All's Well That Ends Wellington
Pork Wellington is the perfect New Year's Day recipe, with pork, 'kraut, bacon and flaky puff pastry.
After the ball drops and you ring in the new year, after you clear the glasses and dishes from your midnight reverie, it would be such a pleasure to sleep through reveille on the first day of January. But if you're the cook for the first feast of 2009, you'll probably have to be up at first light to begin preparations. While everyone else is catching a few extra zzzs, you'll be starting the roast and peeling the potatoes.
Tradition calls for a meal worthy of our day of resolutions, a meal of majesty, which brings good luck and abundance. For some, that means a huge pork roast with sauerkraut. For others, it's a standing rib roast or even an elegant and extravagant beef Wellington. This year, we thought you might like to combine those culinary traditions and use a little make-ahead magic so you can sleep in with everybody else.
Traditional beef Wellington, first made in the 18th century, is an artful creation that consists of a beef tenderloin coated in duck and truffle pâté, coated in duxelle of mushrooms and finally baked encased in puff pastry. In the intervening years, the term has been more generally applied to any meat prepared "en croûte," or baked in a pastry crust.
My recipe for pork Wellington combines the traditional New Year's Day flavors of pork and sauerkraut. Most of the work can be done a day or two in advance. Then you just wrap the roast in pastry and bake it off an hour before dinnertime.
For dessert on New Year's Day, you might consider that wonderfully simple Italian pudding called panna cotta, which means, literally, cooked cream. Serve it with strawberries that have soaked in balsamic vinegar and cracked pepper for a fabulously tasty way to end the first meal of 2009.
Pork Wellington
Serves 6 |
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Ingredients:
2 pork tenderloins
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 pound sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
12 slices pre-cooked bacon
1 tablespoon coarse-grain mustard
2 sheets puff pastry
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
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Instructions:
Trim all the fat from the pork tenderloins. Pat dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet and brown the pork well on all sides, about 12 minutes. Remove from the skillet and let cool. Heat the remaining olive oil in the pan and sauté the mushrooms until they begin to brown. Turn off the heat and add the rinsed and drained sauerkraut along with the caraway seeds. Stir to combine well and cool. Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter. Place 6 strips of bacon onto the wrap. Top with one-half of the sauerkraut and mushroom mixture and spread to cover the bacon, forming an 8-by-12-inch rectangle. Spread the mustard on the pork and place it along one long edge of the rectangle. Use the plastic wrap to help roll up the roast. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 2 days. Repeat with the other tenderloin. When you are ready to prepare dinner, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Let the puff-pastry sheets sit at room temperature for 40 minutes. Cut 1 sheet in half and roll out to approximately 14 by 10 inches. Brush a 2-inch border with the egg wash. Remove the plastic wrap from the tenderloin and place into the center of the puff pastry. Bring up the long sides to cover the tenderloin and press the seam. Place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Tuck in the ends and press to seal. Brush with egg wash and bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is deep golden-brown and a thermometer registers at least 150 degrees. Remove from the oven and let rest about 10 minutes before slicing into 1-inch rounds.
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Panna Cotta
Serves 6 |
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Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
1 package unflavored gelatin
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 pint strawberries
Fresh cracked black pepper
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Instructions:
Pour the milk into a bowl and sprinkle with the gelatin. Heat the cream and sugar in a saucepan just until the cream begins to simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Do not boil. Add the vanilla, milk and gelatin and stir to dissolve. Strain into 6 small ramekins. Allow to cool uncovered and then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours or up to 2 days. Heat 1 cup of balsamic vinegar mixed with 1 teaspoon of honey and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook until reduced by half and then cool completely. Stem and quarter the strawberries. Mix with 2 tablespoons of the balsamic reduction and a generous sprinkling of black pepper. Let soak for at least 1 hour.
Remove the panna cotta from the refrigerator and invert the cups onto small plates. Garnish with the strawberries.
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