A Culinary Adventure in Nelson/Tasman with Next Gen Chef Joelle

We’re nearing the end of the first stage of the Ora King Next Gen Mentoring Programme; Harrison from SkyCity Auckland is the final Next Gen chef to complete a week in the kitchen with a  regional mentor. He is currently at Trinity Wharf, Tauranga with Chef Simon Green.  Read more about the Next Gen Programme here.

Last week Kevin Hopgood hosted Next Gen Chef Joelle Snook in his restaurant kitchen, I had the pleasure of spending time with Joelle throughout her week in Nelson which culminated in us doing a small culinary tour of the region…..

Now I like to think of myself as a bit of an expert when it comes to our local produce here in Nelson. I may not have been here long and cannot yet call myself a Nelson’ local’, however, in my short time here I have, and still do, enjoy scouring the weekly farmers markets and the bigger Saturday market for new and locally produced items. And we are so lucky here in the region, from vineyards to craft beer, horticulture to cider, cheese to fish – we really are spoiled.

Like the majority of the Ora King team, I am a self confessed lover of food; having trained in the culinary art of cooking and also studied the science behind it. So for me, it’s not just about the eating and cooking – I want to know how it’s produced, where it’s grown and by whom. I want to get to know the growers and producers and love nothing more than meeting the passionate artisans, hearing their stories and sampling their unique produce.

Working at Ora King, I have been fortunate to meet and work alongside many local producers through collaborative events such as our Ora King Awards and the Nelson From Source to Serve event. So when it came to planning a culinary tour for Joelle the hardest part was narrowing down the list whilst still trying to fit in as many visits as possible…….

 

 

First stop of course, was a trip to our Ora King processing facilities. Fresh Processing Manager Daniel gave us a comprehensive tour, we saw whole Ora King arrive fresh from harvest and Joelle watched in wonder as the fish were cleaned, gilled, gutted, cleaned again and then expertly graded by our specially trained Master Graders before being packed into their shiny Ora King chill cartons with gill tags attached and ready for export.

We witnessed nimble hands pin boning fillets at record speed – both of us admitting we would be useless at that job (lucky for Joelle, Ora King fillets come with pin bones removed!).

We then progressed to our smoking facility where Plant Manager Tim took us through both the hot and cold smoked facilities. Although there is no hot smoked offering for Ora King, here at New Zealand King Salmon we do produce plenty of hot smoked products under other brands and it’s always an interesting process to see, fresh hot smoked salmon direct from the kiln is delicious and hard to beat!

Joelle was impressed by the cold smoked plant, the care and attention to detail given to every slice and she tried the Ora King Manuka Smoked product at lunch later in the day.

 

With the Ora King processing facilities under our belts we jumped in the car and headed for the Nelson hills. Second stop of the day was to the Grape Escape complex and the Wangapeka Family Dairy shop.

 

Wangapeka pride themselves on being a family business, their greatest asset being the quality of their cows milk and their artisanal small batch cheeses. We had an array of Wangapeka cheeses on our cheese plate at the 2015 Ora King Awards event held in Marlborough and I couldn’t wait for Joelle to try some of the range.

Rennae talked us through the cheeses available for tasting and highlighted the recent win for their Matariki cheese at the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards, this show stopper is jacketed in a blend of spices and the skin has a full on umami taste – unique and delicious. In fact, all their cheese is delicious – it’s hard to pick a favourite. Joelle favoured the hard and semi hard varieties of Wangapeka, Kinzett Creek and Tui and so, fuelled with our dairy hit and with  small takeaway bags in hand off we went towards our next stop.

We drove up the Moutere Highway deeper into the rolling countryside that surrounds Nelson, all the while chattering about Joelle’s experience at Hopgood’s so far and her future career plans. Joelle told me about her first day at Hopgood’s and how she joined Kevin on a yacht, sailing Tasman Bay whilst catering to a discerning crowd – not a bad first day at work!

 

We were headed for Neudorf Road, which along with the famous vineyard that produces the famously delicious Chardonnay, is also home to many other Moutere Artisans.

The Moutere Artisans is a collective of artisan producers and businesses in the local area of Moutere, it’s made up of vineyards, artists and food producers along with the local Moutere Inn (NZ’s oldest pub) and of course Peckham’s Cider.

