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A breadlike yeasted dough is pressed into 23 cm cake tins, given a thick rim, and baked over a deeply reduced tomato sauce sharpened with red wine, vinegar, Worcestershire and Tabasco. Two kinds of salami sit beneath grated mozzarella and cheddar, with jalapeños scattered on top. The pan technique gives a chewy crumb and a crisp, cheese-lacquered base.
Dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight, simmered low and slow with a smoked ham hock and aromatics. The hock seasons the broth and gives up its meat at the end of the cook. Finished with a splash of cider vinegar to brighten and a pinch of cayenne for warmth. Eaten in shallow bowls with the broth, often spooned over rice.
Boudin filling combines pork shoulder, pork liver (optional, traditional), cooked rice, onion, celery, garlic, parsley, green onion, cayenne, salt, pepper. Either bought ready-made boudin (casings removed) or made from scratch by simmering then mincing pork shoulder with the aromatics. Filling rolls into walnut-sized balls; chills for 30 min so they hold shape. Dredges in flour, egg, then seasoned breadcrumbs. Deep-fries for 3-4 minutes at 175°C.
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.
A pork and prawn filling is bound with shredded carrot, glass noodles and reconstituted wood-ear mushrooms, then rolled tightly in moistened rice paper and fried twice for maximum crunch. The double-fry technique gives chả giò their characteristic bubbled, blistered crust. Served with cool lettuce leaves, herbs and a punchy nước chấm dipping sauce.
Pork shoulder is rubbed with a paste of achiote, orange and lime juices, garlic, oregano and warming spices, then left to marinate overnight. The pork is wrapped in banana leaves and roasted low and slow until it shreds with two forks. The pibil sits in its own bright red juices; warm corn tortillas and habanero-bright pickled red onions are the only accompaniments needed.
A thick béchamel, three times the flour-to-milk ratio of standard béchamel, is studded with chopped jamón serrano, chilled until firm enough to shape, rolled into ovals, breaded with flour-egg-panko, and deep-fried at 180°C until deep golden. Eat hot.
A staple of the Cajun home kitchen, the rice dish that turns up alongside fried chicken at Sunday lunch or as a centre-of-the-plate dinner on a Wednesday. You blitz chicken livers to a fine paste (so they melt into the rice rather than appearing as recognisable pieces - the texture is the point), brown minced beef or pork hard for colour, then add the Cajun trinity of onion, celery and bell pepper to soften in the rendered fat. Cajun spice blooms in the heat, rice toasts in the same pan, stock pours in, and everything simmers covered until the rice is tender and has drunk up the cooking liquid. The result is grey-brown rice studded with meat and trinity. The "dirty" name describes the look (livers staining the grains) not the cleanliness. Eaten with hot sauce on the table and a wedge of cornbread on the side.
Whole Kashmiri red chillies soak in white wine vinegar; ground with garlic, ginger, cumin, peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves and mustard into a thick wet paste. Pork shoulder cubes marinate overnight in the paste. Browned in oil; cooked with onions, tomato and reserved marinade until the pork is tender and the gravy is glossy. Salt last. A small spoonful of jaggery balances the vinegar.
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.
Fresh egg noodles tossed in a glossy, sweet-savoury sauce of kecap manis, soy, ketchup, sesame oil and shrimp paste, with pork, prawns, cabbage and bean sprouts. The dish is finished with thin egg ribbons and a scatter of spring onion. Quick to cook once the components are prepped, but rewards a properly hot wok and a sauce mixed in advance.
A hot-water dough - flour mixed with water (just-boiled) - for a tender, slightly stretchy wrapper that doesn't dry out. The filling is the classic family recipe: minced pork and finely chopped Chinese chives bound with soy, sesame oil, ginger and shaoxing wine. Each dumpling rolled thin, filled with a generous teaspoon, pleated along one edge, sealed and shaped. Boiled in batches, with the "three-cup" trick of adding cold water between waves to stop the wrappers blistering. Served with a sharp black vinegar and chilli dipping sauce.
