A good Wellington is the hearty centrepiece we all need in the colder months, and it looks super impressive too. This pork Wellington recipe is a fun and tasty twist on the classic beef. Mike covered the pork with honey and mustard, and a shiitake mushroom and black pudding duxelles before wrapping it in slices of prosciutto — layers upon layers of delicious flavours.

Pork wellington recipe

Ingredients

• Pork loin, centre eye
• 2 shallots
• 1 clove of garlic
• 350g shiitake mushrooms
• 250g black pudding
• 1 tsp runny honey
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 10 slices of prosciutto
• 1 roll of all butter puff pastry (Mike used Jus-Rol)
• 1 egg
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

How to Cook Pork Wellington

This pork Wellington recipe is very temperature-sensitive. You need to make sure it’s cooked, but leaving it in the oven for too long will leave you with solid and dry pork. Mike recommends removing it from the oven at 50-55 °C, letting the temperature rise around 5 °C more during the rest. Using a leave-in thermometer like the DOT will allow you to relax and remove it from the oven at exactly the right time.

Method

• Start by seasoning your pork loin well and searing hard on all sides. Brush with the honey and mustard and set to one side to cool.
• Finely dice the shallots and garlic. Cook until translucent, and then add finely chopped mushrooms and black pudding. Cook until most of the liquid has been removed, then leave to cool.
• Lay the prosciutto on cling film with the strips slightly overlapping each other, then layer the black pudding mushroom mix over the top. Lay the pork loin on one end of the strip of prosciutto and mushroom mix and use the cling film to wrap it tightly. Pop in the fridge for an hour.
• Repeat the process, but this time with puff pastry. Decorate before egg washing.

• Set your oven to 200 °C and lay your Wellington on some baking paper in an oven dish — this will help the base of the pastry cook and avoid a soggy bottom. As soon as the welly is in, drop the temperature to 180 °C.
• Once the Wellington reaches 50-55 °C on your Thermapen, take it out of the oven and allow it to rest for around 30 minutes. The temperature will rise around 5 °C or so during this time.
• Slice the pastry first with a bread knife and then cut the meat with a sharp knife — a little tip I learnt from John Torode for the perfect slice!

Mike Tomkins

Masterchef 2021 Runner Up

@thenotecook

"Thermapen is one of those kitchen tools I can't live without - it's something I use every single day from making sauces, to bbq cooking, to private dining and events, it comes with me everywhere! A Thermapen will improve you as a chef and a cook by taking the guess work out of complex cooking."