Christmas Recipe from Phil Clarke

(Continuation from New Community Life Magazine)

Roast fillet of pork with cranberry and orange stuffing.

Red wine, port and cranberry sauce.

Most of this recipe was printed in the New Community Life magazine (available from December '08). The recipe for the accompanying red wine, port and cranberry sauce didn't fit in the magazine, so please find it below. We have included the whole recipe again, for ease of printing!

Fillet of pork is a great cut of meat, and is very versatile but often under-used. It is obviously a bit more expensive than other cuts of pork, but nothing is wasted and can be great value for money. Currently, pork fillet in the supermarket is selling for around £8/kg – this recipe uses three fillets, typically 350-400g. each, so will cost £9-£12 for the meat. However, depending on your appetite, it will feed 8-12 people, and will make a lovely family meal for Christmas.

When I was asked to write a recipe, I was a bit daunted – I rarely use recipes and never write them down! A recipe is only someone’s idea of what will taste good! I have made this ‘recipe’ a lot of times, with some variations to the stuffing. Every time it tastes a bit different, but that is the fun of cooking. Don’t get too hung up on the ingredients, or the quantities; just follow the principles and you can’t go wrong! The recipe will be dead easy if you buy your Cranberry and Orange stuffing (available at major supermarkets), but if you have a food processor, why not make your own? It is much more fun making different stuffing – they always taste better, and you can basically make up any flavour you want!

Stuffing adds flavour and will complement the meat, and will also make the meat ‘go further’. Ingredients vary but can include more meat, fillers such as breadcrumbs/chopped nuts, flavours such as herbs and spices, and fruit and vegetables. The principles are that fillers such as breadcrumbs will take up the lovely flavours of the herbs, spices, fruit and vegetables, and the proteins, such as chopped meat and eggs, will help bind it together. I often use some finely chopped chicken breast in my stuffings as this really binds it well.

For the Cranberry and Orange Stuffing...

2 Onions
2 Cloves of garlic (more if you like, or none if you are Sheelagh!)
2 – 3 slices of bread. White or brown, wholemeal or not, stale is good!
Half a mug (75g) of flaked almonds or pistachio nuts.
Half a mug (75g) of dried cranberries.
Zest and juice of one large orange
1 tbs of chopped herbs (I use sage for this recipe, but you choose what you like) - remember that if you use fresh herbs you may need a bit more to get the full flavour.
‘Trimmings’ from the pork fillet
1 Egg, beaten.
Butter
Salt & pepper (I sometimes use a little liquid stock or soy sauce instead of salt)

Cut the onion and garlic very finely and gently fry in a large knob of butter until softened. Zest the orange and retain the zest, then extract the juice. Take the frying pan off the heat, and pour the orange juice into the pan. Return pan to heat and gently boil off the juice until the onions and garlic are syrupy but not dry. Remove pan from heat and allow to cool. Put the meat trimmings, bread, nuts, herbs and orange zest in the food processor and chop finely but don’t overdo it – you don’t want to end up with a mush! Take these chopped ingredients, the cooled onion and garlic, and all the other ingredients and tip them into a large mixing bowl and mix in thoroughly. The egg should help make the stuffing just soft enough to spread on to the meat. Set aside. If you want to use the packet stuffing (you will probably need 2 packets, depending on size) make it up with 50ml. less water than suggested, and add a large knob of butter and 1 beaten egg.

Preparing the Pork Fillet...

3 pork fillets
2 packs of streaky bacon (I like the dry cure, rind-less, 12 slices – you will have some left for breakfast!)

Typically a pork fillet is about 30cm long (12in.) and about 5cm in diameter, so you are probably wondering how you stuff them. Each fillet will have a ‘tail’ and little pieces of loose meat (‘trimmings’) down the side. Cut these trimmings off to use in the stuffing (you don’t need much). Lay the fillet on a large flat chopping board with the tail away from you and the wider diameter of the fillet flat on the board. With a very sharp knife cut into the side of the fillet down its whole length, and begin to open it up like a book. Be careful not to cut all the way through. Once the fillet has been opened, take a meat mallet or rolling pin and gently bash the fillet flat. You should aim to finish with a piece of thin fillet the same length (or slightly longer) than the original, but thinner and at least twice the width, i.e. roughly an oblong 30cm long by 15cm wide. The tail end will naturally taper.
Repeat with the other 2 fillets and set aside.

On the large board, lay out a slice of streaky bacon, and using the flat of a knife handle, firmly rub down the length of the slice and it will increase in length (by up to two times). Lay another slice next to it and repeat, and continue to do this until you have enough slices side by side equal to the lengths of the fillets – I find it is usually about 15 slices. Then take the first fillet and lay it across the bacon, in the middle. Take half the stuffing mix and spread over the fillet, leaving a 0.5cm gap round the edges. Put the second fillet on the top and repeat with the other half of the stuffing, finally placing the third fillet on top. Then, starting at one end, start wrapping the fillets up in the bacon, one rasher at a time, from each side. If you have prepared the bacon properly, the rashers should easily reach round the meat. You should then have a ‘log’ of stuffed pork, wrapped in bacon. Tie round the log in 4-5 places with cooking string. Finally, wrap the pork in a large piece of cooking foil (I line this with an equal size piece of greaseproof or parchment as the bacon can sometimes stick to the foil). Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade and cook for 1 and ¾ hours. (After 1 and ½ hours, pour off any stock, peel back the foil a little, and put back in oven to brown the top). Then take out the oven and rest the meat for 15 minutes covered and in a warm place.

For the Red Wine, Port and Cranberry sauce...

If you can’t be bothered to make the sauce, a good rich gravy will do – the sauce is a bit extravagant but delicious! You do not need a lot of sauce for each person, as it is quite intense if you reduce it down well. You will need:

½ Bottle red wine.
100ml of Port
1 Large onion.
2 Cloves garlic.
1 dsp Tomato puree.
Stock from meat* or chicken stock (+/- water from vegetables)
50g dried cranberries.
Butter.
Black pepper.
(Cornflour to thicken if needed)

Peel the onion and garlic and gently fry in a large knob of butter. Add freshly ground back pepper to taste. Remove pan from heat and add red wine, port and tomato puree and reduce this down by half over a gentle heat. Now sieve through a fine sieve to remove all the onion, garlic and large bits of black pepper and discard these. Put the liquid back in a pan and continue to reduce down. Strain the stock from the meat (there will be more after it has rested). *You need to be careful here, as the bacon, depending on variety, can make the stock very salty – I always taste it before adding. Add enough stock to the reduced wine to give a nice balanced savoury/sweet/tangy flavour and some water from your vegetables. Reduce down again but think about how many you want to serve. Finally add the cranberries and heat for 5 minutes to plump them up. Thicken if needed. The fun bit at the end is to get the balance right, so taste it, and then adjust the flavour to your taste. The red wine is acidic and gives it a tang. The port and tomato puree are sweet and balance this out. The stock is savoury and makes it delicious! Pork and lamb are often served with tangy sweet sauces (apple and mint) and I think a tangy sweet sauce works well here. So:

If you want it more tangy: Add a tiny bit of balsamic or wine vinegar.
If you want it slightly sweeter: Add a bit of sugar (or port!).
If you want it more savoury: Add more stock (if you don’t have enough, use chicken
stock), dark soy sauce or salt. I quite often use a bit of
dark soy sauce to give that dark, rich colour.

And if you want to be really decadent, and like a really rich sauce, why not add two tablespoons of double cream? Enjoy!