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Amok Trey

Amok Trey

Cambodia's national dish, the centrepiece of any Khmer feast and the proper-occasion food across the country. You start by pounding kroeung fresh in a mortar (the paste of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, garlic, shallots, kaffir lime zest and coriander root that defines Khmer cooking, and that no shop-bought paste comes close to matching). The kroeung fries briefly to bloom its aromatics, coconut cream and stock loosen it, and eggs whisk in to set the eventual custard. Chunks of firm white fish fold through with chopped greens (traditionally noni leaves, with spinach or chard standing in), and the whole mix spoons into banana-leaf cups (or small ramekins). Twenty minutes in a steamer turns the custard just-set around the soft fish, and the banana leaves perfume everything. Served from the parcels with steamed rice and a wedge of lime.

Cambodian 55 minutes Serves4
Cataplana de Marisco

Cataplana de Marisco

A cataplana is a hinged copper clamshell pan, and the seafood stew named after it is one of those dishes where the cookware does the work. You build a base of onions, peppers, sliced chouriço, smoked paprika, tomato and white wine in the bottom of the cataplana, then layer clams, mussels, prawns and chunks of firm white fish on top, clamp the lid shut, and steam it all for less than ten minutes. The lid lifts at the table to release a cloud of paprika-and-wine-scented steam, which is the entire point of the dish. If you do not have a cataplana, any wide pan with a tight lid does the same job. Coriander and lemon at the end, crusty bread for the broth, and vinho verde for everything else.

Portuguese 55 minutes Serves4
Curry Smelts

Curry Smelts

Trinidadian comfort food that brings together the East Indian and Afro-Caribbean strands of Trini cookery in one pan: small whole fried fish (a West African and Caribbean coastal habit) drowned in a Trinidadian East Indian curry sauce. The fish are smelts, sardines or whitebait, whole, head-on, eaten with a small bite to remove the spine. Once fried they sit crisp; when the curry sauce hits, the outer crust softens slightly and absorbs the gravy while the centre stays meaty. The sauce is the dish's signature: roasted geera (dry-toasted cumin) gives a smoky, nutty depth that pre-ground supermarket cumin can't touch, anchar masala adds a fermented-tangy edge (it's the Trinidadian pickled-mango spice mix), and Caribbean curry powder rounds the warmth. Whole pierced Scotch bonnet scents without flooring. Smell when the spices bloom in hot oil is heavy and pungent in the best possible way. Not difficult but it's a two-pan dance, so timing matters. A daily-cookery dish across Trinidad and Tobago and the Indo-Trinidadian diaspora, eaten with steamed rice or with sada roti torn and used as a scoop.

Trinidadian 50 minutes Serves5
Doi Maach

Doi Maach

The celebration-day Bengali fish curry, the one you cook for a Saraswati Puja lunch or a weekend when family are visiting. "Doi" means yoghurt, "maach" means fish, and that's the dish in two words: pieces of firm-fleshed freshwater fish (traditionally rohu, katla or sometimes bhetki) first lightly fried in mustard oil until the skin is taut and gold, then poached gently in a thickened yoghurt sauce. The gravy is pale ivory rather than yellow or red, with the warming whole spices (cardamom, cinnamon, bay) doing the work that chilli powder does in northern curries. The critical move is timing: you whisk the yoghurt smooth and add it off the heat so it doesn't split, then the fish goes back in to finish poaching gently in the silky gravy. A touch more refined than a workaday machher jhol, eaten with steamed gobindobhog rice and a small spoon of ghee melted over the top.

