Recipe Description:

Named for the dairy-enriched tomato sauce at its heart, you’ve surely seen this Punjabi curry in one of its disguises— as tikka masala or ‘butter paneer’, perhaps. It’s all linked by North Indian cuisine’s traditional use of spices, milk and acidic tomatoes to moisten and preserve cooked meats, but according to some, makhani itself was invented in a flash of inspiration by a single chef at Delhi’s iconic Moti Mahal restaurant, stirring butter and tomatoes with leftover tandoori chicken. What’s certain is that during the 1960s, Moti Mahal’s creations took Punjabi food worldwide, with everyone from Indira Gandhi to John F. Kennedy dining there.

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Recipe Description:

Whether it originated as the traditional meal during an ancestral memorial ceremony, a way of using up leftovers before the new year, or a portable farmer’s lunch, bibimbap has surely been around for centuries. Even before the Korean language had an alphabet, Korean tables were graced with this hearty, nutritious one-bowl meal of rice, vegetables, gochujang and other side dishes. Don’t focus too hard on the precise layout of the various ingredients: as soon as a bibimbap reaches the table, its lucky recipient is expected to gleefully swirl the ingredients together, ensuring an explosive symphony of flavour with every mouthful.

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  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

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  For 2 - 45 minsFor 4 - 50 mins

Recipe Description:

Brassica Oleracea goes by many aliases worldwide: broccoli, kale and cabbage, to name a few. Cauliflower is the slyest chameleon of them all, able to act grainy, floury or meaty, as in this trendy plant ‘steak’. Trendy, yes, but Indian vegetarians have been cooking with similarly ingenious meat substitutes for centuries. This tender centerpiece, lightly marinated and roasted to perfection, is no second-stringer, though, ably supported by the equally world class combo of a spicy chickpea curry and a refreshing salad

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  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 35 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

Recipe Description:

The salted and dried-out soybeans known as ‘black beans’ have been prepared for over two millennia in China, predating the invention of soy sauce by hundreds of years. Used carefully, they offer a hit of seasoning as well as a piquant, wine-like flavour to sauces. There’s no fixed recipe for ‘black bean sauce’ in China, and pre-prepared mixtures simply don’t compare to the versatility and flavour that comes from using whole black beans. Our Cantonese-style sauce is imbued with garlic and ginger aromas that provide a clean, refreshing aura to balance the savoury depth of the black beans and umami-rich salmon.

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  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

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  For 2 - 45 minsFor 4 - 60 mins

Recipe Description:

The practice of cooking leftover rice in a very hot wok doesn’t stop at the Chinese border. In many Thai homes, fried rice is the perfect all-day meal, whipped up on demand just as quickly as a decent sandwich. But it’s also an increasingly popular street food, and even finds its way into beautifully presented dishes in upmarket restaurants, sometimes stuffed inside of a pineapple. While less elaborate than that, our fried rice also adds a touch of celebratory, fruity flavour, with the tangy raw mango salad adding both depth and brightness to a satisfyingly straightforward stir-fry of fresh prawns.

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  For 2 - 35 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 45 minsFor 4 - 50 mins

Recipe Description:

Iraqi cuisine may contain recognisable Middle Eastern staples such as mezze, hummus, kofta and kebabs, but Iraqi chefs are justifiably proud of their unique spin on these familiar dishes. Case in point, this aubergine and kofta casserole, where slices of aubergine are rolled around the kofta, tender meaty bites dripping with a hearty tomato sauce thickened with ground almonds. The presentation is likely inspired by dolma (stuffed, wrapped leaves), also an Iraqi favourite. The herby, savoury-sweet and fragrant meat filling is a wonderfully deft balance of flavours

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

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  For 2 - 60 minsFor 4 - 70 mins

Recipe Description:

Yoshoku (‘western-style’) restaurants had been around for over half a century before (legend has it) baseball star Shigeru Chiba walked into one in 1948 and asked for his two favourite dishes on one plate— kare, a silky-sweet gravy spiced with imported British curry powder, and katsu, a crispy panko-coated cutlet. Foreign meats and spices had been prohibitively expensive before, but Yoshoku food thrived in Japan’s post-war economic boom, with katsukare its deserving figurehead. The kare covers the cutlet without compromising its crispiness, a deceptively simple symphony of textures bursting with full-bodied curry flavour.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

