Vegetarian, or something you can't eat? Set your diet once and we'll hide recipes that don't fit.
1,724 recipes
Chatti pathiri is the Malabar answer to lasagne, baked in a chatti (pan) for the Ramadan iftar table in Kozhikode and Kannur. Thin crêpes are dipped in sweetened egg and milk, then stacked with layers of spiced minced chicken, onions and boiled egg, and the whole pie is cooked slowly until it sets into firm, tender wedges. Chef's tip: dip each crêpe quickly; a long soak makes them tear.
Indad is the slow-cooked pork curry of Mangalore's Catholic community, made for Christmas and Easter. Pork is cooked with a paste of Kashmiri chillies, spices and vinegar, then simmered with masses of onions and a lump of jaggery until it turns thick, glossy, dark and sweet-sour, a little like a vindaloo's gentler cousin. Like bafat, it is made ahead and served with sannas, pulao or bread. Chef's tip: cook the onions down slowly until jammy before the pork goes in; they melt into the gravy and give indad its sweetness.
Pesaha paal ('Passover milk') is the sweet dip served with Pesaha appam at the Maundy Thursday supper in Kerala's Syrian Christian homes. Coconut milk is simmered with melted jaggery, a little roasted rice flour to thicken it, cardamom and dried ginger until it becomes a warm, silky drink. The family dips pieces of the blessed appam into it after the evening prayers. It is vegan and gluten free, and ready in half an hour. Chef's tip: strain the jaggery syrup before adding the coconut milk, as jaggery often carries grit.
In Kozhikode, sulaimani is the clear amber tea poured after a heavy biryani, and in Ramadan it is the glass that follows the dates at iftar. A little loose black tea is brewed with cardamom, clove and cinnamon, then sweetened and sharpened with fresh lime so it is light, warming and gently fragrant. Chef's tip: steep the tea for only two minutes; sulaimani should be bright and clear, never strong and bitter.
On 8 September, Mangalorean Catholics celebrate Monti Fest, the feast of Mary's Nativity, which is also a harvest festival: new ears of grain are blessed at church and shared at home, and the family eats a vegetarian feast of new-season vegetables. Vorn, a pudding of split green gram (moong) cooked with coconut milk, jaggery and cardamom, is the sweet that ends it. It is like a gentle payasam, vegan and gluten free. Chef's tip: dry-roast the moong dal until fragrant before cooking it, which gives vorn its nutty flavour.
Kumror chhokka is the soft, sweet-savoury pumpkin dish that turns up on the niramish bhog plate at Durga Puja, next to khichuri and luchi, and at Bengali vegetarian feasts all year. Red pumpkin and potato are cooked down with soaked chickpeas, panch phoron (the Bengali five-spice), ginger and a pinch of sugar, until the pumpkin half melts and coats everything. There is no onion or garlic, which keeps it fit for the offering. It is mild, a little sweet and comforting. Common mistake: cutting the pumpkin and potato the same size; pumpkin cooks much faster, so cut it into bigger pieces, and stop when the potato is soft and some of the pumpkin has broken down. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of ghee and a pinch of roasted cumin powder stirred in at the very end makes it taste like the pandal version.
Kaipola is a Malabar Ramadan favourite, set on the iftar table in Kozhikode and Thalassery between the fried snacks and the sweets. Very ripe nendran bananas are blended with eggs, sugar and cardamom and slowly baked in a covered pan over ghee-fried cashews and raisins, so it comes out soft and custardy, with a caramel-brown base. Chef's tip: use bananas with black-speckled skins; underripe ones make it dry and bland.
Every Malabar iftar spread has a plate of pazham nirachathu: ripe plantains slit open, packed with grated coconut, sugar and cardamom fried with ghee and cashews, then dipped in a thin flour batter and shallow-fried. The outside turns crisp and lacy, the plantain goes soft and caramel-sweet and the coconut stays moist. Chef's tip: slit the plantain without cutting through the far side or the ends, so the filling stays inside the pocket.
In Hyderabad the pre-dawn sehri meal of Ramadan is often khichdi, kheema and khatta: a thin, sour tamarind and onion sauce, tempered with curry leaves, garlic and dried chilli, ladled over the soft rice and lentils to wake up the palate at four in the morning. It is runny like a rasam, tart and savoury with just a little heat. Chef's tip: fry the onion only until soft, not brown, so the khatta stays light and sharp.
Erachi pathiri, 'meat pathiri', is the snack Malabar cooks make by the dozen for Ramadan iftar: two small rounds of soft dough sealed around a filling of minced beef fried with onion, green chilli and garam masala, then deep-fried until they puff into golden pillows. Use halal beef mince, or chicken mince cooked to 74 °C. Chef's tip: let the filling cool completely before you fill, or the steam softens the dough and the edges burst.
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.
Sopa teóloga ('the theologian's soup') goes back to colonial convents in Lima and Arequipa, where it was cooked for feast days, and it is still served at Holy Week and family celebrations. A rich turkey (or chicken) broth is thickened with soaked bread, milk and fresh cheese, with yellow potatoes and shreds of turkey, and finished with a little ají amarillo and chopped huacatay or parsley. It is thick, comforting and filling. Chef's tip: blend part of the soaked bread with broth before adding it, which gives the soup its creamy body without lumps.
In Germany and Austria an Osterlamm, a light sponge baked in a two-piece lamb-shaped mould, stands on the Easter breakfast table, dusted with icing sugar with a ribbon and bell around its neck and sometimes a little flag. In Catholic regions it is taken to church on Holy Saturday to be blessed with the Easter basket. The cake is a buttery, lemony sponge, firm enough to keep its shape. You need a lamb cake mould, sold in kitchen shops before Easter. Chef's tip: grease the mould with soft butter and dust it with breadcrumbs or flour into every crevice, or the lamb's head stays in the tin.
