Sweet lime, jalapeño and mint salad in pani puri shells. This is quite a nice summer salad: light, tangy and fruity. As a readers contribution I pimped if for the June edition of the BBC Good Food India magazine. The original recipe and my tweaks feature on page 6 of the magazine, given below is my recipe of the same, hope you like it, enjoy!

This is yet another comfort food that I love to make at home. It’s quite simple and easy as long as you have pre-made/store bought shortcrust pastry and puff pastry, this is a walk in the park. A complete meal by itself, personally I prefer to start off with a light leafy salad like a Greek Salad or Panzanella without the chickpea, you don’t want to fill up to much and yet get your daily quota of greens. Hope you like this recipe, enjoy! 

Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche or pie. It does not puff up during baking because it usually contains no leavening agent. It is possible to make shortcrust pastry with self-raising flour, however. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken pie. It is based on a "half-fat-to-flour" ratio (by weight). Fat (lard, shortening, butter or full-fat margarine) is rubbed into plain flour to create a loose mixture that is then bound using a small amount of ice water, rolled out, then shaped and placed to create the top or bottom of a flan or pie. You can also make it using 1:2 i.e. Fat:Flour as given in this recipe. Source: Wikipedia

This has to be my favorite pie in the world, I mean who doesn’t love pie! It’s a whole meal by itself, great if you’re running low on energy and especially great if you have a hankering for something delicious, then you’ve come to the right place. This recipe involves making a short crust pastry, most people are afraid of doing that, hence restaurants charge you large sums of money for making simple things. Hope you try this recipe, enjoy!

This recipe is my version of the Thai Beef Salad, but I’ve added my own twist to it and made it into a burger. It’s a wonder versions of this haven’t popped up on menu’s around the world, its spicy, tangy and oh so tasty. I’ve combined a few elements from popular Thai dishes to make this a unique burger experience. It has all the elements you’d expect from a burger but the taste of Asia, I hope you like this recipe, enjoy!

Som Tum or Som Tam is the most famous salad out of South East Asia, there are different versions of this in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the one we’re making today is Thai style. It combines the five basic flavours, sour, spicy, salty, savoury and sweet, all the elements bring out these flavours brilliantly. The Thai recipes vary according to regions, some use dried shrimp while others use salted crab meat, in this version we’re going to use dried shrimp. I’m sure you’re going to like this, enjoy!

I’ve designed this burger keeping in mind the strong pallets we Indian’s have and its inspired from the famous Galauti Kebab. It’s spice, tangy and oh so tasty, I bet if you like Indian food you’re going to love it. The assembly is a typical burger but the elements are keeping with the typical ingredients you would find while eating kebabs however I’ve tweaked this to suit my style, I haven’t clicked any good photographs of this one, but will do so shortly. Hope you like this recipe, enjoy.

My love for good meat is relentless and coming from a country where cured meat is rarely available and scarce, we have to make do with what we have. My take on the gourmet burger takes a bit of elbow grease but the end result is to die for. This recipe will feature a triple cheese burger, you read it right! Three types of cheese! It is simply decadent, easy enough to make once you have all the ingredients. I’ve designed this as a plated gourmet meal meal and not a TV dinner, its more like a deconstructed burger, I’m sure you’re going to like this recipe, enjoy!