12 January 2011

Pork Wellington. Another tribute to Alton Brown.


Guess you already know that I really like watching Alton Brown's show "Good Eats". Since I had access to Food Network in New Zealand, I'm hooked. And when he made a modernized (and affordable) version of Beef Wellington, I was totally smitten. Apart from one thing: he uses dried apples.

Apples are pure poison to me. Since I was diagnosed with fructose malabsorption, I have cut out nearly all fruit, except bananas, citrus and papaya from my shopping list. You don't want to be near me when I have eaten apples. Honestly. Right now, I'm carefully testing various berries and to my great delight, I found that cranberries are totally compatible to my digestive system.

So I changed the fruit, took Bayonne ham instead of prosciutto and Dijon mustard instead of the coarse variety. Not because I am a manic individualist, just because I happened to have those things at home. Be creative and don't follow recipes to the letter!


PORK WELLINGTON
 for 3-4 persons, adapted from Alton Brown

1 whole pork tenderloin, approximately 450 g / 1 pound
6 large slices Parma, Bayonne or Schwarzwald ham, thinly sliced
30 g / 1 ounce dried cranberries
1 packet (450 g / 1 pound) puff pastry, thawed completely
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 whole egg
1 tablespoon milk


Take a nice pork tenderloin, place it on your cutting board and remove all the white stuff. Then half it lengthwise and flip one side over. This is to even out the thickness so the meat will be cooked at the same time.

And I should finally buy a bigger cutting board...


Measure the cranberries - I have a very handy scale that can switch between ounces and grams. Then chop them coarsely.


Place the ham slices with a bit of overlap on some kind of parchment paper (I used baking paper) and give it a few passes with the rolling pin - this is to glue the the overlap together.

Then place the tenderloin on top and sprinkle the dried cranberries between the two halves.


Use the paper to roll it all up very tightly. Then set it to the side - you'll need a bit of room for the next step.


Roll out the puff pastry into a big rectangle. It should be wider than the tenderloin is long and large enough to cover it completely.

Smear on the mustard, while leaving a 1 inch / 3 cm margin and sprinkle on some salt and freshly ground pepper.

Place the tenderloin on top and roll it all up. Then squeeze the edges shut.


Mix the egg (or just an egg yolk) with a little bit of milk. You will not need all of it - give the rest to your cat, he will be very grateful and purr for you.


Place the rolled up meat onto a baking sheet and brush with the egg wash. Then bake at 200°C / 400°F for 30 minutes. Then, let it rest for 10 minutes and cut into thick slices. Serve with a little salad on the side, or some sauteed vegetables.

2 comments:

  1. Well my goodness, this looks and sounds faboosh! And it's simple enough for my husband to make. Thanks for the menu :)

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  2. @Ang: So glad you like it - it is really easy to make and looks very impressive. My brother even made it in the office kitchen for his colleagues...

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