Beef fillet, the crown prince of steaks and if cooked properly it is obvious why people will pay that much extra to enjoy this fine cut of beef!

Beef fillet never lets you down and therefore if I have steaks on the menu, it will always be beef fillet, because you can bet on it that the meat will never be tough as shoe soles…… provided that you cook it properly! Yes, it is a tad expensive, but you never pay for bones and fat and you have a guarantee that it will be ok!

Normally I serve my beef fillet with just a creamy mushroom or pepper sauce and some skinny fries, but I felt like a little bit of a change! After all a change is as good as a holiday and I can sure do with a holiday…… in a Mediterranean country somewhere!

Back to the beef fillet, my day dreams of the  Mediterranean, inspired me to stuff the fillet with sun-dried tomatoes, feta and basil pesto! Oh joy, it was so delicious, the meat was perfectly cooked, the feta, soft and the oiliness of the pesto permeated the meat and made it even more tender!  It did not even need a sauce, a few roasted tomatoes and onions and it was a meal fit for a crown prince!

Beef Fillet stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes and feta

serves 4

Ingredients

1 kg beef fillet – trimmed  ( ask your butcher to do it for you)

salt and pepper

100 g Fairview Feta Cheese

1 sachet Ina Paarman Sun-dried Tomato Halves – drain, but keep the oil

45 ml basil pesto – optional

string

Method

Preheat oven to 200 C. Lay the beef fillet on a flat surface and with a sharp knife make an incision all along the top of the fillet to make a packet. Open up the meat and spread the pesto on the inside of the packet. Now lay the sun-dried tomatoes all along the middle and lastly crumble the feta cheese over the tomatoes. Cut 4 – 6 pieces of twine and bring the meat together and tie it up to keep the filling in. Rub the fillet with the oil that you drained off the tomatoes. season with salt and pepper. Heat a griddle pan or ordinary cast iron pan on the stove and brown the meat on the all sides.  Place the pan in the oven and cook for another 15 – 20 minutes, depending on how well you prefer your meat.  For the last 8 minutes, grill some tomatoes and onions alongside the fillet.

Cook’s Notes:

– You can use other beef cuts such as sirloin, rump or ribeye steaks.

– You can even use pork fillet

– you can stuff the meat with preserved figs and Camembert

Tomorrow  morning  just after the 9 o’clock news, we will  be chatting to you from Sandringham outside Stellenbosch! My first cooking demo is at 10.30 and I will be making this fillet!  Come and visit, bring the family, the show is on until Saturday! You can get the detail here! I will also in weeks to come take you into the kitchens of other bloggers, chefs and interesting South Africans this year. So buckle up, it is going to be an awesome ride. Tune in 100-104FM or listen online here!