30-Mins

Easy

Serves 4

 The Hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked beef patty (burger) placed inside a hamburger bun served with veggies, cheese and other meats like bacon and garnished with various condiments. Ironically there is not ‘Ham’ in the ‘Hamburger’ because its a demonym after the city of Hamburg in Germany. The burger has come a long way with so many fast food chains like White Castle, McDonalds, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Fuddruckers, Fatburger, etc. The list just goes on and on, not to mention the smaller fast food outlets in our local communities to the fancy restaurants like Gordon Ramsay’s BurGR in Las Vegas that serves his signature gourmet burgers.
Although some of the better outlets such as Carl’s Jr. and Fuddruckers, amongst the few, serve up a very good burger, but I find myself wanting more! My own personal twist, flavours that I like and food that is not mass produced. Hence I’m going to make you my classic burger. Hope you like the recipe. Enjoy!

Garlic bread is one of the most ordered accompaniments in Italian restaurants around the world. The fact is; its simple, delicious, great appetizer and goes almost with any type of non spiced based meal, by that I mean, it doesn't necessarily go with Asian food! This is my favorite way of making garlic bread, I hope you like it. Enjoy!

Personally I'm quite obsessed with the taste of a onion compote, especially if I'm having grilled meat or poultry. The sweet savory flavor is simply to die for, there are quite a few variations on the net but I like to stick to this version, its simple and sinful. Hope you like the recipe, enjoy!

This tomato chutney is an excellent thing to have in your refrigerator, it goes almost with everything. I've had it with eggs, fish, poultry and grilled meats. Have used it as a sandwich spread, in a Burger, in eggs Benedict, you name it. Its simple to make and lasts a long time in the fridge, make sure you try it.

Figs and Parma ham are a match made in heaven, so I decided to tweak this recipe and make it my own. The addition of the soft cheese, the tartness of the wine and the acid of the balsamic adds a whole to dimension to the simple appetizer. Hope you like the recipe, enjoy!

Asparagus is considered as a delicasy in the vegetable world, very labor intensive to grow and not easily available, makes this an expensive buy at the market. It's loaded with flavor and packs a nutritional punch. Lightly sauteing in garlic is like a match made in heaven. Hope you like this recipe, enjoy!

These tomatoes are packed with flavors, dehydrated and shriveled up, they can be used in so many dishes. From pizzas, to pasta, in salads, sandwiches, as spreads and many more. They have a excellent shelf life, especially in the refrigerator and are so cheap and easy to make at home, enjoy!

This recipe is so simple, a great accompaniment to any type of dish (well almost...) and the kids love it too. Packed with flavors this is one side dish you should be generous with, especially when served hot, people wallop this down like peanuts. Hope you like this, enjoy!

This dish may not be too popular in Asia, it is a lovely side dish, especially with sausages, meats and poultry. Puree the peas and becomes a lovely garnish on a well plated gourmet meal. I've tried it, loved it and am sure you will too. Enjoy!

Chefs and cooks have made so many dishes out of potato, its a staple in the colder countries, especially in Europe. Mash, deep fried skins and the most popular in the world, the French fry! However I'm willing to bet you won't find anything like this recipe anywhere, its one of the best dishes one could create out of potato. I'm sure you'll love it, enjoy!

A hundred years ago I don't think anyone would imagine that people would grow, cultivate and consume fungi. Yet today we love mushrooms and at times is considered a delicacy in many dishes and cuisines. This is a brilliantly simple dish yet packs loads of flavors, hope you like it. 

In part 01 you learned how to make the perfect roast chicken for a Easter lunch, in this part you’re going to make the side dishes that I love having with the chicken. My advice to you is, make most of these the day before unless specified otherwise, it will save you a lot of time in the kitchen on Easter Sunday. You can pick and choose your favourite from these, however I suggesting serving all of these dishes, they complement each other well and are colourful, aromatic and absolutely scrumptious. Enjoy.

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The Side Dishes:
1. Baked Portobello mushroom caps
2. Garlic cream potatoes
3. Mushy peas
4. Buttered corn
5. Oven roasted tomatoes
6. Asparagus sautéed in garlic
7. Caramelized figs with Bocconcini and Parma ham
8. Spicy tangy tomato chutney
9. Onion compote
10. Garlic bread

I’m putting up this recipe because this has been a family tradition on Easter, Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries, why you ask? It’s simply divine, decadent and occasions like these deserve a long drawn out lunch especially over cocktails or beers. My father usually makes these lunches, its a labour of love, I however do things quite differently. My prep and cooking methods are nowhere close to what we usually make at home, its a bit more tedious and laborious, however the end result is worth every sweaty minute spent making this. I will be making quite a few side dishes to go with this, that will feature in the Easter Special 02, most of them may be prepared a day before, because you don’t want to spend the entire morning on Easter in the kitchen, especially if you can spend it drinking a Caprioska on a warm summer day. Enjoy!
This recipe may seem daunting for novice home cooks, I would strongly suggest giving it a try, but if you find it too complicated I will be putting up a cheats roast chicken recipe too.

