The owners of Maha restaurant in Kerikeri, Diane Langman and chef Ming Poon, enjoy cooking and eating steamboat soup during the winter. Photo / Jenny Ling
Winter is well and truly upon us and the need to keep well fed and nourished is imperative. Reporter Jenny Ling grills two top Northland chefs for tips on practical and economical meals.
There's nothing chef Ming Poon likes better than spending time with family and friends around a traditional Chinese steamboat.
It's what he and partner Diane Langman eat at home, when they're not busy working at their restaurant, Māha, in the Wharepuke Subtropical Garden in Kerikeri.
Originally from Hong Kong, Poon picked up his first kitchen knife at the age of 16 and never looked back.
He has worked in a range of eateries including small trendy restaurants in Sydney, along with several in Wellington such as Chow and the former Dojo and Ancestral.
Poon and Langman were the owner-operator of Orange Dining Room, also in the capital, from 1997 to 2000, before heading back to Hong Kong for a stint and eventually moving north and opening Māha at the end of 2018.
Poon said the steamboats are the Asian version of traditional boil-ups, which are great for using whatever is in the fridge.
"In a nutshell, it's not much different to the Māori style, but we don't use onion, and we do use more ginger and aromatic spices like satay paste, Sichuan pepper and star anise."
And here's the fun part; after the stock has been simmered on the stovetop for several hours, you can cook the rest on a portable gas cooker on the table for a truly social experience.
"Think fondue, but without the cheese.
"Every winter we do this, it's really simple and the more you cook the more flavour comes up from the soup.
"It's so comforting, and it's a lovely family thing because you're all together around the table."
But first the stock, which is key.
Poon suggests using any stock - cubes are okay, but meat with bones is best - and a range of vegetables.
Once it's done the time on the stove, transfer the stock to the cooker on the dining table and call the family around.
From here diners can add anything that's available to dip into the simmering stock, from beef, chicken, fish or tofu, along with fresh or pickled vegetables.
Make sure you've got small dishes on hand and fill them with chilli sauce, fresh coriander, pickled vegetables, mung bean sprouts or kimchi.
If the soup over-reduces, add hot water as the soup boils.
The next day you can reheat the stock and eat it all over again, adding noodles, rice, bread or dumplings to keep it interesting.
"What we do back home is, with the leftovers, we would eat for the next two to three days, and quite often add noodles or make congee [by adding rice to the broth for an Asian-style risotto].
"In the Western world, once you make a dish you just eat it.
"From an Asian point of view, we make beef soup today, the next day we have some chicken and carrots in the fridge, we chop that up and add it to the original stock and boil them together again. Now you have a new stew or meal.
"By the third day we're getting bored so we put different things in it and eat it again."
Using cheap cuts of meat is great for a steamboat – Poon suggests brisket or pork belly.
Meat on the bone adds layers of flavour and nourishment, and is also cheaper to buy.
"If you buy half a leg of pork on special, you're talking about under $10 a kg and it would last a family of two to three people a whole week.
"It will also have a bit of fat, which is good for the soup. After you've got the broth, season with soy sauce and different aromatics and spices.
"From then on the best part is the soup."
Tofu is another ingredient that is underutilised and "misunderstood" in the West, Poon said.
"It's got a perceived lack of flavour and strange texture.
"But to me, tofu is really flavourful, it takes on the flavour from whatever you're cooking with it."
While firm tofu is great in stir-fries, soft tofu is perfect in soup, or steamed or braised.
"There are thousands of ways to use tofu, it's quite a nutritional and versatile food, whatever you do with it, it sucks up the sauce."
Poon said it's important to have fun while cooking, and don't be afraid to experiment.
"These days when someone's cooking, they think they need to put something onto Instagram or Facebook.
"Forget about all that. Go to the supermarket with your budget and buy things you don't know and have fun with it.
"Cooking is all about experience."
The Gables head chef Michael Oliver is a big fan of the slow cooker over the cooler months.
Oliver has worked at the Russell restaurant coming up three years, following a stint in Scotland at the award-winning East Haugh House in Pitlochry, about an hour north of Edinburgh.
Originally from Australia's Sunshine Coast, Oliver's present style of cooking emphasises fresh, local and seasonal produce, which gives it an unmistakable Northland touch.
He and his partner cook with cheap cuts of meat and seasonal, local produce to create tasty and economical meals at home.
"We get cheaper cuts of beef like ossobuco and sear it off and put it in the slow cooker with red wine, tomatoes and herbs.
"Once we come home from work it's ready, have either pasta with it or tacos."
Though you have to do a little forward thinking and have the ingredients on hand the day before, coming home to a hot, cooked meal is well worth it.
Apart from ossobuco, there are lots of cheap cuts that work well and are good value, including beef cheeks and gravy beef.
"Cut it into cubes, sear it off, bang it in the slow cooker or a pot and whack it on low, add red wine, celery, carrot, onion, and tomatoes and cook it on low for two-to-three hours.
"We work throughout the winter, but the slow cooker is the best thing because you can put it on and forget about it and at dinner time it's ready."
Oliver said soups can also be made in the slow cooker.
"We'll chop up some pumpkin and garlic and leave it all day, and when we get home blend it up and add sour cream.
"When you get home it's all done, all you've got to do is whiz it up and season it and it's good to go.
"You can use any seasonal vegetable which is cheap; cauliflower or broccoli and blue cheese, mushrooms - whatever you can find which is cheap.
"Try not to mix too many flavours, though, keeping it simple is better."
Apart from those made with dairy or pasta, most soups will freeze well, and you can pull them out when you need them.
Oliver has also just bought a Big Green Egg barbecue, which he's using for smoking meat on days off.
The charcoal barbecue is great for super-tasty pork ribs, chicken wings, prawns, or even vegetables.
Smoking some ribs for a couple of hours, then wrapping them up with butter and sauce and finish them off on the barbecue again creates loads of flavour.
Oliver's general cooking advice is: "Follow a recipe but follow your nose, you don't have to follow it to a tee.
"For dinner for the family, you can substitute expensive cuts for cheaper cuts if you do a little bit of research."
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