Pork tenderloin stuffed with sherry soaked prunes and chestnuts, in a mushroom cream sauce.

During our usual weekly board meeting (when we decide what to eat for the coming week), hubby stated that he had a fancy for roast pork for dinner on Sunday.  That caught my attention, as I love a good roast shoulder of pork (locally sourced in England of course) with a little bit of stuffing and apple sauce.

However, that wasn't what he had in mind.  His idea of "roast pork" is to roast a pork tenderloin.

Now you have to salt this preference with the knowledge of both his and son & heir's dislike of fat on meat.  For him, a shoulder of pork is full of (what he describes as) "globby bits" that at best just turn him right off and at worst make him want to heave.  For me, I can wade my way through any amount of said "globby bits" for some pork with lovely roasty flavour.  It's horses for courses - and as I'm in the minority, it is rare we ever have a piece of fatty pork as a Sunday roast.  However, any pork in a storm (see what I did, there?) is better than no pork at all.

During the week, I started to think about how I could make this dull as ditchwater piece of pork interesting.  Oh come on.  I know that a pork tenderloin is lovely and lean with no "globby bits" and a gentle flavour, but you have to agree with me surely - it's a bit incredibly dull as just roast pork.

It took two days (no, seriously - two days!) before I had a sudden brainwave.  Stuff it, I thought.  No, not "stuff it" as in "oh forget about it, I just don't care any more", but "stuff it" as in "put stuffing inside it".  Aha!  I was onto a winner here.

I finally decided (having gone through many permutations of stuffing in my mind) that it would be good to use up some of the ingredients left over from Christmas, plus to capitalise on the pork's tendency to be rather sweet - but without overdoing it.

So I settled on using prunes and chestnuts.  Both would go well with pork and we had both of them in the house already.  Then, though, I had the most brilliant of brainwaves - why not soak the prunes in sherry?  Ho, yes!  I could use the remaining sherry to bolster the flavour of the mushroom sauce (which was also hubby's choice) and it would add another layer of flavour to the stuffing.

The tenderloin, all stuffed and ready for the oven

Quite by accident (and I don't mind admitting it), I discovered that leaving the prunes to soak for 24 hours is by far and away the better option.  I discovered this by running out of the will to live around about the time I should have been making dinner, on the Sunday.  So we ordered in a pizza and dinner got bumped over until Monday - by which time, the prunes were softly unctuous and gorgeous and I'd recovered.  Hence, if you can remember, do put them to soak with plenty of time to spare!  It's worth it, honest.

.... and all roasted, rested, carved and ready to eat!

The other little tip I have for you, is regarding the soaked porcini mushrooms.  When you take them out of their water to chop, try not to disturb the water too much.  That way, when you come to pouring the water into the sauce ingredients, any grit that has come from the mushrooms won't have been stirred up and wind up in your sauce.  Also, leave the very dregs in the bottom of the bowl - don't add them to your sauce, for the very same reason.  I think most people hate getting grit in between their teeth - and dentistry is terribly expensive these days - so it's worth doing.

Oh, and another point is to watch how much salt you use in seasoning.  It is very worthwhile getting to know how much salt is in a stock cube, so that you can allow for it when making your dishes.  I use all kinds of different stocks - home made, cubes, jelly and powder - and it can really affect the end result if there isn't enough - or even worse, there's too much - salt in the food.  In this instance, because it is difficult to find pork stock, I've used a Knorr Pork stock cube, which are fairly salty and don't come in the low salt variety.

So what did it taste like?

The sage & onion roast potatoes - simply scrumptious!

Well, the pork could have been a little more tender, but it was perfectly nice and very edible indeed.  The chestnut & prune stuffing worked perfectly.  The chestnuts gave that earthy nuttiness while the sherry soaked prune delivered a sweet, vaguely spicy edge to a perfect triumvirate of flavours.  With the sage and onion roast potatoes - which were also designed to match up with the pork flavour perfectly - and some fresh steamed vegetables all bathed in the beautifully intense and creamy sauce, it was heaven.

I might begin to alter my opinion of pork tenderloin, if it always tasted that good!

PORK TENDERLOIN, STUFFED WITH SHERRY SOAKED PRUNES & CHESTNUTS, IN A MUSHROOM CREAM SAUCE WITH SAGE & ONION ROAST POTATOES   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

10 or so prunes, halved
Medium sherry, enough to cover the prunes
2 tbsp of dried porcini mushrooms (optional)
4 medium Maris Piper potatoes, peeled, rinsed and cut into chunks of approx 1 inch
150g shallots, peeled, topped and tailed
1-2 tsp dried sage 
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
700g pork tenderloin, in one piece
10 or so chestnuts, sliced finely
a length of butcher's string
250g chestnut mushrooms
a pork stock cube, divided into 2 pieces
a knob of unsalted butter
1 tbsp mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce)
150ml double cream
3 heaped tsp Bisto Best pork gravy granules.

