Bringing the right kitchen tools and worldly recipes to the ambitious and adventurous
Maqbous is a chicken and rice dish packed with a legion of spices and a sweet rosewater-raisin tang that hails from Oman in the south-eastern corner of the Arabian peninsula. It’s a close cousin of the Saudi kabsa, the Yemeni mandi, and the Indian biryani and reminds us a lot of Gambian benachin. Oman is one of…
More robust than a crepe, more delicate than bread, the Azerbaijani kutab is a kind of flatbread-pancake stuffed with a variety of possible fillings from pumpkin or cheese to spinach, offal, herbs, and even camel meat. A more cavalier commentator might pass it off as a regular sandwich, but we think that would be massively underselling the art of mixing and…
Think of a classic Peruvian dinner, and arroz chaufa might not be the first thing that springs to mind. You might instead conjure up a plate of ceviche or a barbequed cuy (guinea pig!) washed down with a pisco sour. Spend an evening in Lima, however, and you are just as likely to find yourself tucking into a hearty…
Esterhazy Rostbraten – a braised beef sirloin in a rich creamy sauce – is a dish sent down to us mere mortals from the glory days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a time when a quality slab of meat was the height of dinner-time decadence and the family name Esterhazy was synonymous with luxury. With all the elements of a…
When you find a dish like benachin mentioned in the same train of thought as Nelson Mandela, it’s invariably a good sign. Dubbed one of the 7 Wonders of Africa in a tongue-and-cheek reference to Mandela, Cape Town and Senegalese hair twists, it should thus be no surprise that the origin of benachin – a West African tomato-soaked rice…
