MATARIKI – A TIME TO CELEBRATE FOOD, WHANAU AND FRIENDS

It’s Matariki – the Māori New Year – a time to remember and a time to gather with whānau and friends to celebrate and look to the future.

As Matariki celebrations kick off around the country we brought two chefs together to chat about Matariki and cook some delicious kai using traditional ingredients and cooking methods.

Beef + Lamb Platinum Ambassador Chef, Rex Morgan has had a long career as a chef.  To him Matariki is a celebration of food and whānau.  He says it’s about celebrating the positive things for Māori and getting together to acknowledge their ancestors and the traditional ways they cooked.  He is still learning about the astrology side which he finds fascinating, but to him the main focus is on creating delicious food to share.

Rex says food brings people together and is an important part of any cultural gathering. He loves to bring the traditional ways of cooking such as hangi into a modern setting and says the smoky earthy flavours this brings to food is something he has incorporated into his menus throughout his career.

“Hangi is the one Māori thing which has its own special identity.  It’s also about the shared experience of making the Hangi and putting the fire together.  We do it best and beef and lamb lend itself to taking on those smoky flavours, although they were not the traditional cuts used by our ancestors back in the day.” 

Not everyone can put down a hangi in their back yard though, so Rex uses a simple smoker to bring those traditional flavours into his recipes, along with herbs such as Kawakawa and Horopito.

Rex teamed up with Beef + Lamb Young Ambassador Chef finalist, Lyall Minhinnick who sees Matariki also as a time for sharing beautiful food with whānau and friends and coming together to celebrate the start of the new year and remembering the old.

“As a chef it opens your eyes to see what other people are doing and how they are celebrating Matariki. ”

With the sharing of food being a core part of the Matariki celebrations, Rex and Lyall created a unique surf ‘n turf sharing platter with a Matariki twist.

Rex chose to do the ‘turf’ using a beef rib imparted with the smoky hangi style flavours using manuka smoke.  He included marrow bone adding bush pepper (Horopito) into the crust which brings the Māori influence to the dish along with some Kawakawa seasoning in the vegetables.

Lyall took on the task of creating the ‘surf’ components and chose a crayfish mornay with Urenika smash and Pāua chips to accompany the beef. He created this recipe while working at Fleurs Place in Moeraki where he had the ocean on his doorstep. He says this enabled him to forage daily for fresh seafood, herbs and other ingredients which work well alongside beef.

Rex and Lyall plating up together.

Lyall used a traditional steaming method to cook the crayfish using a kelp bag.  He then made a mornay using the crayfish mustard or brains to add extra flavour.  Serving it in the crayfish tails with the vibrant Urenika Smash on top made this dish component pop.

Pāua is something that was traditionally gathered as part of the seafood chain which was collected during Matariki to be harvested and stored.  Lyall says the salty meaty texture of Pāua which tastes a bit like seaweed nori was a good flavour match for the beef and the creamy crayfish.

Lyall now works on the shores of the Firth of Thames at the Bayview Hotel in Kaiaua, where he is lucky enough to also have access to fresh seafood and foraged herbs.

“This year to celebrate Matariki I will be doing a Hangi at The Bayview Hotel on June 24th. I’m going to include my famous burnt sugar steam pudding which my nan taught me to make when I was ten years old.”

Rex and Lyall’s surf n turf dish is a wonderful blend of flavours, textures, traditional herbs and cooking methods.  It was certainly made to be shared and Rex and Lyall have shared their recipes below, so you can create this for your own whānau. And if you want to check out Lyall’s burnt sugar steam pudding recipe, you can find it here.

 And don’t forget to check out the stars on the next clear night – see if you can spot Matariki – and if you need a little help, check out the link here.

TURF: By Rex Morgan

RARA KAU NŌ TE AUAHI MANUKA, MONGAMONGA, KONGAKONGA HOROPITO, HUAWHENUA, WĀTAKIRIHI

MANUKA SMOKED BEEF RIB, BONE MARROW WITH HOROPITO CRUST, ROOT VEGETABLES, FRESH WATERCRESS

Serves 2

Beef Rib
Ingredients:
1 beef rib approximately 500g
Canola oil
Salt and pepper to taste

 Method:
Clean the beef rib bone and wrap in foil.  Prepare your smoker using manuka chips and get it smoking before placing your beef into it.  Smoke on low-med smoke for 5 minutes, remove from heat and leave the beef to cool in the smoker with the corner folded back.

