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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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Three-bean salad

No Heritage Day braai is complete without a row of salads on the table, and the sweet-sour three-bean salad is one of the oldest, handed down in Afrikaner and Cape kitchens and usually made the night before. Crisp green beans, creamy butter beans and red kidney beans soak in a sharp vinegar and sugar dressing with thin onion rings until they pickle lightly. It cuts through rich grilled meat or a vegetarian braai of mielies and halloumi. Chef's tip: dress the beans while the green beans are still warm so they drink up the dressing.

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ShebaTomato and onion relish

On 24 September, Heritage Day, South Africans light the braai, and next to the boerewors and chops there is always a pot of stiff pap with sheba spooned over it. Sheba is the everyday township relish of onions and tomatoes cooked down with chilli and curry powder until thick and jammy, sweet, sour and gently hot. It keeps well, so many families make a big pot the day before. Chef's tip: cook the onions slowly first; their sweetness is what balances the sharp tomatoes.

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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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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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TihaneStuffed lamb spleen

Tihane, or tehal, is an old Eid al-Adha speciality from Moroccan towns such as Fez and Marrakech, made on the days after the sacrifice when the offal is shared out. The lamb's spleen is cut open into a pocket and stuffed with chopped liver and heart, a little fat, green olives, preserved lemon, garlic and cumin, then sewn shut, poached and roasted until browned. It is sliced thin and eaten warm or cold with bread. Ask a halal butcher for the spleen and offal. Chef's tip: prick the spleen with a fine needle before poaching so it doesn't burst in the pot.

130 minMoroccanMeatGluten free
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Umphokoqo with amasiCrumbly maize pap with soured milk

Umphokoqo is the dry, crumbly pap of the Eastern Cape, beloved at Xhosa family gatherings and often brought out on Heritage Day as a taste of home. Instead of the stiff pap stirred into a smooth mound, the maize meal is steamed in a little water and broken up with a fork until it falls into fine, fluffy crumbs. It is served cold or at room temperature, with chilled amasi (thick soured milk) poured over, sour, cool and filling, or warm beside braai meat and chakalaka. Chef's tip: don't stir in circles like ordinary pap; cut and fluff with a fork so it stays crumbly.

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Cape Malay half-moonsCurried beef mince pastries

In Cape Town's Bo-Kaap and across the Cape Malay community, the weeks of Ramadan mean freezer boxes of half-moons, samoosas and pies, fried just before sunset and sent to neighbours as part of the custom of sharing boeka treats. Half-moons are soft pastry rounds folded over curried beef mince, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried until crunchy, and they are eaten with a cup of tea when the fast is broken. A potato-and-pea version is a variation to add later. Chef's tip: cool the filling completely before you fill the pastry, as warm mince makes the dough tear and leak.

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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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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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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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KalanehWild leek stuffed flatbread

In Kurdistan and Kermanshah, Newroz arrives with the first spring greens on the hillsides, and families gather wild leeks to fold into kalaneh, thin griddle breads cooked over a fire or a hot pan and soaked in melted butter. The dough is plain and soft, rolled very thin around a pile of chopped leek or chives with a little salt and pepper, so the greens steam inside as the bread blisters. Eat it hot, torn into strips, with yogurt and tea at a Newroz picnic. The common mistake is wet greens, which turn the dough soggy and make it tear; dry them well after washing. Chef's tip: brush the butter on the moment the bread leaves the pan so it soaks right in.

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Dowina (Kurdish yogurt soup)

Dowina, called ash-e doogh in Persian, is warming spring food in Kurdish homes around Newroz, when yogurt is plentiful and the first herbs are cut from the garden. Rice and chickpeas simmer in a tangy, lightly thickened yogurt broth, finished with fresh dill, coriander and a sizzle of dried mint in oil. It is eaten warm, never boiling hot, with flatbread. The common mistake is to heat the yogurt too fast without stirring, which makes it split into grainy curds. Chef's tip: whisk an egg yolk and a spoonful of rice flour into the yogurt before it goes on the heat; it holds the soup smooth all the way to the simmer.

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KourdassGrilled lamb liver bundles

After the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha, Moroccan families use every part of the lamb, and kourdass is one of the dishes made in the days that follow: pieces of tripe and liver rubbed with cumin and paprika, wrapped in caul fat and traditionally hung up to air-dry before grilling. This home version skips the drying, which is hard to do safely in a modern kitchen, and grills the bundles fresh over charcoal or under a grill until the fat crisps and the liver is cooked through. Buy cleaned, pre-cooked tripe and caul fat from a halal butcher. Chef's tip: wrap the bundles tightly so the caul fat bastes them as it melts.

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Mebos (Karoo salted apricot sweets)

Mebos belongs to the dry Karoo and the orchards of the Western Cape, where summer apricots were salted, sun-dried and pounded into a paste that lasted the year. Today it is a car-trip and school-holiday treat, bought from farm stalls and passed around with afternoon tea. The flavour is bright and tart, then sweet, with a little salt that makes the apricot taste even stronger; the texture is dense and chewy, like a soft fruit leather. Eat it on its own, with a cup of rooibos, or chopped over plain yoghurt. This version starts from dried apricots, so it can be made at any time of year. It is naturally egg-free: the apricots' own pectin and fibre, thickened with sugar in the pan, hold the paste together with no other binder. Chef's tip: measure the salt; the common mistake is adding it by feel, which turns a sweet-sour sweet into a salty one.

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Tmar mehchi (Moroccan almond-stuffed dates)

Tmar mehchi is the stuffed date of Fez and Marrakech, piled high on silver trays at weddings, engagements and Eid, and offered to guests with mint tea. Soft dates are filled with a homemade almond paste perfumed with orange-blossom water, often tinted pale green or pink to match the celebration, then scored with a knife so the filling shows. They are soft, rich and caramel-sweet, with a floral, nutty middle. The paste here is mixed from ground almonds and icing sugar, so there is no shop marzipan, which can contain egg white. It is naturally egg-free: the dates' sticky flesh and a few spoonfuls of orange-blossom water bind the almond filling. Chef's tip: add the orange-blossom water a little at a time and stop when the paste is firm like play dough. The common mistake is a wet paste, which oozes out and makes the dates slippery.

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Peppermint crisp tert (South African mint-chocolate fridge tart)

Few desserts say South African Sunday lunch, braai afternoon or church bring-and-share quite like this fridge tart, found on tables from Cape Town to Limpopo and at nearly every Christmas spread. Plain tea biscuits are layered with a thick caramel whipped into cream, then buried under grated mint chocolate with a crunchy centre. Overnight the biscuits soften into something close to sponge, the caramel cream turns silky and the mint gives a cool, crackly finish. Serve it cold, in squares, with strong coffee or rooibos. The tart is egg-free by nature: condensed milk, cooked down into caramel, gives body and binds the cream so it holds its shape when sliced, and chilling does the setting. Many shop biscuits are egg-free, but check the packet and buy eggless tea biscuits. Chef's tip: let the caramel cool until barely warm before it meets the cream; folding in hot caramel is the common mistake that melts the cream into a runny puddle.

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Waatlemoenkonfyt (Cape watermelon-rind preserve)

In the farm kitchens of the Western Cape, late summer meant turning the pale rind of big watermelons into jars of konfyt, a preserve that then came out all winter. The pieces are translucent green, firm and almost crunchy at the edge, soaked through with a ginger-spiked syrup. It is served with a wedge of mature cheese, on buttered bread or toast, beside coffee when visitors arrive, and in little dishes on the table at Christmas. Like all Cape konfyt it is naturally egg-free: a soak in food-grade pickling lime lets calcium firm the rind's own pectin so the pieces keep their shape, and the long simmer in sugar syrup preserves and sets them. Start two days ahead; the rind needs an overnight soak and a night resting in the syrup. Chef's tip: rinse the rind in several changes of water after the lime soak; the common mistake is rushing this, which leaves the konfyt tasting chalky.

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Boeber (Cape Malay vermicelli and sago milk pudding)

In Cape Town's Cape Malay homes, the fifteenth night of Ramadan is Boeber night, when big pots of this warm, sweet milk are cooked and shared with neighbours and the mosque after the fast is broken. It also turns up on cold winter evenings. Boeber is halfway between a drink and a pudding: toasted vermicelli and pearls of sago swim in milk spiced with cardamom and cinnamon, scented with rose water and finished with almonds and sultanas. It is creamy, fragrant and thick enough to need a spoon. Serve it hot in mugs or bowls. Boeber has never needed egg; the sago pearls release their starch as they cook and thicken the milk, while a little butter gives it a rich finish. Chef's tip: toast the vermicelli in the butter until golden before any milk goes in, for a nutty flavour; the common mistake is to stop stirring once the sago goes in, and it sinks and sticks to the base of the pot.

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Algerian mkhabezIced almond and lemon diamonds

No Algerian wedding tray, and few Eid tables in Algiers or Constantine, is complete without mkhabez: soft, chewy diamonds of ground almond and lemon zest under a smooth white icing, each topped with a sugar flower or a silver ball and set in its own paper case. Making them is a social affair, with sisters and aunts icing and decorating hundreds the week before a celebration. The almond base is flourless and dairy free, sweet and lemony, and the icing sets to a thin shell; serve them with mint tea or strong coffee. Overbaking is the mistake to avoid: the diamonds should come out pale and soft, or they go dry and crumbly under the icing. Chef's tip: ice them when completely cold, and get the icing so thick it only just flows; runny icing slides off the sides and never sets glossy.

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Tcharek el arianeAlmond crescents with orange blossom

On the last nights of Ramadan, kitchens across Algiers and Constantine fill up with trays of tcharek el ariane, the 'naked' tcharek: crescents of thin, buttery dough wrapped around almond paste with cinnamon and orange-blossom water. Unlike their sugar-coated cousins they are left bare, so the fine dough with its pinched, lace-like pattern shows. Families give them to neighbours on Eid morning and set them out at weddings with mint tea and coffee. The dough is traditionally made with smen (aged butter); plain melted butter works well. Overbaking is the common slip, because they turn hard and dry; they should stay pale with only golden tips. Chef's tip: keep the dough under a damp cloth while you shape, as it dries in minutes and then cracks along the curve.

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KrakelingeFigure-eight butter biscuits

These twisted figure-of-eight biscuits came to the Western Cape with Dutch settlers and have stayed a fixture of Cape kitchens ever since, especially in older Afrikaans and Cape Malay households. You will find them in Boland towns at church bazaars and on Christmas tea tables, and they suit an afternoon pot of tea perfectly. The dough is rich and short; the tops are dipped in egg white and then in sugar mixed with chopped almonds and cinnamon, so they bake to a crackly, sparkling crust. The dip is an egg glaze; milk works too, with a little less shine. Chef's tip: roll the ropes on an unfloured surface, because a dusting of flour makes them slide and crack when you twist them; if the dough is too cold it snaps, so let it soften for a few minutes first.

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South African crunchiesOat and coconut tray-bake squares

Crunchies are the tray-bake South African home bakers turn to when the biscuit tin is empty: oats, coconut, flour and sugar stirred into butter melted with golden syrup, pressed into a tin and cut into squares while still warm. Unlike Australian Anzac biscuits, which are rolled into individual rounds, crunchies are baked in one slab, then sliced into chewy-centred, crisp-edged bars. They sell at school tuck shops and church bake sales, go into lunch boxes, and are a natural partner for a mug of rooibos. There is no egg in them, and they keep for a week. Chef's tip: score the squares as soon as the tin comes out of the oven and leave them to cool before lifting; waiting until the slab is cold to cut is the common mistake, and it shatters instead of slicing cleanly.

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