Bengali 40 minutes Serves4
Gai Yang

Gai Yang

Gai yang ("grilled chicken") is one of the cornerstones of Isaan cooking, the cuisine of north-eastern Thailand that has spread across the whole country and into Thai restaurants worldwide. The defining flavour is coriander root, an ingredient barely used in Western cooking but central to Thai marinades. Pounded in a granite mortar with garlic, white peppercorns and a pinch of salt, it forms an aromatic paste that's then mixed with fish sauce, oyster sauce and a touch of sugar. The chicken is butterflied (spatchcocked) so it lies flat on the grill, marinated for at least 4 hours, then cooked slowly over moderate charcoal. The proper Isaan technique is patient: 30 minutes or more, turning often, sometimes pressed flat between two bamboo splints, so the skin slowly crisps and the meat takes on smoke without burning. The flavour is savoury-funky from fish sauce, peppery-warm from white pepper, deeply garlic-and-herb from the paste, with no chilli in the marinade itself; heat comes from the dipping sauce. Difficulty is low for the home cook: a good mortar or a small food processor makes the paste in 2 minutes, butterflying a chicken is a single cut down the backbone, and any covered grill or kettle does the cooking. Eaten by hand with balls of sticky rice and dipped into nam jim jaew, the toasted-rice-and-tamarind dipping sauce.

Thai 5 hours Serves4
Go Bo Hoi an

Go Bo Hoi an

Go Bo Hoi An is a piquant Vietnamese beef salad featuring thinly sliced seared beef tossed with crisp vegetables, fresh herbs, and a bright tamarind-lime dressing. This dish has delicate undertones of lime and garlic which carry through the tamarind flavours perfectly. The combination of tender beef, crunchy vegetables, aromatic herbs, and crispy rice papers creates a textural and flavourful celebration of Vietnamese cuisine. Quick to make but requires advance preparation, ensure the salad, dressing, and toppings are made and ready to use before cooking the beef.

Vietnamese 25 minutes Serves2
Lahori Fried Fish

Lahori Fried Fish

Firm white fish is scored, rubbed with a spice paste of ginger-garlic, Kashmiri chilli, ajwain (carom), turmeric and lemon, and rested for ½ hour. A separate gram-flour batter (besan, rice flour, ajwain and a pinch of bicarb for crispness) is whisked to a thick coating consistency. Each fillet is dipped in the batter and shallow-fried in mustard oil until the crust deep-gold-crackles. Eaten with a heavy dusting of chaat masala and a squeeze of lemon.

Lahori 1 hour Serves4
Mohinga

Mohinga

Myanmar's national breakfast, the rice-noodle soup that streetcorner stalls in every city open before dawn for. You cook catfish (or any firm white fish) in spiced water first, then shred the cooked flesh and turn the cooking liquid into the soup base. A spice paste of shallot, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and turmeric fries in oil; a chickpea-flour slurry thickens the broth to a silky consistency; banana-stem (or hearts of palm or cabbage as substitute) softens in. Fish sauce, paprika and lime balance the seasoning. Rice vermicelli portions into bowls, broth ladles over, and a heavy plate of garnishes arrives at the table: crispy split peas, halved boiled eggs, lime wedges, fresh herbs, chilli flakes. Each diner builds the bowl to their own taste. The morning meal of Myanmar.

Burmese 1 hour 30 minutes Serves6
Octopus Curry (Cari Ourite)

Octopus Curry (Cari Ourite)

Cari ourite is the dish that turns up at every Mauritian fisherman's Sunday lunch, and at every Creole restaurant on the south coast. The technique is to braise octopus low and slow in a tomato-and-onion masala that leans on fresh thyme and a finishing pinch of garam masala instead of the heavier dried-spice masalas you find in cari boeuf or cari poulet. Octopus has a sweet, slightly mineral flavour that needs space, so the seasoning is restrained: thyme for aroma, tomato for body, ginger and garlic for the base, mild curry powder for depth, garam masala right at the end for top-note warmth. The tentacles cook for around 45 minutes (small octopus) to an hour (larger). The biggest variable is the octopus itself; small frozen octopus, sold cleaned at most fishmongers and many supermarkets, is reliable and the freezing actually helps tenderise the flesh. Difficulty is moderate; the cook is mostly passive once the masala is built. Serve with plain steamed rice and a satini cotomili (coriander chutney) or a spoon of pickled chilli. A simple green salad with vinaigrette on the side keeps it honest.

Mauritian 1 hour 25 minutes Serves4
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