Pork Tenderloin in Puff Pastry
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 60 min.
Filet de Porc en Croûte, an impressive entrée - juicy pork tenderloin all wrapped up in puff pastry. Perfect for entertaining. Puff pastry actually makes the cook's job easy. Just do not tell anyone!
Ingredients
- 125 gr (about 1/2 cup) onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 60 gr (about 3 cups) loosely packed spinach leaves, washed, drained and coarsely chopped
- 2 sun dried tomatoes (about 1 tbsp), finely chopped
- 2 slices prosciutto, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 pork tenderloin, about 600 gr ( about 1 1/4 lb)
- 400 gr (14 oz) ready made puff pastry
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 egg beaten with a 1 tbsp of water
- parchment paper to line baking sheet
Preparation:
Defrost puff pastry at room temperature for 2 hours. Dough should be flexible, but still cold when wrapping the pork.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter in a skillet over high medium heat. Add onion and garlic to the skillet and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until onion is translucent. Add the spinach, sun dried tomatoes, prosciutto. Sauté until spinach is just wilted. Set mixture aside to cool.
Preheat oven 190°C (375°F). Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Butterfly pork tenderloin length ways without cutting straight through. Open out and beat flat with a mallet, taking care not to tear the flesh. Season with salt and pepper.
Fill the center of the flattened pork with the spinach-prosciutto filling. Close pork tenderloin pressing it down gently and removing any filling excess. Secure it down with toothpicks or tie it with kitchen strings.
Heat remaining 1 tbsp olive olive and 1 tbsp butter in saucepan over medium high heat and gently brown pork tenderloin on all sides for 6-8 minutes, taking care that filling does not squirt off the center. Remove toothpick or kitchen string and set aside until cool enough to be wrapped in the puff pastry.
Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle big enough to enclose the pork. Place pork tenderloin in the center of the pastry and wrap it snugly around the pork. Brush edges with the egg wash and pinch them together. Make sure that pastry seam is on the underside. Use any excess pastry and use for decoration purposes, if you like. Cut 2-3 slits on the top to let the steam escape.
Bake it for about 30 minutes or until puff pastry is nicely brown. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing it. Serve with buttered vegetables.