Dish to celebrate Persian New Year

Maeve O'Meara celebrates the surprisingly abundant produce of winter across the most heart-warming recipes from around the world. She explores a spicy Singaporean white carrot cake made from daikon radish, known as chai tow kway. Kale is hailed as a superfood, but the Portuguese have been eating it for centuries as part of a delicious warm salad using finely sliced kale, toasted cornbread crumbs and pine nuts, a recipe from Jose Silva. Danish chef Bente Grysbaek shares her recipe for spidskal using sugarloaf cabbage, horseradish, salted lemon and burnt butter. Home cook Ulku Gani makes a delicious, healthy touch-your-heart Turkish sweet that's referred to as 'Noah's pudding', asure, with dried fruits, barley, spices and nuts. Food Safari Earth is celebrated with a truffle hunt near Braidwood, NSW, with the Marshall family, who have spent 27 years creating the ultimate truffle haven, preparing the earth for their hazelnut and oak trees. Maeve joins the hunt for these 'black diamonds', before tasting truffle paired with celeriac from acclaimed chef Ross Lusted, for whom they are the most highly prized gift from the earth.

This week Maeve delves into the intricate and specialised realm of preserved and fermented vegetables and fruit from around the world. She meets preserving supremo Pietro Demaio on his Mornington Peninsula farm to learn the key rules of preserving eggplant - which is the basis for a fiery Calabrese mix - a magnificent blend of chopped preserved vegetables perfect for bruschetta. Then, it's a visit to the Blue Mountains where apple cider vinegar is distilled by German-born Claudia Kindler - and used by chef Martin Boetz in his grandmother's recipe for a crunchy, creamy 'gurkensalat'. Korean food ambassador Heather Jeong demonstrates how to make a vegan radish kimchi, before chef Somer Sivrioglu shares his secrets for making the red pepper paste in every Turkish pantry known as Biber Salcasi. Finally, Maeve visits two Japanese expatriates who ferment a flavourful rice known as Koji on the Gold Coast.

Maeve explores the sweet power of onions with Spanish chef, Pablo Tordesillas Garcia and discovers the delights of a Catalonian favourite - char-grilled baby leeks with romesco sauce. Sicilian-Australian chef, Rosa Mitchell recalls a symphony of recipes from her heritage in her Melbourne restaurant, Rosa's Canteen - and shares her version of caponata - a sweet-sour vegetable dish that epitomises what the Italians refer to as agrodolce. Maeve and Israel-born chef, Michael Rantissi make pomegranate molasses from scratch for use in for a fresh cauliflower and pomegranate salad. Later, Maeve explores the joyous sweet-sour flavour rush of an Indian tamarind and date chutney with mother and son chutney specialists Jaya and Ankit Chopra, before finishing with an elegant Japanese citrus tart made with the newest citrus to reach our shores - yuzu - from innovative Italian chef, Federico Zanellato.