Need ideas for Christmas lunch? Carly Gibbs gets exclusive menu ideas from some of the Bay of Plenty’s best foodies.
Christmas starter platter — Dre Hart
About the foodie: Hart is the director of Kiwi Artisan, which makes handcrafted artisan goods that are shipped worldwide from the Bay of Plenty.
The dish: Hart is an intrepid traveller who considers Kiwi food producers to be among the “most innovative and creative in the world”.
"Sourcing truffle from the Bay of Plenty or premium wild venison from Fiordland and showcasing this keeps me passionate about our wonderful food scene," he says, explaining that you can support New Zealand artisans by adding the below to your Christmas platter.
Ingredients: Kiwi Artisan truffle-infused olives (from Mount Maunganui), Gathered Game Wild Fiordland Venison Salami, Robbies Pickled Onion (Gore), Barrys Bay Cheese (Akaroa), Super Seed Crackers (Wellington), Little Beauties Gold Kiwifruit (Nelson), Te Mata Fig Relish (Havelock North).
Tips: To present a grazing Christmas platter, look for an eclectic range of materials to serve the food on and in, and decorate with flowers or dried flora, candles or mini string lights.
Large to little: When arranging your platter, place the largest items first, then work your way down.
Traditional Christmas roast porchetta — Dan Lockhart (best served with crackling, roast vegetables or salad, and fresh bread).
About the chef: Lockhart is the head chef at Mount Maunganui’s award-winning Fife Lane. He began his career in regional New Zealand, before working as a chef in Melbourne for five years then returning to New Zealand in 2017, helping open Cider Factorie and other well-known Tauranga eateries. He started at Fife Lane when it opened in 2019. Known as Fife’s “Meat Master”, he runs their Mibrasa charcoal oven.
The dish: Porchetta is a famous Italian pork dish. Cook it in the oven or barbecue rotisserie.
The prep: Source pork that is even in thickness, with a good meat-to-fat ratio. Traditional porchetta is rolled with fennel pollen inside (try sourcing it at Gourmet Trader). Or, use wild fennel.
Tip: Once the fennel’s yellow flowers start to appear, pick it and leave it hanging upside-down in the sun until the flowers dry and fall off. If you can’t get fennel pollen, dry roast fennel seeds and blend them for the seasoning.
Ingredients: 2.5-3kg fresh (skin-on) pork belly, 40 grams flaky sea salt, 20g of fennel pollen or ground fennel seeds, 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 4 sprigs of fresh oregano, ground black pepper, olive oil. Note: You will need some butcher twine to tie your rolled pork.
Method: Finely chop fresh herbs and mix them with salt, pepper, and fennel pollen. If using fennel seeds, toast the seeds on low heat until fragrant. Use a mortar and pestle or a blender to grind to a fine powder.
Unwrap your pork belly and place the meat skin side up on a board (dry so it is easier to handle). Carefully slice the skin from one side of the belly, leaving the last couple of inches attached.
Turn the belly over and drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle your fennel mix over the meat, and rub it in with your hand.
To roll the belly, start with the side where the rind is sliced loose. Roll tight, and fold the loosened skin under the bottom of the roast.
To tie the roast, do a slip knot around the roll, and pull tight. If you don’t know how to do a slip knot, a tight double knot will do. Start with the outside loops, followed by one in the middle, and continue to do more ties in between until you have a tight roast.
Preheat your oven or barbecue to 225C. For an oven roast, place the rolled pork skin side up on an oven rack. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. For a barbecue, skewer your rolled pork through the middle onto your rotisserie, and drizzle with olive oil and salt.
Once the oven or barbecue is up to temperature, place the pork in the middle of your oven or grill and cook for 45 minutes.
Afterwards, open the door or lid and reduce to 150C. Continue to cook at 150 for another 1.5-2 hours, depending on the thickness of your roll.
Once crispy and cooked with juices running clear, remove from the oven or barbecue and place on a rack to rest for 15-20 minutes. This will help the muscles relax and soak back up all the juices.