A filling of minced pork and chopped prawn binds with coriander root (pounded with garlic and white pepper into the traditional Thai "rak pak chee" paste), oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and a beaten egg. The mixture chills for 20 minutes to firm. Square wonton wrappers go around the filling cupcake-style: filling in the centre, edges pulled up and pleated open around the meat, top brushed with a tiny smear of beaten egg and topped with a thin slice of carrot. Steamed in a bamboo basket over boiling water for 8 minutes. Dip is black soy sauce with sliced chilli and rice vinegar.
Dried shrimp and dried shiitake soak in warm water until plump; the soaking water is reserved. Chinese sausage dices fine; shallots, soaked shrimp and shiitake chop separately. All these flavourings fry together in oil until aromatic. Grated daikon is added with the shiitake-shrimp soaking liquid; cooked for 10 minutes covered until softened. Rice flour whisks with cold water into a smooth slurry; pours into the daikon mixture; cooks for 2 minutes, stirring, until thickened into a batter. Tipped into a greased loaf tin; smoothed; steamed for 60 minutes in a wide pot. Cooled fully, refrigerated, then sliced 1 cm thick and pan-fried in oil until crusted gold on both sides. Served with chilli oil and a dipping sauce of light soy and rice vinegar.
A pork-mince filling with carrot, onion, garlic, soy and pepper rolls tightly into thin spring-roll wrappers, finger-sized. Deep-fries golden in 4 minutes. The wrappers are key, Filipino lumpia wrappers are thinner than Chinese spring-roll skins and crisp differently.
Ganguo, literally "dry pot", is the dry sister of hotpot. Where hotpot is a communal soup simmered at the table, dry pot is a wok composition: each ingredient pre-cooked separately, then everything tossed together at the last moment in a fragrant mala sauce based on Pixian doubanjiang, fermented black beans and chilli oil. The result lands somewhere between a stir-fry, a casserole and a giant heap of bar snacks. The dish is usually credited to Chongqing in the 1990s and exploded into nationwide popularity in the 2000s; it now anchors the menu of countless ganguo restaurants where you point at ingredients on a fridge and they appear minutes later in a single-handled wok at your table. Difficulty for a home cook is low if you accept the rhythm: blanch the vegetables, sear the proteins, then build the final dish from already-cooked components. The trick is restraint with the sauce, generous heat under the wok, and the willingness to commit to a long ingredient list. The recipe is endlessly flexible: lotus root, potato, cauliflower, mushrooms, squid, chicken wings, beef, fish balls, tofu skin, whatever you have, in any combination, totalling 1-1 ½ kg.
Silken tofu cubes are blanched briefly in salted water (firms slightly and seasons). Pork mince is fried hard in oil; doubanjiang and douchi join, cooking to release oil; garlic, ginger, chilli flakes and ground Sichuan peppercorn are toasted briefly. Stock is poured in; tofu is slipped in; gentle simmer for 5 minutes; cornflour slurry thickens. Spring onions and a final dusting of ground Sichuan peppercorn finish.
Chilli con carne is a hearty, flavour-packed stew that celebrates bold Mexican spicing combined with slow-cooked beef, beans, and tomatoes. This version builds deep, complex flavours through toasted whole spices, umami ingredients (marmite and soy sauce), and slow simmering. The result is a comforting, warming dish that improves with time and is perfect for feeding a crowd.
Made popular by Chinese restaurants and takeaways, these are another menu item that have been adapted to have a subtle Thai flavour. You need to plan ahead as the filling must be cold (or room temperature) before rolling your spring rolls. To make these vegetarian, simply leave out the meat.
A pork mince filling spiked with garlic, ginger, soy, sesame oil and finely chopped cabbage is wrapped in shop-bought gyoza skins, then pan-fried on the flat bottom and finished by steaming with a splash of water in the lidded pan. Serve with a soy-rice-vinegar-chilli oil dip.