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Pumpkin congee for babies (cháo bí đỏ)

Vietnamese grandmothers often make a baby's early bowls of cháo with bí đỏ, the dense orange pumpkin sold in every market from Hà Nội to Cần Thơ. The rice is lightly toasted before simmering, a Vietnamese habit that gives the congee a faint nutty smell, and the pumpkin melts into it, turning it bright gold and naturally sweet. It is a weekday lunch for babies from six months, made without the fish sauce the rest of the family would add. No common allergens are in it (milk, egg, gluten, peanut, tree nuts, soya, sesame, fish). Chef's tip: choose a dry, dense pumpkin such as kabocha; watery squash makes a thin, bland congee.

55 min

Vietnamese Rice & Grains

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ChaplasHollow puffed Andean bread

Walk through Ayacucho's central market at seven in the morning and you will see women selling stacks of chaplas from cloth-lined baskets, still warm from the wood-fired ovens of the Andes. These round wheat breads puff up like pita in the fierce heat, leaving a hollow pocket inside a thin, soft, lightly floury crust. In Ayacucho and Huancavelica they are eaten with sweet coffee or hot emoliente for breakfast, or split and filled with queso fresco, avocado or a spoonful of rocoto sauce. Highland bakers traditionally work in a little lard; vegetable shortening gives the same tenderness and keeps the bread vegan. A cool baking tray is the reason chaplas stay flat, so preheat it thoroughly. Chef's tip: let the rolled rounds rest before baking and flip them upside down onto the tray, so the smooth, dry side meets the heat first and the pocket opens evenly.

149 min

Peruvian Breads & Parathas

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SomunDimpled flatbread

During Ramadan in Sarajevo, queues form outside the Baščaršija bakeries in the last hour before iftar, everyone waiting for somun still warm from the oven. It is a round, pale flatbread about three fingers thick, with a crust so thin it barely crackles and a soft, airy middle, and a criss-cross grid pressed into the top. All year it is split and stuffed with ćevapi and onions at the grill houses; for a meat-free plate, fill it with kajmak, roasted peppers and ajvar or grilled vegetables. Somun should stay pale: leave it in the oven until it is brown and the crust turns hard, which is the commonest mistake. Chef's tip: wrap the loaves in a clean tea towel the moment they come out; the trapped steam softens the crust to that typical pillowy finish.

140 minBalkan Breads & Parathas

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Pan chutaAniseed round bread

The small town of Oropesa, half an hour from Cusco, calls itself Peru's bread capital, and its wood-fired bakeries are famous for chuta: big, flat, round loaves as wide as a dinner plate, glossy on top, with a faint sweetness and the warmth of aniseed. Travellers on the road to Puno and Bolivia stop to buy them by the bagful, and families bring them home for All Saints' Day and for sharing with hot coca tea or coffee, fresh cheese and butter. The bakeries traditionally use lard; this version uses vegetable shortening and butter, so it is vegetarian. The make-or-break moment is the proof: chuta is large and flat, and if it goes in under-risen it bakes dense and splits at the rim. Chef's tip: toast the aniseed for a minute in a dry pan and crush it lightly before adding, for a rounder, sweeter perfume.

240 min

Peruvian Breads & Parathas

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Bánh bò hấp (steamed honeycomb rice cake)

Bánh bò hấp are the soft, puffed rice cakes sold from glass-fronted carts in southern Vietnam, and children in the Mekong Delta pick them up in white, pink or pandan green on the way home from school. The yeasted rice-flour batter is steamed in small cups, so each cake splits open on top like a flower and is chewy and bouncy inside, with a gentle coconut flavour. The sugar here is a little lower than in market versions. None of the common allergens are in it. Chef's tip: steam over fierce, rolling boiling water; a gentle simmer gives flat, dense cakes that don't open.

