#festive
19 viral recipes tagged #festive.
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Chicken Biryani — Spiced Layered Rice
The jewel of the Indian feast: fragrant basmati rice and marinated chicken layered together and cooked sealed on 'dum' (low steam) until the grains are long, separate and perfumed with saffron, whole spices and fried onions. Hyderabadi-style biryani is a celebration in a pot — each forkful a mix of spiced meat, golden rice and sweet caramelised onion, served with a cooling raita.
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Pozole Rojo — Mexican Hominy & Pork Soup
Mexico's great celebration soup: a deep red, chile-rich pork broth swimming with nubbly hominy corn, simmered for hours and brought to life at the table with a riot of crunchy garnishes — shredded cabbage, radish, onion, lime, oregano and crisp tostadas. Pozole rojo is fiesta food, served at birthdays, holidays and Mexican Independence Day, where the build-your-own bowl is half the joy.
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Khoresh-e Fesenjan — Persian Walnut & Pomegranate Stew
One of Persia's most regal stews: chicken (or duck, or meatballs) simmered slowly in a thick, dark sauce of finely ground toasted walnuts and tart-sweet pomegranate molasses until the oil rises and the flavour turns deep, nutty and luxuriously sour-sweet. Fesenjan is a dish for celebrations and Yalda nights — patient cooking that transforms humble walnuts into something velvety and unforgettable, served over saffron rice.
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Tamales — Mexican Masa Steamed in Corn Husks
Mexico's ancient comfort food and fiesta staple: a light, fluffy masa dough whipped with lard, spread on softened corn husks, filled with a chile-braised meat (or cheese and chiles), folded and steamed until set. Making tamales is a communal labour of love — the famous tamalada gathering — and unwrapping a hot one, tender masa around a savoury heart, is one of the great pleasures of Mexican home cooking.
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Peking Duck — Beijing Roast Duck with Pancakes
China's most celebrated dish: a duck dried and roasted until the skin is lacquered, mahogany and shatteringly crisp, carved and served with thin pancakes, scallion, cucumber and sweet bean (hoisin-style) sauce to roll at the table. Peking duck is a centuries-old Beijing art form built entirely around that famous crisp skin — and while restaurants use special ovens, a careful home method of air-drying and roasting gets you remarkably close.
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Baklava — Layered Phyllo & Nut Pastry in Syrup
The jewel of Turkish and Levantine sweets: dozens of paper-thin phyllo layers brushed with butter, packed with finely chopped pistachios or walnuts, baked until shatteringly crisp and golden, then drenched in fragrant sugar syrup (or honey) the moment it comes from the oven. Baklava is a study in contrasts — crisp, buttery, nutty layers soaked just enough to be lusciously sweet without going soggy — cut into glistening diamonds for celebrations and coffee alike.
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Kabsa — Spiced Arabian Chicken & Rice
The great rice dish of the Arabian Peninsula and a Saudi national favourite: long-grain rice cooked in a fragrant, tomato-tinged chicken broth scented with the warm spice blend baharat — cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, black lime (loomi) and more — then crowned with golden chicken and toasted nuts. Kabsa is the centrepiece of Gulf hospitality, shared from a huge communal platter, with a tangy tomato-chilli sauce (daqqus) on the side.
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Mansaf — Jordanian Lamb in Fermented Yogurt Sauce
The national dish of Jordan and the centrepiece of Bedouin hospitality: tender lamb slow-cooked in a tangy sauce of jameed — hard, dried fermented yogurt — then served over flatbread and spiced rice, drenched in the warm yogurt sauce and showered with toasted almonds and pine nuts. Mansaf is a communal feast, eaten from a vast shared platter, and the unmistakable sharp-savoury tang of jameed is what sets it apart from every other lamb-and-rice dish.
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Mole Poblano — Mexican Chile & Chocolate Sauce with Chicken
Mexico's most celebrated sauce and a true labour of love: a deep, complex mole built from a dozens-strong cast of dried chiles, nuts, seeds, spices, fruit and a little dark chocolate, toasted, blended and simmered into a velvety, brick-dark sauce that's at once smoky, fruity, spicy, bitter and just faintly sweet. Poured over poached chicken or turkey and dusted with sesame seeds, mole poblano is the dish of fiestas and celebrations across Mexico — an edible monument to patience.
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Lechon — Filipino Crispy Roast Pork Belly
The king of the Filipino fiesta table: pork roasted until the skin blisters into shattering, glassy crackling while the meat stays juicy and aromatic with lemongrass, garlic and bay. While the whole spit-roasted pig (lechon baboy) is the celebration showpiece, this home version — a rolled, stuffed pork belly (lechon belly) roasted to crisp-skinned perfection — delivers the same crackle and flavour from a regular oven. Served with a tangy liver-based lechon sauce or spiced vinegar.
