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Curried sausages

Curried sausages are pure Australian weeknight comfort, the dish generations of kids came home to in Sydney, Brisbane and country towns alike, usually made with thick beef or pork sausages and a tin of mild curry powder. The sausages are browned, sliced and simmered with onion, carrot, potato and peas in a gentle, slightly sweet curry gravy, then spooned over fluffy rice. The usual mistake is skipping the pre-cook: browning the sausages whole first keeps them juicy and gives the sauce its colour. Sausages, whether beef or pork, must reach 71 °C in the centre. Chef's tip: a grated apple simmered in the sauce is the classic Aussie trick for a rounded sweetness without extra sugar.

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Hot jam doughnuts

Hot jam doughnuts have been sold from a van at Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne since the 1950s, and the queue on a cold Saturday morning is part of the ritual. The small round yeast doughnuts are fried, injected with hot raspberry jam and rolled in sugar, then eaten straight from the paper bag; careful, the jam is scorching. A common mistake is frying at too high a heat, which browns the outside before the inside cooks. Chef's tip: let the shaped dough rise until it springs back slowly when poked, or the doughnuts will be heavy.

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Stamppot raapstelenMashed potato with turnip greens

When the first raapstelen (tender young turnip tops) appear at Dutch markets in March and April, families from Groningen to Zeeland make this spring stamppot for supper. Floury potatoes are boiled and mashed in the same pan with butter and hot milk, then the raw, finely cut greens are stirred through so they stay bright, crisp and slightly peppery. It is classic with a vegetarian sausage or a fried egg and a puddle of gravy in a well in the middle. The usual mistake is cooking the greens: they should only wilt from the heat of the mash. Chef's tip: dry the boiled potatoes over the heat for a minute before mashing, so they soak up the milk and butter instead of turning gluey.

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Melting momentsLemon buttercream sandwich biscuits

Melting moments are the soft, crumbly biscuits found in Australian and New Zealand bakery jars and grandmother's tins, two rounds made with custard powder and icing sugar sandwiched with a lemon butter icing. The custard powder gives them their yellow colour and tender, short texture that melts in the mouth, hence the name. A common mistake is overbaking; they should be pale, not golden. Chef's tip: press each ball with a floured fork for the classic stripes.

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Passionfruit sponge

The passionfruit sponge is the star of the Australian country show cake table and every Sunday afternoon tea, made from the vines that cover back fences from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast. Two airy, fatless sponges are filled with whipped cream and topped with a tangy passionfruit icing. A common mistake is knocking the air out when folding in the flour; use a light hand and a big metal spoon. Chef's tip: beat the eggs and sugar for a full 8–10 minutes until thick enough to hold a trail.

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Corn fritters

Corn fritters are a Sydney café staple, the brunch that sits on every menu from Surry Hills to Manly, stacked with smashed avocado, roast tomato or relish and a handful of herbs. The batter is mostly corn, with just enough flour and egg to bind, plus spring onion, coriander and a little chilli. They are quick enough for a weekday breakfast. A common mistake is crowding the pan, which steams them instead of crisping. Chef's tip: blitz a quarter of the corn so its milky juice binds the fritters and keeps them tender.

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Koffie verkeerdCoffee with extra milk

Order a koffie verkeerd in any Dutch café or bruin café and you get a tall glass that is mostly steamed milk with a strong shot of coffee poured in, the 'wrong' way round compared with a normal black coffee. It is the Dutch morning cup at home and at work, usually with a speculaas biscuit on the saucer. The common mistake is boiling the milk, which makes it taste cooked and kills the foam; heat it only until it steams and small bubbles form at the edge, about 65 °C. Chef's tip: froth the milk by shaking it in a jar with the lid on before warming it in the microwave, and you get café-style foam without a machine.

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SlempSpiced saffron milk

Slemp is the Dutch holiday drink of earlier centuries: on Sinterklaas evening, around New Year and on skating days in the 18th and 19th centuries, a big kettle of milk was simmered with saffron, mace, cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel and a handful of tea leaves, and ladled into cups for family and visitors. Slemp evenings came back into fashion in Amsterdam museums and village fairs, and you can still buy dried 'slempkruiden' spice mixes in old-fashioned shops. The drink is golden, faintly floral from the saffron, warmly spiced and only lightly sweet, with a soft tea background; a spoon of cornflour gives it a slight body. The common mistake is throwing all the spices straight into boiling milk: cloves turn harsh and the milk catches. Steep the spices in the hot milk below the boil instead, then strain. It is ready when it has turned saffron-gold and smells of cinnamon and mace. The tea adds a small amount of caffeine. Chef's tip: soak the saffron in a spoon of warm milk for ten minutes first; the colour spreads more evenly and you need fewer threads.

