Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Ham and Spinach

This is probably my second favourite Gary Rhodes recipe and one I’ve cooked many many times. If you can get the tenderloin on offer it makes for a really tasty, cheap (this one was on offer £4.60 I think) and crowd pleasing Sunday dinner. It’s also excellent cold with chips and pickle, chutney etc ..

To me the idea of stuffing pork with, well, basically, more pork and then adding a further layer of pork (OK ham and bacon but it’s still pig right) seemed a little bit excessive sort of like Roast beef stuffed with steak, . Amazingly it works so well each bit of the pig complementing the other and then contrasted by the spinach, sage and nutmeg flavours, the gravy is sweet yet savoury and the wine gives just the right amount of acidity

I served this with new potatoes covered in sage butter and crème fraiche leeks with pancetta, perhaps I got carried away with the pig thing

Ingredients

1 Large Pork Tenderloin

2 Rashers of streaky bacon, normal back bacon is ok if you forget to get some , ahem .

2 Roughly chopped red onions

2 Sprigs of Rosemary

3 Tbsp Olive oil

Stuffing

25g Butter

2 Shallots finely chopped

½ tbsp finely chopped sage leaves

115g baby spinach washed and shredded

50g Sliced Ham (original was 25g)

55g Fresh Breadcrumbs

1 beaten egg

¼ tsp grated nutmeg

Gravy

2 Glasses of white wine

150 ml Chicken Stock

Preheat the oven to 180^OC

First off you need to remove the silverskin from the tenderloin, it’s the thin white layer of stuff (I think it’s fat) that often covers one side of the meat. Removing this prevents the meat from getting tough and chewy apparently, some chef imparted this bit of wisdom on the TV. I can’t remember who it was and I’m not entirely sure it works; I still do it though just in case

Slice open the tenderloin lengthways, two thirds of the way through, open out and pound it gently, not sure if that’s possible, it’s bit like asking you to softly stab someone. Right, erm, flatten it anyway

Melt the butter and very gently fry the shallots and sage for around 10 mins. Add the spinach and cook until it wilts. Mix in the rest of the ingredients

Spread the stuffing along the centre of the tenderloin, roll it up then using the help of another person or the extra two hands you didn’t know you had, tie up with kitchen string (What the hell is kitchen String anyway, I used normal string , the type next to the selotape and I’m still alive). By the way not being the most dextrous of people trying to tie up a long piece of pork stuffed full of things is bloody hard to do, so either enlist the help of someone else or teach the kids some interesting new words, it’s up to you

So once you’ve trussed it up with the skill veteran dominatrix, lay it on top of the onions in a roasting tin then lay the bacon on top.

Roast for 35-40 mins basting every now and then, sorry can’t be more specific. My basting technique is directly relational to what else I have to do or what’s on TV.

Remove the joint, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5 mins

Discard the onions, deglaze with wine then add the stock and boil rapidly until reduced by half. Season to taste of course but then you knew that didn’t you

Remove the string, yeah yeah, I know but some people would seriously not do this unless explicitly told to do so.

Carve and serve with whatever you fancy plus the gravy of course

Feel free to make your own Carry On style, pork stuffing innuendos