40 min

Vietnamese Desserts

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Sữa chua (Vietnamese set yogurt)

In Vietnamese homes, sữa chua is made in a row of small jars and kept in the fridge or freezer, and children in Hanoi and Saigon eat it after school straight from the cup, sometimes frozen hard like ice cream. The condensed milk gives it a mild caramel sweetness and a smooth, firm set that is less sharp than plain yogurt. It is sweetened, so this version uses less condensed milk than the street-stall kind. It contains milk. Chef's tip: keep the milk at blood heat, about 43 °C; hotter kills the yogurt culture and cooler sets slowly and sour.

25 min

Vietnamese Desserts

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Cháo thịt bằm cà rốt (pork and carrot congee)

Cháo thịt bằm, rice congee with minced pork, is the dish Vietnamese grandmothers cook when a baby starts on 'real' food, and carrot is the most common vegetable added, for colour and sweetness. For babies from about nine months it is cooked thick and mashed to soft lumps, without the fish sauce and pepper the rest of the family would stir in. It contains none of the common allergens (milk, egg, gluten, peanut, tree nuts, soya, sesame, fish). Chef's tip: toast the dry rice in the pan for a minute before adding water; Vietnamese cooks swear it gives a fragrant, creamier congee.

50 min

Vietnamese Rice & Grains

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BizcochueloPlain whisked sponge cake

Nearly every Argentine birthday torta starts life as a bizcochuelo: a tall, plain sponge of eggs, sugar, flour and cornflour, with no butter and no baking powder, lifted only by long whisking. Grandmothers bake it on Sunday to split into three and fill with dulce de leche and whipped cream, or eat it plain in the afternoon with mate. The crumb is fine, dry-ish and airy, made to soak up syrup. Opening the oven in the first 20 minutes is the classic way to flatten it, so leave the door shut. Chef's tip: whisk until the mixture reaches 'punto letra', thick enough that a ribbon drawn on the surface holds its shape for a few seconds; that takes a good 8–10 minutes with an electric mixer, and warm eggs get there faster.

55 min

Argentinian Baking

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Bánh bông lan (Vietnamese sponge cake)

Bánh bông lan is the soft, golden sponge sold in every Vietnamese bakery, eaten with coffee or as an after-school snack, and it is also the cake under the cream and fruit at most children's birthdays from Hanoi to Saigon. Made with oil instead of butter, it stays moist and springy for days and is free of milk. It contains egg and gluten. Chef's tip: whisk the whites in a spotlessly clean bowl; a trace of yolk or grease stops them rising.

55 min

Vietnamese Baking

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Bò lá lốtBeef in betel leaves

Saigon's evening grill stalls fan charcoal under racks of bò lá lốt, little cigars of garlicky, lemongrass-scented minced beef wrapped in wild betel leaves that char and turn smoky, almost tea-like. They are eaten rolled in rice paper or lettuce with vermicelli and herbs, dipped in nước chấm or the funkier mắm nêm anchovy sauce. Look for lá lốt (Piper sarmentosum) in Vietnamese and Thai grocers; it is not the same as the betel leaf chewed with areca nut. Chef's tip: wrap with the shiny side of the leaf outward and keep the rolls snug; loose rolls unravel on the grill and the filling dries out.

45 min

Vietnamese Meat

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Canh cua rau đayCrab and jute leaf soup

Through the sticky Hanoi summer, the cheapest and most loved soup is canh cua: tiny rice-field crabs pounded and strained so the sweet crab 'curds' float to the top of a broth of slippery jute leaves (rau đay) and luffa, eaten with rice and crunchy pickled aubergines. Away from the paddies, fresh crab meat gives the same soft curds; if you buy live crabs, cook only lively ones and discard any that are dead. Chef's tip: stir the broth only until it comes to a simmer, then leave it; keep stirring and the crab curds break into a cloudy mush.

