Inroduction

This is a blog about food. It is about what I eat and the places I eat it. The food I make and the food I read about. It is also about drink, what I drink and where I drink it. It is mainly a record of any thoughts I have about food. I am not a chef or restauranteur, I don't have any training in any aspect of food, but I have a clumsy, ongoing fascination with it, and feel a need to write clumsily about it.

I'll start by describing the first thing I made this year, which was a fillet of pork tenderloin stuffed with black pudding. Oh this was such an easy thing to make, yet looked very impressive. Ridiculously impressive. This is what I did-

I got a fillet of pork tenderloin which is rather like a large natural sausage, coming from somewhere around the lower back of the pig (under the backbone, I think) - readily available in supermarkets these days, mine was in a long vacuum pack. I cut it in two then sliced each piece lengthways and opened it up like a book. Then I got some good quality black pudding and placed it in the middle of each piece, then folded the meat over, closing the book, as you might say, and trimming off bits of black pudding that stuck out. Then I wrapped both pieces in streaky bacon, put them in a roasting tin and then in a quite hot oven for about half an hour. Then when they were nice and cooked-looking, I took them out and sliced them with a very sharp knife into half-inchish slices. Then I poured some honey and lemon juice into the pan with the meat juices and stirred that around for a little while. Meanwhile, I'd boiled some spinach, and made a bed of it on each plate, placed the slices of stuffed pork on top of the spinach and then drizzled the honey-gravy over the top. Served this with some buttered tagliatelli, it was fantastic. The bacon had infused the outer layer of pork with a rich pink colour, so each slice was a lovely variety of colours with the outer crispy layer of bacon, the varying shades of pork, then the black stripe of pudding in the middle.