Deep roots: A celebration of Kai

Horopito roast lamb with orange & mint sauce. Photo / Christall Lowe

Christall Lowe (Ngāti Kauwhata, Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto) has recently won the Judith Binney Prize for Best First Book Illustrated Non-Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for Kai: Food Stories and Recipes from my Family Table. So much more than a cookbook, the book celebrates kai, whakapapa, mauri (life force) and whānau. Here’s a taster of this award-winning visual feast.

Creamy parsnip & leek soup. Photo / Christall Lowe

Creamy parsnip & leek soup

Serves 4

Move over pumpkin soup, sweet parsnip is in the house. I have fond memories of mashed parsnip and carrot with lots of butter — often made with love by my nana. The sweet, nutty flavour of parsnip has a soul-warming connotation for me and having it as a sweet and creamy soup is like a hug in a bowl.

2 Tbsp butter

2 leeks (white part only), halved lengthways, cut into 2cm thick slices

5 medium parsnips (approx. 500g), peeled and thinly sliced

4 cups vegetable broth, or chicken broth

1 cup cream

Salt and pepper, to season

Extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle

Small handful of parsley, chopped

1 cup croutons

Melt butter in a large heavy-based saucepan or stockpot over medium heat.

Add leeks and parsnips and sauté, stirring often, until softened but not browned — about 10 minutes.

Pour in the broth, increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low–medium heat and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the bottom, until vegetables are very soft — about 20-25 minutes.

Let the soup cool slightly, then, working in batches, pureee soup in a blender with the vent in the lid open. Return the soup to the saucepan and stir in the cream. Warm over low heat. If the soup is too thick for your liking, add a little water or milk until you reach the desired consistency.

Season well with salt and pepper, and ladle into soup bowls. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, cracked black pepper, and a sprinkling of parsley and croutons.

Cook’s note: While the recipe does state to only use the white parts of the leeks, you can use one whole leek instead (including the green parts). This will just give the soup a slightly stronger leek flavour and will obviously make the soup appear greener. It’s still very delicious!

Horopito roast lamb with orange and mint sauce. Photo / Christall Lowe

Horopito roast lamb with orange and mint sauce

Serves 8

To me, a roast lamb is the epitome of a family roast dinner. Sunday dinners at my parents’ and grandparents’ meant the aroma of a roast lamb or hogget, which always came with rich gravy made from the pan drippings. There was nothing quite like the succulent, tasty roast vegetables that were cooked in with the lamb, either. Here I’ve created a very simple orange and mint sauce to accompany the lamb, and the flavour is out of this world.

2kg leg of lamb

1 bulb garlic, plus 4 cloves

1 tsp dried horopito, or 4 sprigs fresh rosemary

Zest of 1 orange

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cracked black pepper

Vegetables of your choice, to roast with the lamb

Orange and mint sauce

1⁄2 cup orange marmalade

2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1⁄2 tsp cracked black pepper

Water to thin, if necessary

Remove the lamb from the fridge one hour before cooking, to allow it to come up to room temperature. Heat the oven to 180C.

Slice the whole bulb of garlic in half, crossways, and peel the other 4 cloves. Roughly chop half of the rosemary leaves, if using.

Crush the peeled garlic, and place in a bowl with the dried horopito or chopped rosemary, orange zest and olive oil, then mix together. Season the lamb with sea salt and pepper, then rub the marinade all over the meat.

Place lamb in a large roasting pan along with the halved garlic bulbs. Add the remaining rosemary sprigs, and drizzle over a good glug of olive oil.

Cook the lamb for 1 hour 20 minutes if you like it rarer and pink, or 2 hours if you prefer it more well done. When the lamb is cooked to your liking, remove it from the oven and leave to rest for around 15 minutes before carving. While the lamb is cooking you can make the orange and mint sauce. Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl until well combined. Serve the lamb with roast vegetables, orange and mint sauce, and some seasonal greens.

Honey-roasted yams with feta whip. Photo / Christall Lowe

Honey-roasted yams with feta whip

Serves 4 as a side

Yams were a staple in our whānau growing up. These weird-looking morsels with crevices that we’d have to scrub the dirt out of have a flavour that I still can’t quite put my finger on. My grandad would grow them year after year, and we would always roast them, the delicious flesh bursting out of the skin when you bit into one. Here I’ve added another dimension to the flavour profile by roasting them in honey and balsamic vinegar. The sweet with the sour is a beautiful thing, and with the feta whip it is absolutely moreish. You can also cook other sweet root vegetables such as kūmara, carrot and parsnip in the same way.

500g yams

2 Tbsp oil

2 Tbsp runny honey (or pure maple syrup)

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Extra 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar and 1 Tbsp honey or pure maple syrup, for drizzle

Handful of chopped parsley, to garnish

For the feta whip

200g feta cheese, crumbled

250g cream cheese, softened, or greek yoghurt

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp lemon zest

Heat the oven to 200C. Place yams in a bowl with oil, honey and balsamic vinegar. Toss to coat the yams and spread into a large roasting dish or baking tray with sides in a single layer.

Roast for 30–40 minutes until golden brown all over, turning twice during cooking. Remove from the roasting dish and spoon any leftover marinade into a small bowl.

While the yams are cooking, make the feta whip. Put feta cheese, cream cheese, lemon juice and zest into a medium bowl. Blend together with an electric beater until smooth and creamy. Alternatively, place the ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Mix the extra tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and honey with the marinade reserved from the roasting dish, to create a drizzle.

Serve the yams either with, or over, the feta whip, drizzled with the marinade and sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Kūmara cake with orange toffee sauce. Photo / Christall Lowe

Kūmara cake with orange toffee sauce

Serves 12

Here I have combined kūmara with oranges to make a moist, luscious cake, served with toffee sauce and icecream. I use orange kūmara in this recipe for their softness and sweetness. As a one-bowl, easy-mix cake, you’ll be whipping this up often.

1 cup plain flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp mixed spice

1⁄2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1⁄2 cup white sugar

2 cups peeled, grated orange kūmara (approx. 2 medium)

4 eggs

1 cup canola or rice bran oil

2 medium oranges (seedless), peeled and blended to a pureee (leave the skin on 1⁄2 an orange for a more zesty flavour)

For the orange toffee sauce

1 cup caster sugar

1⁄3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1⁄3 cup cream

Heat oven to 160C. Grease and line a medium rectangular cake tin (approx. 23 x 33cm).

Combine dry ingredients, including kūmara, in a large bowl, aerating with your hands.

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix with an electric beater on low for 1 minute.

Pour batter into prepared cake tin, and bake for 45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.

While the cake cooks, make the orange toffee sauce. Place sugar and orange juice in a medium saucepan and stir to combine. Cook mixture over a medium heat, without stirring, swirling the pan every now and then, until a light caramel colour, about 8 minutes.

Remove from heat and carefully add cream (take care here as the mixture will bubble vigorously), then return to low heat and stir until smooth.

When the cake is cooked, leave to rest in the tin for 10 minutes before slicing and serving warm, smothered in orange toffee sauce and topped with a scoop of vanilla icecream.

Edited extract from Kai: Food stories and recipes from my family table, by Christall Lowe, photography by Christall Lowe, published by Bateman Books, RRP $59.99