Hunting and Gathering 2009

Dale and I are not good foragers,
but luckily we have friends who have supplied us
with seafood, over this wonderful summer, that we have been experiencing here in the Antipodes.
While in Whangaroa, our friends were very busy.
Lana went cockling with the crew of Margaritaville

She turned them into fritters.
Katie, our daughter, as mentioned in a previous post, caught a snapper off Cajun Moon.
It seems that a wee drink seemed to help.

She and Chris went off in the dinghy, complete with drink for another fishing trip, and caught another snapper.
Lana turned all of this into a great Poisson Cru

The mango was a wonderful touch.

300 gms fresh snapper sliced finely not chopped
Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
1 chilli finely chopped
1 mango peeled and chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 dessertspoons coconut milk
Lots of coriander chopped

Leave chilling for about 1 hour to meld flavours.


A simple Watermelon Salad was good with that.
Cut watermelon into 2 cms chunks
Slice about 6 mint leaves
Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Toss with French dressing

The forager, Lana dressed, to match the salad
Our next feast was supplied by the Crew of Silverado.
Stunning…3 huge crays and bucket full of scallops.
Lana was on pre dinner cocktails
Laurian cooked the scallops in Pernod
And the crays were broken up and served with mayonnaise
It was fabulous…you know there was so much we couldn’t even finish the crayfish.
How about that for leftovers?

So we moved away from Whangaroa for a few days to stay with the family at Omaha Beach.
More food from the sea. Just one nights catch.

Chef Neil was on hand to filet.

Did you know that John Dory had this huge mouth? Goodness...you learn something everyday. They use it to hoover up food, I believe.

The fisher persons holding up their fileted catch

Neil cooked it on the BBQ in Chilli Butter
Yum.

So after a wonderful few days with the family we went back to the boat.
Garry and Sandra (from Margaritaville) accompanied by their friend Robyn, invited us over to share pipi fritters.
Garry is a dab hand at these.
They were yummy.

Saw these little fish mulling around the boat…didn’t bother catching them.

So when our Hunting and Foraging friends departed…In order to get fresh fish, we had to go and eat at The Whangaroa Big Gamefish Club.
Sally does the best Fish and Chips at the café there. In fact I could do with a feed of them now. My mouth is watering.

Bluenose the fish… absolutely divine, wrapped in paper just like they should be.