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Silky scrambled eggs infused with warm spices and fresh aromatics. The turmeric adds a earthy golden color while ginger and chilli provide warmth and complexity. Served with fresh coriander, this makes an excellent quick snack, elegant starter, or gourmet canapé topping.
Chicken poaches in a heavily spiced broth (saffron, ginger, cinnamon, lemon). The shredded meat returns to a reduced sauce thickened with beaten eggs to make a soft set. Toasted almonds with sugar and cinnamon form a layer. Everything wraps in butter-brushed filo, baked golden, and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon.
The BIR icon: tandoori-grilled chicken finished in a velvety tomato-onion sauce enriched with double cream, butter and a hit of garam masala at the end. Mildly spiced, lightly sweet, deeply savoury. The sauce is built on a paste of cooked onion, tomato and cashews / almonds, finished off-heat with cold butter for the signature gloss.
Lamb and chicken poach slowly in a saffron-tomato broth with chunks of root vegetables and chickpeas. Merguez sausages grill or fry separately. Couscous steams (or is rehydrated quickly with hot broth and butter). Everything plates separately on a vast platter; diners build their own bowls and slick with harissa.
Whole black urad lentils and a small handful of red kidney beans are soaked overnight, then pressure-cooked or simmered until completely tender. A tomato-and-spice masala is built separately with onion, garlic, ginger and a careful hand with the spices. The lentils are folded into the masala and simmered, low and slow, for two hours, while butter and cream are stirred through in the final stage. The lentils break down into a glossy, almost-velvet finish.
Ethiopia's national dish, the spiced chicken stew that turns up at every wedding, Easter feast and Christmas table, and the one dish a cook is judged on. The foundation is the onion - you cook it down slowly for nearly an hour into a deep dark base, and this is the step that decides whether the wat is great or merely acceptable. Berbere (the Ethiopian spice blend of chilli, fenugreek, ginger and a dozen others) and niter kibbeh (spiced clarified butter, the dish's defining fat) fold in. Chicken thighs and legs simmer in the deep red sauce, and hard-boiled eggs join late, scored with a knife so they take on the colour and the flavour. Eaten communally from a single platter, with injera flatbread torn into pieces to scoop the stew. No cutlery, no individual plates, hands clean before the meal.
Pork belly is simmered until tender, prawns are poached briefly, and vermicelli is cooked just al dente. Everything cools to room temperature, then rice paper rounds are dipped briefly in warm water and rolled around lettuce, herbs and the protein with the pink of the prawns showing through the wrapper. The peanut-hoisin sauce is the make-or-break: it should be thick, sweet and lightly garlicky.
The Bhutanese weeknight chicken stew, the dish a Thimphu cook turns to after a long day. You joint a whole bone-in chicken and stew it with onion, tomato, plenty of fresh garlic and ginger, three or four green chillies, and butter or vegetable oil with a splash of water. The cook is fast: a brief sear to colour the meat, a simmer with the tomato until the chicken is cooked through and falling off the bone, and a finish with chopped coriander and spring onion just before serving. What you get back is a brothy, fresh, gently spicy chicken dish that sits somewhere between Indian and East Asian cookery, which is exactly where Bhutan sits geographically. Eaten with red rice, perhaps a small bowl of ema datshi on the side for whoever wants to push the heat further.
Saudi Arabia's national dish, the one platter you'll meet at almost every gathering from family lunch through wedding banquet. You brown chicken pieces or lamb shoulder hard in a heavy pot, then build a base of onion, garlic and ginger softened in the same fat, with tomato and a spoonful of baharat (or a dedicated kabsa spice mix) blooming until the kitchen fills with cardamom and cinnamon. The protein simmers in tomato and stock until it's tender and pulling away from the bone, then long-grain rice goes in to cook absorption-style in the same liquid, drinking up every layer of flavour the broth carries. You finish with almonds toasted in butter, raisins plumped briefly, and a fresh salsa of tomato, onion, chilli and parsley spooned on the side to cut the richness. Eaten communally from the centre platter, with hands or a long spoon.
