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53 recipes

Kedjenou

Kedjenou comes from the Baoulé people of central Côte d'Ivoire, who cooked it in a sealed clay canari set in the embers and shook the pot instead of stirring it; today it is a weekend favourite in Abidjan's maquis, served with attiéké or rice. Chicken, tomato, onion, aubergine, ginger and chilli go into the pot with no water at all, and the vegetables release enough juice to make a light, intense sauce. The mistake is lifting the lid to stir: the steam escapes and the pot can burn, so seal it well and shake it instead. Chef's tip: a heavy casserole with a sheet of foil pressed under the lid works just like the clay pot.

95 min

Ivorian Chicken

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Chipa

In Paraguay you hear 'chipa, chipa!' called by vendors with big baskets on buses and street corners, and every family bakes it for Holy Week, when chipa is the food of Good Friday. Cassava starch, a little cornmeal, butter, eggs and a lot of hard cheese are kneaded into a dough scented with aniseed, shaped into rings or small rolls and baked in a hot oven, traditionally a domed clay tatakua. It's chewy, crisp outside and best warm with cocido (toasted yerba tea). Chef's tip: the dough should feel soft and slightly greasy; add milk a spoon at a time, as too much makes the chipa spread flat.

50 min

Paraguayan Breads & Parathas

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Alloco

Alloco is the evening street food of Abidjan, fried in palm or vegetable oil in big pans by vendors around the Allocodrome in Cocody and in every neighbourhood. Very ripe plantain is cut into thick slices or cubes, fried until caramelised at the edges, and eaten with a fiery raw sauce of onion, tomato and chilli. Unlike Ghanaian kelewele it is not marinated in spices: the sweetness of the fruit against the sharp sauce is the whole point. Chef's tip: wait until the plantain skins are mostly black; yellow plantain fries up dry and starchy.

25 min

Ivorian Snacks & Starters

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Sauce graine with chicken and smoked fish

Sauce graine, palm-nut sauce, is the Sunday stew of southern Côte d'Ivoire, made in villages from freshly pounded palm fruit and in Abidjan from tins of palm-nut cream. It is deep orange-red, rich and slightly smoky from the smoked fish that goes in with the chicken, and is eaten with foutou banane, rice or attiéké. The mistake to avoid is boiling it hard at the end; palm-nut sauce should simmer gently until the oil rises to the top, which is how you know it is done. Chef's tip: use bone-in chicken; the bones give the sauce body.

100 min

Ivorian Chicken

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Pašticada

Split and the Dalmatian coast reserve pašticada for weddings, christenings and Christmas, and the preparations start days ahead. A piece of beef is studded with garlic and cured ham (so this recipe contains pork), marinated overnight in wine vinegar, then braised for hours with onions, dried prunes, tomato and a little sweet Prošek or red wine until the sauce turns dark, glossy and sweet-sour. In Split it is always served with homemade gnocchi; pasta works too. This recipe uses red wine and dried figs or prunes; for an alcohol-free version use grape juice with a spoon of red wine vinegar. The common mistake is rushing the braise: it needs a low, steady heat for at least three hours. Chef's tip: blend the cooked onions and prunes back into the sauce for that velvet texture.

280 minBalkan Meat

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Sopa paraguaya

Paraguayans love telling visitors that their national 'soup' is eaten with a fork: sopa paraguaya is a dense, moist cornbread baked with sweated onions, fresh cheese, eggs and milk. It's on every table at asados, weddings and the Christmas meal, and sold in squares at bus stations from Asunción to Encarnación. The crust is golden and the inside soft and cheesy, more like a savoury pudding than bread. Chef's tip: soak the cornmeal in the milk for 15 minutes before mixing; hydrated cornmeal bakes up tender instead of gritty.

75 min

Paraguayan Breads & Parathas

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Crni rižot

Along the Dalmatian coast, from Korčula to Dubrovnik, konobas serve crni rižot as the first thing fishermen order when they come ashore, its jet-black colour startling against a white plate. Cuttlefish is cooked slowly with onion and garlic until tender, then rice goes in with fish stock and the ink sac, making a creamy, sea-sweet rice that tastes of the shore. It traditionally includes a splash of dry white wine; for an alcohol-free version, use more stock with a squeeze of lemon. The usual mistake is adding the cuttlefish late and cooking it fast, which leaves it rubbery; it needs to stew first. Chef's tip: serve with a drizzle of good olive oil and grated hard sheep's cheese if you like, and warn your guests about black teeth.

75 minBalkan Fish

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Attiéké with tomato and onion

Attiéké is the light, slightly sour cassava 'couscous' of the Ébrié and Adjoukrou peoples around Abidjan's lagoons, and it is eaten across Côte d'Ivoire every day of the week. In maquis (open-air restaurants) it comes heaped beside grilled fish with a raw salad of tomato, onion and chilli; at home many people eat it simply with that salad, fried plantain and a fried egg, which is how it is served here. Buy it frozen or dried in African shops. Chef's tip: steam attiéké rather than boiling it; water turns it to paste, while steam keeps the grains fluffy and separate.

