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AllerheiligenstriezelBraided sweet loaf

In Bavaria and Austria, godparents give their godchildren an Allerheiligenstriezel on All Saints' Day, 1 November: a large braided loaf of sweet yeast dough, brushed with egg and scattered with almonds or pearl sugar. The braid is said to recall the old custom of cutting a plait of hair in mourning, and the size of the loaf once showed how generous the godparent was. It is lightly sweet, with lemon and vanilla, and is eaten sliced with butter or jam. Some recipes add rum-soaked raisins; these are soaked in warm water instead. Chef's tip: braid four strands for an impressive, high loaf.

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Bubur asyuraRice, bean and beef porridge

On 10 Muharram, the day of Ashura, Malay mosques and kampung neighbourhoods stir bubur asyura in giant pots and share it out to every household, a custom said to recall the meal Prophet Nuh's family cooked from their last stores. Rice, mung beans, peanuts, sweet potato and pumpkin cook down with beef and spices into a thick, savoury porridge, flavoured with coconut milk and kerisik. This family-sized pot keeps the communal spirit; a vegetarian version is a variation to add later. Chef's tip: stir constantly from the bottom once it thickens, as the beans catch quickly and a burnt bottom spoils the whole pot.

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DouaraLamb tripe and chickpea stew

Douara is the dish that fills Algerian kitchens on the second day of Eid al-Adha, when the tripe, intestines and lung from the family's sacrifice are cleaned, cut small and stewed slowly with chickpeas, plenty of garlic, cumin and paprika. The sauce is deep red and peppery and the offal turns tender and rich. At home, cleaned lamb or beef tripe and lamb heart from a halal butcher make an easy start; lung can be added if your butcher sells it. Chef's tip: blanch the tripe first in water with a squeeze of lemon to freshen the flavour before it goes into the stew.

180 minAlgerianMeatGluten freeSpicy
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Chipa so'oCheese bread with spiced beef

In Paraguay, families bake chipa in the clay tatakua ovens on Holy Wednesday so there is food for Thursday and Good Friday, when cooking stops. Chipa so'o ('chipa with meat') is a cassava-starch and cheese bread wrapped around a little filling of minced beef cooked with onion and egg, then baked until crisp outside and chewy within. It is naturally gluten free. Chef's tip: knead the dough until it no longer cracks at the edges when pressed; dry dough splits around the filling.

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Pajagua mascadaBeef and cassava patties

Pajagua mascada is a Paraguayan street-food classic that appears on every table for the San Juan festival on 24 June, when bonfires burn and the night is full of games and traditional food. Minced beef is mixed with mashed cassava, onion, garlic and a little egg and flour, shaped into flat patties and fried until crisp. The name comes from Guaraní and refers to the 'chewing' of old Paraguayan cooks, who made it from leftover meat. Chef's tip: dry the boiled cassava well and remove its woody core, which keeps the patties light and crunchy.

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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.

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Laksa JohorSpaghetti in fish and coconut gravy

Laksa Johor is the Hari Raya pride of Johor, where a 19th-century sultan is said to have brought spaghetti home from Europe and married it to a Malay fish gravy. Mackerel is cooked, flaked and ground into a thick coconut sauce with kerisik and spices, and the pasta is topped with raw cucumber, bean sprouts, onion, mint and laksa leaf, with sambal belacan and lime on the side. Families serve it to visitors over the Raya open-house days. Chef's tip: grind the fish very finely; the gravy should be smooth and thick, not lumpy.

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Lengua a la vinagretaBeef tongue with vinaigrette

Argentina's Nochebuena is a hot summer night, so the table is full of cold dishes, and lengua a la vinagreta is one of the classics: beef tongue simmered until tender, peeled, sliced and covered with a sharp vinaigrette of parsley, garlic, red pepper, onion and chopped hard-boiled egg. It is made a day ahead and served chilled with vitel toné and Russian salad. Chef's tip: peel the tongue while it is still hot, as the skin comes away easily then and clings once it cools.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Sopa teólogaTurkey broth with bread and cheese

Sopa teóloga ('the theologian's soup') goes back to colonial convents in Lima and Arequipa, where it was cooked for feast days, and it is still served at Holy Week and family celebrations. A rich turkey (or chicken) broth is thickened with soaked bread, milk and fresh cheese, with yellow potatoes and shreds of turkey, and finished with a little ají amarillo and chopped huacatay or parsley. It is thick, comforting and filling. Chef's tip: blend part of the soaked bread with broth before adding it, which gives the soup its creamy body without lumps.

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Kambing golekSpiced roast goat

At Aidiladha and big kenduri feasts in Johor and Selangor, kambing golek is the showpiece: a goat rubbed with spices and turned for hours on a spit until the meat falls from the bone, carved for the crowd and served with a peppery brown sauce. A whole spit-roast goat isn't practical at home, so this recipe is written as carved bone-in leg and shoulder portions, marinated overnight and slow-roasted in the oven, keeping the flavour of the original. Chef's tip: roast covered first and uncover only at the end, so the meat stays moist and then gets its golden crust.

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OsterpinzeEaster anise brioche

Osterpinze is the Easter bread of Styria, Carinthia and the area around Trieste, a soft, golden brioche dome with three deep cuts on top for the Holy Trinity, so that it opens into a crown as it bakes. The dough is rich with egg yolks and butter and flavoured with anise and lemon; old recipes add a splash of white wine, left out here. It is blessed in the Easter basket on Holy Saturday and eaten on Easter morning with ham, horseradish and eggs, or with butter and jam. Chef's tip: make the three cuts with scissors just before baking, deep enough to reach halfway down, so the crown opens wide.

