Rewena Bread

Rewena Bread is a favourite goes well for a snack.The recipe is simple however quantities and timing can differ, depending on the size of the bread.The first step is creating the “bug” (start) that helps the bread accent without the need of yeast.

“Bug"(start)

The bug can make lots of bread.It will need to be ‘fed’. This Is done with 1/2 cup warm water on one day,  and 1 teaspoon of sugar on the next day.

The bug will need to ferment for 24 hours or more, before you start to make the bread.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup of water

2 cups of flour

1 medium potato, diced

Making

Boil the potato in the water (without salt, butter, or anything, except the potato itself) until the potato is soft and leave it for a while until it is cool.

When the potato is lukewarm, mash it, add water and mix the the flour and sugar in.

Add more warm water if necessary to make a batter.

Cover it and leave it  in a warm place to rise for a day – the batter will smell like yeast, and have small bubbles on the exterior (surface)

Bread

Ingredients

5 cups of flour

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar

1 cup of your bug

Making

Mix The salt and flour into a large bowl

Make a well ( a small hole) in the interior ( center)

Put the bug in the middlemost of the well and dust baking soda over all of it.

Knead softly for 10 - 15 minutes, and  fold the dough over and over itself.

Add more water if mixture feels too rigid (hard)

Add sugar to sweeten if you want it to be sweeter.

Roll into a ball, and cover and leave it  to rise for overnight, if you want to, or just a few hours.

To make the dough rise faster leave it in a warm area, such as in a beam of sunlight, or the stove top. Dust flour over a baking tray to stop avoid the bread sticking and lightly spray the bread with liquid (cooking) oil

Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for approximately 40 minutes 

 

 

Piripiri Seafood Jambalaya

Ingredients

Serves 4

½ kg assorted seafood.
16 fresh mussels
2 cups rice.
1 900gm tin of organic whole peel tomatoes.
1 chopped onion.
1 grated carrot.
1 tblsp horopito infused avocado oil.
1 tablespoon of Kinaki Piripiri Spice.
4 Kinaki Pikopiko (fiddle head) shoots.
1 tsp chopped garlic.

Method

Place rice in pot.
Add horopito infused avocado oil and mix thoroughly
Cover with water and cook for 1 hour. 
While rice is cooking
Sauté onion, garlic and carrot until tender.
Add chopped organic tomato.
Bring to boil and allow to simmer for 1 hour (salsa).
Once rice is cooked.
Lightly sauté seafood in oil.
Lightly mix seafood into salsa.
Place hot rice in a lightly oiled ramekin dish.

Service

Place rice onto soup plate
Pour tomato salsa and seafoodonto rice.

Garnish

Lightly sautéd Pikopiko (fiddle heads)Shoots and Steamed mussels in the shell.
Finish with a light sprinkle chopped parsley.

 

Broiled Tiiti and Pikopiko

 

Ingredients

1 Tiiti (mutton bird).
1 kg Pikopiko off cuts
1/2 kg Organic Maori potato
1/2 kg Gourmet Organic Kumara.
2 tbsp rock salt

Method

• Place muttonbird in pot with Pikopiko off cuts and cover with water

• Add 2 tbsp of rock salt, if using muttonbird in brine, omit the salt.

• Bring to the boil and gently simmer for 1 hour.

• Add Maori Potato and Gourmet Kumara and simmer for another hour.

Service

Serve in large soup plates.

Garnish

Garnish lightly with croutons of sauté Rewena flat bread

 

 

 

PAUA FRITTER RECIPE

Paua is the Maori name given to a large edible shelled sea snail found on the coast of New Zealand. It belongs to the sealife family Haliotidae (genus Haliotis) and are also known in the USA as abalone, and in the UK as ormer shells.

Maori recognise Paua as taonga, or treasure, and shellfish is valued both as kai moana (seafood) and as a resource for traditional and contemporary arts and crafts. Paua shell is frequently used to represent the eyes in Maori carvings around the Marae.

When fresh Paua also makes for a tasty seafood treat.

1 Prepare 1 chopped onion and 6 pauas (without shells) by cutting into manageable cubes and mincing (preferably through an old fashioned mincer).

2 To a mixing bowl: add to 1 cup of flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder, teaspoon of salt and 1 egg. Mix in the minced Paua and onion, as well as some finely chopped parsley, then add cup of milk or more to make a fritter mix (not to stiff).

3 Fry in oil at a low temperature and serve.

PORK AND PUHA

The “boil-up” is a Maori method of cooking that boils root vegetables such as kumara and potatoes, puha (watercress) and spinach in a pork stock. Dumplings, also known as “doughboys”, or Maori bread usually accompany the meal to soak up the soupy goodness.