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  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Burmese food is often described as a combination of neighbouring Indian, Chinese and Thai cuisines, but perhaps this is just a matter of familiarity— if Burmese food had taken off in Britain first, we’d all be describing lemongrass and turmeric as our favourite Burmese ingredients. Burmese cooks make it all seem effortless, foregoing complicated curry pastes or spice layering techniques in favour of a simple balance of carefully chosen aromatic ingredients. This curry infuses tender, soft tofu with an array of dazzling flavours, all more than happy to share the potentially crowded space of a single cooking pot.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

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  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

Recipe Description:

The noodles for a chow mein are stir-fried until lightly crisp in places, needing lots of oil to keep them slippery, whereas an authentic Cantonese lo mein requires only that noodles be stirred through at the end of cooking. Not only is the taste subtler and cleaner, accentuating the brightness of the vegetables; it also ensures that the starchiness of the noodles mingles with the wet ingredients to create a silky, emulsified sauce that is addictively slurpable. The accompanying Chinese cabbage’s sweet juiciness pairs well with pickled or fermented flavours, as in Korean kimchi or this delicately salty glaze of savoury miso.

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  For 2 - 35 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 50 mins

Recipe Description:

The Lao people of Laos and northern Thailand have often been unfairly eclipsed, their identities and culture rolled into a homogenised concept of Thai-ness. Often mislabelled in restaurants around the world as Thai food, Laotian larb deserves its own distinct place in the hallowed halls of Asian cuisine. This minty salad of minced meat and raw vegetables has a distinctively zesty, cooling freshness, bolstered by the typically Lao fondness for unripe tropical fruit in savoury dishes, such as this piquant green papaya

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

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  For 2 - 45 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Gözleme are often mistaken for stuffed pancakes by tourists, but that’s just a testament to the baking skills of the women who make them—they’re actually a flatbread, with the dough rolled to perfect thinness using an ‘oklava’, a long thin rolling pin around which the dough is repeatedly wrapped and unspooled. Still, though difficult to master, the dough can be made by even a novice baker, then fried until it develops those characteristic ‘göz’, or ‘eyes’— the dark, extra-crispy spots of surface charring. Originally a humble Anatolian ‘village food’, the gözleme is now a beloved treat all over Turkey.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 50 minsFor 4 - 65 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 50 minsFor 4 - 65 mins

Recipe Description:

Now a full-fledged celebrity chef with an MBE to boot, it’s hard to believe that Romy Gill opened her first restaurant just 6 years ago. But she spent decades plotting and perfecting her skills. Her journey began when, homesick in the UK, a bad experience at a local Indian restaurant instilled in her the ambition of showing Britain that Indian cuisine should be about fresh ingredients and nuanced, comforting flavour. Zaika is Romy’s debut book, a tribute to the ‘simple yet delicious’ plant-based food she grew up with in West Bengal. This sabzi turns hearty, savoury green banana into the vehicle for a tangy, rich and fragrant flavour bonanza.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

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  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

Recipe Description:

In Korea, seasonal veg and tofu are typically prepared as banchan— small side dishes each celebrating a single ingredient, placed around the table for sharing. Korean meals often involve just rice, soup and a selection of banchan, their salty and sweet flavours balancing the plainness of the rice. This simple dubu jorim (“braised tofu”) is a year-round staple banchan, often prepared in advance and divided up for use over multiple days. Like many banchan, it relies on the deep red colour and distinctive smokiness of gochugaru, deseeded sun-dried chilli flakes— fewer seeds means more flavour for less spice.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

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  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Georgia is a small country with outstanding natural beauty and a unique, generous food culture. Legend has it that the capital city of Tbilisi was founded when King Vakhtang went hunting in the forest and stumbled upon a pheasant that had fallen into some hot springs; he divided up the perfectly cooked bird, held a feast and began construction on that very spot. These days the walnut sauce satsivi has overtaken hot spring water as the preferred poultry cooking medium, especially during New Year’s celebrations. Creamy and comforting, this extraordinary dish amplifies the walnuts’ earthy flavour while smoothing out their bitter edge.