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Kuih siputFried snail-shell curls

Kuih siput are little ridged curls of dough rolled on a comb or fork into the shape of a snail shell, then fried until crunchy; in Malaysian homes the whole family sits down to roll them in the days before Hari Raya. They come sweet, tossed in sugar, or spicy, coated in chilli and curry leaf, and both go into the Raya snack jars. Chef's tip: roll each curl tightly round the end of a chopstick so it has a hollow centre; solid ones stay hard instead of crunchy.

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Jiu hu char (dried cuttlefish and jicama stir-fry)

Jiu hu char is a Penang Nyonya dish cooked in big batches for Chinese New Year, when it is passed round as a gift and kept on hand for visitors; its long, fine shreds stand for long life, and the abundance of the pot for a full year. Shredded jicama (yam bean), carrot and cabbage are fried slowly with strips of dried cuttlefish, a little pork and shiitake until sweet, soft and full of the savoury, slightly smoky flavour of the cuttlefish. Wrap spoonfuls in crisp lettuce with a dab of sambal belacan. Chef's tip: cut the vegetables into very fine, even matchsticks; this is what gives the dish its silky texture.

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Kiam chye ark (salted vegetable duck soup)

Kiam chye ark is the soup Penang Nyonya families make around Chinese New Year, traditionally to use up roast duck from the reunion dinner; its sour, salty broth is said to settle the stomach after the feasting. This version starts from a fresh jointed duck. Duck is simmered with salted mustard greens (kiam chye), tomatoes, tamarind skins, preserved sour plums and a little ginger until the meat is falling-apart tender and the broth is clear, tangy and savoury. Serve it piping hot with plain rice and a dish of sliced chilli in soy. Chef's tip: soak and taste the salted greens first; some brands are fiercely salty and need a second soak.

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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.

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Turrón de maníPeanut nougat

On an Argentine Christmas Eve, after midnight toasts, the 'mesa dulce' appears with pan dulce, garrapiñadas and turrón de maní: a chewy white nougat of honey, sugar, whipped egg white and roasted peanuts, often set between two sheets of rice paper. Families make it in the days before Nochebuena. The egg white is cooked by the hot syrup. It is gluten free if you use gluten-free wafer paper or none. Chef's tip: work fast once the syrup is in, as the nougat stiffens as it cools and gets hard to spread.

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Kuih loyang (honeycomb rosette cookies)

Kuih loyang, also called kuih rose or honeycomb cookies, are made in Malaysia for Chinese New Year and Hari Raya alike, so a jar of them is a small sign of the country's shared festive table. The flower shape stands for blossoming luck in the new year. A thin batter of eggs, coconut milk and rice flour clings to a hot brass or iron mould, and when it is dipped in hot oil it puffs into a lacy flower that shatters at the bite and tastes gently of coconut and sesame. Serve them with tea or coffee. Chef's tip: heat the empty mould in the oil before every cookie; a cold mould means the batter won't stick, and an overheated one makes it slide off.

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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.

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Kuih kapit (love letters)

Kuih kapit, known in English as love letters, are the crisp coconut wafers that fill tins on coffee tables across Malaysia, especially in Penang, at Chinese New Year. Their folded shape is said to hold a sweet secret message, and the patterned moulds often carry lucky symbols, so a tin of them is a wish for a sweet, happy year. Each one is a thin batter of coconut milk, eggs, sugar and rice flour cooked between hot patterned irons and folded quickly while soft, cooling into a light, shattering wafer that tastes of toasted coconut and caramel. Serve with tea, and keep the tin tightly closed. Chef's tip: the first few wafers are always for testing; adjust the heat until each one is pale gold in about 30 seconds a side.

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Nasi ulamHerb rice

In Kelantan and Terengganu on Malaysia's east coast, nasi ulam is the cool, fragrant rice eaten at lunch in the heat: day-old rice tossed with a heap of hair-thin raw herbs (ulam), lemongrass, lime leaf, shallots and dry-toasted coconut. It is traditionally mixed with flaked salted or dried fish; this is a vegetarian version that leaves the fish out and leans on the toasted coconut and a squeeze of lime for depth. It is a light meal of about 340 kcal, with around 7 g of protein, so it is not high in protein; serve it with fried tofu or tempeh. The common mistake is using hot rice, which wilts the herbs into a dark mush; the rice must be cold. Chef's tip: stack the leaves, roll them into a tight cigar and slice across as thinly as you can; the finer the herbs, the more perfume.

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Helado de dulce de leche (Buenos Aires dulce de leche ice cream)

Dulce de leche is the flavour Buenos Aires heladerías are judged by, and on a summer night the queues at neighbourhood ice-cream shops stretch out onto the pavement well after dinner. Locals order it plain, with a ripple of extra dulce de leche (dulce de leche granizado adds chocolate flakes), often by the kilo to take home. It is dense, chewy and deeply caramel. This home version is egg-free with no custard: a little cornflour cooked into the milk thickens it the way yolks would, and the dulce de leche itself is milk and sugar cooked down, its sugar and milk solids keeping crystals tiny so it stays smooth and scoopable. Churn it, or still-freeze and stir it every 45 minutes. Chef's tip: chill the extra dulce de leche before rippling it in; the common mistake is folding in a warm one, which melts into the ice cream instead of leaving ribbons.

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