Method :

1.  The day before you are due to make the dish, place the halved prunes into a small bowl and pour in enough Sherry to just cover them.  Cover with a plate (not cling film - you want them to breathe a bit) and leave to absorb the sherry.

2.  Approximately an hour or so before you are due to make the dish, place the dried porcini mushrooms into another small bowl and cover with boiling water.  Cover with cling film and leave to soften.

3.  Place the potato pieces into a large bowl and add 1 tbsp of the oil.  Add all but one of the shallots.  Season well with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper and add the dried sage.  Toss with a spoon to ensure every piece is covered with both oil, herbs and seasoning.

4.  Pour out onto a roasting tray and arrange so that the shallots are in the centre of the tray, where they will be protected from the fiercest heat.

5.  Place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at 200degC/400degF/Gas 6 for 30-35 minutes.  You may need to turn the roasting tray part way through cooking, for an even roast.  If the potatoes are cooking faster than the pork, it is possible to take them out of the oven and keep them warm (under the grill, in my case), then put them back in 10 minutes or so before the pork is due to finish, to crisp up.

6.  So, take the tenderloin and carefully trim away any gristle or fat.

7.  Carefully cut through from the side, so that you can stuff the tenderloin - but making sure not to perforate the other side with the knife.

8.  Lay on a layer of sliced chestnuts, then a layer of soaked prunes, then a final layer of sliced chestnuts.  Sprinkle with a tiny pinch of sea salt & a little black pepper.

9.  Take the piece of butcher's string and, starting at one end, loop it at intervals and pull tight to hold the stuffing in place.  Tie off at the opposite end.

10.  Place the tenderloin into a roasting tin and pour over one of the tbsp of oil.  Pour over the remaining sherry from the prunes.

11.  Take two or three of the chestnut mushrooms and chop into small pieces.  Sprinkle them on either side of the pork.

12.  Place half of the stock cube into 200ml of hot water and once dissolved, pour into the roasting dish, then cover lightly with silver foil and place into the oven on the lower shelf, for 30 minutes.

13.  Whilst the pork and potatoes are cooking, prepare the sauce by adding the knob of unsalted butter to a saucepan.  Melt it on a moderate heat and add the one shallot, which should have been chopped finely.  Cook until soft and transparent, but not in any way coloured.  

14.  Add the remainder of the mushrooms - including the drained porcini (but reserve the liquid).  Cook until the mushrooms are softened.

15.  Add 250ml of boiling water, the mushroom liquid and crumble the remaining half of the stock cube into the pan.  Add the mushroom ketchup and stir until the stock has dissolved and bring to a gentle boil.

16.  When the pork has had its 30 minutes, remove the covering silver foil and spoon the majority of the cooking juices (including the mushrooms) into the pan containing the sauce.

17.  Replace the pork back into the oven for another 10 minutes, to gain a bit of colour.

18.  Remove from the oven and cover with silver foil, to rest.

19.  Continue to cook the sauce until it has reduced by almost half and the flavours have intensified to the point where you're thinking that it is really too intense.  Add the double cream and stir through.  Taste for seasoning - you're more likely to need pepper than salt, as the stock cube will probably have been salty.

20.  Before the sauce has time to heat back up, add the gravy granules and stir to combine.  As the sauce heats through, the granules will cause it to thicken and put a bit of an edge back into the flavour.  Set aside to keep warm while you serve.

Serve the pork sliced, with the sauce, roast potatoes and a selection of steamed vegetables.

Printable version

Pork Ballotine for New Year's Day

Considering how terribly, terribly wrong this could all have gone, it actually went extremely well.

The plan was to make a Pork Ballotine - which was to be a pork fillet, halved and pounded flat then filled with a stuffing mixture and strips of chicken breast, then rolled, wrapped tightly in cling film and cooked for 3 hrs in the slow cooker, sous vide style.

I can't see any room within that description for it to go wrong, can you?  ~rolls eyes~  

The pork could have refused to flatten out (it didn't), the stuffing mixture could have been pallid and uninteresting (it wasn't) or over-seasoned and over-flavoured (it wasn't).  The cling film could have let go and allowed the water to penetrate the meat (the top layer allowed water in, but the second layer resisted the temptation) and the cooking could have been too long (it wasn't) or too short (it wasn't that, either).  All things considered, it was a triumphant combination of both skill and luck.

So, to give you an idea of the whole dish, it was the Pork Ballotine accompanied by an Ottolenghi recipe for Parsnip & Sweet Potato Roast, along with baby courgettes and baby aubergines.  I wasn't sure whether we'd need a gravy, as the roast vegetables included a lemon dressing.  However, the gravy was definitely a good thing because the Ballotine was fat-free apart from the sausage meat & olive oil that went into the stuffing and it needed that sauciness.  Even after 3 hours' cooking, it wasn't dry - but the dish definitely needed something saucy to help the jaws go around.

