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148 recipes

Fah-fah (Djiboutian spicy goat soup)

Djibouti City's cafés and Somali-speaking homes across the Horn claim fah-fah as a national dish: a clear but deeply flavoured goat broth simmered on the bone with garlic, cumin and black pepper, filled with potatoes and carrots and sharpened at the end with plenty of green chilli and coriander. It is often eaten at lunch or as a restorative supper, and is especially loved during the cool season and Ramadan, with canjeero torn into the bowl to soak. The broth should be clean-tasting and spicy rather than thick. Letting the soup boil hard makes it cloudy and greasy, so skim well and keep it at a gentle simmer. Don't skip skimming the broth at the start, or the soup stays cloudy and tastes muddy. Chef's tip: add the chilli and coriander only in the final minutes so they stay bright and green.

110 min

Somali Soups

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Muqmad (Somali spiced meat preserved in ghee)

Before fridges, nomadic families in Somaliland preserved meat as muqmad, also called oodkac: beef or camel cut into tiny cubes, dried in the sun, fried in ghee with garlic and spices and packed into a container topped with more ghee. A spoonful is eaten for breakfast with sabaayad or canjeero and tea, and jars are made for Eid, weddings and travellers. Sun-drying raw meat is risky in a home kitchen, so this safer version cooks the cubes through to 71 °C first, then dries them in a low oven and keeps the finished jar in the fridge. The traditional raw-dried version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Cutting the cubes unevenly is the common mistake: big pieces stay moist inside while small ones burn, so aim for 1 cm all round. Chef's tip: partly freeze the meat for 45 minutes and it cuts into neat cubes far more easily.

240 min

Somali Meat

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Luang Prabang khao lam

Lines of blackened bamboo tubes propped beside smouldering charcoal mark the khao lam sellers on the roads into Luang Prabang, busiest in the cool season after the November harvest, when new-crop sticky rice is at its sweetest. Inside each tube, rice and black beans have cooked slowly in salted coconut milk, picking up a faint smoky, grassy flavour from the bamboo lining. You split the tube, peel back the thin inner skin and eat the dense, chewy, gently sweet log by hand, often on the morning walk or on a bus journey. At home the tubes roast in the oven or over a barbecue, and a lidded dish lined with banana leaf works if you can't get bamboo. Overfilling the tubes is the usual slip: the rice swells, the plug pops and the coconut milk boils away. Chef's tip: soak the rice overnight; well-soaked grains cook evenly right to the centre of the tube.

90 min

Lao Desserts

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Jeow het

Monsoon jeow, this one: once the rains bring mushrooms to every Lao market from July onwards, cooks grill a basket of them over charcoal and pound them with roasted chilli and garlic for a meaty, smoky dip that disappears with sticky rice at dinner. The texture is shaggy rather than smooth, juicy shreds of mushroom held together by a hot, garlicky paste, with fresh herbs stirred through at the end. It is just as good with steamed greens, cucumber and long beans, or spooned over grilled tofu. Oyster and king oyster mushrooms are the closest match to the wild ones. Many people blitz or pound it to a paste and lose the chew, and that's the thing to avoid. Chef's tip: tear the grilled mushrooms into strips by hand before they go into the mortar, then pound only to bruise them.

25 min

Lao Chutneys & Dips

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Baasto (Somali spaghetti with spiced beef sauce)

Pasta arrived in Mogadishu during the Italian colonial period and was firmly adopted, so that today baasto with suugo is a standard Friday lunch and a staple of the city's restaurants. The sauce is a long-cooked mix of minced beef, onion, peppers and tomato seasoned with xawaash, garlic and a little chilli, closer to a spiced Somali stew than to an Italian ragù. A ripe banana is served alongside and eaten in alternate bites, cooling and sweet against the spice; a green chilli sauce and a squeeze of lime finish the plate. Overcooking the spaghetti is the usual error, because it carries on softening in the hot sauce; drain it a minute before the packet time. For a meat-free version simply leave out the beef and add a tin of chickpeas. Chef's tip: let the beef brown properly before the tomato goes in; that colour gives the sauce its depth.

