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What a rush The Cook Up with Adam Liaw has been. Almost as big a rush as a family trying to put dinner on the table every night.
Thanks to Adam and his entertaining guests, things are now much calmer in kitchens across Australia. What's for dinner tonight? A quick skim through The Cook Up recipes and that question is finally solved. Not just what to serve for the main meal, but how to win favours by dishing up dessert, too.
Here are 101 meals that are sure to please your gang. Night after night after night.
Nail the main

This is fusion-cooking done so right it's practically nuclear. Its Japanese and Italian flavours are given a Vegemite bomb to make your family's new favourite dinner.

Every home cook needs a decent one-pan, oven-baked dish they can pull together fast and then just whack into the oven while life goes on. This is that magical dish.
There's something about snow peas that are irresistible. Kids who run a mile from any other vegetable will happily dive into a bowlful of this beef and snow pea stir-fry.


Nourishing, nutritious, full of goodness. An udon bowl is exactly what you need at the end of a long day.

For a fresh take on an age-old family dinner, give this super-tasty Ethiopian vego stew a whirl one night.

Slow-roasted pumpkin makes such a delightful dinner. Colin Fassnidge packs in the spices and tops the whole thing off with a tangy buttermilk curd.

'Fish and vege' make the ideal weeknight dinner. Fast to make and fresh to eat.

Chaat is India’s favourite genre of snacking street food for a reason. This version has a long ingredients list, but is as quick to make as you'd expect from a street favourite.

Put the fun back into dinner.

For maximum enjoyment, dinner should be a 'street food favourite'. They're the kind of dishes that are so tasty they make every meal an exclamation.

Bowl food is basically our favourite way to eat. Even when it's this healthy.

This tomato sauce that contains onion, carrots, capsicum, celery, zucchinis, garlic, basil and, of course, tomatoes. Colin Fassnidge has kids. He gets it.

Adam turns the already comforting minestrone into something yet more hearty with minced Italian sausage and rice.
The answer to 'should we have noodles for dinner?' is always, 'yes please!'.

The other correct answer to 'what should we have for dinner?' is 'pie'.

Naming this dish 'TV spaghetti' does not do it justice. It's actually a one-pot wonder that melts together anchovies, parsley and chilli to conquer the summit of your pasta mountain.
Another zippy favourite, zhushed by Adam to be more than the sum of its parts. Is it the brioche burger bun? The Japanese mayo? Or the carefully placed dill pickle? All of the above.

'Easy butter chicken' sounds less like a recipe title and more like a chorus of family dinner bells echoing across the suburbs.

When it works this well, there's nothing quite like the re-invention of an old favourite.

Meatless Monday never looked so good.

Sheikh el mehshi brings Middle Eastern comfort food to your weeknight menu.

This was 'the favourite' in Lizzy's share house back in the day. They'd eat it three or four times a week, but cooking it tonight for dinner would be a great start.
Another 'crumbed-delight', but with a cheesy twist. One for the low-carb schnitty lovers.

The combination of buttery vegetables, tender salmon and savoury miso is perfect for any dinner.

Throw it back to the sixties with this retro steak Diane dinner. Follow it up with a bomb Alaska dessert is you truly want to set the nostalgia on fire.

Dishwashing fact: any dish with the world 'one-tray' in it's title is instantly 50 per cent better than any other dish.

Chase Kojima served up this hearty Japanese hot pot and we all dived in, mouth-first.

Homemade soup meets homemade bread. #wholesome
Emphatically not your run-of-the-mill pork chop dinner thanks to an 'enchanting' Chinese-inspired gravy.

A simple roast lamb takes a spin through Japan, turning red wine and rosemary into a rich teriyaki glaze.

Because feeding your kids a bowl of lentils for dinner is the pinnacle of smug parent achievement.

An easy one-pan (there's that magical phrase again!) vegetarian dinner that will take 15 minutes to get on the table.

A massive amount of flavour from chorizo, tomato and capsicum somehow manages to balance the delicate fish, not overpower it.

The restaurant family favourite comes home.
You simply can't go wrong with one of the most popular dishes in Turkey.

Bring on the salads for dinner. Throw everything you've got in there for maximum flavour and nutrition.

When tomatoes are in season, there is simply no finer dinner.

Pesto pasta has long been the go-to last-minute dinner of many a family. Now it's time to ditch the jar.

This looks exactly like a dinner most families would devour in seconds. Fortunately, it's prepared in much the same amount of time.
71. Peanut butter curry
Step aside butter chicken, there's a new kid favourite in town.

Perhaps some of the appeal of this Middle Eastern favourite is lost in translation, but don't let the name stop you. It's a tasty-as vegan classic that's healthy to boot.

Skip the barbecue and fry your kabab in the pan on the stove. Those moreish Middle Eastern flavours are all there and some.

Doria is an Italian-inspired dish that originated in France, but now only seems to exist in Japan where it is phenomenally popular.

Chicken wings may be cheap and cheerful, but when they're spiced just right they're also spectacular.
Dish these desserts

Dessert-inject some protein with Adam's crunchy tofu doughnuts. They take a tiny 15 minutes from whoa to go.
Adam nails a dessert that's both crowd and cook pleaser. Five minutes of prep for an evening of 'you're the best cook ever's.

A banana split is always a good idea, particularly when the banana is deep-fried to crispy perfection. Do try this one at home.

A silky tart filled with a blend of chocolate, Tim Tams and mini marshmallows is always going to make the list.

It's French, so it has to be complicated and fiddly, right? Wrong! But it does have to be luxurious and special and a cherry clafoutis is all that and more.
We bow.

Sometimes it just isn't about convenience.

A good pudding is everything we love about dessert. Sweet, comforting and endlessly satisfying.

If you've never needed an emergency pudding, you're doing everything right. Make this one anyway.

A fruity dessert ends the meal just right. In this one, Adam adds a pickled shallot twist to keep us on our toes.

This is the kind of sweet that would really keep the jacket potato party going (see above).

A quick four-step, no-churn ice-coconut cream that will be on high-rotation in no time at all.

This is exactly how you want to finish dinner, right?

The French love a good pastry dessert, and dishes like Phoebe Wood's strawberry galette are why.

Once you get the hang of them, delicious loukoumades are a breeze to make. Just ask any yiayia.

We'll let biscotti have the last word here. Because biscuits really are the best way to end both meals and mammoth favourites lists.
SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only. Read more about SBS Food
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