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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.
Dried beans (chickpeas + kidney beans + green lentils, OR the popular cheat of mixing all dried into one pot) soak overnight. Onion fries in oil; turmeric, salt and the soaked-and-drained beans go in with stock; simmers for 1 hour 15 minutes until tender. A heaping double handful of finely chopped fresh herbs (parsley, coriander, dill plus blanched spinach) goes in. Reshteh noodles (Persian flat egg noodles, sold at Iranian shops) add for the last 10 minutes. The bowl finishes with a sour-fermented kashk drizzle, dried-mint-and-garlic-in-oil sizzle, deep-fried golden onion, and a swirl of yogurt. Garnishes are not optional.
Rice flour, turmeric, coconut milk and water make a thin yellow batter. Filling vegetables, mushrooms, sliced onion, tofu, are sautéed in a hot pan; the batter is poured over to form a thin pancake; beansprouts pile in last; the lot is folded in half and slides out crisp. Pieces are wrapped in lettuce with herbs and dipped in nuoc cham.
Buss-up-shut, also called paratha roti, is the flaky-layered Trinidadian roti that takes its English name from "burst-up shirt", a buss-up-shut roti is one that has been beaten the moment it comes off the tawa until it explodes into soft, irregular shreds. It is descended from the South Asian paratha, brought by indentured Indian labourers in the 19th century and rebuilt in Trinidad with a softer, more elastic dough and a finishing technique that is uniquely local. The recipe here covers the roti itself, which is the demanding part, with a short Trini channa-aloo curry on the side so you have a proper plate to scoop with. The layering technique (rolling, brushing with oil, coiling, resting, rolling out) is what creates the laminated, flaky structure. The beating step uses two wooden spatulas (called "klappers" in some roti shops) and looks dramatic but is straightforward. Difficulty is moderate; the dough is forgiving but the rolling-and-coiling step needs a little practice. Once you have a feel for it, you will make this every fortnight.
Onion is softened in oil; garlic, ginger and curry powder bloom. Carrots cook briefly to tender-crisp. Peppers (red and green) and chillies join. Tomatoes simmer everything down. Tinned baked beans go in last with a splash of vinegar to balance. Eaten warm or at room temperature; tastes better the next day.
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.
Ugandan curry potatoes are one of those everyday dishes that say more about a country's cooking than the showpiece feast plates do. Curry powder reached Uganda via the Indian and Goan communities of the East African coast and the railway-building era, and was quickly absorbed into the local repertoire as a flavour for stews rather than as a separate cuisine. The result here is mild, fragrant and unmistakably Ugandan: small chunks of waxy potato cooked through in a sauce built on onions sweated until soft, fresh tomato simmered down, and a generous spoon of mild yellow curry powder bloomed in the oil. Garlic and ginger run quietly underneath; a single chopped chilli does the heat work if you want it. It is a vegetarian dish in most homes, though it sits happily alongside fried fish or chicken stew on a fuller plate. The difficulty for a home cook is low, it is almost foolproof, but watch the potatoes; the dish is best when they hold their shape and the sauce just hugs them rather than dissolving everything into a mash. Eat with chapati to mop up the gravy, or with steamed rice, posho, or matooke.
The Chilean table salad, three ingredients done properly. The defining technique is what you do with the onion: you slice sweet white onion thin and soak it in cold salted water for fifteen minutes, which draws out the harsh sulphurous bite and leaves a clean, mild allium that doesn't punish the rest of the salad. Ripe tomatoes slice into half-moons, everything tosses with olive oil, lime and salt, and a generous scatter of fresh coriander goes on top. That's it. Eaten alongside roast meat, empanadas, pastel de choclo, or anything off the grill. The soaked-onion technique is the difference between this and any other tomato salad.
Corn kernels, fresh in season, frozen the rest of the year, are charred in a hot dry pan with a bit of oil until many kernels are blackened. Off the heat: mayo, sour cream, lime, garlic, chilli powder and cheese are folded through. Coriander and more cheese top each bowl.
Whole dried fava beans soak overnight, then simmer slowly until the skins soften and the beans are completely tender, they'll break down on the edges, stay whole at the heart. Garlic, lemon, cumin and salt mash through; a generous pour of olive oil at the end. Tomato, onion, parsley and a hard-boiled egg or two on top.
Aged basmati is rinsed and soaked. A whole-spice tempering of cinnamon, cardamom and cloves is bloomed in coconut oil with sliced onion and a slit green chilli. The drained rice is toasted briefly in the spiced oil, then half-coconut-milk and half-water is poured in for a covered steam. The grains finish white-cream coloured, faintly sweet from the coconut and warm from the whole spices.
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.
Yellow split peas (chana dal) simmer with onion, turmeric and tomato until very soft. The lentils break down into a thick soup. Right at the end, a tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried red chillies, garlic and shallots is poured sizzling-hot over the surface. The aromatic oil seeps through; the dish transforms.
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.
Black beans simmer with bay and oregano until tender. Sofrito (onion, pepper, garlic, cumin) cooks in olive oil; the cooked beans plus their liquid join in; rice is stirred through and steamed in the bean broth until tender and tinted.
A Cambodian banana flower salad, the kind of bright herby starter that opens a Khmer meal. You slice banana flower thin and submerge it immediately in lemon water to stop the browning (banana flower oxidises within seconds of cutting, going from pale ivory to brown). Tofu cubes (or shredded chicken in the non-vegetarian version) join for substance. Peanuts toast in a dry pan; shallots fry crisp in oil. The dressing is lime, palm sugar, soy and chilli pounded together in a mortar, and everything tosses with fresh herbs at the last minute - mint, coriander, Thai basil, whatever is around. Eaten as a starter or alongside grilled meat, the bitter floral note of the banana flower balanced by the salty-sweet dressing and the crunch of peanuts.