The Slug and Lettuce, Stellenbosch

When you're in your final year of study (fingers crossed) you tend to think about the things that you wanted to experience while you were still a (almost) carefree student in a beautiful student town with your like-minded friends that you will see much less next year. That is why a few of my fellow engineering student friends and I decided to broaden our horizons beyond our faculty cafeteria and eat lunch away from campus once in a while. This week we decided to give The Slug and Lettuce a try.

The Slug and Lettuce is situated close to the town's center  in the Devonshire house. The Devonshire House is situated on the oldest street corner of Stellenbosch and was erected there in about 1861. It was a double-storeyed townhouse in the early Victorian Style that was transformed into the Devonshire hotel and a few surrounding restaurants. The decor of The Slug and Lettuce honors the building's heritage. The big chandelier and Victorian style picture frames in the entrance hall are quite dramatic and gives the slug and lettuce a creative, vibey, but vintage, atmosphere. You can sit in front of the restaurants, under the trees and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Stellenbosch or enjoy a more private table in a small open air area in the back.

It is the small details that takes a dining experience from ordinary to extraordinary. The Slug and Lettuce's "details" include the pickle, rosa tomato and pickled cucumber pinned to their burger's bun instead of a standard side salad, their own freshly made hamburger buns and their homemade burger patties that are grilled to perfection.

I ordered the chunks of pork belly in our Cantonese marinade sosatie for R59, while my two friends each opted for a burger (+-R55). The portions are a decent size at a reasonable price. The pork belly was succulent, while the crackling was crispy, just the way it should be. I would recommend ordering something from their grill as The Slug and Lettuce is owned by the same owners of the Hussar Grill group that is well-known for their steaks.

The Slug and Lettuce also offers a  range of pizzas (+-R65) and a selection of "Slug and Lettuce Favourites" that include roast chicken pie, pork bangers and chicken Schnitzel. The Slug and Lettuce's platters also look impressive, with The Winelands Platter (Homemade beef biltong, boerewors bites, droewors, Stellenbosch Mission olives, flatbread and farm butter) only R79. They have quite an extensive winelist, ranging from R25 to R55 for a glass of wine, while their drinks menu are quite standard.

Overall, I can't think about anything that could have made my Slug and Lettuce experience more enjoyable. The service was also excellent and I will be back to sample their pizza and chicken pie.

Unfortunately I did not have my camera handy, so the photos in this post are from their website: http://www.slugandlettuce.co.za/index.html

My mom's amazing chicken pie.

For me, my mom's chicken pie is the ultimate comfort food.

I'm returning to University in a few days so it was lovely to spend a day, for old times sake, in the kitchen with my mom. This is quite a time consuming dish, but it's still very simple, and when you taste it, the time spend making it will be forgotten.

The filling freezes very well. My mom often makes it before a holiday, especially around Christmas, because it's the ideal dish to take out of the freezer and reheat for the family.

Chicken pie

Omnomnomnom...

Ingredients

• 2 medium sized chickens with 3 extra chicken breasts
• 3 large onions, chopped roughly
• 1 heaped teaspoon cloves
• 2 heaped teaspoons dry chicken stock
• 3/4 cup sago
• 1 packet of mushroom soup powder
• 1 roll (400g) puff pastry
• Milk
• Salt and pepper

Method

Soak the sago in water for two hours (this can be done while the chicken is cooking).
Remove all excess fat and skin from all the chicken and cut the whole chickens into portions. Place the onions in a large pot. Pack the chicken portions (and the extra breasts) on the onions and add the cloves and chicken stock to the pot. Add boiling water to the pot until the chicken is almost covered. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and let simmer until chicken is cooked and falling of the bones.

Remove from heat and debone the chicken. While deboning the chicken, cut the chicken into bite size pieces.
Drain the liquid from the onion mixture that is left in the pot. Also remove the onion mixture and set aside. Remove the excess fat from the top of the liquid and pour most of this liquid back into the pot, leaving about a cup of liquid to be used later. Dispose of the cloves that are in the onion mixture and add the onion mixture to the deboned chicken.
Dissolve the packet of mushroom soup powder in the cup of liquid that was put aside. Add the sago and the mushroom soup powder mix to the liquid in the pot. Reheat the contents of the pot over a low heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Add the chicken and onions to the mixture. Add salt and pepper to the chicken mixture, if necessary. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Your filling is done! You can freeze the filling as it is now (after it has cooled of course).
Pour the filling into a greased, oven proof dish. Let the filling cool before rolling out the puff pastry and covering the filling with the puff pastry. Brush the puff pastry with milk. Prick the pasty with a fork (about 4 places, distributed over the pie).
Bake in a preheated oven at 180degrees celsius for a hour, or until the puff pastry is a golden brown.

Serves 8-10 people.

Happy eating!!

So much AWESOME!

My first official post will be on my mother's chicken pie and you can expect it by tomorrow! In the meantime (because my blog looks so empty) here's my favourite picture of a unicorn. It makes me happy.

Cupcakes and unicorns, what more do you want, right?