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ByaslagPressed fresh cheese

Byaslag is the mild, springy fresh cheese of Mongolian herders, made in summer from cow's or yak's milk in Arkhangai and Khövsgöl, where yak herds graze the high valleys. Warm milk is curdled with soured milk, the curds pressed under a stone, and the finished cheese is sliced and eaten fresh, dried in the sun, or dropped into milk tea where it softens. No rennet is used, so it is vegetarian. A common mistake is boiling the milk hard after adding the sour milk, which makes the curd tough and rubbery. Chef's tip: press it overnight for a firmer cheese you can slice thinly.

50 min

Mongolian Basics

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Morcilla dulceSweet blood sausage with walnuts

No Uruguayan parrilla is complete without morcilla dulce: a soft pork blood sausage sweetened with sugar and scented with orange peel, studded with walnuts and raisins, grilled until the skin crisps and served first, as part of the achuras, while the beef is still cooking. It is pork throughout: pork blood, pork back fat and natural pork casings. Making it at home is a project. Buy fresh pork blood with an anticoagulant added from a butcher who supplies it for sausage making, keep it chilled below 4 °C and use it within a day. The common mistake is poaching at a rolling boil, which bursts the casings. Chef's tip: keep the water at 80–85 °C, just shivering, and prick a sausage after 25 minutes: it is done when brown, not red, juice comes out.

120 min

Paraguayan Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Boiled mutton

Chanasan makh is the simplest and most loved meal of the Mongolian countryside, boiled in a big pot on the ger stove in Övörkhangai or Khentii whenever guests arrive or a holiday comes round. Large bone-in pieces of mutton are simmered with nothing but salt and a little onion, then served steaming on a platter to be cut with a knife and eaten by hand, with the rich broth drunk from bowls alongside. Potato, carrot and turnip are often cooked in the same pot. A common mistake is boiling hard, which makes the meat tough and the broth cloudy; keep it at a lazy simmer and skim. Chef's tip: mutton or older lamb with some fat on it gives the deepest flavour.

135 min

Mongolian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Uuts-style roast lamb saddle

Uuts, the whole back and fat tail of a sheep, is the grandest dish of Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year: boiled, then set in the centre of the table in every Ulaanbaatar and countryside home and carved for each visitor during the days of family visits. The real thing weighs many kilos and needs a huge pot, so this home version uses a bone-in saddle of lamb with its fat, simmered first and then roasted until the fat is crisp, keeping the uuts idea of a whole, impressive cut to carve at the table. A common mistake is trimming away all the fat; in Mongolia it is the most prized part. Chef's tip: score the fat in a criss-cross so it renders and crisps evenly.

170 min

Mongolian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

BortsAir-dried beef strips

Borts is the winter-dried meat of Mongolian herding families: in the cold, dry air of late autumn, strips of beef are hung inside the ger until they shrink to hard, dark sticks, then pounded and stored in a bag to last until spring. A handful of borts dropped into hot water makes an instant soup, and nomads carry it on long journeys. In Mongolia it is also made from horse or camel meat; this recipe uses beef. Home kitchens don't have the steppe's freezing dry air, so here the meat is heated to a safe temperature first and dried in a low oven. A common mistake is leaving fat on the strips; fat turns rancid, so trim it all. Chef's tip: slice the meat while half-frozen to get thin, even strips.

450 min

Mongolian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ají amarillo pasteYellow chilli paste

In Lima's markets ají amarillo is sold fresh all year, and most Peruvian cooks keep a tub of this paste in the fridge the way others keep tomato purée: it is the golden base of causa limeña, ají de gallina, papa a la huancaína, chupe and the sauce for tiraditos. The chillies are seeded, de-veined and blanched in three changes of water, which tames the heat and the raw grassiness, then peeled and blended with oil into a thick, silky, saffron-orange paste. It tastes fruity and sunny, almost like apricot and passion fruit, with a rounded, medium heat. Abroad, buy whole frozen ají amarillo from Latin grocers; dried ají mirasol, soaked, gives a darker, earthier paste. Common mistake: skipping the peeling; the thin skins leave papery flecks and a bitter edge. It is ready when it is completely smooth and holds a soft peak like thick hummus. This is a low-acid paste: keep it in the fridge for a week or freeze it, never on the shelf. Chef's tip: freeze it in an ice-cube tray; one cube is about a tablespoon, just right for a pot of ají de gallina.

