Hear Michael Van de Elzen out — switch up Christmas dinner this year with a herby pork belly. 

Words: Michael Van de Elzen

Christmas day is full of turkey and carved ham on the bone, all delicious, traditional Kiwi fare. However, this year I’m changing things up slightly, sticking with pork, but using another cut – pork belly. No, it doesn’t scream Christmas, but this recipe does combine two classic ingredients, pork and pineapple. The trick is to butterfly the pork belly.

There’s a great tutorial on YouTube from US chef Tom Jackson. The result is still a beautiful thick piece of meat at the end, but you’ll have herbs flavouring it all the way through.

Tip: A simple rocket salad goes well with this dish instead of roast vegetables.

Serves: 6
Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Pork:
1.5kg pork belly roast, butterflied
400g baby carrots
2 red onions, peeled and quartered
2 tbsp runny honey
1 pineapple, peeled and cubed (reserve 150g for the stuffing)
handful coriander, roughly chopped
handful Italian parsley, roughly chopped
handful dill, roughly chopped
pistachio vinaigrette – see recipe, below right

INGREDIENTS

Stuffing:
½ loaf wholemeal bread, crusts removed
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
a handful Italian parsley, chopped
1 tbsp grapeseed oil
pinch salt
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp poppy seeds
150g pineapple, finely diced

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Blitz all the stuffing ingredients, except the 150g of finely chopped pineapple, in a food processor until just combined. Mix the pineapple in with a spoon.

Lay the stuffing over the butterflied pork, roll it up, and tie it with butcher’s string close to each end and in the middle.

Put the meat into a roasting tray and pour half a cup of water around it. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the tinfoil, add the baby carrots and red onion to the tray and cook for a further 30 minutes. While the meat and vegetables are in the oven, cook the remaining pineapple chunks on a hot barbecue or in a chargrill pan until coloured.

Remove the meat from the oven. Mix the herbs. Drizzle the pork with honey, roll it in the herbs, then rest it for 5-10 minutes. Slice the pork and serve with the roasted vegetables and pineapple drizzled with pistachio vinaigrette.

Pistachio Vinaigrette

INGREDIENTS

1 cup roasted whole pistachios
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp honey
4 tbsp vegetable oil

METHOD

Crush the pistachios in a mortar and pestle, add the lemon juice, honey, and oil, and mix.

MORE HERE

Recipe: Honey-Roasted Pork Belly

Christmas recipe: Honey-Glazed Pork Loin with Guava & Raisins

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