Goats Cheese and Red Pepper Pastries with Pesto

I had one of those long pointed sweet red peppers in my fridge. So, not really knowing what to do with just one pepper and seeing as I had some goats cheese too, I came up with these individual goats cheese pastries.



But, first of all I must apologise for not blogging for an age. Such a mad time of year is Christmas and after coming home from work I've just had too much other stuff to do.
Ha ha but that said, I should be back to normal from now on, so beware of more of my made up mad recipes!

On with the pastries......

You will need:
The following is the amount of stuff you will need to make two individual ones. But you can of course, make one big one of use more pastry and cheese and make as many as you fancy.
250g of ready made puff pastry - at room temperature
125g soft goats cheese - the kind that comes looking like a little log
1 half of a long pointed sweet red pepper - sliced thinly into about 12 rings
a teeny weeny bit of vegetable oil for frying
a dollop of pesto
a little milk or beaten egg for brushing the pastry

How to do it:
Preheat your oven to 200C/400F or Gas 6 and start by frying your pepper slices in a frying pan with a teeny bit of oil over a low heat. You don't want them to colour very much, just to get them soft. Reason is they wont be on the oven for very long and so will be crunchy to taste if you don't first soften them.
When they're done, remove and set aside.

Now roll out your pastry into 2 oblongs or squares keeping them about 1 cm thick. You can trim them to make them nice and neat.

Now, carefully score another oblong (or square, whichever your making) about 2cms inside - so that it looks like a picture frame is the best way I can describe it.
Go here to see what I'm raving on about as I really should have taken a picture but forgot.

Anyway, be careful that you don't go right the way through or your goats cheese will have no where to live and will fall out of the bottom.
Don't put the cheese in just yet.

Now, using a fork, prick inside the bit where the picture would be if it was a picture frame. You are doing this so that the middle part doesn't rise when you bake it.
Without putting in the filling, place each pastry onto a non stick baking tray, brush with a little milk and put into a preheated oven and bake for just 10 minutes.
They will not have coloured or be cooked at this point. Now being quick about it, carefully remove one layer of the pastry in the middle (the bit that hasn't risen). This will make somewhere for the cheese to sit without falling all over the edge.

Put in the goats cheese and top with the pepper slices and return to the oven to cook for another 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven, top with a little pesto and serve immediately.



My first attempt at a close up with my new shiny camera - not amazing but I will get there.
The camera is fantastic, it's just me not being very good at photography!