Regional Cuisine Recipes

General Tao's chicken with crispy water chestnut flour coating, Thai chili peppers, ginger, and orange peel in a sweet-sour sesame sauce. Restaurant-style Chinese takeout at home.

Fanky (faworki) are Polish deep-fried pastry diamonds made with egg yolks, sour cream, wine, and butter, dusted with powdered sugar. Thin, crispy, and addictive.

Chicken and andouille sausage gumbo with a dark lard roux, okra, the holy trinity, and a seven-spice seasoning mix. Authentic Louisiana gumbo served over rice.

Rehruecken (saddle of venison cake) bakes a German chocolate-cinnamon sponge in a ribbed loaf mold, splits and fills with currant jelly, then glazes with chocolate and studs with slivered almonds.

Homemade Mexican corn tortillas with maize meal, white flour, and lard, kneaded, rested, rolled thin, and dry-fried on a griddle. A versatile flatbread for tacos, enchiladas, or scooping.

Buttery brown sugar shortbread pressed into a sheet pan, brushed with egg white, and topped with cinnamon sugar and sliced almonds. Cut into elegant diamond shapes for a cookie platter showstopper.

Scandinavian fruited pork roast stuffed with beer-simmered prunes and apple, basted with the cooking liquid, and served with a rich pan gravy. A classic Nordic holiday roast.

Greek Christmas bread (Christopsomo) made in a bread machine with whole wheat flour, ground cardamom, golden raisins, and walnuts. A fragrant, festive holiday loaf with warm spice.

Laufabrauð (Icelandic snowflake bread): paper-thin rounds of dough decorated with intricate cut-outs, fried crispy in hot lard. A Christmas tradition from the Westfjords going back generations.

Keftethes from Pontos, Greek meat patties with veal, pork, fresh herbs, tomato, and vinegar. Shallow-fried until puffed and golden, served with fried potatoes.

Moggy is a traditional Manx and Lancashire sweet bread loaf made with flour, lard, and golden syrup. Crumbly, dense, and faintly molasses-like. Sliced and buttered thick the way the British Isles have done it for centuries.

European-style spice cookies with ground hazelnuts, lemon zest, and warm cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. Topped with a whole almond and egg-glazed for a glossy finish.

A moist English gooseberry cake scented with elderflower and dark muscovado sugar, served warm as a pudding with cream. A traditional Wiltshire bake for Whitsun celebrations.

Garlicky falafel from soaked dried chickpeas, ground with onion, potato, and four cloves of garlic. The traditional Middle Eastern street food technique with a crisp exterior and fluffy interior.

Liver dumplings (leberknödel) blend scraped beef liver with lard, breadcrumbs, egg, and parsley, then poach in clear broth. Single-serving Austrian-German soup garnish.

Traditional yeast-raised kolachky filled with spiced prune lekvar, folded at the corners so the filling peeks through, then dusted with powdered sugar. An old-world Polish and Czech holiday pastry.