Patiki (flounder), tuaki (cockles), tuna (eel) and titi (muttonbird) were among the staple foods of many local Maori, and they are still delicacies they expect to find on their tables, according to Moana Wesley.
Patiki (flounder)
Raewyn Harris told stories of how she and her whanau used to go floundering off Te Raunone beach at Otakou.A torch made of a rag soaked in kerosene in a syrup tin with a handle and a spear made of a broom handle with a nail on the end were all you needed. Flounder were so plentiful you would be stepping on them, but now you were lucky to find one the size of a hand in the harbour, she said.
Michelle McDonald comes from a family of fishermen. Her father, Matenga Taiaroa, fished on the West and East coasts and the Chatham Islands, and eats fish every day - he'd had flounder for breakfast that morning. Her brother, and she and her husband, are also commercial fishers, fishing Ngai Tahu quota with boats based at Otakou.
She demonstrated her favourite way of cooking flounder. It's a good choice if you don't want to fillet fish, she said.
To cook flounder, clean and gut it, and scrape the scales off both sides. Heat a little oil and butter in a pan, dip the whole fish in flour, and fry it, pale side down first. Turn and cook the other side after a few minutes - the time depends on the heat of your pan. The flesh should be cooked but still moist. Use two forks to pull the flesh apart. When you have eaten the flesh on top, the bone frame will lift off easily so you can eat the other side.
Toni Evans offers a plate of tuna (eel).
Toni Evans takes children whitebaiting and fishing for eels at various estuaries, but he would not reveal the location of his mahinga kai (food gathering places). Every family keeps their favourite places secret, he said. They return to them for generations - many whitebait stands have belonged to the same family for 70 or 80 years. But these days there are fewer eels, whitebait, paua, or mussels available than in the past.
The silver-bellied, short-fin eels found in estuaries are said to be sweeter than the long-fin eels found further up rivers.
William (9) and Oliver (11) Dawson go eeling with their parents. They get in the water and spear them with a nail on the end of a broom handle, Oliver said. Their father slits them, removes the gut and backbone, and hangs them in the shade for a few days to dry.
To cook eel, Mr Evans cuts it into short pieces, grills them in the oven for about 30 minutes then keeps them in the fridge until needed. Before serving, he browns the pieces lightly in a pan with a little oil. Eel is an oily fish with lots of healthy omega 3.
He also had a few huhu grubs which can be found in decaying logs. They were a useful source of protein if you were travelling or lost in the bush, he said. They can be eaten raw - hold the head end and bite off the rest, or cook briefly in butter and garlic, and eat the same way. The one I ate tasted a bit like fish - although that might be because they were cooked in the pan after the flounder and eel.
Tuaki (cockles)
Tuaki are found in Otago Harbour and other estuaries up the coast, such as Purakaunui and Blueskin Bay. They were a staple food of early Maori, and all the local middens have lots of cockle shells.
You are allowed to harvest 50 shellfish a day per person.
Aroha Ellison, who cooks at the Puketeraki marae, showed two ways of cooking them.
One was in kelp bags. She cuts and trims pieces of bull kelp then pushes her hands down between the the outer layers to form a bag.
She fills these with cockles (about 20, with a pinch of rosemary) and sews up the opening with a strip of seaweed. If you don't have a hangi, cook them in a very hot oven for about 30 minutes, she said.
Slit the bag and eat the cockles, which will have opened.
She also shared her secret tuaki fritter recipe.
Makes 20-25
1 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1-2 generous tsp curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs, beaten to aerate
2 handfuls finely chopped onion
some chopped parsley, if you have it
1 cup liquid (about half cockle juice and half milk)
2 big handfuls opened cockles (or as much as you like)
First open the cockles. Steam briefly until shells open, then take out the meat, reserving the juice.
- Sift flour, baking powder and curry powder. Season to taste. Add onion and parsley.
- Beat the eggs and add to the flour with the milk and cockle juice.
- Stir until mixed, then stir in the cockles.
- Heat a little oil and butter in a frying pan and cook dessertspoonfuls of the batter until golden brown on both sides and cooked through.
Titi (muttonbird)
Maori who gather traditional foods follow an annual cycle: muttonbirding from April to May, whitebaiting from August to November, followed by eeling.
Les Harris (10) explained in graphic detail how he went muttonbirding with his family in the Titi Islands around Stewart Island.
You catch them round the neck with one hand and bite the skull to kill them, he said.
Then you have to spew them by pressing the stomach and being careful not to let the spew get on the feathers as it makes them harder to pluck. The birds need to be plucked while still warm or their skin may rip. You hold the wings and legs together in one hand and pull the feathers off with the other. Some people had plucking machines but they could rip the skin, he said.
His father cut the birds through the middle; it was Les' job to take out the hearts, then pass the birds to his mother and aunties who removed the guts.
Then the birds had to be graded and salted. A-grade was for selling, B-grade had rips in the skin, and C-grade were discarded, he said.
Sometimes, he added, they caught weka, but the legs were the only parts worth eating.
Although muttonbirds are only harvested by Rakiura Maori from the Titi Islands now, they used to be gathered all up the East coast, and used to be plentiful on Otago Peninsula, according to Raewyn Harris.
Anne Robertson, who grew up in Bluff, said their staple diet was muttonbird, oysters and crayfish. As a child she often craved a sausage or saveloy. She liked visiting relatives at Otakou because they gathered flounder and cockles, which were a treat, she said.
