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4,234 recipes

Canh bóng (Hanoi puffed pork skin soup)

Canh bóng is the showpiece soup of the Hanoi Tết feast tray: a clear pork bone broth full of colour, with carrot flowers, cauliflower, snow peas and mushrooms floating beside pork meatballs, prawns and bóng bì, the puffed dried pork skin that soaks up broth like a sponge. Its many ingredients stand for abundance, and its clarity for a clean start to the year. It is light yet deeply savoury, served with rice and the rest of the feast. Buy bóng bì ready-puffed in packets from Vietnamese grocers. Chef's tip: soak and squeeze the pork skin in warm ginger water twice; it removes the frying oil so the broth stays sparkling.

90 min

Vietnamese Soups

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Tian shao bai (sweet pork belly over sticky rice)

Tian shao bai is one of the 'three steamed bowls' of a Sichuan countryside banquet, and no Spring Festival feast there is complete without it. Thick slices of pork belly are cut into hinged pockets, filled with sweet red bean paste and packed into a bowl over glutinous rice with brown sugar, then steamed for hours and turned out as a glossy dome: sweetness for the year ahead and a richness that says the harvest was good. The pork fat melts into the rice, the skin turns soft and wobbly, and the bean paste and sugar make it rich and sticky like a pudding. Serve it towards the end of the meal in small portions with tea. Chef's tip: chill the boiled belly before slicing; cold pork cuts into clean, even slices that hold together.

195 min

Chinese Meat

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SerinakakerAlmond and pearl sugar butter biscuits

Serinakaker are the easiest of the Norwegian seven Christmas biscuits, so they are often the first one children help to bake in Advent. Small balls of rich butter dough are flattened with a fork, brushed with egg and topped with chopped almonds and pearl sugar, then baked until the edges just colour. They taste of butter and vanilla, with a crunch on top. Chef's tip: use baker's ammonia (hjortetakksalt) if you can find it for the traditional crisp-light snap; baking powder works too but gives a softer biscuit.

32 minScandinavian Baking

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Ho si fat choy (dried oysters with black moss)

Ho si fat choy is the Cantonese Lunar New Year dish that every shopkeeper in Hong Kong wants on the table: ho si (dried oysters) sounds like 'good business' and fat choy (black moss) sounds like 'get rich'. Wild fa cai is now banned from harvest in China because gathering it damaged the grasslands, so this recipe uses the widely sold 'vegetarian black moss' substitute, which looks the same; you can also leave it out and the dish is still delicious. The dried oysters are soaked and slowly braised with shiitake until plump, chewy and deeply savoury, in a glossy oyster-sauce gravy. Serve it piled on blanched lettuce with steamed rice. Chef's tip: rinse the soaked oysters under running water, rubbing each one, to wash out any grit hiding in the folds.

90 min

Hong Kong Fish

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Zhenzhu wanzi (pearl meatballs)

Pearl meatballs come from Mianyang in Hubei, where they are a fixture of the Spring Festival banquet: round shapes stand for a family gathered whole, and the gleaming grains of rice for pearls and wealth. Steaming turns the glutinous rice coating translucent and slightly chewy, while the pork inside stays tender and juicy, with crunch from water chestnuts. They are mild and soft, so children love them, and they look beautiful on a steamer of mixed dim sum or as one of the many dishes at the reunion dinner. Tamari keeps them gluten free; ordinary light soy sauce works if that does not matter to you. Chef's tip: beat the pork in one direction until sticky before shaping; it keeps the meatballs bouncy and stops the rice from falling off.

55 min

Chinese Meat

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La wei he zheng (Hunan steamed cured meats)

La wei he zheng, 'cured flavours steamed together', is a showpiece of Hunan's Spring Festival table: a bowl of smoky cured pork belly, cured chicken and dried fish, layered and steamed until their juices mingle. Cured meats are made in the coldest month to last through the holiday, so a heaped bowl promises a family that will never go short. The fat turns melting and translucent, the fish smoky and firm, and fermented black beans and chilli give a salty, fiery lift. The easy route is shop-bought Chinese cured pork belly and sausage from an Asian grocer; many brands contain a little rice wine, so check the label if you avoid alcohol. Serve with plenty of plain rice and a stir-fried green. Chef's tip: steam everything whole first, then slice; cured meat cut cold and hard shreds instead of slicing neatly.

65 min

Chinese Meat

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KerstkransjesAlmond butter ring biscuits

In the Netherlands, kerstkransjes are small, ring-shaped butter biscuits topped with flaked almonds and pearl sugar, traditionally threaded with a ribbon and hung on the Christmas tree for children to pick off. They are tender and buttery with a lemony crumb and a crunchy top, and keep well in a tin through the holidays. They take about 45 minutes from start to finish. Chef's tip: punch the centre hole slightly bigger than you want; it shrinks as the biscuits bake.