Remove the beef from the smoker, pat dry, lightly oil with canola, season with salt and pepper.  Chargrill or barbecue to desired degree. (Rex’s preference is to cook for 6 minutes on each side to 48˚C internal temperature checking with a meat thermometer).

 Rest the rib for 8 minutes on a rack in a warm area.

Horopito Crumble

Ingredients:
½ medium onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
25g butter
25ml canola oil
25g panko crumbs
½ Tbsp dried Horopito
½ Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Sweat onions and garlic in oil on a medium heat until soft, about 6 minutes.  Add Horopito, parsley and butter to melt.  Then add panko, season with salt and pepper and cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Leave to cool.

Marrow Bone

Ingredients:
2 x beef bones split down the centre and approximately 3 inches long (ask your butcher to split the canon bone not including the knuckle bones.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Horopito crumble (see recipe above)

Method:
Bring bones to room temperature and clean any excess meat left on the bone side.  Allow the bones to come to room temperature.  Place in a roasting tin cut side up and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Cook at 190˚C for 6 minutes.

Remove from oven and spoon over the Horopito Crumble allowing excess crumbs fall to the tray to toast as well.  Return to oven and cook for a further 6 minutes until golden.

Vegetables

Ingredients:
200g raw pumpkin, diced
250g par cooked potatoes (boiled or steamed), cut to same size as pumpkin
100ml olive oil
1 tsp dried kawakawa
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Combine all the ingredients together.  Place into a roasting tray and roast at 190˚C for 15 – 20 minutes.

To serve:
Fresh watercress

 SURF by Lyall Minhinnick

CRAYFISH MORNAY WITH URENIKA SMASH AND PAUA CHIPS

Serves 2

Crayfish Mustard White Sauce

Ingredients:
1/3 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
50g butter
100g flour
2 Tbsp crayfish mustard
1 whole crayfish halved and the tail meat pulled and diced
300mls cream
200mls milk
100g cheese plus some extra cheese to top for grilling
10g freshly chopped herbs to garnish

Method:
Sautee crayfish mustard and garlic in butter till soft (do not brown).  Add the flour and mix into a roux base. Slowly add milk, stirring consistently so the white sauce doesn't go lumpy, (a smooth consistency is what you are aiming for). Add the cream (you want a smooth thick creamy sauce), then add cheese. Once you have a smooth creamy sauce add the diced crayfish meat from the tail into your white sauce, then place the mixture back inside the shell.  Set aside for the next step.

Urenika Smash

Ingredients:
500g Urenika (Maori) potatoes
150mls cream
50g butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Boil potatoes with their skin on until soft.  Smash the potatoes rustic style (it doesn't matter if they are lumpy as long as they are cooked through and soft.  Add cream, butter, salt and pepper and mix through.  Top the crayfish tails with the warm smash and a sprinkle of cheese.  Place under a grill for 4 minutes on 220°C.  Serve with freshly chopped herbs alongside the pāua chips and smoked beef ribs.

Pāua Beer Battered Chips (if not beer use soda water)

Ingredients:
1 pāua cleaned, gutted and sliced into chip shapes (as best you can)
25mls oil to fry pāua

Method:
Fry pāua chips quickly in a hot pan, drain on paper towels and allow to cool ready for battering.

Batter:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornflour 
250mls beer (or you can use soda water)
2 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp smoked paprika
Zest and juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
500ml oil for deep frying (beer batter pāuas)
1 cup flour (in a separate bowl to dip pāua in before putting it into batter mix to fry)

Method:
Pre heat a deep fryer to 175°C ready to fry the pāua chips.  If you don’t have a deep fryer you can use a pot.

Add flour, cornflour, smoked paprika, baking powder, salt and pepper into a bowl, add liquids and zest constantly mixing so it does not go lumpy.

Once pāua chips are sautéed and cooled down, have your batter mix in a bowl and in a separate bowl place the flour for dipping the pāua in before you batter them.  This helps the batter stick to the pāua.  Dip pāua chips into flour then batter then into your hot oil.  Fry as many as you can at once until finished. Serve hot and season to taste, garnish with freshly chopped parsley and serve next to the crayfish morn ay inside a pāua shell with lemons on the side.

To serve:
Lemons quartered for garnish
Wild herbs, fresh herbs to garnish
pāua shell 
Crayfish tails

Serve your surf n turf on a serving board or platter large enough to hold all the dish components and garnish with the lemons, herbs and watercress.  Enjoy sharing with whānau and friends.