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  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 60 minsFor 4 - 70 mins

Recipe Description:

Miso is a protein-rich paste full of complex aromas and savory, salty flavour. Every miso starts with a combination of soybeans and koji, an aged rice that begins the fermenting process, but brewing it is a Japanese artform with as many nuances and variables (time, temperature, added grains, technique) as winemaking. Next to miso soup, there’s perhaps no better way to really taste a good miso than nasu dengaku, a simple miso-glazed aubergine recipe from the countryside around Kyoto. We’ve chosen a balanced, earthy miso here, complementing the buttery aubergine and sweet, lightly pickled cucumber alike.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 10 minsFor 4 - 15 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Rio de Janeiro may have a more famous carnival, but Salvador, in the state of Bahia on Brazil’s northeast coast, hosts the largest party on earth. 4 million people celebrate over an entire week. It’s a testament to Bahia’s cultural innovation & creativity, which includes local inventions like samba music, capoeira dancing, and a uniquely mixed African, native and European cuisine. There may be simpler versions of this moqueca (fish stew) further south, but we think there’s no beating the Afro-Brazilian version beloved by Bahianos, with tender yet well-seasoned fish bursting out of a zesty red sauce enriched with creamy coconut milk.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

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  For 2 - 35 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

Recipe Description:

Despite being a food-loving island, known for its tropical climate and spices, Sri Lanka doesn’t have much of a restaurant culture. Locals typically eat at home, though their food is far from homely. It’s not uncommon to see a dozen dishes on the table, accompanied with plenty of rice, roti and hoppers (rice-based pancakes and noodles). We can’t bring you that full symphony of a Sri Lankan meal, but you can still hit all the right notes: tender Okra, fluffy potato, a three-layer base of tarka herbs, spices and chilli, all simmered in coconut milk and squeezed with lime for a sauce that is refreshing, riotous and reassuring in equal measure.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

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  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

Recipe Description:

In the hybrid culture of India’s Mughal Empire, elaborately adorned cookbooks were as much of a status symbol as any work of science or literature, helping to popularise a rich, spiced up Indian version of Persian cuisine. Korma, meat or vegetables braised in a rich yoghurt sauce, is perhaps the most prestigious recipe in this tradition— the emperor Shah Jahan feasted on it when he celebrated the construction of the Taj Mahal. Mushrooms grow more readily in Nepal than Northern India, but they’ve found new popularity as a strong, savoury ingredient, perfect for comforting, mild dishes with toasty, warming fragrances like this one.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

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  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Filipino Adobo may share a name with Spanish and Latin American adobos, but the Spanish can’t take the credit— the conquistadors didn’t introduce the locals to the use of salty vinegar as a braising liquid, they only redubbed it adobo de los naturales, or ‘natives’ marinade’. Garlic, soy sauce and vinegar provide the dish’s salty, pungent tang, and a decent simmering refines all those strong flavours, but the rest is down to the region or even the individual— adobo is such an iconic national dish perhaps because it inspires so much disagreement and debate! Our tender lamb soaks up the flavours beautifully, but feel free to argue otherwise...

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  For 2 - 45 minsFor 4 - 60 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 70 minsFor 4 - 90 mins

Recipe Description:

Centuries ago, Chinese traders were drawn to the new opportunities available on the coast of modern-day Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, some settling down in the area with local wives. These families were the ancestors of the Peranakans, whose cuisine to this day is a unique mix of Chinese and Malay traditions. Laksa is a defining dish of this ‘nonya’ (‘auntie’) food, named as a tribute to the women who have passed down its secrets through the generations. It’s a perfect marriage between the soothing, refined slurp of a Chinese noodle soup and the flavourful punch of Southeast Asian curry pastes, chilli and coconut milk.