40 min

Vietnamese Soups

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Canh mướp tômLuffa and prawn soup

In summer the trellises of Vietnamese gardens hang heavy with luffa, and canh mướp is what goes on the table most evenings from Hanoi to Huế: a clear, barely salted broth with soft, sweet gourd and a little chopped prawn, ladled over rice through the meal. It takes 20 minutes and very little oil, which is why mothers make it for anyone feeling the heat. Chef's tip: add the luffa last and pull the pot off as soon as it turns translucent; overcooked luffa goes slimy and the soup turns grey.

20 min

Vietnamese Soups

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Gà luộc lá chanhPoached chicken with lime leaves

No northern Vietnamese ancestor altar at Tết or on a death anniversary is complete without a whole golden poached chicken, and once it comes down from the altar it is chopped and eaten with hair-thin shreds of lime leaf and a dip of salt, pepper and lime. The skin is taut and yellow, the meat juicy, and the broth goes on to make miến or cháo. Buy a chicken without its head and feet. Chef's tip: plunge the bird into iced water as soon as it is cooked; skip the ice bath and the skin wrinkles, loosens and loses its shine.

60 min

Vietnamese Chicken

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Bún cá Hải PhòngFish noodle soup

The port city of Hải Phòng starts the day with bún cá: a tomato-tinted broth, fried pieces of turmeric-marinated fish and soft fish cake, round rice noodles, fistfuls of dill and celery and a slick of chilli, eaten at tiny plastic tables by the docks. Snakehead is traditional, but any firm white fish works. Chef's tip: fry the fish and add it to each bowl at the end; simmered in the broth, it breaks up and turns the soup cloudy and muddy-tasting.

50 min

Vietnamese Pasta & Noodles

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Bún bò Nam BộLemongrass beef noodle bowl

Despite the name, which means 'southern beef noodles', this dish belongs to Hanoi, where a stall on Hàng Điếu made it famous: a deep bowl of cool rice vermicelli, herbs and bean sprouts, topped with beef stir-fried hot with lemongrass, then peanuts, fried shallots and a few spoonfuls of sweet fish-sauce dressing, all tossed together at the table. It is a lunch dish, eaten fast and in summer. Chef's tip: cook the beef in small batches in a very hot pan; crowd it and the slices stew grey in their juices instead of searing.

40 min

Vietnamese Pasta & Noodles

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Cà phê muốiSalt coffee

A family café in Huế's citadel quarter began topping its coffee with salted cream, and now cà phê muối is served across central Vietnam and in trendy cafés in Saigon and Hanoi. Sip it without stirring: first the cool, faintly salty cream, then sweet condensed milk and strong phin coffee, the salt rounding off the bitterness much like a pinch in caramel. It is good hot or poured over ice. Chef's tip: use only a small pinch of salt per glass; too much and the drink tastes like seawater rather than salted caramel.

10 min

Vietnamese Drinks

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Nước sâmCooling herbal drink

Big glass jars of amber nước sâm sit on pavement stalls all over Hồ Chí Minh City, ladled over ice for anyone who has eaten too much fried food or spent too long in the sun. The brew is gently sweet and earthy, with honeyed dried longan, the liquorice note of monk fruit and fresh sugarcane, and Chinese-Vietnamese herbalists sell ready-mixed bags of the dried roots. Make a big pot: it keeps for four days in the fridge. Chef's tip: simmer, never boil hard; a rolling boil pulls bitterness out of the roots and turns the drink cloudy.

60 min

Vietnamese Drinks

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Cháo gàChicken rice porridge

Cháo gà is what Vietnamese mothers cook for anyone with a cold, and what late-night stalls in Hanoi and Saigon ladle out after midnight to people heading home. Toasted rice is simmered in chicken broth until it breaks into a loose, silky porridge, then topped with shredded chicken, lots of ginger and black pepper, spring onion and rau răm, with a side of gỏi gà if you are feeding a crowd. Chef's tip: toast the raw rice in a dry pan before simmering; untoasted rice gives a gluey, bland porridge instead of a nutty, loose one.