Towards the end of Neudorf Road sits Neudorf Olives, where Susan and her husband Jonathan grow three different olive varieties which they turn into Award Winning Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oils.

Susan showed us the olive trees explaining their unique qualities and needs in addition to the maintenance involved before giving us a tour of the pressing room and her ‘lady cave’ where the oil is stored once pressed and where Susan does all the bottling.

We then tried the three varieties of oil along with marinated table olives and house made dukkah. Each oil was unique with it’s own distinctive qualities but all tasted fresh, grassy and green. Susan gave us top tips for when purchasing olive oil and we left with some purchases of course.

 

Next stop (after getting slightly lost – on a straight road may I add) was Neudorf Mushrooms.

Joelle had met the pioneering, mushroom growing Swiss couple Theres and Hannes aka ‘The Magic Mushroom People’,  at the Wednesday Farmers Market in Nelson when shopping for ingredients with Kevin.

They greeted her like an old friend and welcomed us into their barn which was filled with their product range (more than I realised),  informative displays and pictures of mushrooms both lethal and edible along with  shelves groaning with mushroom paraphernalia – everything from wooden toadstools to greetings cards and soup bowls. Theres informed us that each item in the collection was gifted by customers, along with family and friends who saw the items and were reminded of the unique mushroom growing couple.

 

Theres and Hannes grow wild mushrooms on their vast property on Neudorf Road, the mushrooms thrive in the climate and grow in a symbiotic relationship with the trees on their property – of which there are more than 1800. They plant specific types of trees which they ‘infect’ with the specific mushroom spores. The couple were the first commercial growers of saffron milk caps in New Zealand and in addition to selling fresh mushrooms (mainly to restaurants and at local farmers markets), they also produce a range of mushroom products which are available throughout the country.

We saw the mushroom dehydrator in full swing and sampled mushroom seasoning, mushroom olive oil and the most intriguing product of all, which contained no mushrooms – Douglas Fir Molasses. Joelle had incorporated this ingredient into one of her newly created Ora King dishes for Hopgood’s. It’s a delicious dark and sticky syrup which is a tradition of their Swiss homeland and a means of using up their fir tree prunings – ingenious.

Obviously I was delighted when Hannes gifted us each a jar, inspired as I was by Joelle’s Douglas Fir Molasses glazed Ora King salmon belly from Hopgood’s the night before which she had matched with saffron milk caps.

Next stop, Peckham’s Cider.

Another family business run by British couple (but now Nelson locals) Caroline and Alex. They grow traditional cider apples which they turn into complex and full bodied ciders using traditional cider making techniques.

Caroline took us through the orchard pointing out the heritage apple varieties growing and we even got to taste some juice straight from the press; sweet and fragrant it was the essence of pure apple – exquisite. We had a look at the cider making process and Joelle quickly realised she had tried the Peckham’s Kir Cider at the restaurant where she works in Timaru. Caroline gave each of us a selection of their ciders to take away and sample at our leisure. Upon leaving Joelle was trying to figure out how she was going to get all this fabulous produce back to Timaru……

Passionate Producers

What stuck both Joelle and myself most about our visits was the passion and dedication of the artisan producers. By their own admissions they’re not in it to get rich; rather, they have chosen their route because they love the lifestyle, they love Nelson and they love their unique offering – whether that be cheese, mushrooms, olives or apples.

What was also evident was the sense of community in the Moutere Hills. Susan openly admitted that there is a good dose of friendly rivalry between the local olive growers to see who has the best yield during pressing. Theres and Hannes gave us a bag of their saffron milk cap mushrooms to pass on to Caroline at Peckham’s cider on our next stop and Caroline encouraged Joelle to fill a box with surplus quince from the Peckham’s orchard to take into the Hopgood’s kitchen for Kevin and Head Chef Aaron to use.

Lunch

All this talking about food and absorbing of information had made us both hungry, so with a car boot full of cider and fresh quince we ventured off for Mahana Estates and lunch. En route, we discussed how important it is for us to know where our food comes from and how it’s produced. Joelle hadn’t had the opportunity to visit suppliers before and loved seeing how things were made and getting a deeper knowledge about these ingredients.

We enjoyed lunch out on the deck of Mahana with regional Ora King Sales Manager Terry Baxter. There was of course plenty of Ora King salmon on offer and Joelle enjoyed some relaxing time before the beginning of her busy weekend in Hopgood’s.