👉 Bacalhau à Brás is one of Portugal’s favourite home dishes: flaked salt cod, soft onions and thin crispy potatoes, all bound together with creamy, just-set eggs. Comfort food from Lisbon’s Bairro Alto. Take the pan off the heat while the eggs are still a little runny – they keep…
👉 Mujadara is a classic Levantine dish of lentils and rice topped with a mountain of dark, crispy onions. It’s vegan, filling, very cheap – and one of the most satisfying things you can cook in one pot. Don’t rush the onions: their deep caramel colour is where all the…
👉 Placki ziemniaczane are Poland’s beloved potato pancakes: golden and lacy-crisp outside, soft inside. Cheap, quick and made from things you already have. The trick for crispy pancakes is to squeeze out the potato water and fry in hot oil, not too many at once. How to Make Placki Ziemniaczane…
👉 Çılbır (chil-burr) is a classic Turkish breakfast: soft poached eggs on cool garlic yogurt, finished with sizzling red chili butter. It takes 15 minutes and tastes like a restaurant brunch. The contrast of warm, runny yolks, tangy yogurt and spicy butter is what makes it so addictive – have…
👉 Khinkali are Georgia’s famous soup dumplings: a thin, pleated dough purse filled with spiced meat and its own hot broth. You hold one by the twisted top, bite a small hole, sip the juice, then eat the rest – the top knot (kudi) traditionally stays on the plate. The…
👉 Shah plov (“the king’s pilaf”) is the festive centrepiece of Azerbaijani cuisine: fragrant saffron rice, tender lamb, dried apricots, raisins and chestnuts, all baked inside a golden crust of buttered lavash. It’s turned out whole and cut open at the table. It takes some time, but every step is…
👉 Kashke bademjan is one of the most loved Persian starters: soft, smoky fried eggplant mashed with golden onions and garlic, finished with tangy kashk (whey), mint oil and walnuts. Scoop it up with warm flatbread. It’s vegetarian, full of flavour and surprisingly easy to make at home. How to…
👉 Green borscht (zelenyi borshch) is Ukraine’s spring soup: no beets at all, but lots of tangy sorrel, potatoes, fresh herbs and boiled egg, finished with a spoon of sour cream. It’s bright, sour, comforting and ready in under an hour. In Ukraine it appears as soon as the first…
👉 Chebureki (çiberek) are large, thin half-moon pastries filled with juicy spiced meat and fried until bubbly and crisp. They come from Crimean Tatar cuisine and became a favourite street food across Ukraine, Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The secret is a very thin dough and a filling with…
👉 Lahmacun (pronounced lah-mah-joon) is a paper-thin Turkish flatbread spread with a spiced mixture of minced lamb, peppers, tomato and herbs, baked in a very hot oven. It’s often called “Turkish pizza”, but it’s lighter, crispier and meant to be rolled up with fresh parsley, onion and lemon. It’s one…
👉 Kuku sabzi is a Persian herb frittata that’s more herbs than egg: a huge pile of parsley, cilantro, dill and green onions, held together with eggs and studded with walnuts and tart barberries. Bright green inside and crispy outside, it’s one of the classic dishes of the Iranian New…
👉 Gözleme is Turkey’s favourite street food: thin, hand-rolled dough folded around a savoury filling and cooked on a hot griddle until crisp and golden. Village women roll it out on big wooden boards at markets across Anatolia. This version uses the most popular filling – spinach and feta –…