I can safely say that the Ballotine was by far and away the most advanced culinary task I've had to produce yet.  I had no idea that it would take as long as it did to produce - I seemed to be sitting there for aeons, trimming meat, making stuffing, trimming up the chicken into slices, stuffing, rolling and wrapping.

I made four individual Ballotines, which gave us one to have cold (another useful and successful experiment) later on.

Pork tenderloin prior to trimming

I had every intention (I even had the camera beside me) of photographing the process of producing the Ballotines, but I am afraid I got so "into" the process that I completely forgot to take photographs.  Sorry!


So to talk you through the process of making four Ballotines, I need to start with a large slow cooker (or I suppose an enormous stock pot in the oven would do the same thing), filled three quarters of the way with hot water and pre-heated to medium (approx 65-70deg C).  I tested mine with a meat thermometer before adding the Ballotines, just to reassure myself that it was hot enough.

Take two pork fillets (or tenderloins) which require to be trimmed of gristle.  Then nip off either end, to create a neat edge.  Retain the nipped off ends, as they can be included in the stuffing mix.  Next, cut each fillet into half, which will leave you with four fat sausage shapes of meat and set aside while you make the stuffing.

I based my stuffing mix around two top quality Cumberland sausages, which I skinned and used the meat from.  However, because the sausage meat is already ground you don't want to include it with the ingredients for the stuffing that are going to require chopping in a food processor, so simply place the sausage meat into a bowl with an egg yolk.

Then, to the food processor, I added the ends of the pork, a chopped onion that I had sauteed in butter and allowed to cool, two tablespoons of pine nuts, six prunes, a half a teaspoon of dried sage, a teaspoonful of dried thyme, a handful of fresh parsley, a dessertspoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt and a whole heap of freshly ground black pepper.  In retrospect, I think I'd probably have added a clove of garlic to the mixture, too.  Blitz until you have a fairly smooth, sticky paste and decant into the bowl with the sausage meat and egg.  Give the whole lot a good mix to combine it well and set aside. 


Turning our attention back to the meat, the next thing is to cut a slice through the long side of the meat bi-secting it three-quarters of the way, but not cutting through the other side. Lay the meat down - opened out - onto a piece of cling film, cut side down, and lay another piece of cling film over the top.  Take a rolling pin or other blunt heavy instrument and gently but firmly pound the meat until it is as thin as you dare.   Take care, initially, with hitting it where the join is or you'll split the two pieces - and that way leads to an exploding Ballotine, which isn't good!

You can see the three pieces of chicken, surrounded by stuffing

Once the meat is pounded thin, strip off the top layer of cling film and take an eighth of the stuffing mix.  Place this in a wide strip across the centre of the short side of the meat.  The Ballotine is going to be quite fat, so you'll need the extra length to roll it successfully.

Next, cut three long strips of meat from a chicken breast and lay two along the top of the stuffing strip.

Take another eighth of stuffing and form into a long sausage shape, which gets laid in between the two strips of chicken and smoothed to cover them.  Place the third strip of chicken on top.

Pick up one of the free sides and flap it over the stuffing, then begin to roll towards the remaining free side, shaping into an even but fat, cigar-shape as you go.

Once rolled, pick up the cling film edge that it is sitting on and roll the Ballotine up until it is tightly held by the cling film.  Twist both ends, then sit the Ballotine on one end and gently tighten the other.  This will force the meat down the tube of cling film and create a neat edge.  Tighten the uppermost twist and then re-wrap in another piece of cling film so that you have two layers of waterproofing.  If you want to be even more sure of it, wrap it a third time.

There you are - one Pork Ballotine.  Now all you've got to do is repeat that again three times and you'll have lost a good couple of hours, but have four fat sausages.

The only thing left to do now, is to say whichever prayer you think suits the moment and place your prize Ballotines into the slow cooker bath - which, just for today, we'll upgrade to a Sous Vide Immersion Thermostatically Controlled Device.  There, don't you feel swanky?

Now run away and hide until you have to look at them again - which, for me, was within a half an hour when hubby helpfully commented "your Ballotines have exploded a bit!".  It turned out that the top layer of cling film had ballooned somewhat through not being rolled tightly enough - but all was thankfully still waterproof under that.

At the end of some three hours' cooking (which is probably all you've got left, by the time you've made the darned things!), remove them from the slow cooker and peel off their cling film, watching out for the cooking juices which will be hot and all too ready to jet out at random angles, preferably all down your front.

Heat a good knob of butter and a glug of olive oil in a frying pan and brown the outside of each Ballotine, before leaving them for 10-15 minutes to rest.

Having done this procedure, what came out of the cling film looking fairly unappetising, miraculously turns into something that looks blinking lovely.

Slice carefully into three and serve with your choice of accompanying vegetables.  You'll be jolly glad you made these - but I can tell you that it'll be a long old time before you find me making them again!  Not because of any hesitation over their flavour or texture - all of which were divine - but because the day spent tending to them in the kitchen very nearly wiped me out for the next two days.  I'd very definitely make these again - but I'll have to be a whole lot less disabled before I do so!


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