30 min

Ivorian Rice & Grains

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Foutou banane

Foutou is the pounded staple of the Baoulé country around Bouaké and Yamoussoukro: boiled plantain, often mixed with cassava, pounded in a wooden mortar into a smooth, stretchy, slightly sweet ball. It is eaten with the fingers, pulled off in pieces and dipped into sauce graine (palm nut), sauce arachide or okra sauce. A food processor followed by a short knead does the job at home. Chef's tip: pound while everything is steaming hot; cold plantain will not come together and stays lumpy.

45 min

Ivorian Sides

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Fritule

On Christmas Eve, in kitchens from Split to Dubrovnik and out on the islands, bowls of fritule are fried by the dozen: small, airy doughnut drops scented with orange and lemon zest and studded with raisins, rolled in sugar while still warm. Many families add a splash of rakija or rum to the batter, but fresh orange juice works just as well and keeps them child-friendly. They are eaten all through Advent and the carnival season, often from paper cones at Christmas markets. Chef's tip: keep the oil at about 170°C; too hot and the fritule brown outside while the middle stays raw and doughy, the most common mistake.

105 minBalkan Desserts

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Tavë kosi

Elbasan, in central Albania, claims tavë kosi as its own and serves it on Dita e Verës, the spring festival in March, though families across Albania and Kosovo bake it all year. Pieces of lamb on the bone are browned with garlic and a little rice, then covered with a thick custard of tangy yogurt, eggs and a butter-flour roux and baked until puffed and golden on top. Inside, the custard stays soft and slightly sour against the rich meat. A classic slip is using thin, low-fat yogurt, which splits in the oven; use full-fat strained yogurt. Chef's tip: let the yogurt come to room temperature and whisk the warm roux in slowly, so the custard stays smooth.

135 minBalkan Meat

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Potica

No Slovenian Easter or Christmas table is complete without potica, a yeasted dough rolled thin around a honeyed walnut filling and baked in a fluted ring mould called a potičnik. When sliced, each piece shows a tight spiral of pale dough and dark nuts. Families in Ljubljana and across Carniola argue about the best filling, but walnut with honey is the classic one, eaten with coffee from Christmas morning until the tin is empty. Unlike a braided Romanian cozonac, the beauty is all in the thin, even swirl. Chef's tip: spread the filling no thicker than the dough and roll it up tightly; a loose roll or a thick layer leaves a gap between dough and filling once baked, the most common potica fault.

210 minBalkan Baking

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Zagorski štrukli

In Hrvatsko Zagorje, the green hill country north of Zagreb, štrukli are Sunday food: paper-thin dough is spread with fresh cow's cheese, rolled up, pinched into pieces with the edge of a plate, then boiled and finished in the oven under a blanket of cream. Zagreb restaurants serve them as a starter or a main, blistered golden on top and soft and custardy inside. The dough is stretched by hand over a tablecloth, which is easier than it sounds once it has rested. Chef's tip: squeeze the cheese if it is wet; a runny filling soaks the thin dough and makes the rolls tear when they boil.

115 minBalkan Vegetarian

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Punjene paprike

When late-summer markets in Novi Sad and Belgrade fill up with pale yellow and light green peppers, Serbian kitchens make big pots of punjene paprike to eat for several days. The peppers are packed with seasoned beef and pork mince and rice, stood upright and simmered slowly in a light tomato sauce until meltingly soft. They are served with a dollop of sour cream and bread to mop up the sauce. This recipe contains pork. The easy mistake is stuffing the peppers too tightly: the rice swells and splits them, so leave the top 2 cm empty. Chef's tip: plug each pepper with a slice of potato or tomato before simmering, so the filling stays inside.

105 minBalkan Meat

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Tufahije

Tufahije came to Bosnia with the Ottomans, and the name comes from the Persian and Arabic word for apple. In Sarajevo's old Baščaršija quarter they sit in the windows of slastičarne (sweet shops), whole apples poached pale in lemon syrup, filled with sweet walnuts and capped with whipped cream; at home they are a favourite after the iftar meal during Ramadan and at Bajram. They are soft, juicy and only moderately sweet. Chef's tip: choose firm, slightly tart apples and poach them gently; boiling them hard is the classic mistake and leaves you with split, mushy apples.

50 minBalkan Desserts

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Pljeskavica

Leskovac, in southern Serbia, holds a whole grill festival every September in honour of pljeskavica, and Belgrade's street kiosks sell it day and night in a lepinja flatbread with chopped onion, kajmak and urnebes, a fiery cheese spread. It is a broad, thin patty of mixed beef and pork with onion and paprika, grilled hard and fast. The 'gourmet' version, gurmanska pljeskavica, hides cheese and bacon in the middle, and that is the version given here. This recipe contains pork. A common error is pressing the patties on the grill with a spatula: the juices drain away and they dry out. Chef's tip: press a shallow dimple into the centre of each patty with your thumb before grilling; it stops them doming up as they shrink.

