Pork and puha slider

Tamara West

Here’s my modern take on the classic pork and puha boil up, something very tasty and easy to prepare and pass around. This slider showcases pork meat in the pattie, puha as a flavoursome pesto topping, kumara as a grilled “steak’’ and a crispy bacon mayonnaise to help stick it all together. Most farmers’ markets will have fresh puha available— if you can’t find puha a good substitute is fresh watercress. Makes 4 sliders.

Ingredients

2 cups	Puha, washed (Main)
¼ cup	Macadamia nuts
1 clove	Garlic, grated
3 Tbsp	Olive oil
1 Tbsp	Parmesan cheese, grated
8 slices	Golden kumara, 1cm thick (Main)
2 Tbsp	Rice bran oil
½ cup	Bacon, crispy, chopped
¼ cup	Mayonnaise
500 g	Pork mince (Main)
8	Buns, use slider buns (Main)
2 cups	Rocket leaves, washed and picked

Directions

1. For the puha pesto, cook the puha in boiling salted water for 30 seconds, drain and plunge into iced water, squeeze excess water out then place in a food processor with macadamia nuts, garlic, olive oil and parmesan and blitz to form a paste.
2. Trim the kumara slices to form square 'steaks' and simmer gently in salted water for 15 minutes or until just cooked. Drain on paper towels, season with a little fine salt and cook in a hot frying pan with 1 Tbsp of the rice bran oil until golden.
3. Mix the bacon and mayonnaise together.
4. Season the pork mince with salt and freshly ground pepper, shape into 8 even sized patties. Heat another Tbsp rice bran oil in the frying pan until hot. Cook patties for 2 minutes on each side.
5. Cut the slider buns in half, toast or chargrill until crispy and warm, on the bottom half of the slider place a small handful of rocket leaves, then the patties, bacon mayonnaise, kumara steak, puha pesto and lastly the slider top.