Food+&+Cooking

=Questions:= 1)What type of food do they have? Why?

2)What food do they have for celebration? Why?

3)Explain what/why ingredients are needed for cooking?

4)Do they still eat traditional food now? Why?

5)Tell what they eat for each meal.

6)Is the food related to their life style? How?

=Food & Cooking= Maori is the type of indigenous people from New Zealand. They were hunters, gatherers and crop farmers, who gathered food from the forest, stream, sea and garden. They usually eat birds and fish together with gathered wild herbs and roots. Gardens grew root crops including potato and kumara. New Zealanders today continue to enjoy traditional Maori cuisine and delicacies. On special occasions feasting includes traditional foods and cooking methods such as hangi, or tao cooking. The favorite place to cook was Whakarewarewa.

Māori still follow the traditional Polynesian practice of cooking for large numbers in a hāngi which is a special way to cook. This earth oven or pit uses hot stones to create steam to cook wrapped food which has pork, chicken, seafood, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. It is cooked in an umu or underground ovens in moist green vegetable leaves and covering them with wet towels and dirt. It takes a long time to cook in an umu, sometimes a day!

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Kai means food in Maori. Food was important part of festivals such as Matariki which is the New Year for Maori. Matariki is the time when people would gather to share entertainment, hospitality and knowledge at feasts. For some Maori, the first new moon after the rise of Matariki signalled the start of the New Year celebrations. The Moon is central to activities of harvesting food on the land and at sea.

Tunas were a favourite food of the Māori along with the many fish species found around their coastline. Kai moana (food from the sea) was important in the traditional diet, and remains so today. Many species of fish were caught on lines or in nets, and shellfish such as mussels, pāua, pūpū and pipi were gathered from the shore. Kai moana rather than meat was the main source of animal protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. Seafood was also used in social occasions as it demonstrated hospitality (manaakitanga) and generosity at hui or tangi. There is a highly organized set of customs (tikanga) to manage the way seafood is gathered and handled. Other seafood eaten includes eel and whitebait taken from inland or estuarine waters. Another source of protein was birds snared in the native forests.

Another popular food was titi, or mutton bird, which was preserved in a process known as poha titi. Poha is the vessel used to preserve the muttonbirds. The harvest of Tītī from islands surrounding Rakiura (Stewart Island) is of great economic, social and cultural importance to Ngāi Tahu. Some families still continue to use the age old traditional method of preserving Tītī using the pōhā. The interior partitions of broad sheets of bull kelp are separated by hand and then inflated to make large containers in which the Tītī were placed. When the hot fat retained from cooking the birds is poured in and allowed to set, the flesh of the birds inside the pōhā is preserved for a very long time. The pōhā are protected with a covering of bark from the tōtara tree. A small woven kete is used to support the bottom of the pōhā.

These are some ingredients the Maori people used to cook:

The fern shoot can be found growing in damp shady areas of New Zealand’s native bush. There are 312 different varieties, most are carcinogenic, and only seven types are edible. They are pale green with brown speckles and are picked before the leaves unfold. Kawakawa is a tree and is mostly found in coastal areas of New Zealand in damp bush. It grows up to seven metres high and has heart shaped leaves. It is the leaves that are used in cooking, they are dried, ground and then used to season. Horopito is often referred to as the New Zealand pepper tree. There are three different varieties of horopito in New Zealand. The tree's leaves are green with red speckles. Koura are fresh water crayfish which are approximately the size a prawn. Korengo is seaweed which is either used in its raw state or dried and used to season various dishes. Grows on the edge of fresh water rivers and creeks around New Zealand and can be eaten raw or cooked. It has a slight mustard taste. Cold pressed flaxseed oil is completely unrefined, nothing is added or removed. Flaxseed oil is a vegetarian source of Omega 3 and six essential fatty acids, Omega 9 antioxidants and vitamins. Manuka was named by Captain Cook and English Botanist Mr Banks as the tea tree when they were on an expedition at the mouth of the Purangi River at Mercury Bay in 1769. Manuka wood chips can be used to add flavour when smoking food.
 * Piko Piko fern tips**
 * Kawakawa**
 * Horopito**
 * Koura**
 * Korengo**
 * Puha (Watercress)**
 * Flaxseed oil**
 * Manuka**

Here is a traditional Maori recipe you can try to make. We are also going to make it for our project.



Ingredients for Maori fried bread

 * 3 1/2 cups of self raising flour
 * Half teaspoon of salt
 * good quality oil for frying

Directions: 1) In a large bowl measure the flour, then add then gradually add enough cold water to make a soft dough,mix through with a wooden spoon but try not to over mix, as this can make them stiff and flat. 2)Turn dough out onto a light floured surface and push or roll dough out 1 1/2 cm thickness. 3) Cut into the desired size, then place each piece into preheated hot oil and fry until golden on both size and twice the size.

= = = = = = = = =Annotated Bibliography= Tourism of New Zealand. "Maori Traditional Food." __100%pure New Zealand__. 1999. Thursday 3rd December 2008 . This site has good information such as why they eat those type of food and how they get it.

BrighamYoung University. "New Zealand Food." __Culture Grams__. 2008. Culture Grams. Wednesday November 26th October 2008 . This site has good information. It talks about New Zealand but at least one of the paragraphs talking about the food of the Maori people.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/12518/maori-fried-bread.html Maori Fried Bread Recipe, Thursday 27th November 2008 This site has good information except some of the words are not spelled properly. There is the photo of food and a good recipe.

New Zealand Tourism. "Maori Food." __100% pure New Zealand__. 1999. 