Stuffed Pork Fillet

 Often I will buy a range of meats to have on our weekends at Uki. But then I am faced with the challenge of turning them into something delicious for dinner.  Last Saturday I had one good sized pork fillet, but was not inspired to have our usual that is, pan frying the medallions and adding a cream and mustard sauce.  So a quick hunt of the internet and I came up with a combination of ingredients to stuff my pork fillet.  All remained was to wrestle the stuffing to stay inside while I wrapped and tied it.

Note: It may be worthwhile checking out a You Tube video on how to slice a pork fillet into a flat piece of meat.

Ingredients

1 x medium to large pork fillet

3 x Tablespoons softened cream cheese

1 x Tablespoon of either pesto or capsicum dip

2 x bacon rashers, diced and cooked

1 cup baby spinach leaves

1 x red onion, sliced

Salt and Pepper

1 x Dessertspoon butter

Dash of Olive Oil

1 x Dessertspoon Balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup tasty cheese, grated

Paprika or spice rub of choice

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Make balsamic onions - Place butter and olive oil in a frypan, once melted add onions and a little salt and pepper and stir until softened. (approx 10 minutes) Then add vinegar, stir to combine and then set aside to cool.

Take your pork fillet, trim of fat and any silver skin.  With a very sharp knife, starting from near the bottom of the pork fillet, run the knife along the length to open up, continue to cut down the centre each time flattening a little more pork meat against the board until it is opened up like a book. Refer note above.

You can then use a meat hammer and gently pound the meat rectangle.

Start by gently spreading the cream cheese over the meat leaving a small space around all edges.

Next spread over the capsicum spread or pesto, then add the grated tasty cheese.

Next layer is the onion mixture, then a layer of spinach topped with the cooked bacon.

Cut 6 pieces of kitchen string and slide under the fillet, spaced evenly apart.

You may need another pair of hands to assist in rolling and tying the fillet.

Starting from the edge most away from you, roll the meat, whilst squeezing the stuffing into the roll as you go. 

Once rolled to the other side, have someone tie off each string.

Dust the outside with your favourite spice rub or paprika.

Place in an oven dish and cook for 30-40 minutes or until pork is just cooked, you don't want to dry it out.

Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes, slice into medallions and then remove string.

Serve with salad.

Mamma Marmalade