40 minBalkan Meat

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Bled kremšnita

Kremšnita has been served in the cafés on the shore of Lake Bled since the 1950s, and a tall, wobbling square of it with a coffee and a view of the island church is still the reason many people stop in the town. It is a thick layer of vanilla custard, lightened with whipped egg whites, topped with whipped cream and sandwiched between thin sheets of crisp puff pastry. The custard holds its shape with egg yolks, cornflour and meringue alone; there is no gelatine. Chef's tip: fold the meringue into the custard while it is still boiling hot and keep stirring on a low heat for a minute, so the whites cook and set the cream.

85 minBalkan Desserts

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Bosanski lonac

Bosanski lonac goes back to Bosnian village hearths, where a tall clay pot was layered with meat and vegetables and left in the embers for hours; in Sarajevo and Mostar it is still cooked for name-day gatherings and cold winter weekends. This home version layers chunks of beef, lamb and pork with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and peppers, then cooks it slowly in a covered pot with only a little water, so everything stews in its own juices. This recipe contains pork; use all beef and lamb if you prefer. The mistake people make is stirring it: the layers should stay intact and steam gently. Chef's tip: put the meat and onions at the bottom and the watery vegetables like tomatoes at the top, so the juices drip down through everything.

215 minBalkan Meat

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Fërgesë

Fërgesë is the dish people in Tirana order at lunchtime in a small clay pot, still bubbling, with a basket of bread for dipping. Soft fried peppers and tomatoes are folded through gjizë, Albania's fresh salted curd cheese, then baked until the top spots golden. The meatless version with peppers is the everyday one across central Albania; it is rich, tangy and gently spicy. Ricotta mixed with a little feta is a good stand-in for gjizë outside Albania. Chef's tip: cook the tomatoes down until thick before the cheese goes in; a watery fërgesë that splits in the oven is the usual mistake.

50 minBalkan Vegetarian

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Ćevapi

In Sarajevo's old Baščaršija bazaar, ćevabdžinicas grill ćevapi from morning till late night, serving them ten at a time stuffed into a puffy, griddle-warmed somun flatbread with raw onion and a spoon of kajmak. The little skinless fingers are made from beef (often mixed with lamb), seasoned with nothing more than salt, pepper, garlic and a little bicarbonate of soda, which gives them their bouncy bite. Belgrade and Banja Luka have their own versions, but the idea is the same: smoky meat, soft bread, sharp onion. People often over-season them with herbs and paprika; the Bosnian way is plain, letting the meat and charcoal speak. Chef's tip: chill the shaped ćevapi well before grilling and turn them only once or twice, so they keep a juicy centre and a crusty outside.

40 minBalkan Meat

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Ajvar

Every September the smell of charring peppers drifts over courtyards from Leskovac in southern Serbia to Strumica in North Macedonia, as families roast crates of long red babura peppers on wood stoves and spend a whole Sunday stirring the pulp into ajvar for the winter shelves. A little roasted aubergine softens the flavour, and long cooking with sunflower oil turns it into a glossy, sweet-smoky spread that is eaten on bread with white cheese, beside beans or potatoes, and with almost every winter meal. This is a home-sized batch for two medium jars rather than a cellar full. Chef's tip: do not rinse the roasted peppers under the tap to get the skins off; it washes away the smoky juices that make ajvar taste of autumn, so peel them with oiled fingers and a paper towel instead.

145 minBalkan Chutneys & Dips

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Tavče gravče

Tavče gravče, 'beans in a pan', is the dish North Macedonians call their own: large white beans, ideally the Tetovo variety, cooked soft, then baked in a shallow earthenware tava with onions fried in paprika until the top forms a crust. In Skopje it is a Friday staple and a Christmas Eve fast-day dish, served in the same clay dish it baked in, with bread, pickled peppers and a cabbage salad. This version keeps to the meat-free fasting style, with a paprika-and-onion roux for depth. Chef's tip: let the paprika sizzle in the oil for only a few seconds off the heat; scorched paprika turns brown and bitter and spoils the whole dish, which is the most common slip.

170 minBalkan Vegetarian

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Pindjur

Where ajvar is the patient winter preserve, pindjur is its quick summer cousin, made in Macedonian and Bosnian kitchens in July and August when tomatoes are at their ripest. Roasted peppers and aubergine are chopped rather than ground, then simmered briefly with fresh tomatoes and plenty of garlic, so it stays chunky, juicy and bright. It is eaten warm or at room temperature, scooped up with bread and a slab of white cheese, as part of a mezze spread in Ohrid or Mostar. Chef's tip: chop everything with a knife instead of a blender; a puréed pindjur loses the texture that sets it apart from ajvar.

70 minBalkan Chutneys & Dips

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Mbejú

Mbejú (say 'mbeh-JOO') is a Guaraní breakfast and merienda: cassava starch rubbed with butter, cheese and a little milk into damp crumbs, then pressed into a hot pan where it fuses into a thick, chewy, crisp-edged cake. It's eaten in the countryside with cocido (sweet toasted yerba tea with milk) on cool mornings, cut into wedges. It's naturally gluten free and very quick. Chef's tip: the mix should look like damp sand, not a dough; if you can squeeze a handful and it just holds, it's right.

25 min

Paraguayan Breakfast & Brunch

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