In the far south of New Zealand's South Island, in Southland and Otago, the cheese roll is a matter of regional identity. It is a slice of white bread spread with a hot, savory cheese mixture, rolled up and toasted until golden, and it turns up in café cabinets, bakery counters and on lunch plates all over the south while remaining something of a curiosity in the North Island. Locals have taken to calling it southern sushi, which is accurate in roughly the way that calling a pavlova a cloud is accurate.

No single person invented it. Rolled cheese breads appeared in New Zealand newspapers in the 1930s, the idea picked up speed once sliced bread became common in the 1950s, onion joined the filling in the 1960s, and the version most southern households now swear by, made with dried onion soup mix and evaporated milk, was printed in a community cookbook in 1972. Schools and sports clubs still sell trays of them to raise funds, in the way other places run a sausage sizzle.

The filling is the whole secret: thick enough to spread, creamy enough to stay soft inside the crisp shell, and seasoned with enough onion to make the kitchen smell like a winter afternoon in Invercargill. Make a big batch, freeze some, and you will never be more than ten minutes from a hot snack on race weekend.

The cheese filling

Ingredients

• 1 can (12 fl oz / 354 ml) evaporated milk
• 1 packet (about 1 oz / 30 g) dry onion soup mix
• 3 cups (300 g) sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper

Method

1. Grate the cheese on the coarse side of the box grater. Peel the onion and dice it as finely as you can, into pieces no bigger than a grain of rice, so they soften in the filling and do not poke through the bread.
2. Pour the evaporated milk into the saucepan and whisk in the onion soup mix, the diced onion and the mustard powder. Set it over medium low heat and stir often for about 3 to 4 minutes, until it is steaming and the soup mix has dissolved.
3. Turn the heat to low. Add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon after each addition until it has melted before adding the next. Keep stirring for 2 to 3 minutes after the last handful. Do not let it boil, or the cheese can turn stringy. Stir in the cayenne if using.
4. Take the pan off the heat and leave the filling to cool, stirring once or twice, for about 20 minutes. It thickens a great deal as it cools.

Rolling and toasting

Ingredients

• 20 slices thin sliced white sandwich bread
• 4 tablespoons (55 g) butter

Method

1. Cut the crusts off each slice of bread. Roll over each slice once or twice with the rolling pin to flatten it slightly, which stops it cracking when you roll it up.
2. Spread a heaped tablespoon of filling evenly over each slice, right to three of the edges but stopping about 1/2 inch (1 cm) short of one edge. Starting from the opposite edge, roll the slice up firmly but gently, like a small rug, finishing on the bare edge.
3. Heat the broiler on high with the rack about 6 inches (15 cm) below the element. Place the rolls seam side down on the baking sheet, close together but not touching. Brush the tops and sides with melted butter.
4. Slide the sheet under the broiler and toast for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the rolls over with the tongs, brush the other side with butter, and toast for another 2 to 3 minutes. Watch them the whole time and turn the sheet if one side browns faster.
5. Let the rolls sit on the sheet for 2 minutes before serving. The filling inside is extremely hot straight from the broiler.

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