Kabuli pulao is Afghanistan's national dish, the centrepiece of every wedding, Eid and important Friday lunch: a layered pilaf of long-grain rice, slow-braised lamb, sweet carrot strands and butter-plumped raisins, all steam-finished together in one pot. You brown lamb shoulder hard, then braise it in spiced stock until the meat slips off the bone (that stock becomes the rice's cooking liquid). Carrots cut into matchsticks fry slowly in butter and sugar until they are golden and glassy. Raisins plump in butter. The rice parboils, then layers in the pot: lamb at the bottom, rice piled on top in a dome, drizzles of stock through the dome, lid clamped on tight. Twenty-five minutes of steam-cook and the rice emerges grain-separate and fragrant, ready to mound onto a platter with the carrots and raisins scattered across the top.
Beef tenderloin or fillet is cut into 3 cm cubes and marinated in two stages. A first short rub with raw papaya, ginger-garlic, salt and a splash of vinegar tenderises the meat (papaya enzymes break down the muscle fibre). After 30 minutes the second marinade goes in: yogurt, Kashmiri chilli, garam masala, kasuri methi, mustard oil and a touch of besan. The beef sits for at least 3 hours, ideally overnight. Threaded onto skewers and grilled hot until charred at the edges; the inside should stay pink and juicy.
Whole chickpeas are soaked overnight and simmered until tender (or pressure-cooked). The chickpea cooking liquor is measured and reserved as part of the rice cooking liquid. A fried-onion base is built in ghee with whole spices, ginger-garlic paste and ground spices, and the cooked chickpeas are folded in. Soaked basmati is toasted in the base, then the measured cooking liquor goes in for the steam. A scatter of fried onion and coriander finishes.
Bone-in lamb is browned in ghee with a small handful of whole spices, then ginger-garlic paste and tomato are added in two stages: first chopped, to break down into a base sauce, then sliced, to give texture at the end. The dish cooks uncovered the entire time, which is what defines Lahori karahi (the gravy reduces by half and concentrates). Green chilli, fresh ginger and coriander finish; a tablespoon of butter or ghee makes the slick on top.
Chicken thighs are marinated briefly in onion, garlic, ginger, tomato and a sprinkle of curry powder, then sealed in a banana-leaf parcel along with chopped onion, tomato and a knob of butter. The parcels steam in a covered pot for 90 minutes to 2 hours, the leaves perfuming the meat, the juices concentrating into a glossy sauce. Each diner unwraps their own parcel. Baking parchment and foil stand in if banana leaves are unobtainable.
Sliced onions are fried into golden-brown crisps and lifted out. Basmati is rinsed, soaked for ½ hour and drained. A whole-spice tempering of cumin, bay, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves is bloomed in the ghee left from the onions, the drained rice goes in to toast, then water and peas join the pot for a covered steam. The fried onions go back on top before serving.
Beef is browned and simmered with onions, garlic, ginger, tomato and a touch of curry powder. Green, unripe plantains are peeled and added to the pot to steam-cook in the sauce until tender. A loose peanut paste is stirred through near the end for body and richness. The whole dish is one pot and built in stages.
Spinach is blanched for one minute then plunged into iced water (a step that locks the colour bright green). The drained spinach is blended with green chilli into a smooth puree. A masala of onion, ginger, garlic and tomato is built and the puree stirred in. Cubes of paneer, lightly pan-fried, are added at the end so they sit on top of the gravy rather than dissolving into it. Finished with cream and kasuri methi.
Potatoes, cauliflower, peas boil until tender. A masala base softens onions and tomatoes in butter with ginger-garlic paste, then chilli powder, turmeric and pav bhaji masala. Capsicum joins. Boiled vegetables mash in roughly; everything cooks together 10-15 minutes, mashing as you go, until the bhaji turns a deep orange-red and the consistency is thick-spreadable. Finishes with extra butter, lemon juice, coriander. Pav rolls split horizontally, griddle-fry in butter with a sprinkle of pav bhaji masala till the cut sides char. Serve bhaji in shallow bowls topped with diced raw onion, lemon wedges, a coriander shower; pav on the side.
Dried kidney beans are soaked overnight and pressure-cooked (or simmered for 2 hours) until completely tender. A separate pan builds a base of onion, ginger and garlic browned with whole spices, then a tomato puree is added and cooked down with the ground spices until the oil separates. The cooked beans and a portion of their cooking liquor are folded in and simmered for 30 minutes to thicken; a few are mashed against the pan to thicken the sauce. Finished with garam masala and butter.
Beef tenderloin or sirloin is cubed small. A spice mix of cumin, coriander, cardamom and cinnamon, Somalia's xawaash, seasons it. The cubes sear quickly in a hot pan with onion and pepper; tomato paste deepens; chilli and butter finish. Coriander piles on at the table.