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Locro — Argentine Hearty Corn & Bean Stew
The hearty, slow-simmered national stew of Argentina (and the Andes): white hominy corn and beans cooked for hours with squash, several cuts of pork and beef, chorizo and tripe until thick, creamy and deeply savoury. Locro is the dish of cold days and national holidays — above all May 25th and July 9th — ladled into bowls and crowned with a spicy quiajillo-and-paprika oil (salsa de grasa colorada). It's communal, warming, frugal cooking that turns humble ingredients into a feast.
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Kitfo — Ethiopian Minced Beef with Spiced Butter
A prized delicacy of Ethiopia, especially of the Gurage people: very finely minced lean beef gently warmed (or served raw) and dressed with niter kibbeh — spiced clarified butter — and mitmita, the fiery chilli blend. Kitfo is rich, buttery and deeply flavoured, traditionally served leb leb (lightly warmed) or tere (raw), with ayib (mild cottage cheese), gomen (greens) and injera or kocho. It's celebration food and a true Ethiopian indulgence, all about the quality of the beef and the spiced butter.
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Kare-Kare — Filipino Oxtail Peanut Stew
The Philippines' grand peanut stew: oxtail (and often tripe) simmered for hours until fall-apart tender, then napped in a thick, savoury peanut sauce coloured golden with annatto, alongside eggplant, string beans, banana heart and bok choy. Kare-Kare is rich and gently sweet-nutty — and, crucially, served with a side of bagoong (salty fermented shrimp paste) that you stir in to taste, the salty-funky counterpoint that makes the dish sing. A centrepiece of Filipino fiestas and family feasts, it's pure celebration food.
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Kibbeh — Levantine Bulgur & Meat Croquettes
Often called the national dish of the Levant, kibbeh is a labour of love: a fine paste of bulgur wheat and lean meat (with onion and warm spices) shaped into torpedo-like shells, stuffed with a savoury filling of spiced minced meat, toasted pine nuts and onion, and deep-fried until deeply golden and crisp. Inside, the spiced filling stays juicy. From Syria and Lebanon to Iraq, kibbeh appears in dozens of forms — fried, baked in trays, even raw — but the stuffed fried torpedo is the showpiece, the centrepiece of celebrations and the pride of every home cook.
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Dongpo Pork — Chinese Red-Braised Pork Belly
A glistening masterpiece of Hangzhou cuisine, named for the Song-dynasty poet Su Dongpo: thick squares of pork belly slow-braised in Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and sugar with ginger and scallion until the meat is meltingly tender and the fat turns silky and jelly-like. The cubes emerge mahogany-glazed and so soft they can be cut with chopsticks, balancing rich and sweet, savoury and aromatic. Cooked low and slow until the sauce reduces to a glossy syrup, Dongpo pork is a celebrated banquet dish — the very definition of luxurious, melt-in-the-mouth red-braised pork.
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Bossam — Korean Boiled Pork Belly Wraps
A celebrated Korean dish of pork belly gently boiled with aromatics — doenjang, ginger, garlic, scallion, sometimes coffee or onion — until meltingly tender, then sliced and served to be wrapped at the table. You take a leaf of napa cabbage or perilla, lay in a slice of warm pork, a dab of pungent ssamjang or salted shrimp (saeujeotgal), a piece of spicy radish salad or fresh kimchi, and eat the whole bundle in one bite. Lean yet luscious, savoury and fresh all at once, bossam is festive, communal food — the centrepiece of gatherings and traditionally made during kimchi-making season (kimjang).
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Kunafa — Middle Eastern Cheese & Syrup Pastry
The queen of Levantine desserts: a layer of melting, mild white cheese sandwiched between shredded or semolina kataifi pastry, baked or fried in butter until deep gold and crisp, then drenched in fragrant orange-blossom or rose syrup and showered with crushed pistachios. The famous Nabulsi style (knafeh Nabulsiyeh) is served in glowing orange slabs, warm so the cheese stretches in long pulls. Sweet, salty, crunchy and gooey all at once, kunafa is celebration food across Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and beyond — best eaten hot, fresh and shared.
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Pastitsio — Greek Baked Pasta with Béchamel
Greece's grand baked pasta — sometimes called Greek lasagna: long tubes of pasta layered with a cinnamon- and clove-scented beef-and-tomato ragù, blanketed in a thick, creamy béchamel and baked until the top is golden and set into neat, sliceable squares. Pastitsio is a centrepiece of Sunday lunches, feasts and tavernas, beloved for its comforting layers and the warm, sweet-spiced aroma that sets it apart from Italian bakes. It takes a little time to build its three layers, but the reward is a generous, golden tray that slices like a dream and feeds a crowd.
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Tahchin — Persian Saffron Yogurt Rice Cake
One of the most spectacular dishes of Persian cuisine: a golden, saffron-stained cake of rice bound with yogurt and egg, baked until the outside forms a deep, crunchy crust (tahdig) and the inside stays tender, often layered around saffron chicken or lamb. Turned out and cut into wedges, tahchin reveals its glowing amber colour and shattering crust — at once a rice dish and a savoury cake. It's a celebration centrepiece, more refined and structured than everyday Persian rice, and the dramatic moment of unmoulding it whole, crust gleaming, is half the joy.