A prawn cocktail is always a fun dish to serve and eat, but this Mexi version brings along everything but the mariachi band. How many recipes do you know that give you the option of adding mezcal? (And really. “If you want to add some?” Of course we bloody do!) In Mexico, this is a classic beachside snack…

While nothing says ‘I care’ or ‘look at me go’ like homemade dumplings, sometimes frozen ones are a total lifesaver when we’re running out of time. And when we make a dinner out of frozen dumplings, normally we just boil them, steam a pile of Asian greens…

We love good pork, as opposed to bland, boring pork. Which intensively-raised piggy meat can be. It’s worth stumping up for decent quality pork, preferably pasture-raised, as it will have way better flavour and texture – the colour of the flesh should be...

Why, hello Javanese-inspired recipe! What are you doing hanging around here? Indonesian cuisine is nowhere near as vaunted as Thai or Vietnamese, so what makes you think we’d be at all interested in your fried tofu yumminess and your saucey, peanutty goodness...

Here’s the kind of yum salmon dinner everyone will love; it’s got lovely sweet-sticky glaze, lashings of Japanese rice, some avo, a salad with rich miso dressing and, the star of the piece, salmon. Little umami touches of toasted nori and the Japanese furikake seasoning add pops of savoury goodness, but…

‘Proper’ rendang is a dry curry from the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra in Indonesia and it’s a touch labour-intensive to make. Once you’ve toasted coconut, ground a spice paste, then braised the beef with all of this goodness in a rich coconut gravy, you simmer until the liquid pretty much evaporates and the beef chunks fry…

In a world filled with ready-made pastes, jars of pre-mulched garlic and citrus juices in squeezy bottles (do not use these! They’re pasteurised, contain preservatives, and taste like rubbish), sometimes it’s nice to grab a whole pile of aromatic fresh stuff and chop…

If tofu’s not your thing, maybe chicken is and you won’t notice there’s bean curd in the mix in this effortless Chinese-inspired dish. We genuinely love tofu, but totally get that some of you think it’s bland. TBH that’s kind of the point of tofu…

Russian is not a cuisine we pretend to know well but as our Summer Of Not Cooking progresses unabated, we’re trawling the globe for inspo. Enter… okróshka! It’s the tangy, crunchy, herby, potato-y and egg-laden cold soup you never knew you’d love…