The Mad Scientist's Chicken, Capsicum and Mushroom Curry

This was a lovely slow-cooked curry combining potatoes, onion, red and green capsicums, fresh button mushrooms, chicken breasts, wet garlic, chilli and coriander and cashews with a commercial Korma simmer sauce.

I know some people recommend against it, but I do like to rinse all the vegetables (including mushrooms) in clean water.

The capsicums were cut into small chunks, as were the potatoes, mushrooms and chicken. The onion was sliced.

These ingredients were then combined in the slow cooker.

A teaspoon of each of the wet spices was added to the mixture and combined.

A generous serving of cashews was added at the end of the cooking process (so that they did not get too soggy).

The Mad Scientist's Blueberry, Pear and Yoghurt Smoothie

This very refreshing beverage combines soy milk, blueberry yoghurt and canned pears in natural juice. Blend these together (a conventional blender jug was used) to make a spectacularly purple fresh and frothy drink. If the soy milk, yoghurt and pears have been chilled in the refrigerator this will make a nice cool (and healthy) drink for a hot day.

The Mad Scientist's Antipasto Mashed Potato

To your basic mashed potato add some hot chilli sauce, sliced onions, sliced stuffed olives and Parmesan cheese. Heat through thoroughly.

Delicious when served with a steaming hot chunky beef pie and sauce.

The Mad Scientist's Brilliant Beef Wellington

The Mad Scientist's Individual Beef Wellington and Sauteed Sweet Potato Shavings 

Ingredients: 

• Beef eye fillet - approximately 250g per person 
• One sheet of puff pastry per piece of beef 
• Milk or egg for glazing 
• Spray for bottom of oven pan 
• One piece of sweet potato 
• One leek 
• Ground (wet) ginger 
• Ground (wet) garlic 
• Olive oil 
• Potatoes 
• Milk 
• Handful of shredded tasty cheese 
• Ground black pepper 
• Flowerets of broccoli 

Beef Wellington

Cut eye fillet into chunks of approximately 250g per person.

Saute chunks in a pan with olive oil until sealed and slightly browned on all sides. Ideally rest for a while until the beef has cooled down a bit. If it is too hot when you put it on the puff pastry it can 'melt' and stretch the pastry and bits of the beef will start poking through.

Fold the sheet of puff pastry around the piece of beef and seal on all sides. This can be as simple or as artistic as you desire. It is a nice touch to cut a couple of puff pastry leaves for each fillet (cut a long leaf shape and lightly score it down the middle) and roll a little ball of puff pastry to put between the leaves on top of the pastry bundle.

Glaze each packet with egg or milk (easiest using a pastry brush). Place into an oven tray. The bundles will be easier to serve if there is some oil spray on the bottom of the pan before putting them in to cook.

Place into a fan-forced oven at 180 to 200 degrees Celsius and keep an eye on it so that the puff pastry casing does not burn. If you want the pieces of eye fillet fully cooked, about 45 minutes should do it. The less cooking time, the rarer the beef will be, but of course you want the casing to have at least a golden hue to it before you take it out of the oven.

Sauteed Sweet Potato Shavings with Leek, Garlic and Ginger

Shave a generous piece of sweet potato using a vegetable peeler. Cut a leek into thin circles.

Using the pan juices from searing the beef, mix these with approximately half a teaspoon of each of the wet ground ginger and garlic. Heat in an open pan on the stove top. Then add the strips of sweet potato and the leek. Mix together and leave to sweat in the pan but stir on a regular basis until the texture of the sweet potato has softened and all the fluid from the juices has more or less evaporated. Add a small amount of olive oil and saute (stirring regularly) until you are happy with the texture of the sweet potato and the degree of caramelisation.

Steamed Broccoli

Cut the broccoli into small flowerets and steam until the colour has changed to bright green and you are happy with the degree of softness for eating. Be careful not to overcook.

Mashed Potato

As a general rule, allow around 1.5 medium-sized potatoes per person. Peel and chop into small chunks. Boil until potato is softened. Drain water off and mash potato together with your preferred additives. In this case, milk, some ground black pepper and a handful of grated tasty cheese was used.

The individual Beef Wellingtons are the star of the plate! Place the vegetables separately around the puff pastry packet. Enjoy!

The Mad Scientist's Spicy Tuna and Mushroom Pasta

This is a really quick and easy dish to make with lots of zingy flavour.

Ingredients:
1 cup of dried pasta per person.
1 jar spicy pasta sauce
1 large tin of tuna (strained)
1 tin of sliced mushrooms (strained)
Around a dozen chopped stuffed olives
A squirt of hot chilli sauce
Black pepper
(For service) Freshly grated parmesan cheese

(Note: Storing the parmesan cheese in the freezer and taking out what you need and allowing it to thaw out just before serving works really well in terms of keeping your cheese fresh and avoiding all that yucky mould and wastage!)

As far as the Mad Scientist is concerned, due to having a microscopic-sized kitchen, it is often too much trouble to cook something on the stove, so it is surprising just how much you can cook using a microwave.

First cook the pasta - one cup of dried pasta per person accompanied by two cups of hot water (just boiled in the kettle). Place a plate underneath the microwave container to catch the drips if the water "boils over". Cook for around 13 minutes on "high".

Slice the stuffed olives into two or three pieces and combine them in another microwave container with all the other ingredients (except the cheese). Mix well. Heat through on "high" for 5-6 minutes.

Place the pasta in the bottom of each serving bowl and ladle a generous dollop of pasta sauce over the top. Serve with the freshly grated parmesan cheese. Garlic bread is optional.

The Mad Scientist's Beauitful Apple and Spice Summer Fruit Bake

Ah, what to do with a whole lot of quartered apples and some stone fruit? The Mad Scientist's cunning solution was to make a "Summer Fruit Bake".

The ingredients were two large bowls of Pink Lady apples (previously cored and cut into eighth segments), three fresh peaches (halved and the stone removed), two fresh apricots (ditto), and around two handfuls of green sultana grapes.

All the fresh ingredients were rinsed under running water and then with the exception of the grapes, finely chopped in the food processor. The resulting mixture was combined with the grapes, three tablespoons of honey, a couple of handfuls of dried sultanas and a generous dash of cinnamon.

The resulting mixture was placed in a large Pyrex casserole dish (lid on) and placed in a 180 degree Celsius oven (on top of an oven tray to catch drips/boil-over).

Depending on the amount of mixture and how long the oven has been pre-heated, it will take around 90-120 minutes for the mixture to soften and start to caramellise and for the beautiful fragrant apple and cinnamon smell to emerge.

Once cooked remove from the oven and cool on a chopping board or rack.

Serve hot or cold. The Mad Scientist made this as a breakfast dish to be served with a generous dollop of fresh yoghurt. Delicious!