# headin' out in the cold. From the sunny north to the wild south, New Zealand is overflowing with breathtaking backdrops, heavenly harvests and a whole lot of fabulous foodies. So jump on board with us as we hang out with the locals, wrangle some wildlife and feast our way around this magnificent country. Come on, Toppy. We got people to meet and food to eat. Yee-hah! # Nga iwi e. # Copyright Able 2018 This week, we're firing on all cylinders. We meet a smoky fisherman and his fishwife on the Firth of Thames. Then down in Oamaru, we meet a gentle German family who've raised their kids on homegrown tucker, all lovingly cooked in a hot coal range. But first up, what happens when you rub two hot chefs together? BOTH: Fire. Chef Alan Brown is so crazy about his wood-fired oven, he's written New Zealand's own Kiwi guide to it. And today, with his pastry chef partner, Trish, they prove without a doubt that you can cook absolutely everything in a pizza oven. Woohoo! Hey, this is how we breakfast in Sandringham, eh? (LAUGHS) This is my Auntie Dorothy's recipe. Yeah. I asked my cousin, her eldest daughter, for the recipe, and she gave me this little piece of paper, and it had 'beat the egg whites, rain in the sugar, and beat like shit for 10 minutes'. (LAUGHTER) So that's put in the pizza oven... Yup. ...at a lower heat. So, we used it last night, and then this morning, we just got up and whipped it together for you two. This is healthy cream, by the way. This is cream with yoghurt. (LAUGHS) There's a plate of fire right in there that's going on our breakfast there. Ohh. Wow, look at that. Look at that centre. Excuse fingers. Just a small amount. Look at that, Jools. Crunchy,... gooey,... crunchy. Yeah. (CRUST CRACKS) Ooh, listen to that. Sounds good. What does it taste like? Hm. That... is probably the best pavlova I've ever had, I think. Y'know, we've had breakfast. Shall we whip something up in the fire pit for lunch? Lunch? Fire pit? (LAUGHS) I don't see why not. Yes. Yeah, here's to Aunty Dot. Here's to Aunty Dot. Here's to Aunty Dot. (GLASSES CLINK) So, the way I do it ` a couple of egg cartons, a bit of kindling. You know, this is bought kindling, cos I am in the city. How many pine cones? Oh, what do we say ` five or six? OK, what kind of wood's that you're putting on? This is tea tree ` manuka. Yup. Like that. And then all we do is we just push her in. Yup. And we're getting our weedeater,... Yup. ...and we start her up. OK, what do you mean you get your weedeater? So this, actually... There you go, there's a little weed down there, look. Oh, so it's one of those weed burners? Weed burners. Yee-hoo! We're cooking with fire. OK, I'm goin' in. Boom, she's straight into it. He's away, there. That's it. And those egg cartons just take all that... Little bit of air in, cos they're lifted. Yup They get a bit of air under them. Woohoo! And that's it. How long's that gonna take? That's gonna sit there for 20 to 30 minutes. OK. And then we're gonna keep firing it, and we're gonna move it. Wow, it feels like we're in the country here, doesn't it? Here, let me get that out of your way, Trish ` bit of pruning there for ya, that'll be helpful. There you go. Excellent. That path looks way better now. Damn, there's half my crop of lemons gone. (LAUGHS) What are we making with these babies? Tarte Tatin ` little French speciality. Nice. But I have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, well, you'll find out later. (LAUGHS) It's really good. OK, we're cooking with fire. This is sort of like a man's version of cooking marshmallows. Here is your... skewer. And that's the bay leaf branch you got there? That's the bay leaf branch. I just hacked off the bay leaf, and I'll get you to whittle it a wee bit. Yup. This is a cool idea, isn't it, the old bay leaf. Yeah, yeah. A little olive oil,... sea salt, and then I've got some of this chipotle salt ` very hot and spicy but not too spicy. So I'm just gonna make some incisions here. Yeah. OK, so there we go ` through the first hole. It's sort of like knit one, purl one. Purl one. (LAUGHS) Knit one, purl one. Knit one, purl one. If it's OK with you, I'll just peel the apples, cos that looks really... difficult, what you're doing. The trick with it is to try and minimise how much you touch it. OK. In here, I've already put the dry ingredients, so that's a bit of flour, caster sugar, and salt. So give that a bit of a whisk ` make sure it's all mixed in. Look at that. That's the longest peel in history. Oh my God. (LAUGHS) What do you reckon? That is a brilliant idea, to grate. It's minimising the time that the butter's spent in your hands ` breaking it up, so then when I come to rub it in, the butter's not already warm. You're trying to keep it as cool as possible, which is going to give you a lovely light pastry. Who does most of the cooking in the family? Everybody naturally assumes he does, cos he's a Michelin star. He's a Michelin star? A Michelin star! But in actual fact, (WHISPERS) I probably do more of it. All right, so we're putting