A bunch of puha (watercress)

1 pork tenderloin

1 kumara (sweet potato,) peeled and diced

1/2 white onion

6 baby tomatoes

3 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 litre of chicken stock

2 cups of water

1 tsp of sea salt

Pre-made pumpkin dumplings

1/2 kg of pork bones

1 Add the chicken stock, 2 cups of water and pork bones to a large stock pot. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour.

2 Soak the watercress in cold water for about 10 minutes and then wring it out to get rid of the bitter juices. Set aside.

3 Add the kumara, 1/2 white onion, tomatoes and spring onions to the soup stock. Simmer for 15 minutes.

4 Cut the pork filet into 1 inch slices and add to the stock. Add salt and lower heat and cover pot. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.

5 Finally, add the watercress and stir well. Remove the pork bones from the stock and discard.

6 To serve ladle the hot soup over the meat and vegetables and garnish with sliced spring onions.

 

TI KAUKA OR CABBAGE TREE

The native cabbage tree yields a very edible vegetable. Break out the heart of the tree, not the bloom, and strip away the leaves or grass, and a firm white core results.

Boil in salted water till tender. It is bitter, but delicious with roast meat.

PIKOPIKO

Pikopiko is a fern found in the bush. Gather the young fronds before they open, and cook in the same manner as asparagus. Serve with melted butter on toast or as a vegetable.

PUWHA OR SOW THISTLE

This vegetable is only too often despised. It contains valuable salts, if cooked properly, and should appear regular in European menu.

Gather when young, wash and crush in two or three waters.

Have water boiling, add salt, and a good tablespoon of dripping, and boil 20 minutes to half an hour. Drain and serve like cabbage.

It may be cooked with any corned meat or some rashers of bacon.

KARENGO (SEAWEED)

Karengo is a seaweed which grows on the rocks, and is gathered in August or September.

In the olden days the Maoris used to tao it (i.e., steam in a hangi or native oven), but it may be steamed and dried, and when wanted for use pour over it some boiling water and add butter or good dripping, and cook for about 10 minutes.

This is eaten as a vegetable. Authorities advocate the karengo as a preventative for goitre, as it contains iodine.

FRIED PAUAS

Any number of pauas, scraped and cleaned, then beaten with hammer. Fry in very hot fat and drain.

Be careful when frying to keep a lid or paper over the pan, as they splutter a lot. when they are cooked on one side, turn and reduce heat.

PAUA FRITTERS

With a sharp knife remove the fish from the shell and pull off the paua, and after scraping and cleaning, put through the mincer.

Make a batter with one egg, half cup milk, salt and pepper, and flour to make it about the consistency of cream, and lastly half teaspoon baking powder; then add 6 medium-sized pauas, minced and fry in very hot fat for about 5 minutes.

Drain and serve very hot. 

KINA OR SEA EGG

The kina is found on rocks and under ledges. These are best gathered at low tide when still covered with water.

At certain seasons of the year there is a more edible portion than at others.

The early' spring is a particularly good time to gather this fish. The shell is covered with spikes, but after a while one gets quite used to handling them.

Open with a sharp knife, shake, and clinging to the sides is the edible substance.

This can easily be taken out with a spoon. The colour varies, sometimes pinkish brown, yellow or dark brown.

BAKED KINAS

Fill a pie-dish with alternate layers of kina and breadcrumbs, having breadcrumbs for the last layer.

Be generous with the butter, and put knobs all over the top; put into a hot oven, then reduce heat and bake about half to three quarters of an hour, or until set.

Be careful and do not over-cook, otherwise, like oysters, they become indigestible, although they do not harden as do oysters.

DRIED EELS

"Silver bellies" are the best eels for drying. Clean the eels, then grill them over a hot fire, care being taken not to cook them - they should only be half-cooked.

String them on flax, do not let them lie in heaps. Hang out to dry in strong wind to dry them quickly.

Store them in a dry and airy place. Do not let them get damp, as they will go mouldy.

When needed, steam them for an hour, and serve. These are delicious with white sauce.

The big eels can be salted or smoked successfully like all other fish, and cooked in the same way.

RAUPO BREAD

Shake as much pollen (yellow) from the raupo heads as is required, and to every pound of pollen use half cup of cold water to mix.

Put into a greased bowl, and steam about 2 hours. The Maoris used to wrap raupo leaves round the mixture and steam in the hangi. This is just like ordinary bread.

SCRAPED KAANGA PUDDING

Grate ordinary maize (in the cob is best) fairly fine, into meal. Add sufficient water to bind the meal, then wrap corn leaves round the dough previously formed into little cakes or rolls.

Put into boiling water, and boil for 2 and a half hours. If wanted sweet, add a little sugar.

This mixture can also be boiled in a cloth like plum pudding. It is delicious hot or cold, cut in slices and buttered. (Spice can also be added.)