Puha and Brisket

Now back to my longing for a Maori meal. Puha is picked and got ready, while a good piece of brisket is put on to boil. Kumara and potatoes are peeled. Sometimes I add some light puffy doughboys about ten minutes before the meal is ready. Served with green peas or beans, this makes a very nice meal. Maoris like myself, or let's say most of them anyway, like their brisket fatty, but those people who do not like this can always select a leaner cut of meat. When I have been introducing meals of this kind to Pakehas and others for the first time, I have found that they like it much better when the meat is lean than when everything is served swimming in a bowl of greasy fat.

I think that the older generation of Maori mothers, like their Pakeha pioneer sisters, were far better cooks than the women of today, with all their scientifically prepared ingredients and modern aids. Who is to blame for so many of our younger girls being such poor cooks: the society we live in today, or the parents? Personally I blame the latter. For with today's modern gadgets, pre-cooked foods, instant liquids, soups and desserts, etc., I think we tend to become rather lazy in our preparations of meals.

Over the Hills for Kai Moana

It wasn't always like this, though—why, when I think back to the times we rode many miles over the hills to gather kai moana to supplement our everyday diet. There were paua, kutai, and kaura, big and red, when they were in season. This entailed a whole day's journey, and more often than not we stayed half the night also, netting for fish at the narrows of the bay. We would return home with our pihau bags laden heavy with shellfish and fish. The fish, mostly mullet, were sorted, cleaned, gutted and then smoked. Fat plumpy kutai were shelled and bottled. Sometimes paua was half cooked, and preserved in clean rich fat. At other times it was hung on threaded wire and left to dry in the sun or in some dry place. Like dried shark or mako, this was relished by the old and young alike in those days.

Eeling After Heavy Rain

There were also countless nights when, after heavy rain, the streams rushed angrily down from the bush-covered mountains, covering the flat fertile valley with swirling dirty brown water. During the day we youngsters would swim and play, pretending that some floating log or tree was a canoe, and we were warriors once more. At night, when the waters had begun to recede, my uncles and I would go out to rama tuna. We used flares made from sacks, rolled up into jar or baking powder tins, held

by twisted fence wire. Kerosene was poured on to the sack, and when they were set alight they made good bright, but smoky, lamps. Other times old tyres were cut up and used instead.

Eels—Dried, Fried or Baked

And then the slaughter would begin. The fat glossy-skinned tuna would be lying, maybe lazily searching for food, in the shallow flood-covered paddocks. They were either speared or else bashed across the tail; this stunned or killed them. Then they were threaded onto a long piece of number eight wire, which I usually had to drag along. The next day they were cleaned and strung along the clothes-line to dry. The large ones were cut up and dried for tuna pawhara. Then for days we would feast on eels, rolled in flour and fried or else baked crisply in the oven with onions, seasoned with herbs. Nowadays I buy smoked eel from the fish shop. I like it steamed on top of a pot of potatoes, served with a rich garlic flavoured sauce, sprinkled with parsley. Even those who shudder at the thought of eating tuna will enjoy it, provided they are not told beforehand the name of the fish.

Many Ways of Cooking Paua

There are numerous ways which we can dish up our Maori kai and kai moana in an attractive and appealing way. Take paua, for instance. Here is a rich flavoured sea food that is more often than not neglected by our Pakeha friends, simply because of its messiness when you are preparing it for eating, and because they lack the knowledge to cook it. I've cooked it many ways and love it still. After the hard flesh is placed in an old clean tea-towel or cloth, and softened up by a hammering, it can be crumbed, dipped in beaten eggs, then fried in fat or butter.

Good with Garlic and Spices

It makes wonderful fritters, and I prefer paua soup to toheroa soup. Minced, it makes good rissoles. I also cut it into small pieces, marinate it for a while in soy sauce, a cheap sweet wine, a clove of squashed garlic, onions and mixed spices. Then it is rolled in flour and fried in soya bean or peanut oil. Serve with a large dish of pan-fried rice, flavoured with diced bacon, peas, tomatoes, onions, or anything else you fancy. It is delicious. For special occasions I like a dish of paua baked in cream, the way my grand-parents used to do it.

Para, the root of the giant king fern, I'm not very fond of. Kina or sea-eggs I still don't like. I cannot remember the name of the huge giant snails found in the bush. I remember the old folks telling me how they were put on the hot embers. The shell was cracked and the flesh inside was then eaten. I have seen the shells of these giant snails many times, especially after heavy rainfall. No doubt some of the older readers would remember its name.

