Celebrating the sandwich

Ham sandwiches have become an Elwin family tradition on Christmas Eve. We gather around the glazed ham, hot from the barbecue, where it has been slowly cooking for the afternoon, stuffing thick slices into bread with a string of accompaniments that range from mustard to tapenade, roasted peppers and my favourite, coriander chutney. It is an easy way to feed a crowd and give the ham a moment of glory before it becomes "oh, ham sandwiches again" through the holiday period.

Breaking my fast on a porchetta butty at Arrowtown’s Aosta reminded me of how the Italians celebrate pork in a sandwich. Chef Andrea Cattalini enthused over my inquiry as to his cooking method, saying he has been eating porchetta for as long as he can remember and that it holds a special place in his heart. This ultimate Italian street food is surrounded by legend and mystery with different regions claiming their variation the best. For the restaurant, Andrea chooses South Island Berkshire pork for flavour and uses the belly, over the traditional whole pig, for convenience. I have used his process of curing and seasoning to create a porchetta that cooks well in my home oven, but the wood-fired oven at Aosta brings out an additional level of flavour. My version proved utterly delicious, and I too am claiming mine the best in town.

One of the best "sandwich" makers in Queenstown, Smoke and Pickle’s Tom Tulk, makes a mean crab roll – the Holy Crab. Based on the classic Connecticut lobster roll, the chef uses crab for affordability and availability. Crayfish or prawns also respond well to the beurre monte cooking method. When he stated the Holy Crab was all about simplicity, I was encouraged to recreate this highlight that is also decadent and dressed to impress. Smoke and Pickle’s food truck is in constant rotation around various Queenstown sites and at many parties and events in town. Their reputable smash burger comes as a double, or even triple, and there’s always an intriguing special — which is how the crab roll came into my life.

Crab rolls

Based on the Smoke and Pickle food truck’s Holy Crab, these crab rolls are rich and buttery on melt-in-your-mouth milk buns. The beurre monte for poaching makes a velvety sauce, but warmed crab meat could be added to buttered buns for simplicity. Find frozen crab meat at Harbour Fish or use crayfish or prawns if preferred. I have used brine from a jar of pickles to whip up a dill pickle mayo. The lime and paprika salt brings out the sweetness of the crab and, along with the radish sprouts, balances out all the butter and mayo.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 Tbsp dill pickle juice

½ cup mayonnaise

1 ½ Tbsp water

4 Tbsp cold butter

400g crab meat, prawns or crayfish

4 buns, e.g milk buns

Radish sprouts, to serve

Method

1 Make lime and paprika salt a week or so in advance (see below).

2 Mix the pickle juice into the mayonnaise and set aside.

3 To poach the crab meat, bring the water to a simmer and whisk in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, to form a beurre monte. Stir in the crab meat and cook for a few minutes.

4 Spoon the crab into warmed buns, sprinkle with lime and paprika salt (see below), drizzle with dill pickle mayonnaise and top with radish sprouts.

Lime and paprika salt

Zest of 1 lime

½ tsp smoked paprika

2 Tbsp flaky sea salt

Method: Mix lime zest, smoked paprika and sea salt flakes together.

Porchetta buns

Once Aosta’s executive chef Andrea Cattalini awakened me to the simplicity of cooking porchetta at home, this delectably seasoned rolled pork became the centrepiece of many feasts. I use a skinless piece of pork belly as I don’t want the risk of it not crackling perfectly. It is no less tasty because of it.

Serves 8

Ingredients

2kg (approx) piece of boneless, skinless pork belly

⅓ cup rock salt

⅓ cup brown sugar

½ cup thyme leaves

2 Tbsp fennel seeds

2 tsp chilli flakes

6 bay leaves, chopped

1 tsp ground cloves

½ cup Dijon mustard

2 Tbsp ground black pepper

1 cup fennel fronds

Olive oil, for cooking

3 large fennel bulbs, sliced into thick pieces

8 soft, white buns

Method

1 Cover the pork belly in a mix of salt, sugar, thyme, fennel seeds, chilli flakes, bay leaves and ground cloves and leave to cure overnight in the fridge.

2 Rinse the salt cure off the pork belly and pat dry.

3 Smother the meat side of the pork belly in Dijon mustard, ground black pepper and fennel fronds and return to the fridge for a few hours for the pork to soak up the flavours.

4 Roll the pork and tie with string, forming an even-sized shape for cooking.

5 Brush all over with oil and roast in a 150°C oven for 1 hour.

6 Turn the oven up to 200°C and roast for another hour to colour the meat and crisp the fat. Add the fennel pieces to roast for 15 minutes at the end.

7 Rest the meat for half an hour before slicing to serve in warm buns with roasted fennel.

Coriander chutney

Sid Sahrawat showed me how to make this piquant chutney at his Cassia restaurant in Auckland, but it is actually his wife Chand’s recipe. It is a wonderful way to use up coriander that bolts to seed in my baking-hot Bannockburn garden. A jar of it keeps well in the fridge as a handy accompaniment to meats, veges and, surprisingly, cheese.