Spanikaporka and Champagne

Decided to spend a little extra time on dinner on this long weekend (in Canada). Made a stuffed pork tenderloin - spinach, shallots, garlic, and feta with pepper flakes. Stuff the tenderloin, then wrap it up in bacon and tie it.

Cook on the BBQ - sear the outside and then move to an area where the burner is off and roast at 450 +

Accompanied with a cold salad of spiced lentils, cherry tomatoes, roasted peppers, avocado and yellow zucchini.

Drank a Casanove nv Brut Champagne with it (and I saved a glass for 'dessert - buttered popcorn, a great combination with bubbly).

Looks pretty fantastic. And I love the fact the that the recipe is in pictures!

I had my camera out doing some editing on horticultural and automotive material I hadn't got around to and for some reason thought to grab it and snap dinner. It does make it easier to see what one is talking about, doesn't it?

Whoa! That looks absolutely amazing. I've got to do that. ASAP.

Words fail me...gotta do that! Thanks very much.

Drew

Bill,
Simply wow!!!
-Shaji

Very nice!

Okay! I'm impressed.

One Q - you pounded the tenderloin to flatten, right?

I just cut it 3/4 of the way through and then filled and rolled it. As it shrinks in cooking, a bit more flattening would be a good idea. If you are a good butcher, you can just do a spiral cut as you go inward, ending up with a wider flat piece without pounding.

The pork looks great, and the salad sounds pretty tasty as well.

Thanks, Mike.

My terrine event comes up in a month, and truth be told this is a trial for a possible ballotine offering. A ballotine is normally contained with in it's owne skin (usually chicken, whole and deboned) and is poached or braised, but I fiugre that a modern version with bacon (you can never have too much bacon, right?) and roasted may have possibilities. I'll be trying the result, cold, today to do a final assessment. I think on the next one I'll open up another flap, i.e. flatten the pork out more so it wraps around more and contains the stuffing better in a thinner wrap of meat, and I think I'll increase the hot pepper component for fun.

That salad would make a killer accompaniment (it isn't mine, it was recently made up by a visiting friend) and I am torn between it and my first thought, which was spinach with feta sprinkled on top of slices of pear and roasted cashews, dressed only with very reduced balsamic vinegar (if you reduce it down to a syrup, much of the vinegar leaves and you end up with an almost sweet but also quite acidic substance that has tons of flavoutr and makes a great combo with the other components) Guess I could always jam out and sevre some of each accompaniment....decisions, decisions.

Jenise has probably done at least 3 trail dishes by now! I hope she posts some pictures of hers!

Looks excellent!

[Jenise]

One Q - you pounded the tenderloin to flatten, right?

Pounding also tenderizes (not that tenderloin isn't tender enough) and breaks down some of the muscle such that in cooking the meat will hold the shape you make and be less likely to spring back to where it started.

One Q - you pounded the tenderloin to flatten, right?

Pounding also tenderizes (not that tenderloin isn't tender enough) and breaks down some of the muscle such that in cooking the meat will hold the shape you make and be less likely to spring back to where it started.

Interesting - I never bother to pound the tenderloins - they are bit delicate and can easily be pounded too much.

On meat beating I am happy to defer to those with more experience, however......

Finally gave it a go. Did it in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes. The pork still had a slight pinkness which is the way I like it, but the bacon was not done. I didn't really intend to eat the bacon anyway, just wanted to keep everything moist.

One thing I did not do was saute the shallot and garlic. I should have. It was very good but more than a bit garlicky with just 2 cloves. Good thing I love garlic!

StuffedTenderloin.jpg

Just a follow up on this one.

The Terrine event is this coming Saturday. After much waffling, I have decided on the accompaniments, and have decided to echo the ingredients in the meat stuffing in a salad.

It will be a salad of spinach, shallots and Feta cheese with thin slices of almost green pear on top, dressed with greatly reduced balsamic vinegar (it gets sweet if you reduce it that much) and another side dish in the form of small pickled cherry tomatoes. We shall see how it turns out - pictures after the event as usual.