All recipes

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Thịt kho trứng (caramelised pork belly and eggs)

In southern Vietnam the New Year does not feel like Tết without a big pot of thịt kho trứng on the stove: chunks of pork belly and peeled boiled eggs simmered slowly in coconut water, fish sauce and a dark caramel until the fat is jelly-soft and the eggs are stained mahogany. Families cook it a day or two ahead and reheat it throughout the holiday, when its flavour only deepens. It is eaten with plain rice, pickled dưa món or củ kiệu, and bitter melon soup. For a vegetarian table, firm tofu and eggs can be braised in the same way with soy sauce. Chef's tip: blanch the pork first and keep the simmer lazy; a hard boil makes cloudy, greasy sauce and dry, tough meat.

120 min

Vietnamese Meat

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Bánh pía with durian and salted egg yolkDurian and egg yolk pastries

Sóc Trăng in the Mekong Delta is lined with shops stacking boxes of bánh pía for travellers to carry home, a legacy of the province's Teochew Chinese bakers. The pastry flakes into fine, papery layers around a dense mung bean paste perfumed with durian and hiding a whole salted egg yolk; they are eaten with hot tea at any time of day and given at Mid-Autumn. This home version uses vegetable shortening in place of the lard many bakeries use, which keeps it vegetarian. Chef's tip: keep the water dough and the oil dough at the same softness; if one is firmer, the layers tear when you roll and the pastry bakes up bready instead of flaky.

180 min

Vietnamese Baking

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MucbipolloChicken and pork tamal pie

Across the Yucatán Peninsula, the Maya feast of Hanal Pixán, 'food for the souls', at the end of October is marked by mucbipollo: a huge tamal pie, traditionally buried in a pit oven (pib) to bake, then set on the altar and shared the next day. A thick lard-enriched masa shell holds chicken and pork shoulder stewed in achiote, tomato and epazote, bound with a thickened broth called kol. This version uses a home oven and a deep tin lined with banana leaves. It contains pork. Chef's tip: make the kol thick enough to coat a spoon, or the filling floods the masa and the crust turns gummy.

240 min

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Atole de fresaStrawberry masa drink

Pink, warm and sweet, atole de fresa is a children's favourite in Mexico City and Irapuato, the strawberry capital of Guanajuato, sold in polystyrene cups alongside tamales for breakfast. Fresh strawberries are blended with milk and thickened with a little masa, which gives a gentle corn flavour under the fruit. It contains dairy. Chef's tip: blend the strawberries raw and add them at the end, so the drink keeps its bright colour.

30 min

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Mole rosaPink beetroot mole

Mole rosa comes from Taxco, the silver-mining town in the hills of Guerrero, where it is served on special occasions over poached chicken. Cooked beetroot gives the shocking pink colour, while pine nuts, almonds and a little white chocolate make it creamy, gently sweet and only faintly warm from one mild guajillo chile. It looks festive with toasted pine nuts on top and white rice alongside. Chef's tip: simmer the sauce only briefly, because long cooking turns the pink brownish.

70 min

Mexican Chicken

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Lombo de porco assadoRoast pork loin

Brazilians like pork on the Réveillon table because a pig roots forward as it feeds, a sign of progress in the new year, while chicken and turkey scratch backwards. This boneless pork loin is soaked overnight in garlic, lime, orange and paprika, then roasted over potatoes and onions that drink up the juices. It is the centrepiece of many New Year's Eve dinners in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, sliced thin with farofa and rice. Chef's tip: take the pork out at 63 °C in the centre and let it rest; it stays juicy and slightly pink.

100 min

Brazilian Meat

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Nam dok anchan (butterfly pea lemonade)

Vines of butterfly pea climb fences in gardens all over Thailand, and cafés from Bangkok to Krabi serve the flowers as an iced drink that changes colour at the table. The tea itself is mild and earthy, blue as ink; stirring in lime juice turns it violet and makes it tangy, which children love to watch. Chef's tip: the common mistake is mixing the lime in beforehand; serve the blue tea and lime separately so the colour change happens in the glass.

