While Nelson clears up after the pre-Christmas floods, let’s not forget what a treasure trove of first-rate food and wine the region produces.
Photo Elizabeth Clarkson/styling Kate Arbuthnot
It’s holiday time and we’re away from home and work, enjoying the beauty of New Zealand’s beaches, mountains and lakes. We’re blessed to have so many special places where natural splendour is matched by stunning local food and wine. None more so than the Nelson region, which has it all, as I discovered while there for a food writers’ conference in November – before the devastating pre-Christmas floods.
My early Saturday stroll around the famous Nelson market reinforced this. The market is an eclectic mix of farm produce, artisan foods, arts and crafts and even folksy entertainment. It fills one of the city’s car-parking squares and has been run by the energetic Nita Knight for more than 30 years, pre-dating any of New Zealand’s farmers’ markets. Stallholders come from the hills and valleys and the coast that stretches from the city’s port to Golden Bay.
I came home with bags bursting with goodies: asparagus, beetroot, apples, Neudorf sheep cheeses, Doris’s German sausages, olive oils, preserves, smoked fish, flowers and crusty bread. I am longing for another helping of Nana’s Maori bread, which at $2 was the best money I have spent in ages. It’s light, puffy, shallow-fried bread, split open and filled with butter and golden syrup and made from a secret recipe local chef Cheryl Gillooly was given by her nana just before she died recently.
The restaurant scene reflects the region’s great food and wines. I would happily return to eat the meals I enjoyed over the weekend. At Bouterey’s in Richmond we ate Matt Bouterey’s fine fare, thoughtfully styled and as sophisticated as you’d find in our bigger cities. Kevin Hopgood presides over his eponymous restaurant, Hopgood’s, in Nelson’s main street and offers fresh light fare using the best of the region from producers and artisans, well matched to local wines. We stole away to Sachi, a gem of a Japanese restaurant tucked down a side street, where the agedashi tofu with aubergine was so good we ordered three plates of it. And at Mint Dining Room, Grant Dicker is a master chef with local beef and lamb.
Possibly the best meal I have eaten this year was our lunchtime feast at the Boat Shed on Wakefield Quay. The restaurant does something few places in New Zealand can. Sitting out on stilts over the water, it offers an attractive environment that is appropriate to serving the best fresh fish. Two others spring to mind: Martin Bosley’s on the Wellington Harbour and the Mangonui fish and chip shop in the Far North.
Talented chef Daniel Monopoli has turned around the former fluctuating fortunes of the Boat Shed with his startlingly good food. It has become almost a cliché to talk about fresh seasonal produce direct from the farm gate to the plate. But how else would you describe sourcing the best and freshest food you can find to shape a daily changing menu? That’s a far cry from the many places that offer the same menu day in day out.
We feasted on shared plates that included fried West Coast whitebait, zucchini bruschetta with goat cheese and mint, a prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella salad, freshly picked Westhaven cockles from Golden Bay that were delivered an hour or two before our meal, and a kingfish salad. Monopoli told me his simple food puzzles some customers, who believe restaurant food should resemble the Eiffel Tower on a plate. Mistaken thinking. I have recreated two of his recipes, both perfect for holiday eating.
STEAMED WESTHAVEN COCKLES WITH GARLIC, WHITE WINE AND PARSLEY BUTTER
- 1.5kg fresh cockles
- 2 cups white wine
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped and peeled
- ½ cup celery leaves, chopped
- 50g butter
- handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
If the cockles are straight from the sea, place in a bucket of salt water for a few hours to purge them. Wash them well and place in a large pan with the wine, garlic and celery leaves. Put over a high heat and let them steam open as the wine comes to the boil. As soon as all the cockles open, remove from the heat and leave to cool a little. Tip out most of the liquid, leaving about 4 tablespoons in the pan with the cockles. Add the butter and parsley, then reheat the pan, shaking constantly. When hot, serve immediately, spooning the buttery juices over the cockles. Accompany with crusty sourdough bread. Serves 4. Wine match: Nelson sauvignon blanc.
Dan Monopoli used kingfish for our lunch, but my husband failed in his mission to catch one. Dan approved my use of tuna and suggests sea-run salmon if kingfish or tuna are hard to find.
SEARED TUNA WITH RAISINS, PINE NUT AND FETA SALAD
- 400g piece of tuna (or kingfish or salmon)
- 2 tsp toasted chilli flakes
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- salad
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 2 tbsp raisins
- 1 peppermint tea bag
- 1 handful small parsley, mint and coriander leaves
- ½ red onion, thinly sliced
- 50g feta, chopped or crumbled into little pieces
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- baby cress or herb flowers
Season the fish by rubbing the outside with chilli flakes, sea salt and pepper. Heat the grill plate or barbecue grill until white hot, then seal the fish on all sides. This must be done quickly so the fish takes on a smoky flavour but does not cook. Cool on a wire rack. To prepare the salad, toast the pine nuts for 8-10 minutes in a hot oven until just beginning to turn golden. Put the raisins in a small container with the peppermint tea bag and cover with 4 tablespoons of boiling water and leave to soak. When cool, discard the tea bag. Toss the parsley, mint and coriander together with the pine nuts, raisins, red onion, feta and lemon zest. To serve, use a sharp knife to slice the fish as thinly as you can. Place overlapping slices on a large platter with the salad in the centre. Drizzle the oil over the salad and around the fish. Decorate with baby cress or tiny herb flowers. Serves 4. Wine match: Nelson riesling.