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  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 45 minsFor 4 - 50 mins

Recipe Description:

Southeast Asia is full of world-renowned rice noodle soups, from Malaysian laksa to Vietnamese pho. Yet in Thailand, such dishes are usually found hiding in plain sight. After all, when a Thai cook prepares their curry to a more comforting, brothy consistency, serving it with a decent slurp of rice noodles, it’s treated as simply a regional variant of the dish, not an all-new Instagram-friendly food trend. Nevertheless, this recipe boasts just as much healing, toasty warmth and nose-grabbing spice as its more famous cousins— not to mention some extra fiery umami courtesy of nam prik pow, a dark and well-rounded Thai chilli paste

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  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 50 mins

Recipe Description:

‘Chinese cooking’ encompasses so many different regions and traditions that you might just as easily try and talk about ‘European cooking’. But there’s one dish that can be found all over China, with just a few regional tweaks here and there— Hong Shao Rou, or ‘red braised pork’, named for the distinctive hue that the dark sauce gives to the pale meat. Even the humblest home-cooked version tastes luxurious, thanks to the deep, dark & caramelised flavour of the concentrated soy sauce, while the aromatics & spices give off a comforting, fragrant aura that makes this indulgent dish feel downright healthy.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

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  For 2 - 50 minsFor 4 - 60 mins

Recipe Description:

It’s no accident that the fifth taste, umami or ‘savouriness’, was first discovered in Japan. Natural umami is easy to find, so there’s little need for the umami additive known as MSG. Umami has three types: glutamates (from plant-based ingredients like onions and soy sauce), inosinates (animals), and guanylates (dried mushrooms). Combining different umami types multiplies the effect, which is why, from the dashi’s combination of glutamate-rich kombu (glutamate-rich seaweed) with inosinate-filled bonito (smoked fish), down to the beef and shiitake, this is a mind-blowingly savoury broth that lingers pleasantly on the palate.

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  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

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  For 2 - 50 minsFor 4 - 55 mins

Recipe Description:

Poaching is not just a cooking method for many Chinese chefs but an art form, a lifelong pursuit of perfectly cooked yet irresistibly succulent morsels infused with flavours that are tantalisingly delicate. We’ve included instructions here for a technique called ‘oil-drenching’, which is a typical way to intensify and enrich steamed or poached dishes— a quick burst of hot oil is poured over aromatic ingredients to create a rapid, perfectly fragrant sauce. It might sound intimidating, but if done carefully over a stable, heatproof vessel, it’s sure to become your new favourite dinner-party trick.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 15 minsFor 4 - 20 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

Recipe Description:

When you look at tomato ketchup, maybe you see the slather-on-everything sauce of your childhood. When chefs at Hong Kong’s cha chaan teng (greasy spoon cafés) looked at ketchup, they saw a miracle fountain of sticky-sweet umami flavour. During the colonial era, when many Hong Kongers couldn’t afford the local restaurants, it was cha chaan teng that came to the rescue with ‘soy sauce western food’, a cheeky cuisine that’s all about creating huge, slap-in-the-face flavour within limited means. Now, no longer constrained by lack of resources, dishes like this tomato pork are free to be as tasty as possible.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Pho (pronounced ‘fuh’) emerged from the cultural flux of Vietnam a century ago, when Chinese and Vietnamese street vendors, influenced by French eating habits, began adding beef to their rice noodle broths. Our pho is inspired by the pure, savoury broth found in Hanoi in Northern Vietnam, where they flash-fry the beef with garlic and pepper; this is widely respected as the original pho recipe. Pho is all about clear, deceptively meaty broth— very different to the darker beef stocks of Western cuisine— as well as undertones of spice, tender meat, joyously slurpable rice noodles and a bright sprinkling of herbs and lime.

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  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Mapo tofu was named after a pockmarked (ma-zi) old woman (popo) restaurateur in Chengdu. Passing oil sellers carrying their wares to the markets would stop by for a quick meal, handing her their own ingredients and challenging her to improvise. This explosive dish was the most popular result. The black beans and chilli paste offer more than enough umami flavour to make the tofu richly satisfying, its silky textural caress disguising the bold, peppery ma la (numbing heat) waiting to jump out. Our added peas supply just enough of a sweet note to keep you coming back for more of that Sichuan fire

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  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

Recipe Description:

Named after the creamy tomato sauce at its heart (‘makhani’ means ‘butter’), this Punjabi curry is better known outside of India in its ‘butter chicken’ incarnation. While grounded in North Indian cuisine’s traditional use of spices, dairy and acids to enrich and preserve meat, the original recipe was invented in a flash of inspiration by a chef at Delhi’s iconic Moti Mahal restaurant, stirring butter and tomatoes into leftover tandoori chicken that had dried out. It wasn't long before prawns received the makhani treatment, their juicy tenderness proving ideal in this famously silky, classically mild sauce.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 5 minsFor 4 - 10 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 35 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

