Owner of three restaurants plus another pop-up style café, the Kitchen at Munnings Art Museum near Colchester, Cameron Marshall has been reflecting on the past 12 months.

‘We didn’t get to open the café at all in 2020, it just wasn’t safe, and we hope to reconvene in January 2022. As for the Boathouse in Dedham we had to change and it got us through.’

The Boathouse boasts a large patio garden area with traditional wooden rowing boats moored up ready for hire. Inside you’ll find a large deli-style fridge offering big bold salads, homemade cakes and pies. Here Cameron shares his recipe for a delicious pork dish...

Ingredients
Serves 4

2 x 300g of pork fillets
10 rashers of streaky bacon

For the Stuffing
1 large, sweet eating apple
150g of sultanas
4 to 5 fresh sage leaves
Olive oil
1 small onion
80g of white breadcrumbs
½ tsp of ginger
1 tsp of dried mixed herbs
3 small cloves of crushed garlic
Salt and pepper

For the sauce
200ml of double cream
100ml of apple cider (of your choice)
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp of Dijon mustard
2 tbsp of butter

Method
To make the stuffing, in a large frying pan sauté the finely-chopped onion and crushed garlic until translucent and softened. Peel the apple and dice into small cubes and add to the pan. At this point you can also add the sultanas, breadcrumbs, dried herbs and ginger, and finely chopped fresh sage.

Season well and stir, then sauté over a low heat. Add a dash of the apple cider so that the stuffing is starting to stick together and then set aside.

For the pork fillet, trim off as much excess fat and sinew as possible and place the fillet on a chopping board between two sheets of cling film and bash with a rolling pin until the fillet is approximately 1 to 2cm thick and level all over. Repeat with the other fillet.

Great British Life: Creating the stuffingCreating the stuffing (Image: Courtesy of The Boathouse)

Now you need to completely cover the chopping board with cling film and arrange the streaky bacon in lengths, slightly over lapping, making a rectangle, longer and wider than the flattened pork.

Place the flattened fillet in the centre of the bacon and then spread the stuffing on the top. Then put the other flattened fillet on the top and use the cling film and bacon to make an oblong shape, you may need more cling film to keep it together and to hold its shape.

At this stage it is very important that the fillet is rolled tightly in an oblong shape. If it is not tight enough all the stuffing will fall out whilst cooking. Now chill in the fridge for an hour before cooking as this helps the meat to retain the shape you have created while cooking.

Preheat the oven to approximately 180C, and then carefully remove the cling film ensuring that the fillet retains its shape.

Place on a lightly oiled baking tray and bake for approximately one hour until the bacon is crispy and clear juices run from the pork fillet. Remove from the baking tray and leave to rest for about 10 minutes under a sheet of foil before slicing and serving.

To create the sauce, take a frying pan to a medium heat, melt the butter slowly in the pan, add the cider, double cream and Dijon mustard, and let the sauce slowly reduce by half. This should take about eight minutes.

When reduced, the sauce should coat the back of a spoon. Finish with salt and pepper to your own taste.

To serve, I would suggest seasonal vegetables to accompany this dish. My favourite at this time of the year is buttered mashed potato, curly kale, sprouting broccoli and roasted carrots.

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