Growing up on the coast, fishing was a favoured past time and Tangaroa was sure to throw us a fair few Kahawai every time when ventured out.

Kahawai in Maori translates to “brave” or “strong” (kaha) and water (wai), it is a sports fish that is abundantly caught at the river mouth of New Zealand waters.

Kahawai is an easy fish to catch, but it must be bled soon after it is caught. This is essential to ensure the eating quality of the fish.

Ideally, for best use, Kahawai are either smoked or they make a great protein source for ‘fish cakes’

This recipe is a real family favourite. Serve with garlic bread, salad and mayo dressing

Savoury Fish Cakes

[Serves 4-6]

Ingredients;

2 large orange kumara (peeled, boiled & mashed)

4 fish fillets (Kahawai)

1 lemon (juice)

1tsp curry powder

1tsp mustard powder

1/2 cup parsley (chopped)

2 eggs

1 cup of bread crumbs

2 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce

Salt and pepper to season

Olive oil

Step one: Peel, boil and mash the kumara

Step two: Fillet the fish, remove the bones and slice thinly. Squeeze the juice from the lemon onto thesliced  fish and season with salt & pepper. Add the curry powder, mustard powder, chopped parsley, and eggs. Mix to combine. Finally add the bread crumbs, sweet chili sauce and mashed kumara.

Step three: Heat the oil in the pan. Shape the mixture into round shaped patties and fry on a medium heat. Once the patties are browned on either side, bake them in the oven on a medium heat for a further 10-15 minutes.

Serve with garlic bread, salad and mayo dressing

Mayo dressing: Combine ¼ cup of mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon of crushed garlic, juice from 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon of capers.

If your family’s anything like mine, you’ll know how summer meal times go, there’s always a few extra mouths to feed. Spending summer days together at Mahia, hunting & gathering, is how we east coasties like to roll. Here’s a recipe that will come in handy when feeding a crowd. Those ‘couple-of-crays’ will go all that bit further.

Ingredients
Cooked flesh of one (legal sized of-course) Crayfish
4 large eggs
2 heaped tablespoons of plain flour
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
A couply lemons (usually nicked from the neighbours over the fence)
Salt & pepper to season

Step 1 Beat flour, 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks in a bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth. Season with pepper (no salt just yet) and add the herbs and cooked crayfish.

Step 2 Beat the egg whites, separated from the 2 eggs in Step 1, until white and stiff. Fold the egg white into the batter.

Step 3 In a hot oiled pan, fry desert spoon portions of the batter. Fry for 1 minute either side. Why not add a knob of butter to the pan during frying. Remove from pan, stack the fritters on a plate and season with salt and squeezed lemon juice.

Enjoy ! #feedingthefam #themeatmaidennz