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KaasstengelsCheese pastry twists

Kaasstengels come out of ovens all over the Netherlands for birthday parties, New Year's Eve and the Friday borrel, piled in glasses so guests can grab one with a drink. Strips of puff pastry are brushed with egg, coated in grated aged cheese and twisted, then baked until crisp, flaky and golden. They are one of the easiest party snacks there is, made with ready-rolled pastry. Most aged cheese is made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian one if needed. The common mistake is underbaking, which leaves them pale and soft in the middle. Chef's tip: chill the twisted strips for 10 minutes before baking so they keep their spiral.

25 min

Dutch Snacks & Starters

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Kaasblokjes met mosterdCheese cubes with mustard

Friday afternoon in a Dutch brown café, or a birthday circle in a living room in Utrecht, means a borrel, and the first thing on the table is a plate of cheese cubes on cocktail sticks. Belegen or oude Gouda, aged until it is firm and nutty with little salt crystals, is cut into neat cubes and served with a pot of coarse mustard and a shake of celery salt. Traditional Gouda is made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian aged Gouda-style cheese if needed. A common mistake is serving the cheese fridge-cold, which hides its flavour. Chef's tip: cut it half an hour before guests arrive and let it come to room temperature, covered.

10 min

Dutch Snacks & Starters

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ErdäpfelstrudelSavoury potato strudel

Austrians, especially in the Mühlviertel of Upper Austria and the Waldviertel, make savoury strudels as often as sweet ones, and Erdäpfelstrudel is a farmhouse favourite for a meatless Friday or a cold evening. Thin pastry wraps a filling of potatoes, fried onion, sour cream, marjoram and parsley, baked until crisp and golden and sliced with a green salad or a dill and sour-cream dip. Bought filo makes it easy at home. The mistake to avoid is a wet filling, which turns the pastry soggy underneath. Chef's tip: cool the filling completely before rolling; warm filling makes the layers stick and tear.

90 min

Austrian Vegetarian

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EierbalFried egg in curry ragout

The eierbal is a snack-bar legend from the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel, found in the wall of hot snacks at many cafetarias and at borrels: half a hard-boiled egg wrapped in a thick curry ragout, breaded and fried into a golden ball the size of a fist. This vegetarian version makes the ragout with vegetable stock and milk. It is rich, so one per person with mustard is plenty. The classic mistake is wrapping eggs in ragout that is still warm; it must be chilled firm or it will not hold. Chef's tip: bread the balls twice, egg and crumbs then egg and crumbs again, so they do not split in the oil.

60 min

Dutch Snacks & Starters

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VlammetjesSpicy mini spring rolls

Vlammetjes, little flames, are the fiery mini spring rolls of the Dutch borrel, served by the dozen in bars from Amsterdam to Groningen with a bowl of sweet chilli sauce. The filling is beef mince cooked with onion, garlic, sambal and sweet soy until dry and spicy, then rolled tightly in spring roll pastry and fried until blistered and crisp. Make the heat to your own taste. A common mistake is rolling a wet filling, which splits the wrappers and spits in the oil. Chef's tip: cook the mince until the pan is dry and it starts to crackle, then cool it completely before rolling.

60 min

Dutch Snacks & Starters

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RookworstSmoked pork sausage

Rookworst, the horseshoe-shaped smoked pork sausage of the Netherlands, is sliced into thick warm coins for borrel boards in winter and served on cocktail sticks at Friday drinks and football nights, always with a pot of strong yellow mustard. It is also the sausage laid on top of stamppot. Rookworst is sold ready-cooked, so it only needs heating through gently. The common mistake is boiling it, which splits the skin and lets the juices escape. Chef's tip: warm it in water that is just steaming, then serve it within minutes so the slices stay juicy.

22 min

Dutch Meat

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OssenworstSpiced beef sausage

Ossenworst is Amsterdam's own borrel sausage, made since the seventeenth century from lean beef spiced with cloves, nutmeg, mace and white pepper, and sliced thin at cafés in the Jordaan with mustard, pickled onions and gherkins. The traditional sausage is raw and lightly cured, so it is best bought from a specialist Amsterdam butcher, and like all raw meat it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. This home version keeps the same spicing but is gently poached until the centre reaches 71 °C, then chilled and sliced, which makes it safe for everyone. A common mistake is boiling it hard, which makes it dry and crumbly. Chef's tip: keep the water at about 80 °C, never bubbling, and check the core with a thermometer.

80 min

Dutch Meat

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BorrelnootjesCoated peanuts

Borrelnootjes, peanuts in a crunchy seasoned shell, are the bowl you find on every Dutch bar counter and next to the cheese at home borrels, and they come from the Indo-Dutch kitchen, where they were spiced with garlic and coriander. Most people buy them in bags, but home-made ones are lighter and far less salty. Raw peanuts are dusted in seasoned flour and starch, splashed with water and coated in several thin layers, then baked until they crack. Never serve them to anyone with a peanut allergy, and keep whole nuts away from small children. The usual mistake is adding too much water at once, which makes the nuts clump. Chef's tip: build the coating in three thin layers, shaking the bowl hard each time.

45 min

Dutch Snacks & Starters

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BamischijfFried noodle disc

The bamischijf is pure Dutch snack-bar culture: Indonesian-style bami goreng, fried noodles with pork, leek and celery, set firm with a little ragout, cut into discs, breaded and deep-fried. It came out of the Indo-Dutch kitchen into the cafetarias of Rotterdam and The Hague, and it is eaten at borrels with sweet chilli or peanut sauce. Here the pork mince is cooked to 71 °C before it goes in. For a vegetarian version, leave out the pork and add more cabbage, carrot and mushrooms. A common mistake is skipping the chilling, which makes the discs fall apart in the oil. Chef's tip: press the noodle mix hard into the tin with a second tin on top before chilling.

75 min

Dutch Fast Food

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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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