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Za'atar spice blend

In Palestinian homes za'atar is both a herb and the blend made from it, kept in a jar beside a bowl of olive oil so torn bread can be dipped in one and then the other at breakfast; children grow up on it, and it goes to school in sandwiches. The blend is mostly dried wild za'atar (or thyme and oregano), tangy with sumac, nutty with toasted sesame and seasoned with salt. Common mistake: grinding it to dust; it should be coarse and slightly flaky. Chef's tip: rub the dried leaves with a few drops of olive oil before mixing; it wakes their aroma and helps the sumac cling.

15 min

Palestinian Basics

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Kofta bi tahini

Kofta bi tahini is a family tray-bake from Jerusalem, Nazareth and the West Bank, the kind of dinner that goes into the oven on a weeknight and comes out bubbling and golden: parsley-flecked lamb and beef kofta fingers, sliced potatoes and onions, all covered in a tangy, garlicky tahini sauce. Rice with vermicelli and a chopped salad go alongside. Common mistake: making the tahini sauce too thick; it should pour like single cream, as it thickens a lot in the oven. Chef's tip: brown the kofta and potatoes before they meet the sauce; it keeps the kofta firm and stops the potatoes turning soggy.

80 min

Palestinian Meat

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Salatet za'atar akhdar

In spring, Palestinian families pick young za'atar (wild hyssop-thyme) from the hills of the West Bank and the Galilee, and the tender leaves are tossed raw with onion, lemon and the year's new olive oil. The salad is sharp, piney and peppery, eaten as part of breakfast with labneh, olives and warm taboon bread, or beside grilled meat. If you can't find fresh za'atar, a mix of fresh oregano, thyme and a little marjoram comes close. Common mistake: chopping the leaves; keep them whole so they stay perky and don't turn dark. Chef's tip: rub the sliced onion with sumac and salt for 5 minutes first; it softens its bite and turns it a pretty pink.

15 min

Palestinian Salads

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Qizha

Qizha is Gaza's own sweet: a dense, near-black semolina cake made with a paste of roasted nigella seeds, eaten especially in winter and during Ramadan, when bakeries in Gaza City stack trays of it. It tastes nutty and slightly bitter, a little like dark sesame, softened by syrup and topped with almonds or pistachios. Nigella paste is sold in some Middle Eastern shops; if you can't find it, grind toasted nigella with tahini as below. Common mistake: over-toasting the nigella, which turns it acrid; stop as soon as it smells fragrant. Chef's tip: rest the mixed batter for 30 minutes before baking so the semolina swells and the cake slices cleanly.

60 min

Palestinian Baking

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Qidra

Qidra takes its name from the tall copper or clay pot it is cooked in, which in Hebron is sealed and carried to the neighbourhood bakery to cook slowly in the bread oven for Friday lunch, weddings and Eid. The rice is golden with turmeric and cumin, studded with whole garlic cloves and chickpeas, and the lamb underneath turns meltingly tender. At home, a heavy lidded casserole in the oven does the job. Common mistake: lifting the lid to stir, which breaks the rice and lets the steam escape. Chef's tip: soak the rice for 30 minutes and use only as much broth as the recipe says; the sealed pot loses almost nothing.

180 min

Palestinian Meat

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Djaj mahshi

For Eid, Christmas or a wedding lunch in Palestine, a whole chicken stuffed with spiced rice is the centrepiece: the rice cooked with a little minced lamb, seven-spice and cardamom, packed into the bird and roasted until the skin is lacquered brown, then piled on a platter under handfuls of fried almonds and pine nuts. Serve with yoghurt and a chopped salad. Common mistake: packing the cavity tightly with raw rice, which leaves the centre undercooked; part-cook the rice first and stuff loosely. Chef's tip: simmer the chicken briefly in spiced water before roasting, as many Palestinian cooks do; it seasons the meat and keeps it moist.

