Recently at Zest we had a demonstration on Spanish tapas and so I thought it would be good to use one of the recipes we did for this page.

The one that I have chosen uses pork fillet, even though it is one of the better cuts of pork it is still well worth searching out “free range” pork as the quality is vastly different from the intensively farmed pork.

Our butcher supplies us with middle white pork from a farm in Yorkshire and it just doesn’t compare to the meat widely available.

Lomo de cerdo con salsa de almendra - Stuffed pork fillet with almond sauce

Ingredients:

1 x whole pork fillet (approx. 450g), slit open along its length

50g jamón Serrano (enough to finely line surface of opened-out tenderloin)

1 x hard-boiled egg

1 x red pepper

Olive oil for cooking (‘kitchen quality’)

For the sauce:

1 x medium onion

2 x teaspoons of thyme

2 glasses of white wine

6 heaped teaspoons of ground almonds

Freshly ground nutmeg

Freshly-ground black pepper

To garnish:

Red Grapes

Whole or flaked almonds, lightly-toasted in hot oven for a couple of minutes

Method:

Heat the oven to 190c, gas 5.

Hard boil the egg.

Remove the seeds from the pepper, half it, and place skin-side up in the hot oven for five minutes.  (Remember to take it out of the oven, and leave it to cool slightly). 

Open out the fillet and cover the inside with a fine layer of jamón Serrano.

Slice the hard boiled egg.

Peel skin off the red pepper, and cut the flesh into thin strips.

Arrange the egg and pepper down the centre of the fillet (… so you can fold it back up and seal it)

Fold the tenderloin over the stuffing, and use cocktail sticks (or thread) to hold it closed.

Warm some olive oil in a large, wide frying pan. 

Finely chop onion, and brown it lightly in the pan.

Remove onion with a slotted spoon and place it in a baking dish large enough to accommodate the stuffed fillet.

Carefully brown the stuffed fillet in the oil left in the frying pan, turning it gently so that it’s evenly-coloured.

Place the browned fillet on top of the onions in the baking dish.  Sprinkle in thyme, freshly-ground black pepper and nutmeg.  Pour white wine around the fillet.

Cover the baking dish with tin foil and place in the oven at 190c, gas 5 for 35-40 minutes.

Once the fillet is cooked, remove it from the pan in which it cooked, cover it, and set it aside to ‘rest’ without getting too cold.

Pour the cooking juices, herbs and onion into a saucepan. 

Add the ground almonds.  Heat until simmering, and then allow to simmer for a further five minutes.

Remove from heat and whiz to a smooth sauce with a hand-blender.

Place tenderloin on a chopping board, and use a sharp knife to slice it into rounds, each about 1cm thick.

Arrange on a serving dish, and garnish with toasted almonds and grapes.

Serve the sauce in a separate bowl or sauce boat … you want to show off those stunningly-stuffed slices.