Recipe: Pork belly burgers at Maniototo sale

Wild Az owner Sam Pickford, of Dunedin, serves a pork belly burger at a bull sale in the Maniototo last week. PHOTO: SHAWN MCAVINUE

In a new series, Shawn McAvinue asks food producers at rural events in the South to share their recipes.

This week, Wild Az owner Sam Pickford, of Dunedin, shares his recipe for the pork belly burgers he served at the 28th Taiaroa & Cotswold Charolais Bull

Sale in the Maniototo.

Ingredients

rock salt
black pepper
Chinese five spice
coriander
star anise
pork belly
Turkish buns
Asian slaw
salsa

Method

Blend salt, pepper, Chinese five spice, coriander and star anise until semi-fine.

Score the skin of a pork belly and rub the mix all over the skin and meat.

Place the pork in an oven preheated to 160degC and roast for two to three hours, depending on the size of the belly.

Carve the pork.

In a Turkish bun, place pork meat and Asian slaw (use anything available — I tend to use shredded cabbage and carrot sometimes with a bit of lettuce or baby spinach) and a salsa (again I use what I have available, usually a mix of fresh tomatoes, cucumber and coriander).

Top with crackling and serve.

HONOURABLE MENTION

Joy Dundass and Elaine Aitken both served their own delicious soups at the bull sale, but neither of the recipes for the beefy vegetable broths are being published because both free-style cooks did not use a recipe, the availability of produce, spices and condiments in their kitchens dictating what went in their pots.