160 min

Palestinian Chicken

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Lemonana

From café terraces in Ramallah and Jaffa to juice bars along Hamra Street in Beirut, summer means tall glasses of lemonana: lemons and fistfuls of fresh mint blended with ice into a sharp, sweet, electric-green slush. It is the drink handed to you after a walk through the market at noon, and it cools a mezze lunch like nothing else. Everything goes in a blender, but the mint must be fresh and plentiful. The common mistake is blending the mint for too long, which bruises it and turns the drink murky and grassy. Chef's tip: make a lemon-sugar syrup first and chill it; dissolved sugar sweetens evenly and lets you blend for only a few seconds.

20 min

Palestinian Drinks

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Khubz taboon

In Palestinian villages the taboon is a small clay oven lined with hot pebbles, and the bread baked on them comes out round, chewy and pocked with dimples where the stones pressed in. Women still bake it at dawn in the Galilee and around Nablus, and it is the bread that wraps musakhan, gets dipped in olive oil and za'atar, and is torn for breakfast with labneh. At home, a tray of clean pebbles or a very hot baking steel gets you close. Common mistake: rolling it too thin, which makes a cracker; it should be about 1 cm thick. Chef's tip: a little wholemeal flour and an overnight rest in the fridge give the nutty, slightly sour taste of village bread.

50 min

Palestinian Breads & Parathas

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Rummaniyeh

Rummaniyeh, from rumman (pomegranate), is a Gazan autumn dish made when the pomegranates ripen: brown lentils and cubes of aubergine cooked to a thick, earthy stew, soured with pomegranate juice and molasses, enriched with tahini and finished with a sizzling oil of garlic, dill and chilli. It is eaten warm or at room temperature, scooped up with bread, and keeps well for days. Common mistake: adding the tahini over a high heat, where it seizes and turns grainy; stir it in off the boil. Chef's tip: fry the garlic and dill only until the garlic is pale gold; brown garlic tastes bitter against the sour fruit.

65 min

Palestinian Vegetarian

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Khubeizeh

After the winter rains, mallow (khubeizeh) springs up along field edges and roadsides in Palestine, and families gather bags of it for a humble, much-loved dish: the leaves chopped and wilted with lots of onion fried in olive oil, sometimes with a handful of bulgur or rice to stretch it. It is eaten warm with bread and lemon, soft and earthy like spinach with a slightly silky texture. If you can't forage mallow, use chard or spinach with a little baby kale. Common mistake: drowning the greens in water; they release their own and only need a splash. Chef's tip: brown half the onions deeply and keep the rest soft; you get sweetness and crunch together.

45 min

Palestinian Vegetarian

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Shai bil maramiya

Offer a guest tea in a Palestinian home and it will most likely come in small glasses, sweet, strong and fragrant with maramiya, the soft-leaved sage that grows on every terrace and is said to settle the stomach after a heavy meal. In winter the leaves are dried; in spring they are picked fresh. Common mistake: boiling the sage with the tea, which brings out a medicinal bitterness; it goes in after the heat is off. Chef's tip: bruise the sage leaves between your fingers before dropping them in, and let them steep only 2–3 minutes.

8 min

Palestinian Drinks

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Sumaghiyyeh

Sumaghiyyeh is Gaza's festive dish, cooked in big pots for Eid al-Fitr and eaten cold the next days with bread: chunks of lamb and chickpeas in a thick, purple-brown sauce of sumac, chard, tahini, garlic, dill and chilli. It tastes sour, nutty and herby all at once and is served at room temperature, sealed under a film of olive oil. Common mistake: using ground sumac straight into the pot, which leaves it gritty; soak the sumac and use the strained liquid. Chef's tip: make it a day ahead; the sauce sets and the flavours deepen, just as Gazan families serve it.