50 min

Somali Pasta & Noodles

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Cambuulo (Somali adzuki beans with butter and sugar)

Small red adzuki beans, cooked slowly until they almost collapse, are the heart of cambuulo, a dish Mogadishu households make for a cheap, filling evening meal. Once the beans are soft they are glossed with butter, a spoonful of sugar and a pinch of salt, so the flavour lands somewhere between savoury and gently sweet. Many families stir the beans into plain rice or serve the two side by side, with a drizzle of sesame oil and a banana on the plate. The texture should be creamy, with some beans still whole. The usual mistake is pulling the pot off too early: firm beans never turn creamy, so keep simmering until one crushes easily against the side of the pan. Chef's tip: soak the beans overnight and change the water before cooking; they cook more evenly and are easier to digest.

90 min

Somali Vegetarian

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Mok het

Wild mushrooms pile up at Luang Prabang's Phosy market as soon as the monsoon soaks the hills, from July into September, and families wrap them up as mok het for the evening meal. Mushrooms are bruised with lemongrass, shallot, chilli and a big handful of dill, bound with beaten egg, then folded into banana leaf and steamed until set, so each parcel opens into a soft, fragrant, slightly wobbly cake. It goes on the shared tray with sticky rice, a bowl of soup and some raw greens. Cultivated oyster, shiitake or chestnut mushrooms work beautifully. A watery filling is the common pitfall: mushrooms leak juice, so salt them and squeeze them first or the egg never sets. Chef's tip: grill the steamed parcels over a flame for a few minutes at the end; the charred leaf adds a lovely smoky edge.

50 min

Lao Vegetarian

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Sin savanh

Translated loosely as heavenly meat, sin savanh is the sweet beef jerky of Vientiane, sold in glossy dark strips at the morning market and carried home as a snack, a picnic food or a gift for family upcountry. Thin slices of beef are marinated with garlic, coriander root, sugar and fish sauce, coated in sesame and traditionally dried in the dry-season sun, then flash-fried just before eating, so they turn chewy, caramelised and slightly crisp at the edges. Eat it with sticky rice and a tomato jeow, or alone with cold drinks. Here it dries in a low oven until fully cooked and leathery, which is easier and safer than sun-drying. The common mistake is cutting the beef too thick, so the outside goes hard while the middle stays soft. Chef's tip: freeze the beef for 45 minutes before slicing; it firms up and slices thin as card.

240 min

Lao Snacks & Starters

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Nam khao

Party food in Vientiane often means a platter of nam khao: golden balls of curry-spiced rice deep-fried until crackling, then smashed and tossed with sour pork, peanuts, shallots, herbs and lime, and scooped into lettuce leaves with a fresh chilli on the side. Evening stalls near the city's markets sell it by the bag, and it's a fixture at weddings and New Year gatherings in April. Traditionally the sour pork is som moo, cured raw fermented pork with shredded skin, which is never cooked; that raw cured version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. This safer version uses minced pork cooked through and sharpened with lime and garlic, with cooked pork skin for chew if you like. Frying rice balls in oil that isn't hot enough is the usual mistake, as they soak up oil and fall apart. Chef's tip: use rice cooked the day before and chilled; it holds together and fries far crisper.

75 min

Lao Salads

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Jeow mak phet

Of all the jeows on a Lao table, this is the most basic and most loved, roasted fresh chillies, garlic and shallots pounded together and eaten with sticky rice at almost every meal, from farm lunches in the rice fields to Vientiane office canteens. Made with long green chillies, as here, it is bright, grassy and more fragrant than fierce, with sweetness from the softened shallot; swap some for bird's eye chillies if you want it hotter. Serve it with sticky rice, boiled pumpkin shoots, steamed vegetables, eggs or grilled tofu. Charring the chillies to carbon is the trap, and burnt skins turn the whole jeow bitter. Fish sauce is the usual seasoning; this version uses salt and a little tamari to stay vegetarian. Chef's tip: wear gloves when peeling hot roasted chillies, and keep your hands away from your eyes for the next hour.

