Dames Lynda and Jools, aka The Topp Twins, with Chris and Dean Savage at Dive Tatapouri. Pictures supplied
Take two comic cups of twins; whisk together with generous handfuls of everyday Kiwis; throw in a dash of everyone’s favourite family recipes; drizzle with comedy; sprinkle in splendid scenery; and serve with lashings of love. And what do you get? Topp Country . . .
It’s time to grab your apron strings and lasoo your neighbour’s free-range pig! The Topp Twins are back with a gorgeous book of mouth-watering recipes to see you right the whole year round.
Join Dames Lynda and Jools as they go on a trip around New Zealand meeting passionate food producers, home cooks and lovers of life in Topp Country: A Culinary Journey Through New Zealand with The Topp Twins.
Based on the first two series of the Topp Twins’ award-winning TV Series that screened on TV1, the Topps bring us tales from the countryside through the universal pleasure of food and love, as they meet 60 ethical farmers and growers.
Their deep love for the land and its people is interwoven with inspiring stories, poems and around 75 recipes, including closely-guarded family secrets.
There are recipes meaty and veg and from sweet to savoury, for breakfast, lunch, dinner and pud. Nana’s Bacon Balls, Linda’s Oat-Crusted Roast and Grandma Hora’s Apple Shortcake, too.
You get to meet the people, all heartlanders, who made the recipes and hear the stories behind them, too. Food made with love and all in full colour.
The Twins’ diverse appeal is reflected in the people they meet: from free-range pig farmers in the deep rural south to urban taco-trucking hipsters. As they travel around New Zealand they discover a land full of top tucker and great yarns.
The Twins’ comedy characters, Camp Mother and Camp Leader, present Saucy Tips, while the Bowling Ladies share recipes and tips for their retro but everpopular Tasty Treats. Rural blokes, the Kens, have penned poems celebrating the country lifestyle and what it means to be a Kiwi, in love with our land and its bounty.
A tropical storm was blowing when we visited Dive Tatapouri just north of Gisborne but that never stops Chris and Dean
Savage from playing in the paradise they have created here. Situated right on the beach at Tatapouri, they offer unforgettable reef tours amongst wild stingrays.
Dean is a qualified diver and skipper with more than 40 years’ commercial diving experience and has also been an underwater cameraman for New Zealand’s Tangaroa with Pio TV show and has filmed in exotic locations all over New Zealand, the Pacific and Chile.
Chris is a born and bred Gisborne girl and we must say Gisborne hospitality is amongst the best we have ever experienced. Freshly-caught crayfish on the fire, with avocado lime oil and a fresh salad, all washed down with a cold beer and local white wine — no wonder this place is one of NZ’s most popular tourist attractions.
— Extract courtesy of Topp Country, A Culinary Journey Through New Zealand with The Topp Twins.
Chris’s crayfish with avocado lime oilThe Topp Twins say Gisborne hospitality is amongst the best they have ever experienced. They visited Gisborne on their trip around New Zealand, researching material for their cookbook, Topp Country, A Culinary Journey, and met Chris and Dean Savage at Dive Tatapouri. They rather fancied Chris’s crayfish recipe with avocado lime oil, so here is the recipe.
Ingredients
2 crayfish
¼ cup avocado oil infused with lime (Grove Gourmet from the supermarket)
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Method
Bring a large pot of sea water to the boil. When boiling add crayfish and cook for 8 minutes. Remove crayfish from pot and leave to cool for 5 minutes or so.Cut crayfish down the middle from head to tail. Lay them on a platter. Drizzle with avocado lime oil and season with salt and pepper.HOW TO HUMANELY AND CORRECTLY KILL AND COOK CRAYFISH
The only humane way to kill a crayfish is to chill it at between 2°C and 4°C until it is “insensible” and safely immobile. It can then be killed with a sharp instrument either by head spiking (between the eyes) or chest spiking (through the chest wall from the underside).
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 8 mins