45 min

Dutch Baking

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JulekakeCardamom raisin Christmas bread

Julekake is the Christmas bread of Norway, baked in the days before Christmas Eve and eaten for breakfast on Christmas morning, sliced and spread with butter and brown goat's cheese (brunost). It is a soft, round, golden loaf enriched with milk and butter, perfumed with freshly ground cardamom and dotted with raisins and candied citrus peel. It is plain enough to enjoy every day of the holidays, and leftovers make wonderful toast. Chef's tip: crush whole cardamom seeds yourself just before baking; ready-ground cardamom loses its scent within weeks.

65 minScandinavian Baking

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Postni chushki s bobBean-stuffed dried peppers

Bulgaria's Christmas Eve supper, Budni vecher, is meatless and set with an odd number of dishes, and peppers stuffed with beans are almost always among them. The peppers are the deep-red ones dried on strings in autumn; soaked, they turn soft and sweet with a smoky edge, and they are filled with white beans cooked with onion, paprika and dried mint, then baked. They are vegan, high in protein, and just as good the next day. Fresh red peppers work if you can't find dried ones. Chef's tip: cook the beans until completely soft before stuffing, because they won't soften any further inside the peppers.

120 min

Bulgarian Vegetarian

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MaksalaatikkoLiver and rice casserole

Maksalaatikko is a baked casserole of rice, milk, minced liver, onion, raisins and a little syrup, and it is one of the old dishes on the Finnish Christmas table, eaten all year too. It sounds unusual, but the liver softens into a mild, savoury custard and the raisins and syrup give a gentle sweetness, all cut by sharp lingonberry jam. This version uses pork or calf's liver, minced or very finely chopped; pork liver is the most traditional. Chef's tip: soak the minced liver in milk while the rice cooks, which mellows the flavour.

100 minScandinavian Meat

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Gul jeon (oyster pancakes)

Oysters are at their sweetest in midwinter, just as Seollal arrives, and the farms around Tongyeong on Korea's south coast supply most of the country, so gul jeon are a treasured New Year treat. They are a quick, small luxury on a jeon platter that is otherwise mostly vegetables and pork, a taste of the sea brought to the family table for the new year. Each oyster is wrapped in a thin, tender egg coat, so the outside is golden and soft while the inside is briny, sweet and juicy. Use shucked fresh oysters from a tub or the fishmonger, and serve them hot with a soy-vinegar dip, a squeeze of lemon and steamed rice. Chef's tip: pat the oysters really dry, or the flour turns gluey and the oil spits.

20 min

Korean Fish

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Yan du xian (Shanghai fresh and cured pork soup)

Yan du xian is the soup that tells Shanghai and the Jiangnan region that the Spring Festival has arrived: 'yan' for salted pork, 'du' for the gentle bubbling of a pot left to simmer, and 'xian' for fresh pork and new bamboo shoots. The cured and fresh meat together stand for a year that keeps the good things of the past and welcomes the new. Long, slow cooking turns the broth milky, deeply porky and savoury, with sweet, crunchy bamboo and soft tofu knots that soak up the flavour. Set it in the middle of the reunion table and eat it between the richer dishes with plain rice. Chef's tip: keep the pot at a lazy simmer, never a rolling boil, or the salted pork turns hard and stringy.

125 min

Chinese Soups

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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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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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Sichuan la rou (smoked cured pork belly)

In the twelfth lunar month, balconies across Sichuan and Chongqing fill with strips of pork belly hanging to cure, and by the Spring Festival they have become la rou: smoky, salty and deeply savoury, the taste of a full larder and a prosperous year. The pork is rubbed with salt and toasted Sichuan pepper, left to cure, dried, then smoked; traditionally over cypress branches, here in a foil-lined wok with rice, sugar, tea and wood chips. Steamed and sliced thin, the fat turns translucent and the lean a deep ruby red. Serve it on its own with rice, or stir-fry the slices with garlic shoots or leeks. This home version uses pink curing salt for safety, cures and dries in the fridge, and must always be cooked before eating. Chef's tip: weigh the curing salt on scales accurate to 0.1 g; too much is harmful, too little is unsafe.

180 min

Chinese Meat

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Ba bao ya (eight-treasure duck)

Ba bao ya, eight-treasure duck, is the grand centrepiece of a Shanghai or Suzhou Spring Festival dinner: eight being the luckiest number, the duck is filled with eight good things for eight kinds of fortune. A whole duck is boned so the skin stays in one piece, then packed with glutinous rice, dry-cured ham, chestnuts, shiitake, lotus seeds, bamboo shoots and dried shrimp, and braised in soy and rock sugar until deep mahogany. Cut into thick slices, it shows a mosaic of stuffing held by tender, sticky-glazed meat. The stuffing uses Chinese dry-cured ham and the braise uses Shaoxing wine; for an alcohol-free version use unsalted stock with a few drops of rice vinegar. Serve carved at the table with steamed greens. Chef's tip: ask your butcher to bone the duck and remove the head, leaving the skin intact; it saves an hour and any tears.