20 min

Lao Chutneys & Dips

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Nafaqo (Somali potato-wrapped eggs)

Sold warm from street stalls and cafés around Mogadishu, especially in the late afternoon and at iftar in Ramadan, nafaqo is a fried snack with a surprise inside: a whole boiled egg wrapped in mashed potato seasoned with onion, coriander and xawaash. A light chickpea-flour batter gives it a crisp golden shell, and it is cut in half to show the yolk and eaten with a squeeze of lime and hot green chilli sauce. Kids love it, and it travels well in a lunchbox. A common mistake is using wet, freshly boiled mash, which slides off the egg and splits in the oil; steam-dry the potatoes and let the mash cool before shaping. Chef's tip: roll the peeled eggs in a little chickpea flour before wrapping them, so the potato grips the slippery white.

55 min

Somali Snacks & Starters

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Muufo (Somali maize flatbread)

Along the southern Somali coast and in the farming areas of the Shabelle valley, muufo is baked by pressing rounds of maize dough against the hot inner wall of a clay oven, where they puff and char in minutes. The bread is thick, a little sweet from the corn and slightly tangy, and its dimpled surface is perfect for soaking up digir, maraq or a drizzle of sesame oil and sugar at breakfast. At home a heavy pan and a very hot grill do a good job. Most cooks mix maize flour with some wheat flour so the dough holds together; this version uses yeast and oil, so it is vegan. The usual mistake is an oven or pan that is not hot enough, which gives a pale, dense bread; let the pan heat for a full 5 minutes. Chef's tip: wet your hands when shaping, as the sticky dough is far easier to pat out.

50 min

Somali Breads & Parathas

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Beer (Somali fried liver)

Beer means liver in Somali, and a plate of it, cut into small cubes and fried hard with onion, green pepper and xawaash, is a breakfast institution in Mogadishu cafés, especially on weekends and through Eid when there is fresh lamb or goat liver at hand. It arrives sizzling, with canjeero or sabaayad to scoop it up, a wedge of lime and a cup of sweet spiced tea. Good beer is tender and browned on the outside, cooked through with no pink left in the centre. The classic mistake is salting the liver at the start, which draws out moisture and makes it tough; add the salt at the very end. Lamb, goat, calf or beef liver all work. Chef's tip: cut the liver into even 2 cm cubes so every piece cooks through in the same few minutes.

22 min

Somali Meat

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Hilib ari (Somali slow-cooked goat with xawaash)

Goat is the festive meat of Somaliland, slaughtered for weddings, Eid and the arrival of guests, and hilib ari, goat on the bone cooked until it falls away, is the centrepiece of those meals. The meat is first simmered slowly with onion, garlic and xawaash, then the liquid is boiled away and the pieces are fried in their own fat until browned and crisp at the edges, so you get both tenderness and crunch. It is piled on a big platter of spiced rice with banana, lime wedges and green chilli sauce. Rushing the first stage is the mistake to avoid: goat stays chewy unless it simmers gently until a knife slides through. Chef's tip: ask the butcher for shoulder or leg cut into 5 cm pieces on the bone; the bones give the meat flavour and the leftover broth makes a good maraq.