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Aussie salad sandwich

The salad sandwich is the backbone of the Australian lunchbox and the school tuckshop order: soft bread built up with tinned beetroot, grated carrot, tasty cheese, tomato and crisp lettuce, cut into triangles and wrapped in paper. Beetroot is what makes it unmistakably Aussie. The common mistake is laying wet beetroot and tomato straight on bare bread, so by lunchtime it is pink and soggy. Many Cheddar-style "tasty" cheeses use animal rennet; choose one labelled vegetarian. Chef's tip: butter both slices to the edge and put the cheese and lettuce next to the bread, with the wet fillings sealed in the middle.

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Coconut icePink and white coconut fudge

Coconut ice is the pink and white sweet that fills Australian school fete stalls, Christmas hampers and CWA cake tables, a no-cook fudge of desiccated coconut, condensed milk and icing sugar. It is soft, chewy and very sweet, so cut small squares. A common mistake is a mixture that's too wet to hold; add more coconut until it's firm enough to press. Chef's tip: press the white layer first, then the pink, and chill before cutting for sharp stripes.

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Frozen Christmas pudding

In the heat of an Australian December, many families swap the steamed pudding for a frozen one, ice cream packed with fruit, nuts and chocolate and set in a pudding basin so it still looks the part on the Christmas table in Brisbane or Perth. It is made days ahead and turned out just before serving. A common mistake is letting the ice cream melt too much while mixing, which makes it icy when refrozen; soften it only until stirrable. Chef's tip: soak the fruit in orange juice the night before so it stays soft when frozen.

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Blote billetjes in het grasWhite and green beans with butter

Dutch grandmothers named this dish 'bare bottoms in the grass' for the pale white beans peeping out between the green ones, and it is a summer weekday supper all over the Netherlands, when runner and French beans are cheap. Green beans and cooked white beans are simmered together, then stirred with butter, a little stock and plenty of pepper, often with boiled potatoes on the side. Many families add bacon or a smoked sausage; this version keeps it vegetarian, so serve it with a fried egg or a vegetarian sausage if you want more. The usual mistake is boiling the green beans until grey: they should stay bright with a slight bite. Chef's tip: a splash of the bean-cooking liquid stirred in with the butter makes a glossy little sauce that clings to everything.

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AppelflapApple puff pastry

An appelflap is the snack Amsterdammers pick up at the bakery counter or the Albert Cuyp market on a grey afternoon: a triangle of flaky puff pastry, packed with soft cinnamon apple and plump raisins, its top crackling with sugar. You eat it from a paper bag on a bench by the canal, or with a coffee at about four o'clock, and the filling is always hotter than you expect. Chef's tip: cook the apple filling first and let it cool completely; warm filling melts the butter in the pastry and you lose the layers.

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Karnemelkse papButtermilk porridge

Karnemelkse pap, made with the buttermilk left over from Dutch farm churning, was breakfast and supper in the Netherlands for centuries, and many older Dutch people still remember it on cold winter mornings. Buttermilk is thickened with flour into a smooth, tangy porridge and eaten hot with stroop (syrup) or brown sugar. The common mistake is pouring cold buttermilk on flour and boiling hard, which splits the porridge into grainy lumps; mix a smooth paste first and keep the heat gentle. Chef's tip: stir constantly with a whisk, especially at the bottom of the pan, until it bubbles once, and it stays silky.

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AppelstroopApple syrup

In Dutch and Belgian Limburg, appelstroop is spread on brown bread at breakfast, often under a slice of Gouda, and it goes into the Limburg sour stew zoervleis. It is nothing but apples (with a few pears) cooked to a pulp, pressed and boiled down for hours into a glossy, almost black syrup that tastes sweet, sharp and faintly of caramel. The common mistake is stopping too early: until it coats a cold plate and holds a line, it is apple juice, not stroop. Chef's tip: in the last half hour stir constantly and lower the heat, because the thick syrup catches and burns in seconds.

260 minDutchBasicsVeganGluten free
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KaasbroodjeCheese puff pastry roll

The kaasbroodje is the Dutch commuter's breakfast: a rectangle of puff pastry wrapped around a log of Gouda, baked until the cheese oozes from the ends. Kiosks in Amsterdam Centraal and bakeries along the Haarlemmerstraat sell them warm all morning, and they get eaten on the platform or on the tram, scattering flakes everywhere. Use a young or medium Gouda for melt, with a little aged one for flavour. Traditional Gouda is often made with animal rennet, so choose one labelled vegetarian (made with microbial rennet) if that matters to you. Chef's tip: seal the ends well and bake with the seam underneath, so the cheese melts inside rather than running onto the tray.

