Pork Wellington

As I mentioned before, I made pork Wellington in my cooking class at The Dirty Apron. I found the mustard seasoning and the mustard sauce made for too much mustard. I made it again at home and it was fantastic. This time I made a reduction out of guava and apple with a recipe I made up based on this Guava Reduction and this Guava Coulis.

Ingredients

• pork tenderloin
• puff pastry (I used 25 cm square sheets cut in half)
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 egg
• canola oil
• salt
• pepper

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450 F.
• Mix mustard and thyme in a bowl.
• Cut pork into pieces that will fit your puff pastry. Ensure there is a lot of space at the ends of the pastry to make a seal. (If your pork is 3 cm thick, keep about 4 cm on each end of the pork.)
• Dry pork with paper towel. (Extra moisture makes it harder to caramelize.)
• Season pork with salt and pepper.
• Heat a pan on high heat.
• Add some oil.
• Sear pork on all sides. (About 10 seconds per side.) Make sure the entire surface of the pork is seared.
• Remove pork to mustard bowl and allow to cool.
• Once cool, coat pork with mustard mixture.

• In a small bowl, beat egg until smooth.
• Place a sheet of pastry on a work surface.
• Brush pastry with egg.
• Place pork at bottom centre of pastry.
• Roll the pastry to wrap the pork.
• Press down on the ends to seal the pork. Fold the extra length for an additional seal. (Or pinch it for prettier presentation.)
• Bake on parchment paper on a cooking sheet for 12-18 minutes (depending on the size of your pork pieces). Pastry should  be golden brown and a meat thermometer should read 145 F.
• Allow to rest 5 minutes.

• Garnish with apple-guava reduction, apple slaw, or some green apple mustard. I julienned 1/3 of the apple left from the reduction for garnish.

Apple-Guava Reduction

Ingredients

• 2 ripe guava
• 2/3 apple
• water

Directions

• Peel 2 guava and cut them in half. Put them in a pot.
• Add almost enough water to cover.
• Boil for 8 minutes.
• Let cool. Meanwhile, prepare apple.
• Blend guava and water until smooth.
• Remove seeds with a sieve.

• While guava cools, peel apple.
• Slice the rest into 0.5 cm thin pieces and into 1 or 2 cm squares. Put them in a pot.
• Add almost enough water to cover.
• Add one tablespoon of brown sugar and one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.
• Add guava puree.
• Simmer until reduced to 1/2.

Here's another pork Wellington I made with a pepper apple slaw. The slaw has black pepper, green onion, lime juice, and julienned apple.