This Mother's Day, show off your cooking skills and whip up a scrumptious fusion meal for the superwoman in your life. No need for fancy ingredients, these delicious lunch recipes can be made with items that are easily available at your local grocery store — with a dash of love in the mix! How about making it a full-course feast — starting with a tasty appetizer and ending big with an indulgent dessert? All these Mother's Day lunch recipes can be part of a full course meal or as a single dish. Just make sure you adjust the serving quantities.
Appetiser: Sesame oil chicken recipe by Camemberu
Start strong with a small appetizer that will tease your mum's tastebuds. Try this easy and quick sesame oil chicken recipe by food blogger, Camemberu. These are the ingredients and seasonings you need: sesame oil, ginger, chicken, light soy sauce, sweet dark soy sauce, rice wine (can be substituted with mirin or vinegar), ground white pepper, some water, and scallions or other available veggies (optional). It's a one-pot recipe. Simply throw in the ingredients, execute some excellent plating, and you're done.
Make it your own: If your mum loves spicy foods, you can add one tablespoon of sriracha sauce or a sprinkle of paprika.
Soup: Pumpkin and shrimp soup by Cooked By Julie
This recipe will make a creamy, silky soup that's as comforting as a hug. Pumpkin soups are perfect for kitchen newbies because it is not as complicated as other soup recipes. Cook and blend shallots (can be substituted with onion), garlic, pumpkin, tomatoes, chicken stock or sherry wine in a pot and add heavy cream. Then, in a separate pan, stir fry shrimps coated in salt, pepper, garlic and chilli powder. Finally, add the cooked shrimps into the soup.
Make it your own: If you want to serve this as a single dish, you can add other seafood ingredients like squid, clams and vegetables for a filling bite.
Pasta: Simple spaghetti carbonara by Erwan Heussaff
Carbonara is one of those pasta dishes that's a staple at cook-outs. Recreating this dish is surprisingly easy. Follow this 10-minute recipe (although let's be honest, it might take more time than that for some of us) for a simple creamy spaghetti carbonara. You need butter, olive oil, garlic cloves, pancetta or bacon, dried spaghetti, eggs, pecorino romano (can be substituted with regular cheese), parmesan and ground black pepper.
Make it your own: To make it healthier, go easy on the butter and add more olive oil to retain that silky texture. You can also add more seafood ingredients for variety.
Meat course: Orange chicken by TabiEats
Orange chicken is a popular Asian dish that has many local variations. But the original and most basic one involves honey and — you guessed it — orange. Start by preparing your ingredients: chicken breast, orange, garlic, ginger, chilli pepper, egg, salt and pepper, cornstarch, flour, soy sauce, cornstarch, sesame, oil, vinegar and rice wine (optional, can be substituted with mirin). Coat chicken in cornstarch and flour, fry, add seasonings and cook with honey. You can add garnish on top for presentation.
Make it your own: You can substitute chicken for fish if you want. Some local variations include adding chilli oil toppings or coconut milk for more flavour. For those who like a more garlicky and spicy variant, you can check out Rasa Malaysia's recipe.
Dessert: Mango sago by SarapChannel
Accessible, inexpensive and bountiful in our region, the mango fruit is a good base for a versatile dessert recipe, however simple or luxurious it is. You will need: gelatin powder, sugar (optional depending on how sweet you — or your mama — like your desserts), water, evaporated milk, condensed milk, all-purpose cream, mango powdered juice, ripe mangoes. First, cook the sago pearls and mango-flavoured gelatin, then set aside. In a separate pot, mix evaporated milk, mango, condensed milk, powdered juice and all-purpose cream. Add cubed mango toppings, sago, mango jelly and voila, ready to be served.
Make it your own: Add fresh cream on top and coconut shavings.
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