Remove strings and slice into thin rounds.
Christmas wild rice stuffing — Shane Yardley
About the chef: Yardley is a culinary arts tutor at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology. He has worked in some of the world’s most renowned restaurants and did a long stint as Simon Gault’s right-hand man. He has been head chef of Euro, Fish, and a guest judge on MasterChef. He has also cooked for the Bay of Plenty’s exclusive Kitchen Takeover events.
“After growing up in the Bay of Plenty, it is awesome to be back raising my family, teaching, and getting involved in the local food scene,” he says.
The dish: This stuffing recipe is a take on one that Yardley's grandmother used to make. He has modified it to accommodate wild rice, cranberries and pistachio nuts. It goes great with turkey and chicken, but excels with game birds like duck, pheasant and quail, if available.
Ingredients: ½ cup wild rice, 1 cup basmati rice, 30g butter, 1 onion – grated, 1 stick celery – grated, ½ carrot – grated, ⅓ cup dried cranberries, ½ cup pistachio nuts, 1 egg – beaten, 2 tsp chopped fresh sage, 1 tsp chopped thyme, 2 Tbsp chopped parsley, zest of half an orange, salt and pepper to taste.
Method: Soak the dried cranberries in hot water for 10-12 minutes to soften them.
Cook the wild rice in salted water for 25-30 minutes or until just tender. Drain and keep aside for later.
Cook the basmati rice in boiling salted water for 7-8 minutes or until just tender. Drain and keep aside for later.
Melt the butter in a large heavy-based pan and fry the onion, celery, and carrot until softened.
Add the chopped sage and thyme and mix to combine.
Remove from the heat to cool down.
Add both types of rice, cranberries, nuts, beaten egg, orange zest and parsley. Mix carefully so the rice doesn’t break the rice grains too much.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stuff the bird of your choice and roast until cooked.
Grilled courgette, tomato, mint and feta salad — Shane Yardley
The dish: This side dish makes use of summer produce. The courgettes can also be cooked on the barbecue. Serves six.
To cook the courgettes: 4-5 courgettes, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 4-5 large mint leaves – torn, zest of 1 lemon, salt and pepper.
Method: Heat a grill pan or heavy-bottom frying pan over high heat.
Cut the courgettes lengthwise into 5mm-thick slices.
Toss the sliced courgettes in olive oil and lemon zest.
Season with salt and pepper, and grill or fry slices until lightly charred and just tender.
Add to a bowl with the torn mint leaves.
Dressing: 3 Tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp coriander seeds, ½ clove garlic – crushed, 1 Tbsp orange juice, ½ Tbsp cider vinegar, 1 tsp runny honey.
Method: Heat the olive oil in a small pan, and add the coriander seeds and garlic.
Cook over very low heat for 4-5 minutes until fragrant. Remove from the heat and cool.
Whisk in the orange juice, cider vinegar and honey. Season to taste.
Assembly: 2 punnets of mixed cherry tomatoes, ½ red onion – finely sliced, 4 large leaves of basil – torn, 3 Tbsp flat parsley leaves, 120g feta cheese.
Method: Halve the tomatoes and add to the courgettes.
Add the basil leaves and sliced red onion and mix.
Add the parsley leaves, feta and dressing just before serving.
Christmas barbecue smoked salmon with Big Smoke BBQ fish rub and romesco sauce, served with apple and fennel salad; and lamb rumps with Big Smoke BBQ lamb rub on a bed of creamy mash, with smoked barbeque salsa beans — Mike Jeffries
About the chef: TV star and barbecue maestro Mike Jeffries founded his award-winning business The Big Smoke BBQ Co in 2010. He has four American, engineer-designed smoker barbecues that he uses for catering, with business partner Shane Southby.
Together, they also run cooking classes and have a range of rubs, sauces, and smoked sausages.
Their bacon jam has been used by the global fast-food chain Wendy's. Each year, Jeffries travels to Memphis to join Moe Cason's World Championship Barbeque Cooking Contest team.
