Stuffed With Sweet & Sour Braised Collard Greens and Brie and Mustard & Molasses Drizzle
My Thoughts
It's pork that is wrapped in smokey pork, stuffed with tender sweet & sour collard greens and creamy brie. Oh, and it's doused with a tangy mustard and molasses sauce.
Difficulty
Medium
Makes
4 Servings
Tools
Cast Iron Skillet (large)
Butcher's Twine
Time
Prep Time 45 min.
Cook Time 45 min.
Total Time 1 hour 30 min.
The How To Do It
Preheat your oven to 450° F.
While that is heating up, remove the stems from the collards and tear the leaves into relatively small pieces.
In a large sauce pan, place the canola oil and heat it over medium heat and once the oil is hot, add the collards. Stir them to make sure that they are covered in the oil. Add the vinegar and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, pepper, and granulated garlic and stir them again. Let them cook until they are soft and tender. This can take 15-20 minutes depending on how tough they were to start.
While the collards are cooking, cut the brie into small chunks. Smaller is better, but it can be a bit difficult since brie is a soft and sticky cheese.
Once the collards are finished cooking, set them aside, off the heat.
To prep the tenderloin you will need to cut 4 pieces of butcher's twine, roughly 12-in each.
On a cutting board you will need to slice the tenderloin so that it can be "rolled out". What I mean is, slowly start slicing the tenderloin along the long side, being careful to not cut all the way through. Once you've cut the first piece, open it up and rotate the tenderloin and repeat with the same cut. Keep doing this until you have cut the tenderloin until it will lay out like it is one very wide and thin piece of meat. It's kind of like peeling an apple and not breaking the skin with a pairing knife.
Slide the twine underneath the tenderloin so that it is evenly spaced and the ends are sticking out from either side of the tenderloin.
Sprinkle the interior of the tenderloin with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. You don't want to use all of it here. Just use enough to season the meat.
Once the collards are cool enough to touch (or you can use tongs), lay the collards across the tenderloin so that it is pretty much covered with a thin layer of greens.
Next add the brie on top of the greens.
Now, very carefully roll the entire thing up length-wise so that it kind-of-sort-of resembles what it looked like before you cut it. Start with one end and as you get it rolled, tie it off with one of the strips of butcher's twine, then move to the other end and do the same. Once you have ends secured, tie off the two middle strands. Make sure that it is tightly rolled and that the butcher's twine is tightly tied. You don't want it to explode with it is cooking.
Now, wrap the tenderloin with the bacon. Make sure that the bacon wraps all the way around. If you do that, and the bacon overlaps itself, it should stick together. Basically the fat is sticky enough that it will adhere to itself. I said in the ingredients that it would take 4 pieces of bacon, but it could take 5 or more, depending on how big your tenderloin is.
In a large cast iron skillet, heat the remaining canola oil. Once it is starting to shimmer, carefully add the tenderloin. Sear it on each side until the bacon starts to get crispy.
Insert your thermometer, set it to 160° F, and slide the tenderloin into the oven and let it roast for roughly 30 minutes. I really do not pay much attention to the time when I am using the thermometer, I just wait for it to say it's done. I know many people are eating pork at medium to even medium rare these days and that's perfectly alright. I like to get it closer to medium well/well when I'm stuffing it because of all the opportunity for cross contamination.
While the tenderloin is roasting, heat a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the molasses and mustard and whisk them together. Add a pinch of salt and the granulated garlic and whisk again. Let it all simmer for 5-10 minutes, just to let all the flavors come together.
Once the tenderloin is roasted, move it to a cutting board and let it rest for at least 15-minutes. Once it has rested cut it into medallions and drizzle it with the molasses & mustard sauce.