Recipe Description:

Once a rich, rustic treat, musakhan is now a perennial Palestinian icon. You dont have to use olive oil to cook it, but it's certainly the traditional approach— musakhan tells the story of Palestine, its farming communities and olive trees. The olive harvest is an annual cause for celebration and feasting, with musakhan ('sakhan' means 'to heat') the preferred way to test the quality of the newly pressed olive oil. If it doesn't change colour or become bitter when used to carameilse the onions, it passes the test. Usually a chicken dish, we've prepared this Mediterranean vegetable version inspired by the original's nutty, appealing flavours. 

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  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 65 mins

Recipe Description:

When we started Feast Box, this was the kind of recipe we had in mind. It’s a thoroughly iconic South Indian dish, yet it’s made with such specific ingredients and techniques that most home cooks won’t ever get to taste one in their own kitchen. We took on the challenge, and now we’ve finally found a dosa mix that’s the right mix of simple and effective. No dosa recipe is more essential than this masala dosa, where the rice and lentil-based crisp pancake’s spongy interior forms a perfect pillow for a fresh, spicy potato mixture, punched up by fruity, piquant chutneys and a deeply nourishing sambar.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 60 minsFor 4 - 80 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 70 minsFor 4 - 90 mins

Recipe Description:

The fragrant, crispy duck known as Xiang Su Ya is popular all over China, but arguably the original recipe is from Sichuan province, using 5-spice and Sichuan pepper to provide the fragrance. Some cooks in China will happily marinate a fresh whole duck for multiple days, steam it, air dry it for hours, and then deep fry. That recipe would make a fun DIY project, but not an easy weeknight dinner! So we’ve used the same seasonings to draw out the essential flavours from a compact and tender roasted duck leg— although please note that you’ll still need plenty of oven time to make sure the duck is cooked through to perfection.

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  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 60 minsFor 4 - 60 mins

Recipe Description:

Manti are perhaps the missing link between Chinese and Italian cuisine, said to have been brought to Turkey by the nomadic Central Asian tribes who settled in Anatolia during the middle ages. The word ‘manti’ is thought to be related to the Mandarin word ‘mantou’, meaning a steamed bun. While resembling a cross between pasta and steamed dumplings when plated, it’s the dramatic, vigorous flavours that set Turkish manti apart from other dumplings, with the cooling yoghurt and buttery tomato sauce coating the earthy spiced dumpling in a layer of lip-smacking satisfaction.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 50 minsFor 4 - 65 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 50 minsFor 4 - 65 mins

Recipe Description:

‘Gongbao’ or ‘Kung Po’ was the honorary title of a 19th century governor of Sichuan province, who either created the dish himself or encountered it while paying a grateful visit to a man who had saved him from drowning. He used to serve generous amounts of this marinated chicken and peanut stir-fry at all his banquets, spreading its richly deserved reputation far and wide. It’s a masterclass in the famous sweet-sour and numbing-spicy (‘ma-la’) flavours of classic Sichuan cuisine. Numbing? Yes, that’s the Sichuan pepper— a pleasantly tingly spice sensation caused by the dried berries of a certain citrus plant.

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  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 35 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

Recipe Description:

Bamia (which simply means ‘okra’) is a food with deep Egyptian roots. Okra has been cultivated in Egypt since at least the 12th century BC, while bulgur, a wholewheat cereal, was enjoyed all over the Mediterranean in ancient times. It would be easy to imagine that the same culture that built the pyramids ate this exact stew, packed with the garlic and onions that they believed had powerful medicinal properties. But cooking must evolve, and today’s bamia is even more enticing: served with braised lamb and spices, and made umami-sweet with a hint of tomato, while a dash of floral saffron turns the bulgur a sunshine yellow.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 10 minsFor 4 - 15 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

Recipe Description:

The salted and dried-out soybeans known as ‘black beans’ have been prepared for over two millennia in China, predating the invention of soy sauce by hundreds of years. Used carefully, they offer a hit of seasoning as well as a piquant, wine-like flavour to sauces. There’s no fixed recipe for ‘black bean sauce’ in China, and pre-prepared mixtures simply don’t compare to the versatility and flavour that comes from using whole black beans. Our Cantonese-style sauce is imbued with garlic and ginger aromas that provide a clean, refreshing aura to balance the savoury depth of the black beans and stir-fried chicken.

