Appenzelleri (Appenzell Pork)

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A small, heavy iron frying pan is excellent to flatten the fillets

Appenzelleri filling, using home cured ham

A pork and cheese dish from Appenzell in north-east Switzerland.

Ingredients

• 480 g pork tenderloin, cut into 16 slices
• 75 g butter
• 1 onion, finely diced
• Garlic to taste, diced
• 120 g ham, diced
• 125 g mushrooms, finely chopped
• 70 g flour
• 120 ml dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
• Pinch each of rosemary and sage
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 egg yolk
• 35 g Appenzeller cheese
• 2 whole eggs, lightly beaten
• 60 g (approx) stale breadcrumbs

Method

1. Use a meat mallet, rolling pin or small frying pan to bash the pork slices between sheets of greaseproof paper until they are very thin. Using the (clean!!) base of a small, heavy, iron frying pan is also a good way of doing this - see photo on the right
2. Melt 25 g of the butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions and garlic until soft.
3. Add the ham and mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes, stirring continuously.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of the flour and cook for a further minute.
5. Slowly add the wine, stirring using a figure of eight motion with a wooden sppon or spatula, so that it is absorbed by the flour.
6. Add the herbs and seasonings, and cook, still stirring, until the mixture is thick.
7. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
8. Add the egg yolk and the cheese and mix thoroughly.
9. Spread 8 of the pork slices with the mixture, top with the remaining 8 slices to form a sandwich and pinch the edges to seal.
10. Heat the remaining butter in another frying pan.
11. Dredge each pork 'sandwich' in the remaining flour, dip into the beaten egg and then the breadcrumbs.
12. Cook the pork over a fairly high heat for 3 or 4 minutes on each side and serve immediately.

Variations

Try to use Appenzeller cheese if you can. It is available from Backhaus by mail order, but if you cannot get it, use Gruyère cheese instead.

Serving suggestion

I had a little of the filling left over and as I had planned to have this with pasta, I am going to mix the left-over filling with some olive oil and mix into the pasta.

Chef's notes

You could probably fill 2 pork fillets with the quantity of filling shown here and these freeze really well, (separate with pieces of grease-proof paper). Make a big batch in one go and stock the freezer up.

Follow the RSPCA Think Pig Checklist to make sure that your pork has come from pigs that have been reared to higher welfare standards.

• http://bit.ly/rspcathinkpig

See also

• Appenzeller cheese - The Swiss cheese
• Appenzell apéritif - A recipe for cheese on toast using Appenzeller cheese, pears and ham.