60 min

Vietnamese Rice & Grains

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Rau luộc chấm kho quẹtBoiled vegetables with dipping sauce

Farm families in the Mekong Delta, in Đồng Tháp and Cần Thơ, used to stretch a few spoonfuls of salty kho quẹt across a whole basket of boiled garden vegetables, and it is now a nostalgic favourite in Saigon restaurants. The dip is pork fat rendered into crisp cracklings, then fish sauce, sugar, shallot, dried shrimp and black pepper bubbled down until thick and sticky enough to 'scrape' (quẹt) with a vegetable. The vegetables do most of the work, so the plate stays light. Chef's tip: take the dip off the heat while it still looks a little loose; it sets as it cools and, cooked too far, it burns bitter and turns rock-hard.

30 min

Vietnamese Sides

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Cà phê trứngEgg coffee

Hanoi's old-quarter cafés, up narrow stairs and in tiny back rooms, serve cà phê trứng in a small cup set in a bowl of hot water so it stays warm while you spoon through the custardy foam into bitter coffee below. The topping is egg yolk whisked with condensed milk until pale and thick, a trick that began when fresh milk was scarce in the 1940s. Because the yolk is not cooked, use pasteurised eggs for pregnant women, young children, older people or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: whisk longer than you think; under-beaten yolk tastes eggy and sinks straight into the coffee instead of sitting on top.

15 min

Vietnamese Drinks

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Bò tái chanhLime-cured beef salad

In Saigon's beer gardens bò tái chanh arrives as the first plate of the evening, a sharp, herb-heavy pile of thin beef slices dressed in lime juice and fish sauce with onion, rau răm and peanuts, scooped up with sesame rice crackers. Street cooks often leave the beef almost raw and let the lime 'cook' it; lime does not make beef safe, so this home version blanches the slices for a few seconds until they are cooked at least to medium, still tender and rosy at the centre. Chef's tip: squeeze out the lime juice before dressing; beef left sitting in a pool of lime turns grey and chewy.

20 min

Vietnamese Meat

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Chanh muốiSalted lime drink

Vietnamese households keep a jar of chanh muối, limes cured in salt until they turn soft and olive-brown, on a sunny shelf for months; on a sweltering day a lime or two is muddled with sugar and topped up with ice water or soda water. The drink is salty, sour and sweet all at once, and grandmothers swear by it for sore throats and after a bout of sun. This recipe makes the jar of cured limes (allow four weeks before the first glass) and then the drink itself. Chef's tip: dry the limes completely after blanching; any water left on the skins lets mould take hold in the jar.

25 min

Vietnamese Drinks

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Miến gàChicken glass noodle soup

Hanoi eats miến gà on chilly winter mornings and the day after Tết, when every kitchen has chicken broth left from the altar bird. The chewy, translucent mung bean noodles soak up a clean, gingery broth, topped with shredded chicken, spring onion, rau răm and fried shallots; a squeeze of lime and a few slices of chilli finish it at the table. It is light enough for breakfast and gluten free. Chef's tip: soak the noodles and blanch them separately just before serving; cooked in the broth, they drink it all and swell into a soggy tangle.

60 min

Vietnamese Pasta & Noodles

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Gỏi gà bắp cảiChicken cabbage salad

Gỏi gà turns up wherever Vietnamese families gather around a pot of chicken: alongside cháo gà at a weekend lunch, at death anniversaries and at roadside chicken restaurants on the way out of Saigon. Shredded poached chicken is tossed with fine cabbage, onion pickled briefly in vinegar and a fistful of peppery rau răm, then dressed with lime, fish sauce and sugar, so it is lean, crunchy and full of herbs. Chef's tip: soak the sliced onion in vinegar water for 10 minutes; raw onion left as it is overwhelms the delicate chicken.

40 min

Vietnamese Chicken

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