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  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

Recipe Description:

Kimchi is so crucial to Korean culture & identity that Korean scientists spent millions of dollars and several years developing a kimchi that could be safely eaten on the International Space Station, ensuring Korea’s first astronaut wouldn’t go without her beloved spicy fermented vegetable. We won’t claim that our tangy, piquant cabbage kimchi is fit for zero gravity, but it does provide a kick of flavour to this traditional Korean buchimgae (pancake). We’ve combined our favourite kimchi and hobak (courgette) pancake recipes for a refreshing twist on this humble yet hugely satisfying favourite.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 55 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 55 mins

Recipe Description:

When Chinese immigrants opened restaurants in Lima, Peru, they did so partly to provide sanctuary in the face of local hostility to their presence. But something unprecedented happened. The locals of Lima, rich and poor, not only enjoyed the food, but embraced it wholly. There are now over 6000 chifa (Chinese-Peruvian) restaurants in Lima, from grand palaces to humble diners, and Peruvian cooking owes a lot to 100 years of chifa innovation. Its most treasured recipe is lomo saltado, scorchingly stir-fried beef strips in a gravy of fruity Peruvian aji amarillo (yellow chillies), tomatoes, herbs & soy sauce, served with chips

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Sichuan province is often nicknamed the ‘heavenly country’ due to the diversity and abundance of its food and natural resources, but what has really defined the cuisine throughout history is its openness to unfamiliar ingredients and new experiences. Sichuan chefs have experimentally combined old with new for hundreds of years, ever since chilli peppers from Mexico first met Sichuan pepper to create the famous ma-la (numbing-spicy) flavour. This recipe might seem like a flavour jumble, but the gentle simmering creates an even yet complex sauce that enhances the natural umami of the chicken and mushrooms.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

Recipe Description:

East Asian Buddhist monasteries have a distinct and well-documented culinary tradition, often based around catering to visiting meat-eaters by cleverly imitating the flavours, textures and even appearances of various meat dishes while using entirely vegetarian ingredients like tofu and seitan. Jackfruit was only introduced from India into China relatively recently, but perhaps it will catch on in vegetarian restaurants and monasteries— its stringy, tender texture and savoury flavour is perfect for these ‘duck’ pancakes, absorbing our rich sauces and spices while harmonising with the clean, light garnishes and sweet, sticky plum sauce

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 55 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 55 minsFor 4 - 60 mins

Recipe Description:

Aubergine is sometimes called the ‘Iranian potato’, not only because of its comforting, reliable deliciousness but also the countless ways it can be prepared. Often mixed in with stews, the visual splendor and variety of a full Iranian meal has inspired us to keep them separate, crowning an adasi (lentil stew) with a roast aubergine steak. We’re particularly proud of the way the aubergine’s simple sumac tang meets the lentils’ more complex ‘advieh’ spices, a blend similar to Indian garam masala in its cultural importance.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 50 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 60 mins

Recipe Description:

Of all the Iranian ways to cook rice, ‘polo’ makes the grandest statement, a showstopping centerpiece that testifies to the generous and ambitious cooking displayed on the Persian sofreh (tablecloth). ‘Adas’ (lentil) polo is the dish’s oldest form, probably developed soon after the arrival of rice into Iran from South Asia. It consists simply of rice and lentils mixed together, but polo is never simple; a good polo is infused with herbs and spices and layered with a spectrum of colourful ingredients, such as these juicy, savoury Mediterranean roast vegetables in a pomegranate glaze, garnished with parsley yoghurt and toasted almonds.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 35 minsFor 4 - 40 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 45 mins

Recipe Description:

