Skip to content
Recipes

All recipes

Vegetarian, or something you can't eat? Set your diet once and we'll hide recipes that don't fit.

Krówki (Polish milk fudge)

Krówki, 'little cows', are the sweets Polish children grow up with: wrapped in paper with a cow on it, handed out at name days and school parties, and bought by the bag all year round. Fresh ones have a thin, sugary crust that crumbles at the edges while the middle stays soft and almost runny, with a deep taste of cooked milk and butter, close to dulce de leche. Eat them with black tea or coffee, or chop them into ice cream. They are naturally egg-free: milk and cream are boiled with sugar until the milk solids caramelise and the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, then beating it as it cools starts fine sugar crystals that set the fudge and give that crumbly crust. A spoonful of honey adds its own flavour and keeps the centre soft. Chef's tip: stop beating as soon as the mixture loses its shine and starts to thicken; beating too long is the common mistake, and the fudge then sets in the pan before you can pour it.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Jukut ares (Balinese banana stem soup with chicken)

Jukut ares is cooked in Bali for Galungan and the ceremonies around it, when families gather at home and the kitchen turns out dishes for days; the humble banana tree, which gives fruit, leaves and stem, stands for the generosity of the land. The soft white core of the trunk is sliced thin and simmered in a broth built on base genep, the island's master spice paste, until it is tender and slightly silky, like a cross between bamboo shoot and leek. Villages often use pork bones; this version uses chicken thighs, which make a lighter, golden, peppery broth. Serve it in bowls with steamed rice and sambal. Chef's tip: soak the sliced stem in salted water and pull off the stringy fibres as you go, or the soup turns grey and stringy.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Jaja begina (Balinese sun-dried rice crackers)

Jaja begina are the round rice crackers that fill Balinese offering towers for Galungan; once the prayers are said, the crackers come home as a crunchy snack for everyone. Steamed glutinous rice is pressed into thin discs and dried in the sun for days until rock hard, and then a quick fry makes them puff up, turn pale gold and become light and crisp. A thread of warm palm sugar syrup over the top makes them sweet and sticky. Without strong sun, a low oven does the drying in an afternoon. Chef's tip: make a big batch of the dried discs; stored airtight they keep for months, and you can fry a few whenever you like.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Śliwki w czekoladzie (chocolate-coated prunes with walnuts)

Boxes of chocolate prunes are a classic Polish gift: brought to grandmothers at Christmas, set out on the Wigilia table among the twelve dishes, and passed round on name days. Plump smoked or soft prunes from the south of the country are best. Each one hides a walnut half, so you get chewy, slightly tart fruit, a crunchy bitter nut and a snap of dark chocolate in one bite. Serve them with coffee or tea after a big meal. Nothing here ever needed egg: the prune itself holds the nut, and chocolate sets around it as it cools. Older recipes soak the prunes in spirits; here they are alcohol-free, plumped in warm orange juice instead, which also brightens the flavour. Use a dark chocolate made without milk and the sweets are vegan. Chef's tip: dry the soaked prunes very well before dipping; the common mistake is leaving them damp, and even a few drops of juice will make melted chocolate seize and turn grainy.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

SpringerleAnise biscuits

Springerle are among the oldest Christmas biscuits of Swabia and Baden in south-west Germany, made in Advent with carved wooden moulds and boards handed down in families, which print scenes of angels, animals and flowers onto the dough. The dough is only eggs, sugar and flour with aniseed underneath. The pressed biscuits are left to dry overnight, so that in the oven the picture stays sharp on top while a little 'foot' rises underneath. They are hard when fresh and soften in a tin after a week. Chef's tip: dust the mould with flour and tap out the excess every time, or the dough sticks and the picture blurs.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Jaja uli (Balinese pounded sticky rice cake)

Jaja uli is one of the rice cakes that Balinese families make in the days before Galungan, when the island celebrates the victory of dharma over adharma and the ancestors come home; it is stacked into the towering banten offerings and then shared and eaten. Glutinous rice is steamed, soaked in hot salted coconut milk, steamed again and then pounded until the grains break down into a dense, smooth, chewy block with a gentle coconut flavour. Slice it thickly and pour over warm palm sugar syrup, or toast the slices in a dry pan until crisp at the edges. A tall cup of tea or coffee is the perfect partner. Chef's tip: pound while the rice is still hot; once it cools, the grains won't knit together.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Balinese spiced roast pork belly (babi guling style)

