Bobotie

Bobotie

Bread is soaked in milk; mince is browned with onions; curry powder, turmeric and Cape Malay spices bloom. Apricot jam, mango chutney, vinegar and lemon balance the spice with sweet-sour notes. Raisins, toasted almonds and the soaked bread are folded through. The mixture is pressed into a baking dish; eggs are whisked with the leftover milk and poured over; bay leaves are stuck into the surface; the lot is baked until the topping is just-set with a faint wobble.

South African 1 hour 25 minutes Serves6
Jamaican Beef Patties

Jamaican Beef Patties

A handheld pastry that looks like a Cornish pasty but tastes nothing like one. The bright-yellow shell is the giveaway, turmeric and curry powder kneaded into the dough give it both colour and a faint, almost-savoury spiciness on the outside. Inside, the filling is highly seasoned ground beef: allspice, thyme, Scotch bonnet, ginger and scallions cooked into the meat, then loosened with stock and bound at the end with breadcrumbs and small cubes of butter so the filling stays juicy rather than dry-crumbly when it hits the pastry. The shatter on the pastry is the technical marker; flaky, layered, and slightly sweet from the sugar in the dough. Smell out of the oven is curry-powder-toasted butter. Not difficult, but it's a two-component dish (pastry + filling) and each component wants its own time, the dough chills, the filling cools, so plan for 90 minutes minimum. Sold from patty shops across Kingston, Toronto, London, Brooklyn and beyond; the Caribbean diaspora carried the patty further than just about any other Jamaican dish.

Jamaican 2 hours Serves8
Martabak Telur

Martabak Telur

A simple flour-water-oil dough rests for 1 hour (gluten relaxes; will roll paper-thin). Filling: beef mince cooks with shallot, garlic, ginger, curry-leaf, ground spices till dry and aromatic; cools; mixes with beaten eggs, spring onion and chopped coriander just before frying. Dough divides; each portion stretches paper-thin like a strudel; filling spoons in the centre; the edges fold over to make a flat square parcel; pan-fries for 3 minutes per side. Cuts in quarters; eats with chilli-pickle sauce.

Snacks 1 hour 55 minutes Serves4
Nigerian Meat Pie

Nigerian Meat Pie

A short pastry of plain flour, butter, margarine (the mix gives Nigerian pies their distinctive texture, flakier than all-butter, sturdier than all-margarine), a pinch of baking powder, salt and cold water is made and rested. The filling: minced beef browned with onion, garlic, curry powder, thyme and a stock cube, then a small dice of carrot and potato added and cooked through with a splash of stock and a touch of cornflour to give a thick gravy. Pastry rolls out 4 mm thick, cuts into 15 cm rounds; filling goes on half; egg-wash glues; crimp; egg-wash on top. Bake at 200°C 30-35 minutes until deep gold.

Snacks 1 hour 45 minutes Serves6