Here's a fabulous recipe if you ever have a lot of cucumbers and don't know what to do with them.

Homemade hummus is much, much better than any shop-bought version, unless you are purchasing the freshly made product from a traditional middle-eastern suppler. Truly authentic hummus is made from freshly soaked, boiled and peeled chickpeas - not as daunting as it sounds! If that's all too hard, buy canned chickpeas, and proceed from there; but the result will definitely be inferior.

Here in Australia, I use the Ord River chickpeas from Western Australia. When cooked they produce big, soft creamy-textured chickpeas, ideal for hummus. Overseas readers should locate the largest chickpeas you can find. Big is beautiful in the chickpea world, I have discovered. This recipe makes 1½ cups.

You can purchase chickpea flour at Italian grocers, or at Indian grocery stores under different names such as gram flour, dal flour, chana dal flour, or besan. When toasted in butter and sweetened it forms the basis of this delightful and popular confectionery, laddu. Enjoy!

This dish proves just how delicious pumpkin can be if teamed up with the correct flavour partners. Succulent Gujarati Pumpkin is excellent served with hot chapatis. Makes enough for 6 persons.

Laksa is a taste sensation—a delicious one-pot soupy combination of mild, chili-hot, rich, aromatic and delicate flavours, and a tantalising combination of crunchy, soft and milky textures. There are many versions of laksa served throughout the Malaysian peninsula. This is my hearty vegetarian version.

(From "The Book of Egg Free Cakes" By Cintia Stammers)

Dukkah is a loose, coarsely-ground mixture of sesame seeds, hazelnuts and aromatic cumin and coriander. It is delicious eaten on oil-dunked bread for breakfast, or as a snack. It has of late started appearing quite regularly on restaurant menus as an appetizer, hence its inclusion in this chapter.

Variants of dukkah are found all over the Middle East, and this version is from Egypt. It is a very personal and individual mixture that varies from one family to another; hence no two versions are exactly the same.

This two-tiered carob cake is light in texture without the use of any eggs. The cake's light texture is due to the slightly soured milk. Filled and iced with Carob Vienna Icing, it is an irresistible dessert.

Spinach with home-made curd cheese and cream is one of North India's favourite vegetable dishes. There are dozens of regional varieties. Here's a simple, quick-cooking version. Serve with rice or hot buttered chapatis.

When mangoes are in season and plentiful, treat yourself to this delightful, simple to prepare recipe that hails from Northern India.

Serves 4.

Known as sabu or sabudana, sago and tapioca are both used similarly and interchangeably in Indian cooking, especially as a light-meal choice for Ekadasi grain-fasting days. There is sometimes confusion about which is which because the white beads of sago and tapioca can look identical. But they are from quite different sources.

Every Bengali halwai and household has at least one or two favourite recipes for plain rasgoolas. Most recipes follow a similar procedure, but subtle variations are endless. Though experts agree that raw milk yields the best rasgoola, it is not available to most cooks. This recipe is especially composed for store-bought whole milk.

Here’s a recipe for crisp, urad dal-based and cabbage-laced finger foods. The ingredients are few but the taste is stunning. They are served with fabulous coconut chutney, seasoned with, among other things, fried urad dal.

Preparation time: about 10 minutes

Makes about 2½ cups

Pumpkin soup is a great winter favourite. Milk and a simple seasoning of black pepper and nutmeg allow the pumpkin flavour to predominate.

Whenever I make this tea at home, I use a naturally caffeine-free tea from the plant Aspalathus linearis called Rooibos, that is grown on the slopes of South Africa's Cedarberg mountains.

It is available at well-stocked supermarkets as Rooi tea (pronounced "Roy"). The tea lends itself well to this version of the ubiquitous spicy chai available all over the Indian Subcontinent.

Here are three different recipes for eggless mayonnaise, lifted from my first cookbook 'Great Vegetarian Dishes'.

The first recipe uses condensed milk as the base and is a sweet mayonnaise. The second recipe calls for evaporated milk, and the third is a dairy-free variety featuring pureed tofu.

The Middle East has a long tradition of delicious sweets. Whereas some are time-consuming, this delectable one is a breeze to prepare, and is especially suited to cooking in big quantities. In some ways basbousa reminds me of Indian halava, but it’s easier to make, and according to some friends who recently dropped by our test kitchen, even better. Basbousa is at the peak of perfection if it’s left to soak overnight.

Although it may seem an unlikely combination, herbed potato mixed with feta cheese and fried in crispy spring roll wrappers really does work incredibly well. And as far as the super-quick, super-quirky green pea chutney goes, that's also surprisingly delicious.

Known as moong ki chat, this very popular salad is eaten as a road-side snack in India, especially in Delhi. The chili, lemon, and tongue-tingling spice combination chat masala give it a pleasant bite. Home sprouted mung beans taste best.

Polenta is a yellow maize or cornmeal popular in northern Italy. Regarded there as a staple food, it can be used in many ways after it has been prepared as a rather thick porridge. Here in Australia, polenta is prepared from a special strain of corn grown in Queensland known as Yellow Dent.

Plain boiled polenta can be grilled, baked, or, as in this recipe, fried. Served with a homemade tomato sauce and sprinkled with parmesan cheese, it makes a delicious side dish.

Koftas are succulent, Indian style vegetable balls that can be served soaking in sauce or smothered in gravy. A number of vegetables are suitable for making kofta – potato, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and radish are the most popular.

My favourite kofta are made from a mixture of cauliflower and cabbage and served on a bed of steaming hot rice, or as illustrated, couscous. Try these succulent delights either as part of a main meal or as an accompanying savoury.

Apple strudel is popular all over Eastern Europe, and traditionally uses a wafer-thin pastry that is painstakingly made from scratch. Apparently this pastry originated in the Middle East and was brought to Europe in the Ottoman invasions of the 15th century. The quickest way to make strudel these days outside of Europe is with bought puff pastry or filo pastry. We tested strudel made from both, and the results were so good we couldn’t make up our mind which one was better.

Great finger food! Makes about 40 bite-sized puffs.

Here's a famous Australian cookie recipe. Guaranteed to give you an Aussie accent.

The original recipe has something called golden syrup, which I know is unknown in the US. So I have adjusted accordingly. Beaut baking!