Te Ringawera

Tu Tangata, Issue 23, 1 April 1985, Page 37

Te Ringawera

Aunty Huia

Kaanga Warn or Kaanga Roroi (Minced corn) 1. Grate corn from the cob. The corn should be just hardening (over-ripe). Add salt and pepper, or sugar if preferred for a sweet pudding. Put into muslin or corn leaves. Boil or steam about 1 hour. Serve as preferred. 2. Melt 1 dsstspn butter in milk and add 1 dsstspn sugar. Add 1 small grated kumara to 1 cup of minced cornmeal and mix with rest of ingredients to a nice consistency. Gather and clean corn leaves and drop 2 tbsps of mixture into each of the leaves. Tie both ends then drop into boiling water and cook for Vi hour on a medium element. It can be eaten hot or cold.

Kaanga Pungarehu 4 cups clean manuka wood ash 2 cups white corn 1 pot water Add the corn to the ashes, fill a saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil. Turn the element to medium heat, boiling all the time until the skin leaves the grain. Strain into clean cold water rubbing the skins off. Return the corn to the saucepan full of water and boil up again. Pour the water off. Repeat this process 3 times and leave on medium element until the grain swells to twice its size. Serve either hot or cold with cream and sugar.

Kaanga Wai Custard 1 egg (beaten) 2 cups milk 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp butter 1 cup cooked Kaanga Wai Beat all the ingredients together and bake in a slow oven until brown. Serve with cream and sugar to taste.

Maize with Wood Ash (A breakfast dish) Take two cobs of well matured and thoroughly dried maize (the poultry type). Remove kernels from cob and place in a large saucepan (on cooking the kernels swell). Cover liberally with cold water. Bring to boil and allow to boil gently until the kernels swell sufficiently to split the outside horny covering. NB: It is often necessary to add water to the corn while cooking as a certain amount of moisture is lost in the cooking. Once the kernels have swollen to their utmost and are tender, add prepared wood ash. Stir the mixture well and allow to cook gently for 1 hour or so. It will boil like a hotpool. Remove container and contents from fire and rinse cooked kernels in a kit (colander) in plenty of cold water. Most of the horny husks will come away during this stage. Place corn back in pot and cover well with cold water and bring to boil. Cook gently for another hour when it will be ready to serve. Serve with cream or milk. The wood ash gives the corn a delicate flavour all of its own. NB: The addition of baking soda instead of wood ash is a substitute. In the days of old when open fire cooking was a feature of the Maori way of life, the fire place was treated with utmost care and respect. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was burnt in it other than wood.

Scraped Kaanga Pudding Grate ordinary maize (on the cob is best) fairly fine, into meal. Add sufficient water to bind the meal, then wrap corn leaves around the dough previously formed into little cakes or rolls. Put into boiling water and boil for 2Vi 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 be added).

Kao (Sweetmeat) Kao was a delicacy of the old Maori, made in the autumn after gathering the crop (March-May). Choose only small elongated kumaratubers and sharpen a stick of manuka for use as a scraper. Scrape out the accretions of earth in the hollows (“eyes”) on the surface of the tubers. The outer skin is then removed without damaging the inner skin which clings closely to the flesh. After the kumara has been washed and cleaned, wrap individually in the leaves of the kumara or puriri trees and place in a slow earth oven for 24 hours. They are then dried in the sun for about two weeks. The kumara kao is then ready for eating. Pakeke Take six large potatoes and peel, grate and put into a cloth and wring the juice out of them. Add finely chopped onions, salt and pepper to taste. Shape into patty cakes and fry in peanut oil until cooked. These are delicious served with meat or pineapple rings. The juice wrung from the potatoes can be used to make arrowroot sauce for puddings.

Tao Mana 1 leg pork, flap on [approx. 4kg] 4 slices white bread lcm thick Salt and pepper 1 small stick celery 1 tbsp oil 8 dried apricots 1 small onion 1 tsp extra salt 170mls white wine Remove the H bone and upper leg bone to form a pocket in the pork, but leave part of the flap on. Remove the crust from the bread, cut into 1 cm cubes, place in a shallow dish and pour wine over. Allow to soak for 5-10 minutes, then drain off the surplus wine and reserve. Chop the apricots, onions and celery finely and mix with the bread and seasoning. Stuff the cavity with this, pulling the flap over and secure by sewing with coarse thread or use skewers. Score the pork rind and rub with the extra salt and oil. Have the oven preheated to 200°C, put the roast in and reduce the oven setting 180°C. Bake for 4-5 hours. Serve with a gravy made from the pan brownings, water and the reserved

wine. Thicken with cornflour. Accompany with stuffed apricots combine Vi carton of sour cream with 1 tbsp of peanut butter and fill the centres of 8-10 preserved apricots. Preserved Pork (Poaka Tahu) Take a mixture of pork and beef dripping and render down in a large pot. When rendered, leave aside on slow heat. Cut pork pieces into chunks and boil in salted water until half cooked. Strain and when cool, strip the rind off the meat. Put the pork chunks into the dripping and bring to the boil, making sure the pieces are moved around to prevent sticking. Draw from the stove and leave to cool. Pour contents of pot into clean containers and seal. The longer this meat is left the better. Delicious when heated up with puha or any greens.

Recipes supplied by Glenfield College Home and School Association “Maori Cookbook’’. Copies available at $3.95 post free from PO Box 40176, Glenfield, Auckland 10.