Recently, he and Southby competed on the TVNZ show Cooks on Fire.
They plan to open a Big Smoke BBQ deli and restaurant in Tauranga in early 2023.
Tip: This recipe serves four.
Smoked salmon with romesco sauce and apple fennel salad — Mike Jeffries
Salmon ingredients: 2 salmon fillets, The Big Smoke BBQ Fish Rub.
Apple and fennel salad ingredients: 1 bag of lettuce leaf mix, 4 jumbo carrots, 2 fennel bulbs, 5 Granny Smith apples, 1 bag of radishes, 6 shallots, 1 bag each of dill, Italian parsley, mint, 2 punnets of red cherry tomatoes, 1 packet of seedless grapes, 2 yellow beetroots.
Dressing ingredients: 125ml lemon juice, 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1.5 cups of Canola oil, ¼ cup of white sugar.
Romesco sauce ingredients: 4 whole bulbs of garlic, 2 cups of olive oil, 4 red capsicums, 1 packet of slivered almonds, 1 can of tomato puree, 1 bunch of Italian parsley, ½ cup of sherry vinegar, 1 Tbsp paprika, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, micro-greens for garnish: try 1 packet each of amaranth, Asian blend and sorrel leaves.
Lamb ingredients: 4 lamb rumps with the fat cap on (this is the fat layer and is best left on, as it results in succulent tender lamb), The Big Smoke BBQ Raging Lamb Rub, 1 can of canola spray.
Creamy mash ingredients: 6 large Agria potatoes, 2 parsnips, 2 cubes of vegetable stock, ½ a carton of buttermilk, 100g salted butter.
Salsa barbecue beans ingredients: 1 can of cannellini beans in brine, 1 Tbsp onion powder, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp paprika, ½ a small jar of jalapenos, 2 large brown onions, 3 roasted yellow capsicums, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsp New York cut or cracked pepper, ½ cup apple cider vinegar, 1 can of tomato puree, 2 tins of Italian chopped tomatoes, a ½ bunch of celery, 1 bag of flat-leaf parsley.
The prep: Prep your barbecue using good lump charcoal to a temperature of 275F/135C. Prep salmon by spraying peach or barbecue paper with Canola spray - this prevents fish from sticking.
Coat salmon with a good coating of The Big Smoke BBQ Fish rub — this helps form a crust.
Romesco sauce method: Peel garlic cloves and place in olive oil in a pot. Cook until brown.
Place red peppers on barbecue and char on the outside all around, turning frequently to char the skin all over. Once charred, place in a bowl and cover in plastic wrap to sweat through.
In a bowl, place chopped tomatoes, sherry vinegar, cayenne pepper, paprika, and Italian parsley and blend together.
Peel charred red peppers and remove seeds and put into a bowl with other ingredients.
Blend more then add garlic confit and continue to blend. Add slivered almonds at the end and blend.
Apple fennel salad method: Finely slice all ingredients into a bowl. Mix together.
For the lemon dressing, combine all ingredients in a bowl and blend together. Dress salad just before serving.
Place lettuce leaves on a plate with salmon surrounded by romesco sauce and apple and fennel salad.
Lamb rumps method: Prepare and peel potatoes and parsnip for mash, place into pot with water and a small amount of stock. Bring to a boil.
Coat the lamb rumps with Big Smoke BBQ Raging Lamb or Piranha Pitmaster Fish Rub. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Then place onto the grill using indirect heat. Cook through turning once. Halfway through, cook until the internal temperature reaches 150f. Set aside and cover to rest.
Prepare and finely cut all ingredients for the beans and place into a cast iron pot in the barbecue - add wood chunks for some extra smoke.
Mash potatoes and parsnips together with buttermilk and more stock powder to taste. Whip until smooth and creamy.
Serve lamb on a bed of mash, surrounded by barbecue beans.