Argentina's Nochebuena is a hot summer night, so the table is full of cold dishes, and lengua a la vinagreta is one of the classics: beef tongue simmered until tender, peeled, sliced and covered with a sharp vinaigrette of parsley, garlic, red pepper, onion and chopped hard-boiled egg. It is made a day ahead and served chilled with vitel toné and Russian salad. Chef's tip: peel the tongue while it is still hot, as the skin comes away easily then and clings once it cools.
Buffad (sometimes spelled 'bufat') is the Christmas Day dish of Anglo-Indian families in Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore, eaten after midnight Mass with bread, rice or coconut-milk pulao. Duck is simmered with potatoes, carrots, cabbage and peas in a light gravy of ginger, green chilli, mild spices and vinegar, a gentler, more British-influenced curry than its neighbours. It reheats beautifully. Chef's tip: brown the duck pieces first and pour off most of the fat, so the gravy is rich but not greasy.
In Bengali homes and pandal kitchens during Durga Puja, the bhog plate needs a dry vegetable beside the khichuri, and bandhakopir torkari is one of the favourites. Cabbage is shredded fine and cooked slowly with potato, peas, ginger and whole cumin, with no onion or garlic because it is offered to the goddess before it is eaten. A pinch of sugar and a final dusting of garam masala make it gently sweet and fragrant. Serve it with khichuri, luchi or plain rice and dal. Common mistake: covering the pan for the whole time, which steams the cabbage grey and watery; cook it mostly uncovered so the liquid evaporates and the edges just start to brown. Chef's tip: salt the shredded cabbage for 10 minutes and squeeze it lightly before cooking; it cooks faster and soaks up the spices better.
Pork bafat is the curry Mangalorean Catholic families cook for Christmas, weddings and every big feast. Fatty pork pieces are simmered with onion, ginger, garlic and bafat powder, a deep red-brown blend of roasted chillies, coriander, cumin, pepper, turmeric and cinnamon, then soured with vinegar and a little tamarind. It is fiery and tangy and is eaten with sannas, the soft, steamed rice cakes. Bafat powder keeps for months, so make a jar. Chef's tip: let the curry rest overnight, as the vinegar and spices mellow into each other and it tastes far better the next day.
On 11 November, St Martin's Day, children in Germany and Austria walk in lantern processions, and families and restaurants serve the Martinsgans: a goose roasted slowly with apples, onion and mugwort or marjoram until the skin is crisp and the meat tender, with red cabbage, potato dumplings and a rich gravy. Legend says the geese's cackling gave away St Martin when he hid to avoid being made bishop. Goose gives off a lot of fat; save it for roast potatoes. Chef's tip: prick the skin all over (not the meat) and roast on a rack so the fat drains and the skin crisps.
In Kerala's Syrian Christian homes, Christmas morning starts after midnight Mass with lacy appam and a bowl of duck mappas: duck pieces simmered in coconut milk with ginger, garlic, green chilli, black pepper and garam masala, finished with a splash of vinegar and fried shallots. It is creamy, warm with spice but not fiery, and a favourite across Kuttanad, where ducks are raised on the backwaters. Chef's tip: add the thick first-press coconut milk only at the end and don't boil it, so the gravy stays silky.
Schwenkbraten is the pride of the Saarland, where every village fair, football club party and summer Kirmes has a Schwenker: a round grill hung from a tripod and swung gently over a beech-wood fire. The meat is pork neck steaks marinated overnight with heaps of onion, garlic, marjoram and paprika, and they come off juicy, smoky and slightly charred. Locals often add beer to the marinade, but this recipe leaves it out, so no alcohol is involved. Serve with bread rolls, potato salad and mustard. Chef's tip: pork neck has fine marbling, so it stays moist; do not swap it for lean pork loin, which dries out on the grill.
On Pesaha, Maundy Thursday, Syrian Christian families in Kerala gather in the evening for a meal that remembers the Last Supper. The head of the house cuts the Pesaha appam (indri appam), an unleavened, steamed cake of roasted rice flour, urad dal and coconut, marked with a cross made from the palm leaves blessed on Palm Sunday, and shares it with everyone, dipped in sweet Pesaha paal. It is soft, dense and lightly savoury. Chef's tip: grind the soaked urad dal and coconut together very finely; the batter should be smooth and thick, like idli batter.
Fulkopir dalna is the gravy dish of a niramish (no onion, no garlic) Bengali menu, and it appears on the Durga Puja bhog table and at home on Navami and Dashami, when many families keep the day's food vegetarian. Large cauliflower florets and potatoes are fried golden and then simmered in a thin, glossy gravy of ginger, cumin, tomato and a little yoghurt, finished with ghee and Bengali garam masala. It should taste mellow, warm and slightly sweet rather than hot. Serve it with luchi or khichuri. Common mistake: boiling the cauliflower in the gravy from raw; fry the florets first until browned in patches, or they turn mushy and taste watery. Chef's tip: whisk the yoghurt with the ground spices before it goes in, and keep the heat low, so the gravy stays smooth instead of splitting.
Kinnathappam is named after the kinnam, the round steel plate it sets in, and it is one of the soft, wobbly sweets Mappila cooks in Malabar make for iftar and Eid. Rice flour, coconut milk and sugar are stirred into a smooth batter, steamed until just set and cut into glossy diamonds that taste of coconut and cardamom. Chef's tip: strain the batter before steaming; any lumps of rice flour show as white specks in the finished squares.
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.
Showing 24 of 1,724 recipes
Show more recipesPage 2 of 72
Indian
Peruvian
German
Argentinian
Paraguayan