Kawa Mara and Pikopiko

Another I've come across, though not amongst the Ngapuhi where I lived, is the custom of leaving the kaura, or crayfish, in a container of cold water until it seasons itself, and the flesh comes away from the shell. Then it is eaten raw. This is called kawa mara. But I think that if it were marinated it probably would be more to my taste. A few years back. I was told by a very respected old Pakeha woman, who with her husband had carved a farm out of the bush and wilderness, that in the early days she had cut the tender fronds of the king fern, and chopped it up, with whatever fruit was in season, for fruit pies. She assured me that it had a marvellous taste. I think a lot of the older folk ate these, and called it pikopiko. But I have yet to try this out.

Karaka Berries, Pipi, Titi

Karaka berries are soaked and boiled or steamed in hangis. My cousins loved these. Too often the humble pipi, because of its abundance, is neglected. But not by me; I never refuse a dish of them. Soft young shoots of the titi or cabbage tree are a taste that one acquires. Puha cooked by itself with a little fat added, a dash of butter, pepper and salt, is better than spinach to me. The days of hot steamy, newly cooked parawa rewana, baked in camp ovens, I will never forget. The long hours of rubbing salt into frozen sides of home cured, smoked bacon have gone. So have the casks of pickled pork, for it is cheaper for the farmers to have their pork cured at the works nowadays.

There Must Be Many Others

There must be countless other dishes that I do not know of. It would be good and interesting to hear from other readers of ‘Te Ao Hou’. Kaanga piro is a dish that I do not like, yet I don't mind cooking it for others, for I am informed that despite its unholy fragrance, it has a very flavoursome taste. I believe that potatoes, done the same way as corn for Kaanga piro, are quite a dish also. But as these two products, like our New Zealand lamb, were introduced by the Europeans, we cannot lay claim to them as our own—

even though the Pakehas received them from the Indians of America, who, some learned men say, are related to our Polynesian race.

One of Our National Dishes?

Who knows? A treasured recipe stored away in some Maori mother's mind, or eaten at her table daily, might well one day be called one of our national dishes. Think it over next time a cooking contest is held.

Ed.—We hope that readers will, as the writer suggests, send in some favourite recipes to ‘Te Ao Hou’. We should like to be able to publish more recipes in the next issue.

Mr Te Rangiataahua Kiniwe Royal, M.C., has been awarded the O.B.E. in this year's New Year Honours.

Mr Rangi Royal was appointed the first Controller of Maori Welfare in 1946, and in this capacity he was the man originally responsible for the implementing of the important Maori Social and Economic Advancement Act of 1945. In laying the foundation of the Maori Welfare Division of the Maori Affairs Department he showed a remarkable talent for organisation and administration, while his strength and honesty of purpose and the genial warmth of his friendship won him widespread respect and affection.

Mr Royal retired from the Public Service in 1956. He and his wife now live at Rotorua.

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Of all the speeches and public utterances occasioned by the centenary of the war fought 100 years ago in the Waikato, the most memorable one came from King Koroki.

‘Let us,’ he said, ‘go forward into the new century as two peoples with one thought, joining hands as a token that we will allow bygones be bygones’.

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Mr James Clendon Tau Henare, d.s.o., of Motatau, North Auckland, has been appointed by the Governor-General to be a member of the Board of Maori Affairs.

The board is a statutory body responsible for promoting Maori land development and settlement, granting loans for Maori housing and generally advancing Maori welfare measures.

In announcing this, Mr Hanan, Minister of Maori Affairs, said that Mr Henare's wide experience in all aspects of Maori life and his undoubted mana would enable him to make a valuable contribution to the Board.

During the latter part of the Second World War Mr Henare was commander of the Maori Battalion. After the war he was for several years a district Maori welfare officer in Auckland and North Auckland districts. He is now farming at Motatau.

Mr Henare's appointment to the board fills a vacancy caused by the resignation through ill health of Mr Mason Durie, O.B.E., of Feilding. Mr Hanan said that the Board was deeply appreciative of Mr Durie's ten years of service on it.

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A commission to help Te Aute and Hukarere Colleges solve their financial problems has been appointed by the Diocese of Waiapu.

The commission was given a threefold task by the synod. It is to consider the need, under present-day conditions, for the two Colleges; to see what steps can be taken to assist the Te Aute Trust Board—which runs both colleges—in its present financial difficulties; and to assess what financial responsibility it feels should be assumed by the Government, the province and the diocese.

The members of the commission are Messrs G. Warren, V. J. Langley and R. Bell (from the trust board) and Messrs L. J. Webb, H. M. de Lautour and Mr M. J. Q. Poole.