130 min

Palestinian Meat

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Maftoul

Maftoul means 'rolled', and in Palestinian villages women still sit together in autumn rolling bulgur and flour by hand into pea-sized pearls, drying them in the sun to last the winter. For a family gathering, the maftoul is steamed over a pot of chicken simmering with onions, chickpeas and caraway, then served on a big platter with the chicken on top and the broth in bowls alongside. Bought maftoul or giant couscous is fine. Common mistake: boiling the maftoul like pasta, which makes it gluey; steam it, then moisten with broth. Chef's tip: toss the dry maftoul with oil and spices before steaming so every grain stays separate.

105 min

Palestinian Chicken

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Zibdiyit gambari

In Gaza's seafront restaurants zibdiyit gambari arrives bubbling in the same clay bowl (zibdiya) in which the sauce was pounded: prawns baked in a fierce tomato sauce full of garlic, green chilli and dill seed, with olive oil pooling at the edges for dipping bread. Families make it at home for special Friday lunches when the catch is good. Common mistake: cooking the prawns as long as the sauce, which makes them tough; they need only a few minutes at the end. Chef's tip: pound the garlic, chilli and dill seed by hand; the rough paste fries into the oil and gives the sauce its punch.

30 min

Palestinian Fish

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Chinchulines

No proper Sunday asado in Buenos Aires province or the interior is complete without a round of achuras, and chinchulines are the boldest of them: beef small intestine, coiled on the grill and cooked slowly until the outside crackles like pork scratchings and the inside stays soft and rich with its own fat. Pass them round on a board with lemon and bread as a starter while the bigger cuts cook. Buy them already cleaned from a butcher or a Latin American meat counter, and rinse them again well at home. The usual mistake is too much heat: the outside burns long before the inside cooks. Offal must be cooked right through, with no soft, raw-looking parts. Chef's tip: simmer them briefly before grilling; it cleans them further, shortens the time on the coals and gives you a much more even crunch.

65 min

Argentinian Meat

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Trucha a la manteca

Restaurants on the shores of Nahuel Huapi, in Bariloche and Villa La Angostura, put rainbow trout from the cold Andean lakes on almost every menu, and this butter version is the one locals order most. Fillets are fried with crisp skin, then drenched in butter browned with flaked almonds and sharpened with lemon. Serve with boiled new potatoes and a green salad. Any trout or char works. People commonly start the fish in butter, which burns before the skin crisps; fry it in a film of oil and make the brown butter after. Chef's tip: dry the skin really well and dust it with rice flour; it gives a thin, glassy crust without any gluten.

25 min

Argentinian Fish

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Centolla gratinada

Centolla, the southern king crab hauled from the cold waters of the Beagle Channel, is Ushuaia's pride, and seafood restaurants along the harbour serve it gratinada: sweet chunks of leg meat in a light white sauce, crowned with cheese and browned under a fierce grill. It is rich, so serve it in small dishes as a starter with lemon and a green salad, plus crusty bread for anyone who can eat gluten. Buy cooked, frozen king crab legs or meat and thaw them in the fridge overnight; if you ever cook crab yourself, it must be alive when it goes into the pot. A frequent mistake is a sauce so thick and cheesy that the delicate crab disappears; keep it pourable and the cheese thin. Chef's tip: fold the crab in gently at the end, in big pieces, and let the oven only heat it; it is already cooked and turns stringy if it boils.

45 min

Argentinian Fish

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Mejillones a la provenzal

On the Atlantic coast around Puerto Madryn and the Golfo Nuevo, mussels from cold Patagonian waters are farmed and gathered in quantity, and seafood places along the rambla steam them a la provenzal, which in Argentina means lots of garlic and parsley. A splash of dry white wine goes into the pot; the alcohol mostly cooks off, but you can swap it for fish stock with a little lemon for an alcohol-free pot that tastes just as good. Serve with bread or chips to mop up the briny juices. Cooking mussels too long is the usual slip: they shrink and turn rubbery, so lift the lid as soon as most have opened. Before cooking, throw away any mussel with a broken shell or one that stays open when tapped; after cooking, discard any that stay shut. Chef's tip: keep the garlic in gently warm oil until it just smells sweet; brown garlic turns bitter and dominates the mussels.