Babi guling is the great feast dish of Bali for Galungan and temple ceremonies: at the festival, a whole pig is stuffed with spice paste and turned on a spit over a wood fire for hours. This home version uses a slab of skin-on pork belly instead, with the same base genep stuffing rubbed into the meat and the same goal: tender, spice-soaked pork under crisp, golden crackling. Turmeric, galangal, lemongrass and chilli give it heat and a bright yellow colour, and the pork fat keeps every slice juicy. Serve it sliced with steamed rice, a little of the cooked spice from the tin, long beans and a sharp, fresh sambal matah. Chef's tip: leave the skin uncovered in the fridge overnight; a really dry skin is the secret of crackling that shatters.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tum ayam (Balinese steamed spiced chicken parcels)

Tum ayam are small banana-leaf parcels made in Bali for Galungan and family ceremonies, when they appear on festive plates and in offerings alongside lawar and satay; wrapping the food in leaf is part of how Balinese cooking shows care for what is offered. Minced chicken is mixed with cooked base genep, a spoonful of coconut cream and shredded lime leaf, then folded into leaves and steamed until firm and juicy. The banana leaf gives a gentle, tea-like aroma, and the filling is spicy, fragrant and moist, like a soft spiced pâté. Serve the parcels with rice and a vegetable dish, letting everyone unwrap their own. Chef's tip: cool the fried paste completely before it meets the raw chicken, so the mixture stays cold and safe and the parcels hold their shape.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Marzipankartoffeln (German marzipan potatoes)

In Germany the run-up to Christmas is when these appear, piled in paper bags at the markets and in bowls on the Advent table; Lübeck, the city most famous for marzipan, makes them by the tonne. They are simply small balls of marzipan dusted in cocoa until they look like freshly dug new potatoes, sometimes with a few pricked 'eyes'. The inside is soft, sweet and fragrant with almond and a hint of rosewater; the cocoa coat is bitter and dry, which keeps the sweetness in check. Serve them with coffee, tuck them into a cookie tin or wrap them as small gifts. Shop marzipan sometimes contains egg white, so this one is made from scratch: a sugar syrup cooked to the soft-ball stage binds the ground almonds into a smooth, pliable paste, doing the job egg white does in some commercial pastes, and the result is naturally egg-free. Chef's tip: the common mistake is kneading the warm paste too long, which squeezes oil out of the almonds and makes it greasy; knead only until it comes together, then let it cool.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Piernik staropolskiHoney spice cake with plum jam

Piernik staropolski is the grand Polish Christmas gingerbread, and the old tradition is to mix the honey dough in November (once even at a child's birth) and leave it to mature for weeks in a cool place, which deepens the spice and makes the cake tender. It is baked a few weeks before Christmas, split into layers with powidła (thick plum butter), glazed with chocolate and left to soften again. This home version rests the dough for at least 3 days. Chef's tip: wrap the baked layers and let them sit for 3 days before filling; fresh piernik is hard, and it softens as it absorbs moisture from the jam.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

MoczkaGingerbread in dried fruit compote

Moczka is the Christmas Eve dessert of Upper Silesia in southern Poland, a thick, dark, spiced mixture of honey gingerbread dissolved in dried-fruit compote, then loaded with almonds, walnuts, raisins, figs and prunes. Each family has its own version; many add dark beer to the base, which this one leaves out, but adults may stir 100 ml dark beer into the compote while it simmers. It is eaten cold from small bowls and keeps for several days. Chef's tip: use dry, slightly stale gingerbread, which dissolves into a smooth sauce, while fresh cake turns to lumps.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Uszka z grzybamiMushroom dumplings

Wigilia, the Polish Christmas Eve supper, starts when the first star appears and is traditionally meatless, and its first course is clear red barszcz with uszka floating in it. These are tiny dumplings folded into 'little ears' and filled with dried forest mushrooms (usually ceps) and fried onion. They are fiddly, so families make them together in the days before and freeze them. Serve 6–8 in each bowl of hot beetroot broth. Chef's tip: save the mushroom soaking water and add it to the barszcz, as it carries much of the forest flavour.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Karpfen blauCarp poached in vinegar stock

In Franconia and Bavaria, Christmas Eve supper is often carp, and the old way is 'blau': the fish is poached in a sharp vinegar stock that turns its natural skin slime a striking slate blue. It is served with melted butter, freshly grated horseradish and boiled potatoes, and many families keep a carp scale in their wallet for good luck in the year ahead. Buy carp already killed and gutted by the fishmonger, and ask for it unscaled and handled as little as possible, or the blue colour won't appear. Chef's tip: never rinse or wipe the carp skin, because the slime is what turns blue.