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HacheeBeef and onion stew

Hachee is the Dutch stoofpotje that grandmothers in Friesland, Groningen and Brabant leave murmuring on the back of the stove on cold Sundays: beef braised with almost as much onion as meat, plus bay leaves, cloves and a splash of vinegar, until it falls apart into a dark, sweet-sour gravy. It goes on boiled potatoes with red cabbage, or with stamppot, and leftovers are eaten on toast. The usual mistake is rushing the onions: they need a good 15 minutes to turn deep golden, or the gravy stays pale and sharp. Slow-cooker option: after browning, cook on low for 8 hours. Chef's tip: stir in a spoon of dark syrup or apple butter at the end only if the vinegar tastes too sharp; taste first, as good onions often make it unnecessary.

190 minDutchMeat
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LekkerbekjeBattered fried whiting

Lekkerbekje means "little treat", and at the haringkarren and fish stalls of the Albert Cuyp and Dappermarkt it is the other big seller next to raw herring: a whole fillet of whiting (or cod) dipped in batter and fried until the coating crackles. It comes in a paper tray with a lemon wedge and a spoon of remoulade, and Amsterdammers eat it for lunch on market days, standing at the counter. The batter here uses sparkling water instead of beer for lightness. Chef's tip: keep the batter ice-cold and mix it only just before frying; the cold against the hot oil is what makes it shatter.

25 minDutchFish
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Anijsmelk (aniseed milk)

When the canals of Friesland freeze hard and the whole of the Netherlands goes out on skates, koek-en-zopie stalls appear on the ice selling erwtensoep, warm sausage and steaming cups of anijsmelk. At home it is a winter bedtime drink for children and grandparents alike, made either by crushing aniseed into simmering milk or, as many Dutch families do, by stirring in anijsblokjes, sugar cubes flavoured with aniseed. It tastes softly sweet and liquorice-like without being sharp, and it is smooth and warming, with a faint warmth on the tongue. The common mistake is boiling the milk: it rises over the pan, scorches on the base and forms a thick skin. Heat it slowly and stop when tiny bubbles appear around the edge. It is ready when the milk smells clearly of anise after steeping and has turned faintly ivory. Anise seeds are sold in spice shops; in a pinch use one star anise, though it tastes stronger and less sweet. There is no caffeine, which is why Dutch parents serve it at bedtime. Chef's tip: crush the seeds just before using, the oils fade quickly once ground.

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Moreton Bay bugsSlipper lobster with garlic butter

Moreton Bay bugs are the flat, shovel-nosed slipper lobsters caught off the Queensland coast around Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, and for Queenslanders they are a summer treat, split and grilled at the beach house. The tail meat is sweet and rich, somewhere between lobster and prawn. Buy them raw, frozen or fresh, from a fishmonger and ask them to halve them if you like. A common mistake is overcooking, which makes the meat rubbery; it is ready the moment it turns white. Chef's tip: grill flesh side down first to mark it, then turn and baste in the shell.

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Curried egg sandwich

A school canteen and church-fete favourite across Australia, the curried egg sandwich is soft white or wholemeal bread filled with hard-boiled egg mashed with mayonnaise and a little mild curry powder, often with lettuce or cress. It goes into lunch boxes cut into fingers. The common mistake is mashing the eggs while warm, which turns the mayonnaise oily and the filling runny; let them cool completely. Chef's tip: warm the curry powder in a dry pan for 20 seconds first, and the raw, dusty taste turns sweet and toasty.

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Golden syrup dumplings

Golden syrup dumplings are a winter pudding from Australian country kitchens, made during the Depression and still cooked by grandmothers in the Riverina and the Victorian high country when the nights turn cold. Soft scone-dough balls simmer in a sauce of golden syrup, butter and brown sugar until they swell and turn sticky. Serve with vanilla ice cream or custard. A common mistake is a pan that's too small; the dumplings double in size and need space. Chef's tip: keep the lid on and resist peeking, so the tops steam light and fluffy.

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Gevulde koekAlmond-filled cookie

A gevulde koek is two discs of short, buttery dough sandwiching a thick layer of almond paste (spijs), glazed with egg and crowned with half an almond. Every Amsterdam bakery has a stack of them, and they are the classic koffie snack at about eleven in the morning, or something to eat on the bike home from the Noordermarkt. The pastry is crumbly and the middle soft, fragrant and lemony. It contains wheat, egg, milk and almonds. Chef's tip: make the almond paste a day ahead; it firms up and is much easier to shape into neat discs.

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Davidson plum jam

Davidson plums grow on slender trees in the subtropical rainforests of northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland, ripening dark purple in summer. They are far too sour to eat raw but make a stunning deep-crimson jam with a sharp, tangy flavour, sold at farmers' markets around Byron Bay and the Sunshine Coast. Spread it on scones or serve with cheese. A common mistake is boiling it past the set; the plums are high in pectin and set fast. Chef's tip: if you can't find Davidson plums, use dark sour plums and add a squeeze of lemon.

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