Dry rub for barbecue roasts and steaks — Dan Lockhart
Ingredients: 30g onion powder, 30g garlic powder, 100g smoked paprika, 30g cracked black pepper, 50g flaky sea salt, 20g dry oregano, 5g cayenne pepper (optional).
Method: Combine spices, add less or more cayenne pepper depending on spice preference, oil and season your roasts or steak, and cook to your liking.
Tip: Lockhart prefers cooking dry rubbed steaks on a hot plate, or not directly over coals; rather than a gas grill, to avoid flames scorching the spices.
Christmas dessert: Berry mousse with coconut meringue — Jeff Slessor
About the chef: Canadian chef and owner of the Rotorua restaurant Poco Tapas & Wine, Jeff Slessor, was classically trained in culinary arts in Toronto.
Working throughout Canada and New Zealand, he opened Poco in February this year with partner Catherine Rose.
The dish: This was Slessor's first dessert when he opened Poco. It's a delicious take on the classic pavlova.
Tip: There are a few steps involved, but rest assured, it isn’t actually that tricky, says Slessor.
Coconut meringue ingredients: 100g icing sugar, 75g shredded coconut, 2 egg whites (from large eggs), ⅛ tsp salt, 75g caster sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Coconut meringue method: Preheat the oven to 170C.
Toast the coconut for approximately five minutes until slightly golden, and let cool.
Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, add the coconut and set aside for later.
Whip egg whites and salt in a mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the caster sugar, continuing to whisk for about five minutes, until the mixture is stiff and can stand up.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in vanilla extract, icing sugar and coconut.
Make 12 even dollops on a baking tray lined with paper. At Poco, they smash theirs after, so they don’t necessarily need to be pretty. If you want to keep them whole, spread them out into nice discs with a pallet knife.
Lower oven to 140C, and bake for one hour. Meringues should be dry and not too dark. Turn off the oven, with the door slightly ajar, and leave the meringues inside for about 30 minutes. Place meringues on a wire rack to finish cooling.
Berry mousse ingredients: 400g fresh berries of your choice (or frozen if easier), 1 Tbsp gelatine – powdered, 3 Tbsp sugar, 3 Tbsp water, 2 egg whites, 2 Tbsp caster sugar, 1 cup cream – whipped.
Berry mousse method: Combine the berries with water and white sugar, place on medium heat and simmer.
Once berries have broken down, add gelatine and allow to dissolve.
Puree berry mix with a hand blender and transfer to a metal bowl to chill in the fridge.
While the berry mix is cooling, whip the cream and set aside.
Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gradually beat in the caster sugar. Fold the whipped egg whites into the whipped cream.
Once cool, fold the berry mixture into the whipped cream mix. Transfer the mix to a plastic container, and allow it to set in the fridge for at least four hours (the longer, the better) before serving.
Sherry reduction: ½ bottle (175ml approx) of sherry, or port if you don’t have it (Slessor uses Pedro Ximenez sherry), 50ml sherry vinegar, 125g caster sugar.
Method: Combine sugar, vinegar and sherry in a pot. Simmer on low heat until reduced by half.
Tip: Leave slightly runnier than desired consistency, as it thickens once cooled. Transfer to a plastic container or squeeze bottle and allow to cool before serving.
To serve: At Poco, Slessor smashes the meringue to give it a rustic feel, with the berry mousse dolloped on top and a drizzle of the sherry reduction. Garnish with fresh berries and mint.
Festive cocktails and mocktails
White Christmas margarita — Ashleigh Gee
About the chef: Gee is the owner of Miss Gee’s Bar & Eatery at Masonic Park.
She stocks one of Tauranga’s largest ranges of gin and top-end spirits, and has an ever-growing alcohol-free menu.
The drink: Margaritas are the must-drink cocktail this summer. White Christmas is a margarita with a sweeter style, and good for people who sometimes shy away from tequila. The coconut cream adds a smooth texture that feels like you’re having dessert and a drink all in one.
“Using a raspberry crumb on the rim brings in all the Christmas vibes,” says Gee.