125 min

Somali Meat

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Lao bamboo shoot soup

When the rains arrive in June, Vientiane's morning markets fill with pale, freshly dug bamboo shoots, and pots of kaeng nor mai start simmering in kitchens across the city for the family lunch. The broth is a deep olive green, tinted by the juice squeezed from yanang leaves, and thickened with a spoonful of pounded soaked sticky rice so it coats the spoon. Earthy bamboo, sweet pumpkin and slippery mushrooms float in it with lemon basil on top, and a basket of sticky rice and a dish of jeow sit alongside. Skipping the pre-boil of the bamboo is where most cooks go wrong: raw shoots taste bitter and need cooking through to be safe, so always blanch fresh ones and drain. This version leaves out the fermented fish of village kitchens and seasons with salt and tamari. Chef's tip: squeeze the yanang leaves in cold water, never hot, or the broth turns brown and loses its grassy freshness.

60 min

Lao Soups

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Jeow mak keua

Long purple aubergines laid straight on the embers turn into one of the softest dips on a Lao dinner tray, eaten up and down the country in the hot season when aubergines are cheap and plentiful. The skins blacken and the flesh collapses into a smoky, silky pulp, which is pounded loosely with charred garlic, shallot and green chilli until it is spoonable but still a little stringy. Pinch a ball of sticky rice, press a hollow in it and scoop up the jeow, or dip in cucumber, long beans and cabbage. Families often add fish sauce; here it is seasoned with salt and a little tamari so it suits vegetarians. Rinsing the charred aubergine under the tap is a mistake, as it washes away the very smoke you worked for. Chef's tip: peel with damp fingertips and leave a few flecks of black skin in the dip.

30 min

Lao Chutneys & Dips

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Jeow som

Grilled food in Laos rarely leaves the stall without a little bag of jeow som, the thin, sour-sweet sauce that every street grill from Vientiane's riverside to small-town bus stations ladles out beside the skewers. Unlike the pounded jeows, it is pourable: lime juice, garlic and raw chilli in a light, sweet-salty syrup, sharp enough to cut through anything charred. Dip grilled tofu, corn, aubergine or sticky rice into it, or spoon it over a plate of steamed vegetables. Stall versions lean on fish sauce; salt and tamari keep this one vegetarian. Tipping granulated sugar straight into cold lime juice is the usual fault, since it never fully dissolves and the sauce tastes gritty and unbalanced. Chef's tip: let the sauce sit for 15 minutes before serving so the garlic and chilli mellow into the lime.

10 min

Lao Chutneys & Dips

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Lao fish soup with dill

Restaurants on stilts over the Mekong at Pakse, where the Xe Don river joins it, serve tom pa at lunch in big communal bowls, and southern Lao families make it at home whenever the market has fresh river fish. Chunks of fish poach gently in a clear broth fragrant with lemongrass, galangal and lime leaf, soured with tomato and lime and finished with a generous fistful of dill, an herb Lao cooks use far more than their neighbours. The result is light, tangy and aromatic, with soft fish and a whisper of chilli heat; spoon it over sticky rice or sip it between mouthfuls of jeow. Boiling hard once the fish goes in is the mistake to watch, as the pieces break up and the broth turns cloudy. Chef's tip: add the dill only when the pot is off the heat, so it stays green and sweet.

30 min

Lao Soups

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Koy pa

Fishing villages on the Mekong in Champasak, down towards the islands of Si Phan Don, make koy pa from the morning catch and eat it with sticky rice under the stilt houses at lunchtime. It is a fierce, fresh salad: finely chopped fish tossed with lime, roasted chilli, shallot, galangal and toasted rice powder, then buried in mint, dill and sawtooth herb. Traditionally the fish is raw and only 'cooked' by lime, and raw river fish in the region can carry parasites; that raw version is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Here the fish is poached until opaque and flaking, then chopped, keeping the texture and punch. Stirring the rice powder into hot fish is the mistake that ruins it, turning the salad gluey. Chef's tip: toast your own rice powder with a lemongrass stalk and lime leaf; the shop-bought kind has nothing like the same nutty perfume.