60 minGermanFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Urutan (Balinese spiced pork sausage)

Urutan is the Balinese pork sausage made for Galungan: pork and pork fat are chopped with a turmeric-rich base genep, stuffed into casings and hung to dry in the breeze, so that the festival meat lasts for days after the feast. The finished sausage is golden yellow inside, garlicky, peppery and gently sour from drying, and it is always fried or grilled before eating. At home, make it either as a fresh sausage kept in the fridge, or air-dry it in the fridge with curing salt for the firmer, tangy traditional style. Serve slices with rice, sambal matah and a fried egg, or with drinks as a snack. Chef's tip: keep the meat, fat and equipment ice-cold throughout; warm fat smears and the sausage turns crumbly and greasy.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Geplak (Bantul coconut sugar candy)

Drive south from Yogyakarta to Bantul and you pass shop after shop selling geplak, the brightly coloured coconut candy that Javanese travellers buy by the basket as oleh-oleh, a gift for the people back home. Freshly grated coconut is cooked in sugar syrup until it dries and begins to crystallise, then a spoonful of toasted rice flour pulls it together into a firm, sandy-textured sweet. It is very sweet and coconutty with a gentle pandan scent, and it crumbles softly when you bite it. Serve small pieces with strong Javanese coffee or tea. Geplak is naturally egg-free: the recrystallising sugar and the toasted rice flour are what bind the coconut and let it hold its shape. Chef's tip: cook over a medium heat rather than high; the common mistake is rushing, which browns the coconut and dulls those pastel colours.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Lontong Cap Go MehRice cakes with chicken curries

Lontong Cap Go Meh is the Peranakan Chinese feast for Cap Go Meh, the fifteenth and last night of Imlek (Chinese New Year) in Java, where Chinese and Javanese traditions meet on one plate. It is not the everyday lontong sayur, which is simply rice cakes in a vegetable curry: this is the full festive spread, with rice cakes, yellow opor chicken in coconut milk, sayur lodeh vegetables, eggs simmered in the opor, and spicy sambal goreng potatoes, all ladled into one bowl. The long rice cakes are said to stand for long life, the golden opor for prosperity and the round eggs for luck. Rich, creamy, sweet and spicy all at once, it needs nothing more than krupuk and fried shallots. Chef's tip: cook the lontong a day ahead and chill it overnight, so it slices cleanly and the feast day is calmer.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Be celeng base manis (Balinese sweet soy pork)

Be celeng base manis means "pork in sweet spices" in Balinese, and it is cooked in Hindu households around Galungan, when pork is prepared on Penampahan, the day before the festival, and shared with family and the temple. Chunks of pork shoulder are braised slowly with plenty of shallots, garlic, ginger and galangal in kecap manis, the thick Indonesian sweet soy sauce, until the meat is soft and the sauce has turned dark, sticky and glossy. It is sweet, savoury and only gently warm, so it suits everyone at the table. Serve it with steamed rice, a crisp vegetable such as long beans and some sambal for those who want heat. Chef's tip: let the sauce reduce only in the last 15 minutes, uncovered, so it coats the pork without burning.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tahu campurFried tofu and beef noodle soup

Tahu campur comes from Lamongan in East Java, and its vendors carry it all over Surabaya, where it is a filling lunch or early supper eaten from a deep plate. Golden fried tofu, slices of rice cake, beef, bean sprouts and lettuce sit in a light, spiced beef broth, and a spoon of black petis (fermented shrimp paste) mashed with chilli, garlic and sweet soy is stirred through at the table. This version uses beef shin, which gives a clear broth and tender meat. A portion has about 30 g of protein, from the beef and the tofu. The common mistake is boiling the broth hard: it turns cloudy and greasy, so keep it at a gentle simmer and skim it. Chef's tip: thin the petis with a little hot broth before you add the chilli and lime, or it stays in sticky lumps.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bubur sumsum (Javanese rice-flour pudding with palm-sugar syrup)