15 min

Thai Drinks

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Polvorones de nuezPecan butter cookies

Christmas cookie tins, wedding tables and bakery counters all over northern and central Mexico hold polvorones, small domes of toasted pecan shortbread that crumble to dust in the mouth, which is how they got their name. They are rolled twice in icing sugar, once warm and once cold, so they look snowy. Old recipes used lard; this one uses butter, so it is vegetarian, and it contains wheat and tree nuts. Chef's tip: toast the pecans first, which turns a plain cookie into a deeply nutty one.

40 min

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Barbacoa de borregoSlow-cooked lamb

In Actopan and the towns of Hidalgo, Sunday starts with barbacoa: lamb wrapped in maguey leaves and cooked overnight in an earth pit, with a pot underneath catching the juices for a rich consommé of chickpeas, rice and guajillo. This home version wraps lamb shoulder in banana leaves and cooks it low and slow in the oven over the consommé. The meat is pulled into tacos with onion, cilantro and salsa, and the broth is sipped alongside. Chef's tip: seal the pot well with foil under the lid so no steam escapes; the lamb should cook in its own vapour.

450 min

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CocolesAnise sweet bread

In the markets of Puebla, Tlaxcala and Mexico City, cocoles are the plain, honest bread of the morning: diamond-shaped, deep brown from piloncillo, fragrant with anise and studded with sesame seeds on top. They are not very sweet, so people eat them with café de olla or split them for a cheese torta. Old bakers used lard; this version uses vegetable shortening, so it stays vegetarian and vegan. Chef's tip: steep the anise in the warm piloncillo syrup, so its flavour runs through every bite.

55 min

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Atole de guayabaGuava masa drink

In the cold months, when guavas from Aguascalientes and Michoacán perfume the markets, street vendors in Mexico City ladle atole de guayaba from big steaming pots beside the tamal cart. Ripe guava is blended with milk, strained and thickened with cornflour into a pink, creamy, fragrant drink. It contains dairy. Chef's tip: add the blended guava only once the milk is thickened and off the boil, so the milk doesn't curdle.

35 min

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Calabresa aceboladaSausage with onions

Calabresa is Brazil's smoked pork sausage, mildly spiced with chilli and fennel, and in bars across the country a sizzling plate of it fried with onions lands on the table with toothpicks, farofa or bread and a round of drinks. At home it is a ten-minute snack or a quick lunch with rice and beans. The sausage edges caramelise in their own fat, then the onions soften in it until sweet but still with a little bite. Chef's tip: slice the sausage on a sharp diagonal so each piece has more surface to brown.

20 min

Brazilian Meat

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Tacos de carne asadaGrilled steak tacos

In Monterrey, Hermosillo and across the north, a Sunday carne asada means friends around the grill, thin skirt or flank steak seasoned simply with citrus, garlic and salt, cooked over hot coals and chopped straight onto tortillas. Grilled spring onions, guacamole and a smoky salsa go alongside. Use corn tortillas, or the soft flour tortillas of Sonora if gluten is no concern. Chef's tip: keep the marinade to 1–4 hours in the fridge; the citrus starts to toughen the meat after that.

35 min

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Ponche navideñoHot Christmas fruit punch

During the nine nights of posadas from 16 to 24 December, neighbours in central Mexico walk the streets singing for shelter, and the reward at the last door is a cup of steaming ponche ladled from a clay pot. Whole fruits, tejocotes, guavas, apple, prunes, sticks of sugarcane, simmer with hibiscus, cinnamon and piloncillo until the punch is fragrant and amber, and everyone fishes the soft fruit out with a spoon. This recipe is alcohol-free and good for all ages; some adults add a splash of rum to their own cup, but none is used here. Chef's tip: add the guavas late, as they collapse if cooked too long.

70 min

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Pollo en salsa verdeChicken in green salsa

Tangy, fresh and deeply savoury, this is one of the most common weekday dishes in Central Mexican kitchens, from Mexico City to Puebla and Hidalgo. Chicken pieces are browned, then simmered in a sauce of boiled tomatillos, serrano chiles, garlic and coriander until the meat is tender and the sauce coats it. Serve with white rice, beans and tortillas. Chef's tip: a few potato chunks or nopal strips simmered in the sauce stretch it to feed more people.