35 min

Lao Salads

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Luang Prabang salad

Clear spring-fed beds outside Luang Prabang grow some of the crispest watercress in Laos, and the old royal capital turned it into a salad that shows its French years: peppery cress, tomato and cucumber under a smooth dressing made from mashed hard-boiled yolks. Cafés along the Nam Khan serve it at lunch in the cool season, from November to February, often as the light plate beside grilled river fish or a bowl of sticky rice. It tastes fresh, gently sweet and garlicky, with crunch from fried garlic and peanuts on top. Restaurants sometimes add fish sauce or pork; this version is vegetarian and seasoned with salt. Dressing the cress too early is the mistake to avoid, because it wilts into a soggy heap in minutes. Chef's tip: dry the watercress properly in a salad spinner, or the dressing slides off instead of clinging.

30 min

Lao Salads

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Khai paen

Along the Mekong and Nam Khan below Luang Prabang, women gather silky green river weed in the dry months, when the water runs low and clear, then press it into thin sheets and dry them in the sun. Those sheets turn up everywhere in town, stacked at the morning market and the night market, and a plate of fried khai paen is a favourite nibble with sticky rice and a pot of jeow bong in the late afternoon. Frying takes seconds: the sheets puff, darken and turn shatteringly crisp, tasting of the river, toasted sesame and garlic, a little like nori but earthier. Buy the sheets dried; outside Laos, look in Southeast Asian grocers, and if you can't find them, nori sheets make a stand-in, though they are thinner, sea-salty rather than freshwater and fry even faster. Leaving a sheet in the oil a moment too long is the classic error, as it goes bitter and brown almost instantly. Chef's tip: cut the sheets into squares with scissors before frying, not after, so they don't crumble into dust.

15 min

Lao Snacks & Starters

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Lao iced coffee

High on the Bolaven Plateau above Pakse, the coffee towns around Paksong grow most of Laos's beans, and roadside stalls there brew them dark and strong through a long cloth sock, all day long. Ordered cold, it arrives as a glass of ice with a thick layer of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom, the black coffee poured over and stirred to a caramel brown, often with a free cup of weak tea to sip afterwards. It is bitter-sweet, chocolatey and much richer than a café latte, made for hot afternoons on the plateau or a morning stop in Pakse. A French press or a fine sieve lined with a paper filter stands in for the cloth sock. Pouring hot coffee straight onto ice before adding the milk is where it goes flat: the condensed milk won't dissolve in cold coffee and sinks in a gluey lump. Chef's tip: stir the condensed milk into the hot coffee first, then pour over the ice.

10 min

Lao Drinks

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Digir (Somali spiced black-eyed peas)

Mornings at Mogadishu tea shops often start with a bowl of digir, black-eyed peas cooked down with onion, tomato, garlic and a warm hit of xawaash until the sauce clings to every pea. It is scooped up with canjeero, muufo or a piece of soft bread and washed down with spiced shaah, and it keeps people full well past noon. The finished dish is thick rather than soupy, earthy and gently spiced, with a little green chilli for anyone who wants it. Tomatoes added before the onions have softened are the usual misstep: the sauce stays sharp and watery, so cook the onions properly first. Avoid boiling the peas at a gallop; they burst and go mushy. Simmer them gently. Chef's tip: save a cup of the bean cooking water; a splash of it at the end loosens the stew and makes it glossy without diluting the flavour.

60 min

Somali Curries

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Hilib geel (Somali fried camel meat)

Camels are wealth in Somaliland, and their meat, lean and slightly sweet with a deep red colour, is a favourite in Hargeisa restaurants, where hilib geel is served fried with onion, garlic and xawaash alongside rice or sabaayad, banana and lime. Camel is a hard-working muscle, so it is first simmered until tender and then fried quickly in a hot pan until browned and fragrant. Halal butchers serving East African communities often sell it; if you cannot find it, beef chuck is the closest substitute and cooks the same way. Skipping the simmer and frying the raw meat straight away is the usual mistake, and it leaves the cubes tough as boots. Chef's tip: keep the simmering liquid; a ladle of it in the pan at the end makes a little glossy sauce for the rice.

85 min

Somali Meat

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