Ingredients: 45ml Cazcabel Coconut Tequila (you could use Jose Cuervo 1800 Coconut Tequila as well), 15ml lime juice, 15ml sugar syrup, 30ml coconut cream, 15ml Cointreau or other triple sec, raspberry dust or desiccated coconut for glass rim. Mint sprig and maraschino cherry for Christmas holly garnish.
Method: Pour all liquid into shaker, fill shaker with ice. Shake until frosting appears on your shaker, so that you know your drink is cold.
Pour everything into a tumbler with your chosen festive rim. Garnish with mint sprig and maraschino cherry to look like Christmas holly.
Tip: If you don’t have access to coconut tequila, Gilmours stocks Monin Coconut Syrup that you could add if required. To learn how to rim your glass like a pro, book in for a cocktail class at Miss Gee’s.
Berry Summer Spritz mocktail — Ashleigh Gee
The drink: Strawberry and raspberry flavours mix together to give a gorgeous red colour, and topping with ginger ale balances the sweetness. This one is easy to turn into a pitcher and have ready to share with friends and family.
Ingredients: 4 fresh raspberries, 2-3 fresh strawberries (stems removed and halved), 10ml sugar syrup (2 teaspoons), 3 mint leaves, ginger ale (or, if not a fan, lemonade or soda can work), crushed ice, mint sprig for garnish.
Berry Summer Spritz method: Make in a tumbler glass (around 400ml in size).
Pop in raspberries, strawberries, sugar syrup and mint leaves.
Muddle to release the fresh juices — but not so much that it turns into a paste.
Fill the glass with crushed ice.
Give it a bit of a stir-through before topping it with ginger ale.
One last stir for good luck.
Garnish with mint sprig.
Sugar syrup method: Use a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. For example, 500g sugar to 500g water.
Place over heat and stir till all the sugar is dissolved. Let cool, then bottle. Keep in the fridge for up to a fortnight.
Very Cherry Christmas cocktail — Josh Fitzgerald
About: Fitzgerald owns Sugo — an Italian-inspired restaurant headed by award-winning chef Ian Harrison on Tauranga’s Wharf St. You can expect house-made pasta, hand-stretched pizzas, and a selection of seasonal dishes that showcase local ingredients.
The drink: “Cherries are coming into their prime around Christmas time, and who doesn’t need a little tequila to get through the silly season?” asks Fitzgerald. “This drink is tart, refreshing, and best of all scaleable. Think jugs, buckets, or whatever you’ve got lying around.”
Ingredients: 30ml blanco tequila (Fitzgerald used Herradura Plata Tequila), 15ml cherry liquor (Fitzgerald used Herring Cherry Liquor), 30ml lime juice (freshly squeezed if possible), 15ml sugar syrup, 15ml liquid from maraschino cherries, 6 drops of Bittermens mole bitters (just for extra credit, not essential).
Method: Combine everything into your cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice and shake for about 10 seconds.
Strain into a coupe glass or over fresh ice — “if that tickles ya fancy”. Garnish with some slices of lime.
Tip: To scale it up, just follow the ratio above, add ice to the vessel, and mix to dilute until tasty.
Sober Santa mocktail — Josh Fitzgerald
About: There are so many great alcohol-removed products available now — you can get Seedlip, used in this recipe, at the supermarket. This is a quick, easy, refreshing drink that’s perfect for the sunny Kiwi summer.
Ingredients: 30ml non-alcoholic gin (Fitzgerald used Seedlip Citrus), 45ml elderflower syrup, 5-6 mint leaves, 20ml lemon juice (freshly squeezed if possible). Top with soda water.
Method: Combine all the ingredients except the soda water.
Fill the glass with ice right to the top. Top with soda and give it a mix, making sure the ingredients in the bottom of the drink are mixed through.
Garnish with a mint sprig and lemon slice.
Tip: If you like your drinks a little more tart, increase the lemon juice quantity. Or, if you like it sweeter, this would also work with lemonade instead of soda water.