This yummy Italian classic is to die for, however I find the textures lacking protein so I have tweaked this to my taste. It’s a wholesome meal suitable for any part of the day, you can serve it as a main course or as a starter or a side dish, depending on what the main course is. The best part is; you can make this with leftover ingredients at home, well that was the idea anyway! I hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

The Greek salad which is an American invention because of the Greek inspired ingredients, however the true Greek salad is called horiatiki; loosely translated “country salad” or “peasant salad”. This version of mine is very close to the original, but of course I have tweaked it with a few ingredients of mine. It’s simple, quick, easy and oh so tasty, perfect for any part of the day, most of the ingredients are easily available in our markets and stores. Hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

Tomato soup is the one dish I grew up with, of course it was my mum’s version but I still have fond memories of it. As globalization caught up with us, so did packaged foods; quite frankly I can never get myself to opening up a pack of Knorr soups and honestly enjoying it, hence I always take the trouble to make a soup from scratch, it may see unnecessary to some, but trust me its worth the effort. This is a cream soup and all of these have once common ingredient, cream! It may not be the most healthy but its delicious. I will feature the Tomato Bullion with Pesto, which is much healthier, but sometimes its all about decadence. Hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

My time spent living in Singapore opened my eyes, mind and palette to the different types of cuisine available there as it was the melting pot of Asian Pacific cultures and cuisine. The Singapore Laksa is a spicy, hot bowl of soup with noodles, chicken, fish and many other yummy ingredients. It’s closest relative is the Ohn-no Kauk Swe which I have also posted, this is my version of the Laksa and does not take too much of cooking time. I suggest keeping the tissues nearby, you’re going to need it. Enjoy!

I am a big fan of Asian food in general and will use this inspiration to come up with many recipes I have tried over time. The Kaukswe (pronounced cow sway) is one of the most famous dishes to come out of Burma, its a shame, they have many fantastic dishes to offer, but I guess the names are a bit difficult to pronounce and remember. Nevertheless, this dish is very similar to the Singapore Laksa and the Khao Soi from Chiang Mai and Laos. I will be featuring these dishes too, I hope you like this one. Enjoy

This is one of dad's favorite recipe which we love making at home, he has tweaked it to our palettes over the years but I'm sure you're going to love it too. We prefer using Veal meat because here we don't get Cow meat easily, they mostly slaughter buffalo, hence it's a tougher meat. Moreover we don't get cured meats either so our cooking time is longer and for the most part a lot of the meat dishes are braised, boiled or pressure cooked, this one is not. I hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

Ahhh the prawn chilli fry, one if our favourite side dishes on our dining table that features at least every alternate day of the week. It's another evolved dish in our home because we like prawns, chilli and potatoes. As this is a side dish and not generally served as a main dish, the quantity in this recipe is for a dinner party, all you have to do is divide it by 20 and multiply it by the amount of people you're cooking for. I'll explain it below! I do hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

This is probably one of the most popular Indian dishes in the world, the British have also deemed it as a national dish, it is a creamy decadent tomato based gravy. Surprisingly the recipe may seem like the butter chicken recipe yet in flavour its worlds apart. I have developed a cheats version of this recipe because this too needs barbequed chicken, and most wouldn’t want to take the trouble or may not have access to a barbeque pit or electric grill. I hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

This is by far one of the most popular Indian dishes around the world along with the Chicken Tikka Masala, which has been declared as a British national dish, and the Tandoori Chicken. The former two dishes use barbequed chicken which are then further cooked in a gravy. This is the cheats version as most people don’t have a barbeque pit or an electric version of the same. More so if you do, it can be quite a pain to make the same and can be very time consuming especially if you’re cooking a daily dinner and not for a gathering or special occasion. I hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

This is yet another favourite recipe out of Singapore, its spicy, aromatic and very tasty. Unlike the chilli crab this is a much drier dish so you’d probably eat this with a gravy dish. It’s fairly easy to make as long as you have all the ingredients, but make sure you’re wearing a bib while eating this because you’re going to be spending quite some time at the dining table, hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!