Since our Christmas is a summer event in New Zealand , I thought I would do something a little differant to the usual ham and cold chicken thing. So a visit to my local proper butcher sourced a large pork belly , which I biffed in the smoker for an hour or so to add colour and flavour but not cook it.




Scored the back of the skin so it will roll easier , then mixed up a sage and onion , rosemary and chives bread stuffing and layered that over the meat side , before rolling the belly and tying with string. Need to be tied round both ways to stop the stuffing falling out ...







Next I coated the roll in plum jam , well rubbed into the skin cuts and edges





and because I dont want the skin to be crisp and hard as its going to be served cold I slid it into an oven bag and into the pre-heated oven at 200 degrees C or 400 degrees F for 20 minutes , then backed the temp down to 150 C / 300F for a further hour and a half, then let it cool in the turned-off oven.



here it is after cooling off a little. No sliced delight pics yet as it hasnt cooled enough to cut yet.



Hopefully it eats as well as it looks - I am confident it will.


Have a Great and safe Festive Season.

finished product

Damn, Taz is reborn under a new name. Good job!

Hooray, a recipe from NZ that doesn't involve mutton . That looks damn good...

Hell - I aint in the same league as Taz , no sir , but I like to cook stuff and I figured out how to post pics without using photobucket so it cant be all bad .

We do cook other meats than lamb/mutton . I am trying to get my hands on an alpaca to cook but not having a lot of luck yet. I will succeed though.

Merry Xmas and full tummies to you all - theres no pork roll left - the family ate the lot ;-)

Muzza, it looks great.

New Zealand has some excellent venison and outstanding seafood.

we do have great venison but pork is a favourite for smoking. Did 6 chickens as well , plus a slab of parmesan cheese , and often do fish.

Its easy to experiment when you own a smoker