240 min

Chinese Meat

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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

Italian Baking

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Morue en raïtoSalt cod in tomato sauce

In Provence the gros souper on Christmas Eve is a lean but festive meal eaten before midnight Mass, with seven meatless dishes for the seven sorrows of Mary, and salt cod en raïto is often the centrepiece. Pieces of soaked cod are fried, then simmered in raïto, a dark sauce of tomato, onion, garlic, black olives and capers that is traditionally cooked with red wine. Here the wine is optional: use vegetable stock with a spoon of red wine vinegar for an alcohol-free sauce. Serve with boiled potatoes or crusty bread. Chef's tip: soak the salt cod in the fridge for 36 hours, changing the water often, and taste a flake before cooking; it should be pleasantly seasoned, not salty.

90 min

French Fish

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Piernik staropolskiHoney spice cake with plum jam

Piernik staropolski is the grand Polish Christmas gingerbread, and the old tradition is to mix the honey dough in November (once even at a child's birth) and leave it to mature for weeks in a cool place, which deepens the spice and makes the cake tender. It is baked a few weeks before Christmas, split into layers with powidła (thick plum butter), glazed with chocolate and left to soften again. This home version rests the dough for at least 3 days. Chef's tip: wrap the baked layers and let them sit for 3 days before filling; fresh piernik is hard, and it softens as it absorbs moisture from the jam.

90 min

Polish Baking

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JuleribbeRoast pork belly with crackling

In much of Norway, Christmas Eve means ribbe: a slab of pork belly with the ribs left in, roasted until the scored rind puffs into crackling and the meat beneath is soft and juicy. It is served with medisterkaker, tangy caraway sauerkraut, red cabbage, boiled potatoes and gravy from the pan. Butchers sell ribbe ready scored in squares at Christmas. Chef's tip: salt the rind and leave it uncovered in the fridge for 1–2 days; a dry rind is the secret of the crackling.

230 minScandinavian Meat

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KolachBraided Christmas ring bread

Kolach is the bread at the centre of the Ukrainian Christmas Eve table: three braided rings of rich white dough stacked on top of each other, for the Holy Trinity, with a candle set in the middle. It stays there all through the Holy Supper and is shared afterwards. The dough is lightly sweet with egg and butter, and the braids bake to a deep, glossy brown. A single ring is fine for a smaller household. Chef's tip: braid the strands loosely, as they need room to swell; tight braids tear open in the oven.

100 min

Ukrainian Baking

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CroquignolesTwisted nutmeg doughnuts

Croquignoles are old-fashioned Quebec doughnuts, cut into strips, slit and twisted into knots, then fried and rolled in sugar. Grandmothers made them by the dozen for the réveillon, the feast after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and for New Year's Day visits. They are dense and cakey rather than yeasty, scented with nutmeg. Chef's tip: keep the dough soft and well chilled, so it is easy to roll and the croquignoles stay tender; extra flour makes them tough.

70 min

Canadian Baking

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Giò thủ (pressed pork roll)

Giò thủ is a northern Tết classic, a mosaic roll made from pork ear, pork tongue and boneless pork cheek meat with crunchy wood ear mushrooms and plenty of black pepper. Using these cuts is an old way of honouring the whole animal at the year's biggest feast, and the roll's neat round slices are a wish for a complete, well-ordered year. The pieces are boiled, sliced, stir-fried with fish sauce and packed hot into banana leaf, where their natural gelatine binds them as they cool. Every slice is crunchy, chewy and peppery; serve with pickled shallots, fish sauce with lime and chilli, and bánh chưng. Chef's tip: pack and press the filling while it is still very hot; once it cools the gelatine sets and the roll will not hold together.

240 min

Vietnamese Meat

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Poon choi (basin feast)Layered braised meat and seafood basin

Poon choi comes from the walled villages of Hong Kong's New Territories, where the whole clan eats from one great basin at Lunar New Year and other village celebrations; sharing a single pot stands for unity, and the layers piled to the brim for plenty. Each layer is cooked on its own and stacked so the sauces trickle downwards: soft braised pork belly and soy chicken near the top, prawns and mushrooms in the middle, and radish, tofu skin and cabbage at the bottom soaking up everything. The home version here leaves out shark fin, uses canned abalone only if you want it, and is made for 8 in a large flameproof casserole. Bring the whole basin to the table bubbling and serve with steamed rice. Chef's tip: pack the absorbent vegetables at the bottom and the showy pieces at the top; the radish should finish as the tastiest thing in the pot.

300 min

Hong Kong Meat

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