Bubur sumsum, named after bone marrow for its colour and softness, is one of Java's best-loved jajan pasar, sold from carts in the morning and in the late afternoon as a sweet bite. In Javanese custom it is also cooked after a wedding or a big celebration to thank those who helped, as a gentle food for tired bodies. The pudding is pure white, silky and barely salty, and it comes drenched in kinca, a warm syrup of palm sugar and pandan. Serve it warm or at room temperature in small bowls, on a banana leaf if you have one. It is naturally egg-free: rice flour cooked in coconut milk swells and sets it to a soft, spoonable pudding, the way cornflour sets a blancmange. Chef's tip: whisk the rice flour into cold coconut milk before it goes on the heat; adding it to hot liquid is the common mistake that leaves lumps you can't whisk out.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pindang seraniFish in sour turmeric broth

Pindang serani belongs to Jepara and the fishing towns of the north coast of Central Java, where it is cooked at home for lunch and served at seaside warungs. Traditionally it is made with milkfish (bandeng) or grouper simmered in a pale yellow broth of turmeric, galangal and lemongrass, soured with sour starfruit and sharpened with chilli and basil. It is light and restoring, with about 28 g of protein a portion from the fish. Milkfish is very bony, so sea bass or grouper steaks are easier at home. The common mistake is boiling the soup hard once the fish is in, which clouds it and breaks the flesh. Chef's tip: bruise the turmeric, galangal and ginger rather than grinding them, so the broth stays clear.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tahu bacemSweet braised tofu

Tahu bacem is tempe bacem's softer sister, sold side by side on the gudeg stalls of Yogyakarta and Klaten and cooked at home on Sundays to see the family through the week. Firm tofu soaks up a braise of coconut water, palm sugar, coriander and galangal until it turns the colour of caramel all the way through, and a quick sear gives it a thin, chewy skin. A portion of about 200 g of tofu gives roughly 26 g of protein, from the soybeans in the tofu. The usual mistake is using silken or soft tofu, which breaks apart during the long simmer; buy firm or extra-firm. Chef's tip: press the tofu for 15 minutes before braising; the drier it is, the more of the sweet, spiced liquid it drinks in.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Garang asemChicken and starfruit in banana leaf

Garang asem is a dish from Kudus and Demak on the north coast of Central Java, where it is cooked for family lunches and sold at warungs by midday. Bone-in chicken is packed into banana-leaf parcels with sour starfruit, tomato, whole chillies and a little thin coconut milk, then steamed until the juices turn into a light, tangy, peppery broth. It is clean-tasting rather than rich, and a portion has about 32 g of protein from the chicken; serve it with steamed rice. The common mistake is wrapping the parcels loosely so the broth runs out; fold the leaves in two layers and pin them tight. Chef's tip: if you can't find belimbing wuluh (sour starfruit), use green tomatoes and a spoon of tamarind water for the same sharpness.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pepes ikanFish steamed in banana leaf

Pepes ikan is everyday Sundanese cooking from Bandung and the hills of West Java, made in the morning and eaten with rice, sambal and raw vegetables at lunch. Fish is rubbed with a yellow paste of turmeric, shallot, candlenut and chilli, scattered with lemon basil, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed, then charred briefly on a grill so the leaf smokes and perfumes it. The flesh comes out moist and fragrant. A portion has about 30 g of protein from the fish. The usual mistake is skipping the steaming and grilling straight away: the outside burns before the fish is cooked. Chef's tip: lemon basil (kemangi) is the signature; if you can't get it, use Thai basil with a little lemon zest.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tumis daun pepayaStir-fried papaya leaves

In Manado and across North Sulawesi and Maluku, a plate of tumis daun pepaya sits beside rice, grilled corn and sambal at everyday lunches and at big family gatherings, where its clean bitterness cuts through rich coconut dishes. The leaves are boiled first to tame them, then stir-fried hot with shallot, garlic, chilli and lemon basil until glossy. Many cooks add a little dried anchovy or fish; this version is vegetarian and gets its savouriness from a spoon of soy sauce and the fried aromatics. It is a light side with about 4 g of protein per portion, from the leaves themselves, so serve it with tofu, tempeh or beans if you want a full meal. The common mistake is skipping the pre-boil: raw papaya leaves are harshly bitter. Chef's tip: squeeze the boiled leaves hard and fry them in a hot, dry-ish pan so they take on a little colour rather than stewing.

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Showing 24 of 559 recipes

Show more recipes

Page 1 of 24