55 min

Mexican Chicken

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Nega malucaChocolate cake

Every Brazilian has eaten this dark, moist chocolate cake at a children's party or a family afternoon, cut into squares in the tin with the glossy glaze dripping into each piece. It is mixed by hand in one bowl with oil and hot water, so it is the cake that home bakers from Porto Alegre to Recife can make without thinking. The topping is a simple cocoa and milk syrup boiled until it just coats a spoon. Chef's tip: pour the glaze over while the cake is still warm so it soaks a little into the top.

55 min

Brazilian Baking

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Nam takrai (lemongrass drink)

Thai spa receptions and roadside rice shops both pour this from big glass jars, and in Chiang Mai and Bangkok homes a pot is often simmering on hot afternoons. Bruised lemongrass gives a clean, lemony, slightly grassy taste and pandan a soft vanilla note; lightly sweetened, it is refreshing over ice and soothing warm on a rainy-season evening. Chef's tip: the usual mistake is chopping the lemongrass fine and boiling it hard, which makes it bitter; bash the stalks and simmer gently.

20 min

Thai Drinks

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Bánh tiêuSesame doughnuts

In Saigon and the Mekong towns, bánh tiêu are fried in big woks at the edge of the morning market and sold warm in paper bags, often torn open and filled with a stick of quẩy or eaten alongside soy milk. A soft, lightly sweet dough is rolled thin, coated with sesame and dropped into hot oil, where it balloons into a hollow, chewy round with a crackly seeded shell. The dough uses no egg or butter, so the doughnuts are vegan. Chef's tip: roll the rounds evenly thin and keep the oil hot; thick spots or a cool pan give you flat, oily discs that never puff.

120 min

Vietnamese Baking

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Rebanadas de mantequillaButtered sweet bread slices

When yesterday's pan dulce goes stale, Mexican bakeries slice it thick, spread it with butter, dust it with sugar and toast it until crisp, and the result, rebanadas, often sells out first. At home it is a ten-minute afternoon treat with hot chocolate or a glass of cold milk, and a good way to use up a loaf of brioche, a pan de yema or a few bolillos. This version uses butter, so it is vegetarian. Chef's tip: let the butter get really soft so it sinks into the bread instead of sitting on top.

17 min

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Pierna adobadaAdobo roast pork leg

From Puebla to Monterrey, a dark red leg of pork comes out of the oven on 24 or 31 December, its adobo of ancho and guajillo chiles, garlic, vinegar and orange caramelised into a sticky crust. It is sliced at the table with apple salad and Christmas rice, and the leftovers fill tortas for days. This recipe uses a smaller boneless leg or shoulder joint of pork that fits a home oven; it marinates overnight in the fridge and roasts low and slow. Chef's tip: baste with the pan juices every half hour once the foil comes off, so the adobo glazes rather than burns.

300 min

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Filé à parmegianaBreaded beef with tomato and cheese

Born in the Italian-run restaurants of São Paulo and now a pride of Rio's botecos, filé à parmegiana is served in portions big enough for two, with white rice and chips. Beef fillet is pounded thin, breaded and fried, then covered in tomato sauce and mozzarella and baked until bubbling. It's crisp underneath, gooey on top and very generous. For a vegetarian version, use thick slices of aubergine, salted and patted dry, with vegetarian cheeses. Chef's tip: pound the meat evenly so it fries in the time it takes the crust to turn golden.

50 min

Brazilian Meat

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GaribaldisJam-glazed sprinkle cakes

Named after a famous old Mexico City bakery, garibaldis are little dome-shaped butter cakes coated in warm apricot jam and rolled in white nonpareils, so they look like snowballs on the counter. Chilangos buy them by the bag for afternoon coffee and school lunchboxes. The cake is dense and buttery, the jam gives a sharp, sticky contrast and the sprinkles a light crunch. Chef's tip: brush the jam on while the cakes are still warm, as the sprinkles then stick evenly.

45 min

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Agua de melónCantaloupe drink

Mexican market juice stalls make agua de melón with the ripest, most fragrant cantaloupes, and many cooks blend in the seeds and the soft pulp around them, which adds a creamy body and a nutty flavour. It's served in tall glasses on hot afternoons from Guanajuato to Veracruz and is a favourite with kids. Chef's tip: smell the stalk end of the melon before you buy it; if it smells sweet, the drink will too.

10 min