40 min

Peruvian Basics

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BusecaTripe and white bean stew

Buseca arrived in Montevideo with Italian immigrants from Lombardy and became a classic winter dish of Uruguayan bodegones and family kitchens, eaten on cold June and July days. Honeycomb tripe is simmered until tender, then stewed with white beans, pork chorizo, bacon, peppers, tomato and paprika into a thick, warming stew served with crusty bread. Buy tripe that is already cleaned and blanched (dressed). The usual mistake is undercooking the tripe: it needs a full 2 hours, until it's soft enough to cut with a spoon. Slow-cooker option: after step 4, cook on low for 8 hours. Chef's tip: a little grated lemon zest and parsley stirred in at the end lifts the rich, gelatinous sauce.

185 min

Paraguayan Meat

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Seco de chabeloPlantain mash with dried beef

Piura's picanterías, near the dry northern border, serve this rough, savoury mash at lunch: green plantains, roasted or boiled and pounded, mixed with fried strips of carne seca (salted dried beef) and a quick sofrito of onion, tomato and ají amarillo. It is dense, salty and smoky, with the plantain's starchy sweetness, and is eaten with salsa criolla and fried ripe plantain or chifles (plantain crisps). The legend says it was invented for a soldier called Chabelo in the War of the Pacific. Use carne seca or cecina from Latin shops, or unseasoned beef jerky. Pounding the plantains smooth is the classic mistake: chabelo should be lumpy and rustic. Chef's tip: soak the dried beef in warm water for 30 minutes and taste a piece; if it's still very salty, change the water and soak again.

60 min

Peruvian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Anticuchos de corazónBeef heart skewers

As night falls in Lima, anticucheras set up charcoal grills on street corners and fan the smoke towards passers-by; the October processions of the Señor de los Milagros are lined with them. The skewers are traditionally beef heart, a lean, firm and surprisingly mild meat, soaked in a dark-red marinade of ají panca, vinegar, cumin and garlic. They come with a boiled potato, a piece of choclo (large-kernel corn) and a spicy green ají sauce. If you can't get heart, sirloin steak works well. Chef's tip: baste the skewers with the leftover marinade and oil using a few coriander stalks tied together as a brush, the way the street cooks do.

50 min

Peruvian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pachamanca a la ollaPot-steamed meats with potatoes

In the highlands around Huancayo and Ayacucho, families mark harvests and saints' days by burying marinated meats, potatoes, sweet potatoes, broad beans and humitas under hot stones and earth for a pachamanca, an 'earth pot'. City cooks get close to it with a heavy pot: the same green marinade of huacatay (black mint), chincho, ají and garlic, layered with meats and roots and steamed in their own juices under banana or corn leaves. Chef's tip: layer the hardest things lowest, potatoes on the bottom and chicken nearest the lid, just as the stones are packed in the field.

135 min

Peruvian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Khorkhog-style lambHot stone-style lamb

Khorkhog is the feast of the Mongolian countryside, cooked when a herding family welcomes guests: a sheep is cut into pieces and sealed into a milk churn with hot river stones, onion, carrot and potato, and the churn is set over the fire until the meat is tender and smoky. Guests pass the hot, greasy stones from hand to hand for good health. This home version cooks the lamb in a heavy sealed casserole in the oven, which gives the same tender meat and rich juices; please don't heat stones in a kitchen pot, which is dangerous. The mistake is adding water: the lamb steams in its own juice with only a little liquid. Chef's tip: use lamb on the bone, such as neck or shoulder, for the deepest flavour.

140 min

Mongolian Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Asado uruguayoGrilled beef short ribs and chorizo

Sunday in Uruguay means asado: in Montevideo backyards and the cattle towns of the interior, beef ribs (asado de tira), chorizo and morcilla cook slowly over the embers of a wood fire, with only coarse salt, while the family waits. The parrillero rakes coals under the grill and keeps the heat low and even. This recipe includes pork chorizo. The mistake is cooking over flames; the fire should burn down to embers you can hold your hand above for 6–8 seconds. Chef's tip: salt the meat only when it goes on the grill, with coarse salt, never fine.

140 min

Paraguayan Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views