the eggs in, and we actually use the knife to cut the eggs. So you just bring it together as quickly as possible, and we're going to put it in the fridge. We need to move the fire... OK. ...to one side. You've put a little rack in there for us. That's just so we're not holding this thing and burning our fingers. And ready, go. So you've got 30 seconds to tell me ` what clinched it? What was the moment where you thought, 'This is the girl for me?' Seriously? Mm. The eyes. The eyes. The eyes. Hm. Y'know, just` the eyes. I don't mind looking at those eyes all day. (LAUGHS) How beautiful. Well, we'd better check our eye fillet. That's done. Yeah. Yeah, look at that. Medium-rare? Colour ` medium-rare? Smoky, beautiful, bay leaf ` good old wood-fired tucker. (LAUGHS) We're just going to sprinkle the sugar on. That's done. So now we've got to wait for the sugar to start caramelising, and we can put the butter in. And now we're just gonna rock and roll around that a bit. Look at that colour. Incredible. It doesn't traditionally have soft brown sugar in it, but to me, it just adds a little bit of flavour. That's a bit of Kiwiana going into the French cooking right there. That's a bit of Kiwiana. So now we can start loading the apples in. OK. Good bit of alcohol in there. We want fire. Woohoo! Well, Alan, he's a bit of a butter and sugar man, isn't he? So actually, this is one of his favourites, so... (LAUGHS) What's the best thing about him? He's just such a generous, gentle soul, so... You'd better keep him. Sounds like a keeper. Absolutely. Yeah, he's a keeper. He's a keeper. Are we finished here, or have we gotta do a bit more? We're going to roll our pastry into a nice circle, put it on top, make a couple of little holes on top for the steam to come out, and it's going in the pizza oven. 10 minutes ` done. (LAID`BACK MUSIC) Everything here has come out of that wood-fired oven. And there's not a pizza in sight! Not a pizza in sight. (LAUGHS) A toast ` to the great Al's inferno. Yeah. Woohoo! OK, Jools. Right. Off you go. Now that is priceless, right there. Look, there it is ` steak on a skewer. Is there anything I should have on it? A little bit of horseradish cream there. OK, I'm just gonna just slather that in horseradish. Everything that came out of that oven is incredible. Mmm. It's absolutely amazing. I'm going straight to the dessert. You've got our cream and yoghurt mixture again. OK, here we go. And it looks gorgeous. And it is. Unbelievable. Yeah. Is it good? I wanna raise my glass to you wonderful chefs. It's a Michelin-star dinner we're having, and it came out of a smoky old pizza fire that you made with your own hands, buddy. I did. So here's to you and your new book. May it be successful. Every Kiwi has a go at cooking something in their pizza oven. (DAINTY VIOLIN MUSIC) This week, we're raising money for the Remuera Rolls-Royce club. And finger food for the passengers. Barbecued prawns with a fiery chilli-mango salsa. I call it 'pimp my shrimp'. (LAUGHS) And you can start your engines with a wonderful drink called a blue lagoon. I can feel the money rolling in as we speak. (DRINK BUBBLES) (PEACEFUL MUSIC) Piako Pete has fishing in his blood. His wife, Gail? Well, she hasn't. But that doesn't mean she's not the most awesome fisherwoman on the Firth of Thames. 11 years ago, they turned Pete's love of fishing into a business, and Piako Pete's was born. Flounder is their speciality, and their fresh-smoked fish is the most delicious in all the land. Hot-smoked over manuka, you've got to taste it to believe it! You need to try some of this. What've you got there? We've got some lovely smoked mullet roe. Smoked mullet roe ` is that`? Mullet roe, yeah, that's the roe there. Should I be eating it? Oh, you'll have to now. You know what it sort of tastes a little bit like? A really beautiful cream cheese. It's so amazing looking. (LAUGHS) Bloody old fish roe ` who would have thought that? I know. And this is a lovely bit of flounder, eh? That's flounder ` smoked flounder. It's quite a different flavour to your fresh. And have you always been a fisherman's wife? Uh, no. I was a legal executive for 30 years. A legal executive? I know. (LAUGHS) From that to a fishwife. Ah! But you don't go out fishing on the boat, Gail. I did 12 months. Because no point in having a business like this if you can't argue about how to catch flounder. (BOTH LAUGH) I bet Pete really appreciated that, did he? It was interesting. (CHUCKLES) Here's our first flounder. Woohoo! There we are. Have a go at that one. That's a yellow-belly flounder. A yelly belly, and a sand. They're quite different. Yes, the sand flounder are actually sweeter to eat. They're sweeter, the little ones? Well, that's a big one, Pete. Yeah, that was a nice fish. So do you reckon that you could probably keep fishing here sustainably for a few hundred years? Definitely. My family started fishing here in 1840. 