pesto puff pastry snacks

These little guys are ideal for an appetizer or any-time snack or, as seen here, paired with a side salad for a light lunch.

Ingredients:

- Puff pastry

- Pesto

- Cherry tomatoes (halved)

- Feta (cubed)

- Cheddar (grated)

Method:

- Defrost and roll out some puff pastry with a rolling pin.

- Choose a cookie cutter and cut out rounds in the puff pastry (I used the lid of a jar of instant coffee to do this).

- Place the rounds onto a greased baking tray.

- Take a butter knife and cut an inner circle into each pastry round (try not to cut all the way through to the baking tray though).

- On the inside of the circle liberally smear some basil pesto.

- On top of that layer some halved cherry tomatoes.

- On top of that layer a chunk or two of feta cheese.

- On top of that layer some grated cheddar.

 

Place in the oven at 180 degrees celsius until the outer crust of pastry is golden brown.

* Pictured above is a very plain side salad of rocket, cherry tomatoes and feta.

Steak Sandwiches

We made these steak sandwiches one lazy Saturday afternoon. 

We had: 

• left over beef fillet steaks from the previous night's braai (bbq);
• hangovers, also from the previous night's braai; and
• hunger

No one was keen to tackle anything too complicated, lucky for us, the resulting meal was not only easy but pretty darn delicious too.

Ingredients

Butter

White Wine

Onions

Garlic

Thyme, basil and any dried herbs your heart desires

Mushrooms

Left over beef fillet steaks

Bread or hamburger rolls

Method

Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan

Add chopped onions and fry til transluscent

Add a generous amount of garlic and simmer til fragrant

Add sliced mushrooms and simmer

Toast the bread/rolls (these can be left untoasted but we toasted because our rolls were from the night before so not the freshest - I liked the crunchy texture of the toasted roll in this sandwich)

Add some white wine (not too much if you're still feeling tender from the previous night)

Slice the beef fillet into strips and add to the pan

Season with salt, pepper and mixture of herbs

Simmer until the meat is warmed through

Chuck the fried mixture onto your toasted roll and gobble down your sandwich.. Mmmm mmmmm.

Jilera, Innes Road, Durban

The first time we we ever ate at Jilera the salad was amazing. Now, it's a real rarity for me to order a salad but I wasn't very hungry that night and salad sounded interesting. 

It was fantastic. 

The salads can also be ordered as a wrap or an open sandwich. On this, the second occasion we were visiting the place, I opted for a different salad as I wasn't feeling the carb vibe that evening. My meal arrived as an open sandwich and I was completely disappointed. It was mostly bread and sparse on the good stuff. The waitress graciously offered to rectify the mistake but, as a rule, I don't send food back because I like to avoid the possibility of ingesting the chef's spit at all costs. 

We were a party of 7 diners. My order was wrong, one of the burgers was cold and the deep dish of nachos only had toppings on the top layer... when you're paying almost 70 rand for something as simple as vegetarian nachos you expect a bit more. The bunny chow was a very mild but by far the best meal at the table.

 

We were there on a Friday night and the place seemed more geared towards the bar vibe than the restaurant vibe that night. Such a pity because the first time we visited we had such an unexpectedly good experience, but I can't see any of us back there anytime soon

Completely Cooked: 3/10

MEAT - FREE  MONDAYS

According to the Meat-Free Mondays South Africa website: A vegan driving an SUV is more eco-friendly than a meat-eater riding a bicycle'. Really? Well, who am I to argue?

So, I've been persuaded to join the movement and I think everyone should give it a try - not because its the trendy thing to do, but because going without meat for at least one day a week is good for both your personal health and the environment.

And if you'd like to know more about it have a look here