25 min

Argentinian Fish

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Dagga

Dagga, sometimes called salata ghazawiyya, is the salad that sits on every table in Gaza, pounded in a clay bowl (zibdiya) with a wooden pestle until the tomatoes collapse into a juicy, chunky relish. Fresh dill, green chilli, garlic and lemon make it sharper and hotter than any salad in the north, and it is spooned over fish, rice and grilled meat or scooped up with bread. Common mistake: using a blender, which turns it into a smooth sauce; you want broken pieces in their own juice. Chef's tip: pound the garlic, chilli and salt to a paste first, then add the dill, so its oils bloom before the tomatoes go in.

15 min

Palestinian Salads

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Bizcochitos de grasa

A paper bag of bizcochitos de grasa sits next to the mate gourd in kitchens, offices and roadside service stations across Argentina, from Buenos Aires to the Andes. These little rounds, a couple of bites each, are layered with beef fat, so they flake and crumble, salty and plain enough to eat by the dozen with bitter mate in the afternoon. The fat is rendered beef fat (grasa vacuna), so they are not vegetarian; ask your butcher for dripping or render suet yourself. A dough worked too warm is the mistake that robs them of their layers; the fat melts into it instead of staying in sheets. Chef's tip: chill the dough for 10 minutes between folds whenever it starts to feel greasy, and prick each round right through so it puffs in flakes rather than domes.

60 min

Argentinian Baking

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Ijjeh

Ijjeh is the quick supper of Palestinian and Levantine homes: eggs beaten with so much parsley, mint and spring onion that they turn green, spiced with a little cinnamon and allspice, then fried as thick little patties. They are tucked into warm bread with tomatoes and pickles for school lunches, or served on a breakfast spread with olives and labneh. Common mistake: frying in too little oil over a high heat, so the outsides burn before the herbs inside cook. Chef's tip: a spoonful of flour and a pinch of baking powder make them puff and stay soft when eaten cold the next day.

22 min

Palestinian Breakfast & Brunch

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Shulbato

Shulbato is a summer pot from the villages of the West Bank and Galilee, made when the garden overflows: coarse bulgur cooked with aubergine, courgette, peppers, tomato and plenty of onion until the wheat is fluffy and stained red. It is eaten warm or cool on hot days with a bowl of yoghurt or a cucumber salad, and it is also a fasting dish for Christian families. Common mistake: using fine bulgur, which turns mushy; it needs the coarse grade. Chef's tip: let the vegetables catch and brown a little before adding the wheat; that slight char is the flavour of the dish.

60 min

Palestinian Rice & Grains

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Kharroub

Through Ramadan, street vendors in Jerusalem's Old City and in Nablus walk the alleys with brass urns of kharroub on their backs, clacking cups to announce the cold carob drink that breaks the fast. Made by soaking crushed carob pods (or more easily from carob molasses), it is dark, chocolatey-caramel in taste, lightly sweet and very refreshing over ice. Common mistake: boiling the pods hard, which makes the drink bitter and cloudy; soak and simmer gently. Chef's tip: a few drops of orange-blossom water just before serving lifts the earthy carob flavour.

25 min

Palestinian Drinks

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Makmoura

Makmoura (meaning 'buried') is a village dish from around Jenin in the northern West Bank, made in olive harvest season when there is fresh oil to spare: layers of thin bread dough are baked over chicken and a heap of onions slow-cooked in olive oil with sumac and spice, so the bottom soaks up the juices and the top turns crisp. Families tear it apart by hand and eat it with yoghurt and olives. Common mistake: rushing the onions; they need a full half hour to turn sweet and jammy. Chef's tip: use good, fruity olive oil and don't skimp — it is the soul of the dish.

130 min

Palestinian Chicken

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