1840? Yeah. Before the Treaty. They're proposing to close all the inner Hauraki Gulf to commercial fishing. Who's` Who's proposing that? To all commercial fishing. Nick Smith, from the National government. Because the people who are in Auckland aren't catching enough snapper. You think that there could be a possibility that this area could be overfished? Definitely not. The numbers in this area have gone up ` maybe 200% from what they were 20 years ago. We'll all just go broke. We'll all be at the dole office. Most fishermen have been doing it all their lives,... Yeah. ...and they don't know anything else, really. Here we go. Here's a shark! Keep your hands away from the sharp bit on the front. OK. Woohoo. Pretty cool. Hammerhead. Whoa. He's going to bite me, that one. I'm gonna release him. There we go. He's trying to bite me! See ya, buddy. (LAUGHS) It looks good. It does, doesn't it? Is that the best way to have flounder? It's one way. It's one way? Yes. There's something really romantic about this river. Yeah. You couldn't live here and not like it. Mud and all. Yup. Pete must be in seventh heaven. He is. 20 years ago, he lost one of his best friends, and he decided that he was gonna do something that he really enjoyed. And he came home and he said, 'I wanna go fishing.' Wow. And I said, 'Go.' Cos we only live once, eh? We do. Absolutely. And he's never looked back. Yeah, we'll get the guts out of these. What we do is go like this ` here's his bum ` get your knife in... and pop that out. His bum's up the front? (LAUGHS) Back-to-front fish for you ` look at him ` he's lying like that, and this is like that. So, just down there on his bum. Straight down there, in with the knife, out come the guts. That about right? That's dead right. Look at that ` you got the lot. You're a little bit faster than me. I've never had filleted flounder before. They are absolutely delicate and beautiful. (COUNTRY MUSIC) (MUFFLED) I'm in heaven. Mm. Beautiful. Oh. At the end of this, that's where you caught that, isn't it? Absolutely, it is. Yeah. Gee. Beautiful, isn't it? So, where did you and Pete meet? We met at Waipu Cove. Nice. Yes, and he was a long-haired blonde surfer. Yes. And I was a very young legal secretary. OK. I was a mad waxhead back in those days, and, oh, four or five of us had rented a little bach at Waipu Cove. Gail decided she was gonna have me, and I was gone. (LAUGHS) I was 17, and Pete was 16. So you led him astray, did you? Oh, maybe. Maybe a little bit. (BOTH LAUGH) Yeah, she was a cradle-snatcher; she stole me. (LAUGHS) She stole you. Corrupted me. (LAUGHS) Besides her physical attributes at the time, she was a nice person. And these are the mullet, are they? Grey mullet. And have these gotta be salted as well? Everything has to be salted, or it won't have any flavour. Is there a special amount? It's about a dessert spoon for each fish, sprinkled over. How about that? But she must have thought you were pretty OK, because she ended up marrying you, buddy. She decided she wanted me, and so she took me. (LAUGHS) I'll chuck that one in the smoker. Righty-oh, buddy. Where there's smoke, there's fire. And she seems to be hotting up now; she looks pretty good. It does ` it gets hot very quickly. Yeah. You don't want too much heat, of course, cos otherwise all your fish will just fall off their hooks. Yeah. This has been a hobby of mine since I was a little kid. Yeah, I love it. I enjoy the process, and it's always a challenge to make sure you get it right. In a few hours, we'll have smoked fish. Yeah. Probably be a bit shickered at the same time. Beautiful. (LAUGHS) In you go, little fishy. Righty-oh. Just straight in there like that? That's right. And over there. Lid down. (MACHINE WHIRRS) Whoa. Rather than just make it look pretty, is it gonna save it a bit? Well it will keep it longer. The smoke that we do is a traditional one with just sea salt, and so` and it's smoked for about four hours ` well and truly preserved, really. Yeah. (MACHINE HISSES) (LAUGHS) There we go. Look at that! One vacuum-packed fish. (LAUGHS) Oh, look at that. Did you see that, how beautiful that just came apart? Here we go. That's absolutely beautiful. That's actually my favourite, Pete ` the mullet. Yeah, well. Cos she's a bit of an underdog, the mullet, isn't it? Definitely. You're the best fish-smoker in the world, buddy. Good, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Got a bit of fish on my hands, but... Yeah, you just got some more. (BOTH LAUGH) # Here we go! # That river is deep; # That river is wide. # Nobody's ever been on the other side. # Say run... That's the snapper that me and Pete smoked. Oh. Beautiful. You do get sick of it. She said she's not sick of fish yet. She said she was a little bit sick of you. (LAUGHS) Here's to Piako Pete, the fishwife, and all the little fish fingers. I hear there's a wedding in the pipeline. So congratulations to the two brides! Thank you. Woohoo! Who's wearing the dress? BOTH: We both are. (LAUGHTER) # Run, river, run. # River, run. # So, who wants Nova's great-value energy? Heaps of people. I knocked at Dr Knox and Jock the Lock's. Doc ` check. Jock ` check. