rich and is eaten with opor or simply on its own. Banana leaves and string work well where coconut leaves are hard to find. Chef's tip: roll each log loosely, about three-quarters full, so the swelling rice turns soft rather than hard and chalky.

285 min

Indonesian Rice & Grains

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Pan co' santiWalnut and raisin loaf

In Siena and the Tuscan countryside, pan co' santi ('bread with the saints') is baked for All Saints' Day on 1 November, when the new walnuts and the late grapes come in. It is a dark, lightly sweet bread dough rich with olive oil, walnuts, raisins and a surprising amount of black pepper, which gives a warm bite. It is eaten with the new wine by adults, or with roasted chestnuts. It is vegan. Chef's tip: fry the raisins and walnuts briefly in the olive oil before adding them, as Sienese bakers do; it brings out their flavour.

80 min

Nigerian Breakfast & Brunch

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FunkasoFermented wheat pancakes

Funkaso is a Hausa pancake from northern Nigeria, made from a wheat batter left to ferment until bubbly and fried into soft, spongy rounds with crisp edges. Families cook stacks of it for the pre-dawn sahur and the evening meal during Ramadan, and again on Sallah morning for visitors. It is eaten simply, sprinkled with sugar, or dipped in a hot pepper sauce, with hot kunun or tea. Chef's tip: the batter should be as thick as double cream; too runny and the pancakes spread thin and lose their spongy middle.

480 min

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Bubur candilSweet potato balls in syrup

Bubur candil is a classic takjil, the little sweet that Javanese families break the fast with after dates and water during Ramadan. Chewy balls of orange sweet potato and glutinous rice flour bob in a dark, glossy palm sugar syrup scented with pandan, and a spoon of salty coconut cream goes on top. It is warming, soft and fudgy, and stalls sell it in plastic cups in the hour before maghrib. Chef's tip: drop the balls into syrup that is just bubbling, not boiling hard, or they break up before they set.

45 min

Indonesian Desserts

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Plastic chutneyRaw papaya chutney

Plastic chutney gets its funny name from the way the thin slices of raw papaya turn clear and glassy, like cellophane, as they cook in syrup. It is the chutney of every Bengali wedding feast and of the Durga Puja bhog, served in a small heap at the end of the meal, sweet, sharp with lime, and dotted with raisins. No onion or garlic goes near it. Common mistake: cutting the papaya too thick or cooking it on high heat; thick slices stay opaque and chewy, while a fast boil caramelises the syrup before the papaya turns clear. The chutney is ready when every slice is see-through and the syrup coats a spoon. Chef's tip: soak the sliced papaya in water with a pinch of baking soda for 15 minutes, then rinse; this helps the slices stay crisp-tender and turn translucent evenly.

40 min

South African Rice & Grains

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Umphokoqo with amasiCrumbly maize pap with soured milk

Umphokoqo is the dry, crumbly pap of the Eastern Cape, beloved at Xhosa family gatherings and often brought out on Heritage Day as a taste of home. Instead of the stiff pap stirred into a smooth mound, the maize meal is steamed in a little water and broken up with a fork until it falls into fine, fluffy crumbs. It is served cold or at room temperature, with chilled amasi (thick soured milk) poured over, sour, cool and filling, or warm beside braai meat and chakalaka. Chef's tip: don't stir in circles like ordinary pap; cut and fluff with a fork so it stays crumbly.

40 min

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PepernotenAnise and honey spice drops

When Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands in mid-November, his helpers throw handfuls of pepernoten into the crowd and children find them in their shoes in the morning, until the big present evening of 5 December. Real pepernoten are the old-fashioned kind: soft, chewy, slightly irregular drops of rye flour, honey, anise and spice, paler and chewier than the crunchy kruidnoten sold today. This egg-free dough comes together in minutes. Chef's tip: let the dough rest for an hour so the honey softens the rye and the drops come out chewy, not cakey.

90 min

Dutch Baking

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Chichi frégiChickpea flour fritters in sugar

On the seafront at L'Estaque, the old fishing quarter of Marseille, and at summer fêtes all along the coast, kiosks fry chichi frégi: long, ridged fritters of wheat and chickpea flour, rolled hot in sugar and eaten in a paper cone. The dough is a yeasted, egg-free batter piped straight into the oil, crisp outside and soft inside, with a faint nutty taste from the chickpea flour and a hint of orange flower. Chef's tip: keep the oil at 175 °C; cooler and the fritters soak up fat, hotter and they burn before the middle cooks.

105 min

French Snacks & Starters

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MässmoggeHazelnut-filled striped sweets

Every autumn the Basler Herbstmesse, Switzerland's oldest fair, fills the old town with rides and stalls, and the smell of boiling sugar from the stands selling Mässmogge, glossy striped sweets in bright colours with a soft chocolate-hazelnut centre. They are made by pulling hot sugar until it turns satiny, wrapping it round a rope of filling and snipping it into little pillows. It takes practice and a sugar thermometer, and adults should do all the hot work; children can help once the sweets are cool. Chef's tip: work on an oiled silicone mat near a low oven, so the sugar stays pliable for longer.

75 min

Swiss Desserts

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Tomato khejur chutneyTomato and date chutney

A Bengali festive meal ends with chutney, and during Durga Puja the bhog plate's last stop is often this glossy tomato and date chutney. Ripe tomatoes are cooked with a mustard-seed and dried-chilli tempering, then sweetened with sugar and stoned dates and studded with raisins until it turns jammy and sticky. It is eaten as its own course after the vegetables, to clean the palate before the sweets. Common mistake: taking it off the heat too early so it stays watery; it is ready when a spoon drawn through the pan leaves a clear line for a second and the chutney looks shiny. Chef's tip: add a few strips of aamsotto (dried mango leather) with the dates if you have it; it gives the deep, fruity sourness of the pandal chutney.

35 min

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Bandhakopir torkariCabbage with peas and potato

In Bengali homes and pandal kitchens during Durga Puja, the bhog plate needs a dry vegetable beside the khichuri, and bandhakopir torkari is one of the favourites. Cabbage is shredded fine and cooked slowly with potato, peas, ginger and whole cumin, with no onion or garlic because it is offered to the goddess before it is eaten. A pinch of sugar and a final dusting of garam masala make it gently sweet and fragrant. Serve it with khichuri, luchi or plain rice and dal. Common mistake: covering the pan for the whole time, which steams the cabbage grey and watery; cook it mostly uncovered so the liquid evaporates and the edges just start to brown. Chef's tip: salt the shredded cabbage for 10 minutes and squeeze it lightly before cooking; it cooks faster and soaks up the spices better.

35 min

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Biscotti di San MartinoRicotta-filled fennel biscuits

St Martin's Day, 11 November, is when Sicilians traditionally open the new wine, and in Palermo it is marked with biscotti di San Martino: round, hard, fennel-scented yeast biscuits shaped like little turbans. Eaten plain, they are dunked in sweet Moscato; the pastry-shop version is split, soaked in a sweet syrup and filled with ricotta cream and candied fruit. This recipe soaks them in an orange syrup, so it is alcohol-free; adults can use Moscato or Marsala. Choose a vegetarian ricotta if needed. Chef's tip: bake them twice, the second time low, so they dry right through and keep for weeks.

80 min

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LemangBamboo-cooked coconut sticky rice

On the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Malay villages across the peninsula fill with smoke as families cook lemang: glutinous rice and coconut milk packed into banana-leaf-lined bamboo poles and turned slowly beside an open fire for hours. The rice comes out rich, salty and faintly smoky, sliced into thick rounds and eaten with rendang or serunding on Raya morning. Few homes have bamboo and a fire pit, so this recipe gives a home oven method in a banana-leaf-lined tin, with the bamboo way described too. Chef's tip: let the cooked lemang cool before slicing, as warm rice is too soft to cut cleanly.

270 min

Malaysian Rice & Grains

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Rosero quiteñoChilled spiced fruit and corn drink

Rosero is a festive drink of Quito in Ecuador, made for Corpus Christi in June, when the city once filled with processions and dancers. It is thick and refreshing: whole hominy (mote) and a thin purée of naranjilla (lulo) and pineapple, sweetened with sugar, spiced with cinnamon, cloves and allspice, and perfumed with orange-blossom water and rose petals, then served chilled in tall glasses with diced fruit. Frozen naranjilla pulp is sold in Latin shops. It is vegan. Chef's tip: simmer the pineapple peel with the spices for the syrup, as Quiteño cooks do; it adds a lot of flavour.

70 minAndean Drinks

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Almíbar nicaragüenseFruit preserve in panela syrup

In Nicaragua, Semana Santa means almíbar: a big pot of mango, papaya, jocote (hog plum) and grosella (gooseberry) simmered for hours in a dark panela syrup with cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Families make it ahead and share it with neighbours, who return the bowl full of their own. It is served cool in small bowls, sometimes with a slice of cheese. Jocotes and grosellas are hard to find abroad; firm plums and cape gooseberries are good stand-ins. It is vegan and gluten free. Chef's tip: add the fruit in order of firmness so everything finishes tender but whole.

180 minCentral American Desserts

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AlewaPulled sugar sweets

Alewa is the chewy pulled sugar sweet of Hausa northern Nigeria, cooked from just sugar, water and a squeeze of lime, then stretched by hand until it turns pale and satiny. Pocketfuls are given to children on Sallah, the Eid al-Fitr holiday, as they go from house to house in new clothes. The taste is clean caramel with a little sharpness from the lime. An adult should do the hot pulling. Chef's tip: oil your hands and the worktop well and pull while the sugar is still hot enough to bend; once it cools it sets hard and won't stretch.

45 min

Nigerian Desserts

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KaguyjyWhite corn pudding

On the night of 23–24 June, Paraguayans celebrate San Juan with bonfires, games like walking over hot coals and the 'paso de fuego', and a table of traditional foods, and kaguyjy (also mazamorra) is one of them. It is a soft, creamy pudding of cracked white corn (locro) simmered slowly in water and then milk with sugar or honey, sometimes with orange peel. It is eaten warm or cold. It is gluten free. Chef's tip: soak the corn overnight and cook it until each kernel is tender before adding the milk, or it never turns creamy.

130 min

Paraguayan Desserts

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Fulkopir dalnaCauliflower and potato in light gravy

Fulkopir dalna is the gravy dish of a niramish (no onion, no garlic) Bengali menu, and it appears on the Durga Puja bhog table and at home on Navami and Dashami, when many families keep the day's food vegetarian. Large cauliflower florets and potatoes are fried golden and then simmered in a thin, glossy gravy of ginger, cumin, tomato and a little yoghurt, finished with ghee and Bengali garam masala. It should taste mellow, warm and slightly sweet rather than hot. Serve it with luchi or khichuri. Common mistake: boiling the cauliflower in the gravy from raw; fry the florets first until browned in patches, or they turn mushy and taste watery. Chef's tip: whisk the yoghurt with the ground spices before it goes in, and keep the heat low, so the gravy stays smooth instead of splitting.

45 min

Taiwanese Snacks & Starters

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PflaumenmusOven-baked plum butter

When the late damson plums (Zwetschgen) ripen in September, German kitchens fill trays with them for Pflaumenmus, and jars of it stand on the decorated altar at Erntedank, the harvest thanksgiving in early October. Unlike jam, it uses little sugar and no pectin: the halved plums are baked slowly, uncovered, until they collapse and darken into a thick, almost black spread that tastes of plums and spice rather than sugar. Spread it on rye bread with butter, fill Dampfnudeln with it or stir a spoonful into quark. Chef's tip: bake it in the widest roasting tin you have, because the more surface, the faster the water steams off.

330 min

German Chutneys & Dips

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Qiaoguo (Qixi fried pastries)Sesame sugar fried dough knots

Qiaoguo, 'skill fruits', are fried for Qixi on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month in Zhejiang and Jiangsu. The festival celebrates the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd, the star-crossed lovers who meet once a year, and girls once set out these pastries and asked the Weaver Girl to make them clever with their hands; the neat twists and cut-out shapes show off that skill. They are crunchy, lightly sweet and toasty with sesame, like a delicate biscuit. Serve a plate under the evening sky with tea, melon and fruit. Chef's tip: roll the dough thin, about 2 mm; thicker pieces stay hard in the middle instead of crisp.

60 min

Chinese Baking

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Ma lao (puffed rice sticks)

Ma lao are a Lunar New Year sweet from Yilan on Taiwan's northeast coast, stacked on family altars as offerings and handed to guests through the holiday. The sticks swell to many times their size in the oil, a picture of a family and fortune growing bigger in the new year, and their sticky coating stands for staying close together. They are light and crunchy, almost hollow, with a sweet malt glaze and a nutty crust of toasted sesame or crisp puffed rice. Serve on the New Year candy tray with tea. Chef's tip: start frying in barely warm oil and raise the heat slowly; that gentle start is what makes the sticks puff.

180 min

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Sanzi (fried dough threads)

Sanzi are lacy coils of fried dough threads, made across Jiangsu and Shandong and by Hui and Uyghur cooks in Xinjiang. They belong to Hanshi, Cold Food Day, just before Qingming, when old custom forbade lighting the stove, so families fried them in advance to eat cold; the shatteringly crisp coils keep well for days and stand for the care taken to prepare for the remembrance. The dough is lightly salted and the strands snap like thin crackers, with a nutty note from sesame. Break them over congee or soy milk, or eat them on their own with tea. Chef's tip: rest the oiled ropes properly; relaxed dough stretches to thread-thin without snapping.

120 min

Chinese Snacks & Starters

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Fukumame (roasted lucky soybeans)

On Setsubun, the eve of spring in early February, households all over Japan fling roasted soybeans out of the door shouting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (demons out, luck in), then each person eats one bean for every year of their age, plus one for the year ahead. The beans are called fukumame, "fortune beans", and roasting them matters: a raw bean could sprout, and a demon's bean must not take root. Home-roasted ones are nutty, toasty and properly crunchy, far better than the packet kind, and they are good with green tea or scattered over a salad. Whole roasted beans are a choking hazard, so do not give them to children under five; grind theirs to a powder and sprinkle it on rice or yoghurt instead. Chef's tip: let a test bean cool for a minute before you judge it, because hot beans always feel softer than they will be.

30 min

Japanese Snacks & Starters

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Kuri gohan (chestnut rice)

Kuri gohan is one of the great dishes of the Japanese autumn, made all over the country when fresh chestnuts arrive in September, and it is often eaten around the harvest moon, when chestnuts are offered beside dumplings and taro (the later moon-viewing in October is even nicknamed the "chestnut moon"). Sweet, fluffy chunks of chestnut sit in salty, slightly sticky rice scented with kombu, and the dish is all about the season's bounty. It traditionally uses a spoonful of sake; this is optional, and plain water works perfectly well for an alcohol-free version. Serve with miso soup, pickles and grilled fish, sprinkled with black sesame salt. Chef's tip: soak the chestnuts in hot water for 30 minutes before peeling; the shells soften and the furry inner skin lifts away far more easily.

75 min

Japanese Rice & Grains

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Chitose ame (thousand-year candy)

Chitose ame, "thousand-year candy", are the long red and white sugar sticks that children carry home from the shrine at Shichi-Go-San in November, in Tokyo and now right across Japan. The length of the stick is a wish for a long life, and red and white are the colours of celebration. Pulling the cooling sugar fills it with air, turning it from clear to a silky, opaque white with a soft, almost milky crunch. Boiling sugar reaches more than 150 °C, so wear heatproof gloves, work on a heatproof silicone mat, and keep children well away until the candy has cooled; they can admire the finished sticks. Hard sweets are a choking risk for small children, so break off small pieces for them and stay with them while they eat. Chef's tip: oil your gloves lightly and keep pulling until the candy turns satiny and starts to resist; that is when it sets into sticks.

60 min

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Konpeito (Japanese sugar stars)

Konpeito came to Japan with Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century and became a treasured gift; Kyoto confectioners still make them the old way, rolling them in a tilted, heated pan for two weeks or more. Today the tiny pastel stars are given as wedding and birth favours, slipped into tins of emergency hardtack biscuits, and nibbled with green tea. They crunch like a sugar cube and taste purely of sugar, sometimes with a hint of fruit. This home version uses a wok over the lowest heat and a few patient hours, which gives smaller, knobbly stars rather than the perfect shop ones. They are naturally egg-free: they are made of nothing but sugar, and the setting comes from thin layers of syrup crystallising one after another. Chef's tip: add the syrup a teaspoon at a time and keep the crystals rolling until dry. The common mistake is pouring in too much, which glues everything into one clump.

240 min

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Hishi mochi (diamond rice cakes)

Hishi mochi sit on the tiered doll display for Hinamatsuri, Girls' Day on 3 March, and their colours are a little poem about early spring: green for new grass pushing through, white for the last snow, pink for peach blossom (some families also read them as health, purity and protection from evil). The diamond shape is said to echo the water chestnut and a wish for growth and many children. This home version is made from glutinous rice flour set in a square tin, so the cake is soft, bouncy and only gently sweet, with a grassy hint from matcha. Serve small pieces with green tea, or beside chirashizushi and clam soup at the festival table. Mochi is very sticky: cut it small for young children and older people, and see that they chew well and eat sitting down. Chef's tip: press each layer on while the one below is still warm and tacky, so the three bond into one cake.

120 min

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Malban (Egyptian rose and nut jelly sweets)

Malban is the Egyptian cousin of Turkish delight, sold by weight in Cairo sweet shops all year but piled highest for Ramadan nights and the Mawlid sweets of the Prophet's birthday. A syrup of sugar and lemon is cooked with cornflour for the best part of an hour into a thick, clear jelly, scented with rose water and a little mastic and studded with pistachios or hazelnuts. Cut into cubes and rolled in icing sugar, it is soft, springy and chewy, sweet and floral. Serve it with mint tea or Turkish-style coffee. It is naturally egg-free: cornflour, cooked slowly in the syrup, sets it into a firm jelly, with no other setting agent. Chef's tip: whisk the cornflour mixture into the syrup in a thin stream and keep stirring. The common mistake is stopping too early, which gives a soft jelly that weeps and won't hold a cube.

320 min

Egyptian Desserts

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Tupig (grilled sticky rice rolls)

In Pangasinan and the Ilocos provinces, smoky tupig is the snack of Undas, the first days of November when families clean and decorate graves, keep vigil through the night and share food in the cemetery to remember their dead. Sticky rice, coconut milk, shreds of young coconut and dark brown sugar are rolled in banana leaf and grilled until the leaf blackens and the inside turns chewy, caramel-dark and fragrant with smoke. They travel well in a basket, so they are handed round to relatives and visitors, still warm, with coffee or hot ginger tea. Chef's tip: no charcoal? A heavy griddle pan over a medium heat gives a good char on the leaves; just turn the rolls more often.

75 min

Filipino Desserts

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Szaloncukor (Hungarian Christmas tree candy)

Every Hungarian Christmas tree carries szaloncukor: sweets wrapped in shiny foil and fringed paper, hung from the branches in December and quietly eaten, one by one, by everyone in the house until Epiphany. The classic is soft white fondant, but the centres vary: tart fruit jelly, coconut, marzipan or nut. Here there are two fillings, raspberry jelly and coconut fondant, both coated in dark chocolate, so each bite gives a snap of chocolate and then a tender, melting middle. They are lovely with coffee or as a small gift. These are egg-free with no animal setting agent: the fondant is just sugar syrup cooked to the soft-ball stage and worked until it crystallises into a smooth, white paste, so no egg white is needed, and the jelly is set with agar-agar, which gives clean cubes that hold their shape at room temperature. Chef's tip: let the syrup cool to about 45°C before working it; the common mistake is starting while it is still hot, which grows coarse crystals and a gritty fondant.

180 min

Hungarian Desserts

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CalcionettiFried ravioli with chickpea and chocolate

In Abruzzo, calcionetti (caggionetti in dialect) are fried on Christmas Eve and handed round all through the holidays. The thin pastry is wrapped around a sweet filling of chickpea or chestnut purée with cocoa, honey, toasted almonds and orange zest, then fried until bubbly and dusted with sugar. Many Abruzzese families add a little rum or the local Centerbe liqueur to the filling; this version uses orange juice so children can eat them, and adults may add 1 tbsp rum. Chef's tip: seal each one firmly by pressing out all the air, as trapped air makes them burst in the hot oil.

100 min

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Mứt sen (candied lotus seeds)

No Tết candy tray in Hanoi or Huế looks complete without a mound of mứt sen, the ivory lotus seeds that stand for purity and, because a lotus pod holds so many seeds, for a family blessed with many descendants. Done well, each seed is soft and floury inside, almost like chestnut, under a dry, sparkling shell of sugar. Guests nibble them with a pot of hot green or lotus tea while they swap New Year wishes. Fresh seeds are best; dried ones from Asian grocers work if soaked overnight first. Chef's tip: pull out every green germ in the centre, because a single bitter heart spoils the sweet mouthful.

90 min

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Bánh tổ (Hội An New Year cake)

In Hội An and the rest of Quảng Nam, families steam bánh tổ for Tết and place it on the ancestors' altar; its name echoes 'tổ', the ancestors, and its slow-cooked sweetness is a wish for a smooth, sweet year. The cake is like a darker, ginger-scented cousin of Chinese nian gao: dense, chewy and glossy, with toasted sesame on top. Eat it in thin slices at room temperature, or fry slices until crisp outside and molten within, and serve with tea or sandwiched in rice crackers as locals do. Chef's tip: keep the water at a steady simmer and top it up with boiling water; a steamer that boils dry is the only real way to ruin this cake.

300 min

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Mont let saung (Burmese sago in coconut milk and jaggery)

During Thingyan, the Burmese water festival that ends the old year in mid-April, stalls across Myanmar hand out free food and cold drinks as a way of making merit, and mont let saung is one of the best loved. Chewy, glassy sago pearls (or short white rice-flour threads in some towns) sit on crushed ice, soaked in dark jaggery syrup and lightly salted coconut milk, with toasted sesame on top. It is cool, sweet and gently smoky from the jaggery, exactly what you want after a day of being splashed with water. Serve it in glasses or bowls as soon as it is assembled. Chef's tip: a pinch of salt in the coconut milk is what makes the jaggery taste rounder, so don't skip it.

45 min

Burmese Desserts

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Poolaki (Isfahan saffron sugar discs)Saffron caramel discs

Poolaki are the glassy, coin-thin sugar discs of Isfahan, sold in tins in the bazaar near Naqsh-e Jahan square and served with tea in Iranian homes, especially at Nowruz and when guests drop by. Instead of stirring sugar into the glass, you hold a disc on your tongue and sip strong black tea through it. They snap cleanly, then melt into a light caramel scented with saffron, sometimes with cardamom or a scatter of pistachio. They are naturally egg-free: sugar syrup cooked to the hard-crack stage sets as clear as glass the moment it is spread thin, and a little vinegar stops it from turning grainy. Chef's tip: do not stir once the syrup boils; swirl the pan instead and wash down the sides with a wet pastry brush. The common mistake is stirring, which makes the syrup crystallise and turn cloudy.

25 min

Persian Desserts

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Pâte de coingsQuince paste

On Christmas Eve in Provence the gros souper ends with the treize desserts, thirteen small sweets set out together and left on the table until 27 December. Pâte de coings, a firm, glowing amber quince paste cut into squares and rolled in sugar, is nearly always among them, beside nougat, dried fruit and fougasse. It is simply quince pulp and sugar cooked down slowly until it pulls away from the pan, so it is vegan and gluten free, and it keeps for months. Serve it in small cubes, or with a sharp cheese. Chef's tip: cook the quinces whole with their skins and cores, which hold most of the natural pectin, and only sieve them afterwards.

150 min

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ZeltenFig, walnut and raisin Christmas loaf

Zelten comes from the Alpine valleys of Trentino and South Tyrol, where it is baked around St Lucy's Day and eaten slowly until Epiphany, a slice at a time after Christmas dinner. The Trentino version is a dark, dense cake packed with dried figs, raisins, walnuts and pine nuts in just enough soft yeasted dough, topped with a pattern of whole nuts and cherries. Grappa or rum is usually poured over the fruit; here it is soaked in warm orange juice, and adults can add 2 tbsp rum to the soak. It keeps for 3 weeks wrapped. Chef's tip: press the decorative nuts in firmly before baking, or they pop off as the loaf rises.

90 min

Japanese Snacks & Starters

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KvashaFermented rye and buckwheat porridge

Kvasha is an old dish of the Volyn and Podillia regions of western Ukraine, cooked for Sviat Vechir, the Holy Supper on Christmas Eve, where twelve meatless dishes are served. Rye and buckwheat flour are mixed with boiling water and left a day to ferment, then cooked into a thick, sweet-sour porridge with dried fruit and honey, rather like a warm fruit pudding. Some villages added malt. It is vegan apart from the honey, which you can swap for sugar. Chef's tip: let the mixture ferment somewhere warm until it tastes pleasantly sour; under-fermented kvasha tastes floury and flat.

50 min

Ukrainian Desserts

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Kalamae (Thai coconut caramel sticky rice sweet)

Kalamae is the Songkran sweet of Central Thailand: in villages, neighbours take turns at a huge wok for hours, and the finished trays go to monks and elders at the New Year, the long shared stirring standing for a community pulling together and the sweetness for a sweet year ahead. Glutinous rice flour, coconut milk and palm sugar slowly turn from milky beige to a deep mahogany paste that is chewy, a little smoky and rich with coconut. Cut it into small squares and serve with jasmine tea, or wrap the pieces in banana leaf to give away. A home batch takes about two and a half hours at the stove, so put on some music and keep a wooden spoon moving. Chef's tip: use the widest heavy pan you own; more surface means faster thickening and less risk of scorching.

180 min

Thai Desserts

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Isobeyaki (grilled mochi with soy and nori)

In the first days of the year, Japanese kitchens are full of mochi, the rice cakes pounded or bought for Shōgatsu, and isobeyaki is the easiest, most loved way to eat them. The name means 'grilled on the rocky shore', after the sea flavour of nori, and mochi itself stands for strength and long life because it stretches without breaking. Each cake puffs and blisters in the pan, then gets a lacquer of sweet soy and a crisp sheet of seaweed; the outside crackles while the inside turns stretchy and molten. Serve as a snack with green tea, or alongside a bowl of miso soup. Chef's tip: brush the soy on only once the mochi has puffed, or it will burn before the middle is soft.

15 min

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Abekawa mochi (kinako mochi)Mochi with roasted soybean flour

Abekawa mochi comes from the banks of the Abe River in Shizuoka, where teahouses served it to travellers on the old Tōkaidō road, and today families all over Japan make it with leftover New Year mochi and at kagami-biraki on 11 January, when the offering cakes are broken open and shared for good health. Kinako, roasted soybean flour, gives a nutty, toasty sweetness, and its golden colour is said to look like gold dust, a wish for wealth in the year ahead. The mochi underneath is pillowy and stretchy. Serve with hot green tea, with a little black sugar syrup (kuromitsu) poured over if you like. Chef's tip: dunk the cooked mochi in hot water just before rolling, so the kinako sticks in an even, velvety coat.

15 min

Japanese Breakfast & Brunch

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Azuki-gayu (red bean rice porridge)

On Koshōgatsu, the 'little New Year' of 15 January, households across Japan eat a bowl of azuki-gayu in the morning; the red of the adzuki beans has long been thought to drive away evil and illness for the year ahead. It is a plain, comforting dish: rice cooked slowly until the grains burst, stained soft pink by the bean cooking water, with the beans themselves floury and tender. It is lightly salted rather than sweet, as it is traditionally eaten. Serve with umeboshi, a sprinkle of sesame salt or a few toasted mochi pieces dropped in at the end. Chef's tip: throw away the first boiling water of the beans to lose their bitterness, but keep the second; that is where the pink colour comes from.

75 min

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Bánh in (pressed rice-flour cakes)

Bánh in, literally 'printed cakes', come from Huế and central Vietnam, where they are stacked on the Tết altar for the ancestors and later shared with guests; the moulds stamp flowers or the characters for luck and longevity into each cake. The dough is just toasted glutinous rice flour bound with fragrant syrup, so the cakes are crumbly-soft, melt in the mouth and taste nutty, with a smooth mung bean heart. Serve them with jasmine or artichoke tea. Any wooden or plastic mooncake mould of about 40 g works. Chef's tip: let the pressed cakes rest overnight in a closed tin; they firm up and the flavour of the toasted flour deepens.

60 min

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Hanami dango (three-colour dumplings)

When the cherry trees bloom in late March and April, families and colleagues spread blankets under the branches for hanami, and these skewers of pink, white and green dumplings are the sweet that goes with them. The colours tell the story of the season: pink buds on top, white for the fading snow, and green for the summer leaves still to come. They are lightly sweet and pleasantly chewy, with a faint grassiness from the matcha, and need no sauce; just bring a flask of green tea. Mochi is very sticky: cut the dumplings into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. Chef's tip: add the water a spoonful at a time and stop when the dough feels like a soft earlobe, since rice flours vary a lot in how much they drink.

40 min

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Khao niao daeng (Thai red sticky rice)

Khao niao daeng, "red sticky rice", is made in Central Thailand in the days before Songkran and carried to the temple as an offering, its sticky grains a wish that family ties hold fast through the year. The rice is steamed first, then folded into a long-reduced coconut and palm sugar caramel until it turns a glossy red-brown and every grain is sweet, chewy and fragrant. Pressed into a tray, it slices neatly and keeps for a few days, so it is a good make-ahead sweet for a crowd. Serve squares with a sprinkle of toasted sesame and a cup of tea. Chef's tip: reduce the caramel until it is thick and bubbling slowly before the rice goes in, or the rice turns mushy instead of chewy.

90 min

Thai Desserts

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Changnian cai (long-year greens soup)

Changnian cai, 'long-year greens', is a must on the Taiwanese New Year's Eve table. Whole heads of mustard greens are cooked with their leaves uncut, and each person eats a long leaf from end to end without biting it short, a wish for a long life for the parents and the whole family. The greens turn silky and tender, with a pleasant bitterness that mellows in the savoury broth. This version uses vegetable stock with dried shiitake and ginger, so it is vegan. Serve it alongside the reunion dinner's rich braises and fish, where its clean taste is welcome. Chef's tip: blanch the greens first; it takes away the sharp bitterness and keeps them bright.

45 min

Taiwanese Soups

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Tsukimi dango (moon-viewing dumplings)

On the night of the harvest moon in September or early October, families across Japan set a tray of plain white dumplings by the window with a vase of pampas grass, as thanks for the harvest and an offering to the full moon. The round white dango stand for the moon itself, and the traditional count is fifteen, for the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month, stacked nine, four and two. This Kanto-style dough is steamed and then kneaded, which gives a smoother, firmer bite than boiled dango, with a clean rice flavour that loves a dusting of kinako or a spoonful of sweet red bean paste once the moon-viewing is over. Mochi is very sticky: cut the dumplings small for young children and older people, and see that they chew well and eat sitting down. Chef's tip: knead the steamed dough while it is still hot, wrapped in a damp cloth, until it turns satiny.

40 min

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Cotignac d'Orléans (clear quince jelly)

Orléans has made cotignac since the Middle Ages and offered it to visiting kings, and the town still sells it in small round wooden boxes, to be eaten by scraping the jelly out with the edge of the lid. It is a winter sweet, made when the autumn quinces come in and given at Christmas and New Year. The jelly is clear and ruby-red, firm enough to cut but tender on the tongue, with a scented, slightly tart quince flavour. Serve it after dinner with coffee, or with a mild cheese. Nothing but fruit and sugar sets it, so it is naturally egg-free: quinces are among the richest fruits in pectin, and boiling their juice with sugar to the setting point is all it takes. Small ramekins or silicone moulds lined with baking paper stand in for the wooden boxes. Chef's tip: let the cooked quince drip through the cloth without pressing; the common mistake is squeezing it, which clouds the jelly.

290 min

Chinese Snacks & Starters

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Boiled water caltrops (zhu lingjiao)Boiled water chestnuts in shell

Boiled water caltrops are a Mid-Autumn snack in Jiangnan and Guangdong, piled on the table beside mooncakes and pomelo while the family waits for the moon. The dark, two-horned nuts are harvested in autumn, and their name, ling, sounds like the word for clever, so children are told to eat them to grow bright; some families also say the shape looks like a bat, a symbol of good fortune. Inside the shell the white flesh is floury and sweet, much like a chestnut. Serve them warm in a big bowl with tea and the rest of the moon-watching snacks. Chef's tip: buy them fresh in autumn from Chinese grocers and always cook them through; never eat water caltrops raw, as they grow in ponds and can carry parasites.

40 min

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SchlorzifladenDried pear tart

Schlorzifladen comes from the Toggenburg valley in the canton of St Gallen in eastern Switzerland, where dried pears (schlorzi) were a winter staple. The thin, crisp tart is filled with a thick, dark purée of cooked dried pears spiced with cinnamon, and baked for Christmas and village feast days. Some versions have a rice or cream layer on top; this is the simple pear one. Pear brandy is sometimes added, but this version uses lemon juice instead and is alcohol-free. Chef's tip: cook the pear purée until it is stiff enough to hold a spoon upright, or it soaks the pastry.

120 min

Swiss Baking

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Yeot-gangjeong (nut and sesame bars in rice syrup)

Yeot-gangjeong is a traditional Korean hangwa made all over the country, especially in the weeks before Seollal and Chuseok, when trays of these bars are given as gifts and set out for visitors. Toasted nuts, sesame seeds and puffed rice are folded into hot rice syrup, pressed flat and cut into bars that are crunchy, nutty and only gently sweet, with a faint malty flavour from the syrup. Serve them with green tea or sikhye, the sweet rice drink, or pack them for a lunchbox. They are naturally egg-free: rice syrup, heated until it bubbles, acts as the glue and sets firm as it cools. Chef's tip: cut the slab while it is still warm. The common mistake is waiting until it is cold, when the bars shatter instead of slicing cleanly.

25 min

Korean Desserts

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Hong tang ciba (brown sugar glutinous rice cakes)

Pounded glutinous rice cakes are a Spring Festival essential in Sichuan and Chongqing, where 'ci' sounds like a wish for the family to stay close, as stuck together as the rice itself. Fried and drowned in brown sugar syrup, they turn into hong tang ciba, a dessert that closes many reunion dinners and hotpot nights. Outside they are puffed and crackly, inside soft and stretchy, and the dark syrup and nutty soybean flour make every bite taste like toffee. This home version steams a glutinous rice flour dough instead of pounding whole grains, which gives the same chew in far less time. Serve straight from the pan while still crisp. Chef's tip: let the steamed slab cool and firm up completely before cutting; warm dough smears and bursts in the oil.

50 min

Chinese Desserts

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Ruyi cai (soybean sprout stir-fry)

A curled soybean sprout, with its fat yellow head and long tail, looks just like the ruyi sceptre whose name means 'as you wish', so in Shanghai and the Jiangnan region no Spring Festival table is complete without a dish of ruyi cai. It is the gentle, crunchy counterweight to the braised pork and fish of the reunion dinner: nutty sprouts, chewy strips of tofu skin and meaty shiitake in a light soy glaze. Many families cook a big batch on New Year's Eve and eat it cold for days. Serve it with rice, alongside red-braised dishes or as part of a vegetarian New Year spread. Chef's tip: cook the sprouts until the beany raw taste is gone; undercooked soybean sprouts taste grassy and are hard to digest.

25 min

Chinese Vegetarian

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Dong li (Dongbei frozen pears)

In Dongbei, China's far north-east, winter temperatures fall so low that pears left outside freeze rock hard and turn glossy black, and a bowl of dong li thawing in cold water is part of every Spring Festival. They are eaten after the rich New Year's Eve dumplings and meats: cold, very sweet and full of juice, said to soothe a throat dry from heated rooms and to bring a clear, fresh start to the year. Freezing breaks down the flesh so it becomes soft and almost slushy, with a flavour like pear sorbet. You can recreate them in a home freezer; serve them as they are in small bowls, with spoons and napkins. Chef's tip: thaw them in cold water, never warm; the cold water pulls the frost out slowly and leaves an ice shell that cracks away cleanly.

30 min

Chinese Desserts

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Mebos (Karoo salted apricot sweets)

Mebos belongs to the dry Karoo and the orchards of the Western Cape, where summer apricots were salted, sun-dried and pounded into a paste that lasted the year. Today it is a car-trip and school-holiday treat, bought from farm stalls and passed around with afternoon tea. The flavour is bright and tart, then sweet, with a little salt that makes the apricot taste even stronger; the texture is dense and chewy, like a soft fruit leather. Eat it on its own, with a cup of rooibos, or chopped over plain yoghurt. This version starts from dried apricots, so it can be made at any time of year. It is naturally egg-free: the apricots' own pectin and fibre, thickened with sugar in the pan, hold the paste together with no other binder. Chef's tip: measure the salt; the common mistake is adding it by feel, which turns a sweet-sour sweet into a salty one.

120 min

South African Desserts

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Berlingots de Carpentras (striped Provençal hard candies)

Carpentras, the market town below Mont Ventoux, has made berlingots since the nineteenth century, using the fruit syrups left over from its candied-fruit trade. The little four-sided pyramids are clear and glassy with fine white stripes, and they are sold year round at the Friday market and in paper cones for the Christmas sweet table. They crunch cleanly and dissolve slowly, here with a cool mint flavour; a fruit syrup can take its place. Offer them after a meal with coffee or herbal tea. Hard candy is naturally egg-free: the sugar, cooked to the hard-crack stage, sets glass-hard by itself, and glucose syrup keeps it clear instead of grainy. You will need heatproof gloves, oiled scissors and a warm place to keep the sugar soft while you shape it. Chef's tip: make these on a dry day; the common mistake is cooking sugar in a steamy kitchen, which leaves the berlingots sticky within hours.

85 min

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Śliwki w czekoladzie (chocolate-coated prunes with walnuts)

Boxes of chocolate prunes are a classic Polish gift: brought to grandmothers at Christmas, set out on the Wigilia table among the twelve dishes, and passed round on name days. Plump smoked or soft prunes from the south of the country are best. Each one hides a walnut half, so you get chewy, slightly tart fruit, a crunchy bitter nut and a snap of dark chocolate in one bite. Serve them with coffee or tea after a big meal. Nothing here ever needed egg: the prune itself holds the nut, and chocolate sets around it as it cools. Older recipes soak the prunes in spirits; here they are alcohol-free, plumped in warm orange juice instead, which also brightens the flavour. Use a dark chocolate made without milk and the sweets are vegan. Chef's tip: dry the soaked prunes very well before dipping; the common mistake is leaving them damp, and even a few drops of juice will make melted chocolate seize and turn grainy.

55 min

Polish Desserts

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Gotgam-ssam (walnut-stuffed dried persimmon rounds)

Sangju in North Gyeongsang is Korea's dried-persimmon capital, and in Andong and across the region gotgam-ssam is a sweet for Seollal and Chuseok tables and for welcoming guests in winter. Soft dried persimmons are opened out flat, rolled tightly around a row of walnut halves and sliced, so each round shows a pattern like a flower. They are chewy and honeyed from the fruit, with crunchy, slightly bitter walnuts in the middle. Serve them with sujeonggwa, the cinnamon-ginger punch, or with a cup of roasted barley tea. It is naturally egg-free: the sticky dried fruit is its own glue, and a short chill firms the roll so it slices neatly. Chef's tip: wrap the roll tightly in cling film and chill it before slicing; the common mistake is slicing it straight away, which squashes the rounds and lets the walnuts fall out.

19 min

Korean Desserts

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Grillázs (Hungarian walnut brittle)

Grillázs belongs to Hungarian celebrations: it is sold at Christmas fairs and on saints' day markets, and at village weddings a towering grillázs castle or basket is often the centrepiece, broken up and shared at the end of the night. Walnuts are traditional, almonds are the fancier choice. The caramel is cooked to a deep amber, so it tastes rich and slightly bitter-sweet and shatters cleanly, with the toasted nuts giving a softer crunch. Serve shards with coffee, crumble it over ice cream, or press warm sheets over an oiled bowl to make a basket for fruit or sweets. It is naturally egg-free: melted, caramelised sugar sets glass-hard as it cools and holds the nuts together, with a few drops of lemon juice to keep it smooth. Chef's tip: warm the walnuts in the oven before they go in; the common mistake is adding cold nuts, which chill the caramel so it seizes and turns grainy before you can spread it.

40 min

Hungarian Desserts

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Mứt bí (candied winter melon)

Pale as rice paper and crunchy at the edge, mứt bí is one of the cheapest and best-loved sweets on the Tết candy tray all over Vietnam; its white colour stands for a clean, bright start to the year. The melon is first firmed in clear lime water made with food-grade slaked lime (vôi ăn, calcium hydroxide, sold for pickling), which sets the outside so the batons stay crisp while the sugar soaks in. If you would rather not use lime, a quick blanch and longer drying gives a softer but still delicious result. Serve with green tea, or with candied ginger and coconut. Chef's tip: choose an old, heavy winter melon with a dusty white skin; young ones are watery and collapse in the syrup.

240 min

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BeraweckaDried fruit and nut Christmas loaf

In Alsace, berawecka (the name means 'pear loaf') is baked in early December and sliced thinly through Advent, often handed to neighbours and godchildren. It is mostly fruit: dried pears, figs, prunes, raisins and walnuts held together with just enough bread dough, spiced with cinnamon, star anise and clove. Alsatian families soak the fruit in kirsch; this version uses strong black tea, which keeps the loaf moist and alcohol-free, and you can add 3 tbsp kirsch to the soak for adults if you like. It is vegan, keeps for weeks wrapped in foil, and is lovely buttered with a cup of tea. Chef's tip: cut the pears and figs the same size as the raisins, so every slice holds a mosaic of fruit instead of big lumps that tear the loaf.

100 min

French Baking

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Dulce de papayuelaMountain papaya in spiced syrup

Papayuela is the small, fragrant mountain papaya that grows in the cool highlands of Boyacá in Colombia. Cooked slowly in panela syrup with cloves and cinnamon, it becomes a glossy, amber dulce that Boyacá families set out during Holy Week and again at Christmas, often with a slice of fresh white cheese or cuajada. It is vegan and gluten free. Firm, slightly underripe ordinary papaya, or babaco, makes a good stand-in. Chef's tip: blanch the fruit briefly first, then drain it; this removes the bitter latex and lets it soak up the syrup.

90 min

Colombian Desserts

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KokadCoconut, jaggery and semolina squares

Kokad is one of the sweets in the Goan Christmas kuswar, the tray of homemade sweets Catholic families swap with neighbours in the days around 25 December. Freshly grated coconut is cooked with jaggery, semolina and ghee until it pulls together into a dark, fudgy mass, then pressed into a tray, scored into diamonds and topped with cashews. It is chewy, caramel-sweet and fragrant with cardamom. Chef's tip: roast the semolina in ghee first, until it smells nutty, as raw semolina makes kokad pasty.

75 min

Malaysian Snacks & Starters

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Kluay tak (Thai dried bananas, oven method)

In Bang Krathum, a district of Phitsanulok in lower northern Thailand, small nam wa bananas are peeled and laid out under the sun in glass-roofed drying boxes for several days, then pressed flat to make kluay tak. The district is famous for them, and bags are bought as a gift on the road home and nibbled with tea or coffee in the afternoon. They are dense and chewy like a soft toffee, dark amber, with a deep caramel and honey flavour that comes only from the fruit. As sun-drying takes days and needs steady heat, this version uses a very low oven overnight, then a rest in a jar so the moisture evens out. They are naturally egg-free and need nothing to bind them: the banana's own sugars concentrate and hold it together. Chef's tip: keep the oven low and prop the door open with a wooden spoon; the common mistake is a hot oven, which cooks and blackens the outside while the centre stays wet.

1340 min

Thai Desserts

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Krówki (Polish milk fudge)

Krówki, 'little cows', are the sweets Polish children grow up with: wrapped in paper with a cow on it, handed out at name days and school parties, and bought by the bag all year round. Fresh ones have a thin, sugary crust that crumbles at the edges while the middle stays soft and almost runny, with a deep taste of cooked milk and butter, close to dulce de leche. Eat them with black tea or coffee, or chop them into ice cream. They are naturally egg-free: milk and cream are boiled with sugar until the milk solids caramelise and the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, then beating it as it cools starts fine sugar crystals that set the fudge and give that crumbly crust. A spoonful of honey adds its own flavour and keeps the centre soft. Chef's tip: stop beating as soon as the mixture loses its shine and starts to thicken; beating too long is the common mistake, and the fudge then sets in the pan before you can pour it.

175 min

Polish Desserts

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Podsolnechnaya khalva (sunflower seed halva)

In Russia and Ukraine, where sunflowers cover the southern steppe, halva means sunflower halva rather than the sesame kind: grey-brown, crumbly slabs sold by weight at markets and eaten with tea at any time of day, especially through the long winter. It tastes deeply of toasted seeds, with a sandy, flaky texture that breaks into strands and melts on the tongue. Serve it in small pieces with black tea, crumble it over porridge, or eat it with fresh apple slices. Factory halva is lightened with a foam of soapwort root, and some old recipes use whipped egg white; this home version needs neither. Sugar syrup cooked to the firm-ball stage is beaten straight into warm, finely ground seeds, and as the syrup cools it crystallises and binds the oily seed paste into a sliceable block, naturally egg-free. Chef's tip: grind the seeds until they just start to clump and look oily, not into smooth butter; the common mistake is over-grinding, which gives a dense, fudgy slab instead of crumbly halva.

230 min

Russian Desserts

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Arrowhead chips (nga gu chips)

Arrowhead (nga gu, or ngaku) is a small aquatic tuber that only shows up in Malaysian markets in the weeks before Chinese New Year, and frying it into chips is a family job. Its curved sprout looks like a shoot rising from the root, so it stands for growth and many descendants in the year ahead. Sliced thin and fried, the chips are crisp and nutty like potato crisps, with a gentle bitterness that keeps you reaching for more. Put them out in jars with peanuts and love letters for visitors. Chef's tip: soak the slices and dry them very well; wet slices make the oil spit and fry up chewy instead of crisp.

40 min

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Kẹo cu đơ (Hà Tĩnh peanut and ginger candy)

Kẹo cu đơ belongs to Hà Tĩnh province in north-central Vietnam, where it is chewed slowly with a cup of strong green tea, especially on cold mornings and during Tết visits. Roasted peanuts are folded into a dark, sticky toffee of sugarcane molasses and malt syrup, sharpened with fresh ginger, and the hot mass is sandwiched between two crisp, toasted sesame rice papers. Every bite gives a crackle of rice paper, then a chewy, slightly smoky sweetness and a warm ginger finish. Cut it into wedges and serve it with tea rather than as a pudding. It is naturally egg-free: the molasses and malt syrup are cooked to the hard-ball stage, which is what sets the candy and binds the nuts. Chef's tip: toast the rice papers until they are completely puffed and blistered; the common mistake is under-toasting them, which leaves them leathery once the hot toffee goes on.

45 min

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VörtbrödDark Christmas rye bread

In Sweden the Christmas smörgåsbord (julbord) is never without vörtbröd, a dark, soft, slightly sticky rye loaf flavoured with wort, the sweet malty liquid brewers start beer from, plus dark syrup, orange peel, clove and ginger. It is sliced, buttered and eaten with the Christmas ham or with cheese. Many home bakers use dark beer, which contains alcohol; this recipe uses a non-alcoholic dark malt drink, which gives the same malty depth. It keeps for 4 days, and freezes well. Chef's tip: rye dough is sticky and never feels smooth like wheat; resist adding lots of extra flour or the loaf will be dry.

70 minScandinavian Baking

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Imelletty perunalaatikkoSweet baked potato casserole

Imelletty perunalaatikko is the most traditional of the Finnish Christmas casseroles, made in the days before Christmas Eve. Mashed potato is mixed with a little flour and left warm for hours, so the potatoes' own enzymes turn starch into sugar ('imelletty' means sweetened), and then it is baked slowly until the top is a deep caramel brown. The result tastes gently sweet with no added sugar and is eaten with ham, herring or, on a vegetarian table, with mushroom salad and beetroot. Chef's tip: keep the mash at hand-warm (about 55 °C) while it sweetens; too hot and the enzymes die, too cool and nothing happens.

300 minScandinavian Sides

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Kẹo mè xửng (Huế sesame peanut chews)

No one leaves the old imperial city of Huế without a box of kẹo mè xửng, the soft sesame chew sold on Đông Ba market stalls and handed out at Tết and on family visits. Rice malt syrup and sugar are cooked with a little tapioca starch into a glossy, stretchy mass, chopped peanuts are folded in, and the slab is pressed between layers of toasted sesame. It chews like a soft toffee, nutty and gently sweet, and the sesame gives every square a roasted fragrance. Serve squares with hot lotus or green tea after dinner. The candy is naturally egg-free: tapioca starch gives it its springy chew and the malt syrup binds it, so nothing else is needed. Chef's tip: oil your knife and cut while the slab is just warm. The common mistake is adding the starch slurry without stirring hard, which leaves white lumps through the candy.

75 min

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Cupeta (Salento honey and almond brittle)

Summer in Salento, the heel of Apulia, means the feste patronali, when village streets are hung with lights and the cupetari set up stalls of cupeta, a honey and almond brittle broken from large slabs. It also shows up on Christmas tables and at the feast of Saint Oronzo in Lecce in August. Honey gives it a darker, more floral caramel than plain croccante, and the almonds stay crunchy within a brittle that slowly turns slightly chewy in the heat. Traditionally it was poured onto wafer sheets or fresh bay or lemon leaves; this version uses bay leaves, which add a faint herbal note and keep it gluten-free. Eat it in pieces with coffee, or as a snack while walking through the fair. It is naturally egg-free: honey and sugar, cooked to the hard-crack stage, set around the nuts with no other binder. Chef's tip: lower the heat once the honey starts to colour; it burns much faster than sugar, and scorching is the common mistake.

45 min

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PaimeSteamed cornmeal and pumpkin parcels

Paime (or pime) is a Trinidad and Tobago Christmas sweet, a cousin of the Venezuelan hallaca brought by the parang tradition, when singers go from house to house at Christmas and are fed at every stop. Cornmeal, grated pumpkin and fresh coconut are mixed with sugar, butter, raisins and warm spices, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed until firm. Paime are eaten warm or cold, and keep for days in the fridge. Chef's tip: soften the banana leaves over a flame or in hot water first, so they fold without splitting.

100 min

Trinidadian Desserts

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Frutta martorana (Sicilian painted almond-paste fruit)

Palermo's pastry shops fill their windows with frutta martorana in late October, ready for All Souls' Day on 2 November, when Sicilian children wake to find sweets and toys said to be left by the family's dead. The name comes from the nuns of the Martorana convent, who were said to have decorated their bare orchard with almond-paste fruit. Each little fig, prickly pear or orange is so perfectly painted it looks real, and the paste inside is smooth, dense and very sweet, with a pure almond flavour. Serve a few with coffee or a glass of cold almond milk. The paste is egg-free almond paste, made the Sicilian way: ground almonds are stirred into sugar syrup boiled to the soft-ball stage, and the syrup binds them as it cools, unlike some shop marzipan, which is not always egg-free. Chef's tip: let the shapes dry before painting; the common mistake is painting damp paste, so the colours bleed.

180 min

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Croccante (southern Italian almond brittle)

Croccante is the sweet of southern Italian feast days: from Naples to Calabria and Apulia it is sold from stalls at the patron saint's festa, set out at Christmas and at Carnival, and in some towns shaped into little baskets for weddings. Whole almonds are toasted and folded into caramel, then pressed thin on marble with the cut side of a lemon, which stops it sticking and leaves a faint citrus scent. It is crisp and glassy with a deep, nutty, slightly bitter caramel. Break it into shards to eat with coffee, or crush it over ice cream. It is naturally egg-free: only caramelised sugar holds the almonds, setting hard as glass as it cools. Chef's tip: keep the almonds warm when they go in; the common mistake is adding cold nuts, which makes the caramel seize into lumps.

30 min

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Quinotos en almíbar (Argentine kumquats in syrup)

In Buenos Aires and the river provinces of the Litoral, kumquat trees ripen in the middle of winter, between June and August, and the fruit goes straight into jars of syrup. Grandmothers' pantries held quinotos for the whole year, brought out for birthdays and long Sunday lunches. Each little fruit turns glossy orange and translucent, with a soft, bittersweet skin and a sharp, juicy centre. Spoon them over vanilla ice cream, serve them with a slice of fresh cheese in the style of postre vigilante, or eat them straight from the jar. Many bar menus offer them steeped in spirits; this version keeps only the syrup. Naturally egg-free, the quinotos rely on sugar syrup to preserve them, while pectin from the peel gives the syrup a light, jammy body. Chef's tip: blanch the fruit three times from cold water; the common mistake is skipping this, which leaves the skins tough and bitter.

120 min

Argentinian Desserts

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Asham (Jamaican parched-corn sweet)

Asham is one of rural Jamaica's oldest treats, a sweet carried over from West African parched-grain foods and still made in country districts of St Elizabeth, Clarendon and St Ann. Children ate it after school from a twist of paper, and it reappears at heritage fairs around Emancipation Day and Independence in early August. Dried corn is parched until toasty and golden, ground to a fine, sandy powder and mixed with dark sugar: nutty, faintly smoky and melting slowly on the tongue. Eat it by the pinch, press it into little balls, or stir a spoonful into warm milk or water as a drink. It is naturally egg-free; the powder needs no binder at all, and for balls a sprinkle of water and the sticky brown sugar hold it together. Chef's tip: eat the loose powder in small pinches and don't breathe in as you eat it; it is famous for making people cough. In the pot, keep the corn moving, as scorching is the common mistake and turns it bitter.

40 min

Jamaican Desserts

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Pâte de fruits (Auvergne apricot fruit jellies)

Clermont-Ferrand, the capital of the Auvergne, built a name for pâtes de fruits in the nineteenth century using apricots from the Limagne plain, and the jewel-bright squares remain a favourite in Christmas boxes and with coffee at the end of a meal. Good pâte de fruits tastes more of fruit than of sugar: dense, tender and clean-cutting, with a sparkle of sugar crust and a sharp edge of acid. Serve them on a plate of petits fours, or pack them as a gift. They are naturally egg-free: pectin, the fruit's own setting agent, does all the work once the purée is boiled with sugar to 106°C and the acid is added. Use yellow pectin for pâte de fruits if you can find it; it sets slowly enough to pour. Chef's tip: stir in the citric acid only off the heat, right before pouring; the common mistake is adding it early, so the jelly sets in the pan.

90 min

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Pastillas de leche (Bulacan milk candy)

San Miguel in Bulacan, north of Manila, has made pastillas de leche from the rich milk of carabao, the water buffalo, for generations, and the town celebrates it every May with a festival. The candies are slow-cooked from little more than milk and sugar, rolled into fingers, coated in sugar and wrapped in coloured paper, often with fringed, cut-paper wrappers for fiestas and Christmas. They taste like a soft, milky fudge that melts on the tongue. Hand them round with coffee or tuck them into gift boxes. Carabao milk is hard to find, so this version uses whole cow's milk boosted with a little milk powder for the same richness. It is naturally egg-free: the milk solids, reduced with sugar, set into a firm paste on their own. Chef's tip: keep the heat at medium-low and scrape the base often. The common mistake is turning the heat up to save time, which scorches the milk and makes the paste grainy.

95 min

Filipino Desserts

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Tang gua (malt sugar candy)

On Xiaonian, the 'little New Year' a week before the Spring Festival, families across northern China offer tang gua to the Kitchen God before he flies up to report on the household: the sticky sweets are meant to glue his mouth shut, or at least sweeten his words. The name means 'sugar melons', after their round, ribbed shape. Pulling the hot maltose over and over turns it from amber glass to a pale, airy candy that shatters and then turns chewy, with a toasty malt flavour and plenty of sesame. Serve them with tea on Xiaonian and keep the rest in a tin for New Year guests. Chef's tip: wear clean rubber or silicone gloves and work on an oiled tray; hot sugar sticks to skin and burns.

180 min

Chinese Desserts

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Chè kho (mung bean fudge pudding)

On New Year's Eve and the last days of Tết, Hanoi families place a plate of chè kho on the ancestors' altar: a smooth, golden mung bean fudge whose sweetness asks for a gentle, prosperous year. 'Kho' means cooked down dry, and that is the whole technique, stirring the bean purée with sugar until it becomes a thick, glossy paste that can be cut. It tastes nutty and delicately floral from grapefruit-blossom water, with a crunch of sesame on top. Serve small slices with lotus or green tea. Chef's tip: use a heavy non-stick pan and a wooden spoon, and never leave it; the paste catches in seconds once it thickens.

75 min

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Nerikiri (hand-shaped bean paste flowers)

Nerikiri are the jewel-like sweets of the tea ceremony in Kyoto and Tokyo, shaped by hand into the flower, leaf or fruit of the season: cherry blossom in April, hydrangea in June, chrysanthemum in autumn. Each is served alone on a small plate before thick matcha, cut with a pick. The dough is white bean paste kneaded with gyuhi, a soft paste of glutinous rice flour and sugar, and it feels like fine modelling clay, smooth and gently sweet, wrapped around a centre of red bean paste. They are naturally egg-free: the gyuhi gives the bean paste stretch and holds the carved shapes, so no other binder is needed. This simple five-petal flower is a good first shape. Chef's tip: dry the white bean paste well before adding the gyuhi; the common mistake is a soft, wet dough that slumps and loses its petals within minutes.

90 min