In the hybrid culture of India’s Mughal Empire, elaborately adorned cookbooks were as much of a status symbol as any work of science or literature, helping to popularise a rich, spiced-up Indian version of Persian cuisine. Korma is perhaps the most prestigious recipe in this tradition, said to have been served to the emperor to celebrate the construction of the Taj Mahal. Great korma is a balancing act, using spices for their heady fragrance while remaining mild and creamy in flavour.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 15 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

Recipe Description:

Japanese food has a reputation for being delicate & understated, but such sophisticated delights won’t necessarily see you through the winter or fill your belly after a day’s skiing in the mountains near Joetsu. That’s where bowlfuls of thicker, heartier soup come in handy, perhaps infused with a sturdier than average miso paste that will stand up to the strong meaty flavours. Joetsu city’s famous tonjiru (pork miso soup) is one such dish, but we’ve been further inspired by the unusual spiciness of Japanese miso ramen, an unconventional formula that often features Chinese-style chilli bean paste to add that extra kick.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 30 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

Recipe Description:

There are many variations on Chinese ‘hong shao’, or the ‘red (hot) cooking’ technique, but most involve frying or grilling an ingredient, braising it in soy sauce, rice wine and aromatics, then reducing and thickening the sauce to a deep, dark red glaze. It’s a technique possibly as ancient as soy sauce itself, and still often cooked the old way, in small clay pots that help to seal in the evolving flavours of the simmering sauce. Tofu’s neutral, absorbent tenderness is perfect for ‘hong shao’, while mushroom sauce, often called ‘vegan oyster sauce’, adds an extra layer of indulgent umami joy to our Cantonese home-style recipe. 

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 25 minsFor 4 - 30 mins

Recipe Description:

Anglicised as a ‘hopper’, the appam of South India and Sri Lanka is such an ingeniously simple idea, you’ll wonder why it hasn’t been adopted worldwide: a pancake that is not so much an edible plate as an edible bowl. Made from a batter of ground rice (and sometimes lentils), hoppers carry a slightly tangy, refreshing taste along with their comforting interplay of crispy and fluffy textures— making them the perfect accent to this deeply savoury lamb curry, with its intoxicating fresh curry leaf aroma and the earthy fruitiness of aubergines.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 35 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 50 minsFor 4 - 80 mins

Recipe Description:

Most famous for the Harmandar Sahib, or ‘Golden Temple’, Amritsar is not just a city revered for its religious significance. It’s also the bustling metropolis at the heart of Punjabi food culture, the epicentre of the region’s love for ghee, butter, cream and yoghurt. That said, like any foodie’s paradise, the city’s offerings are hugely balanced and varied. Those expecting a conventional Butter Chicken might be taken aback by this Amritsari curry’s subtly nutty, teasingly fragrant golden sauce, while we’ve enlisted the crunch of papads and the tang of our carrot pickle to provide an appetising contrast alongside.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 35 minsFor 4 - 50 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 45 minsFor 4 - 55 mins

Recipe Description:

Cornwall has the pasty, Latin America has the empanada, and India has the samosa. But there’s nothing quite like the karipap, or ‘curry puff’, a flaky handheld pastry snack filled with fragrant potato and other curry-laced fillings. It’s hard to find a Malaysian market without a curry puff hawker, while Singapore is dotted all over with major chain stores on a mission to dominate the trade. In these cosmopolitan countries, there’s as many family recipes for curry puffs as there are families. While slightly milder ones are enjoyed at breakfast or tea, we’ve opted for more of a full-on, dinnertime puff, packed with Southeast Asian flavours.

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• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 40 minsFor 4 - 60 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 60 minsFor 4 - 80 mins

Recipe Description:

Whether it originated as the traditional meal during an ancestral memorial ceremony, a way of using up leftovers before the new year, or a portable farmer’s lunch, bibimbap has surely been around for centuries. Even before the Korean language had an alphabet, Korean tables were graced with this hearty, nutritious one-bowl meal of rice, vegetables, gochujang and other side dishes. Don’t focus too hard on the precise layout of the various ingredients: as soon as a bibimbap reaches the table, its lucky recipient is expected to gleefully swirl the ingredients together, ensuring an explosive symphony of flavour with every mouthful.

• Preparation time:

  For 2 - 20 minsFor 4 - 25 mins

• Cooking time:

  For 2 - 45 minsFor 4 - 50 mins