Southland Cheese Rolls

Cheese Rolls are the defining food of New Zealand's deep south — the Southland and Otago regions of the South Island. Known locally as 'Southland sushi' (a joke about their ubiquity, not their ingredients), they are slices of bread with a crust removed, spread with a mixture of grated cheese, sautéed onion, and evaporated milk (or cream cheese), rolled up and grilled until the cheese melts and the bread toasts. The recipe is a staple of Southland fundraising cookbooks and community cookbooks; every gathering, funeral, and sports-day afternoon tea in the south features them. They are almost unknown in the North Island — a genuinely regional dish.

A crisp, golden, toasted bread roll, the cheese-onion filling bubbling out the ends, the bread curled around it. The cheese is salty and stringy; the onion is sweet; the evaporated milk gives it a creamy goo. Eat it hot, in two bites, the way every Southlander does. It is the simplest, most South Island thing in New Zealand food.

The filling is pre-cooked (onion sautéed in butter, then cheese and evaporated milk stirred in until melted) so the rolls only need grilling to toast the bread and bubble the filling. The bread crusts are removed (so the rolls are all-soft), and the filling is spread thin (too much and it oozes out during grilling). The rolls are grilled (not baked) — they need direct heat from above to toast the outside in 3-4 minutes.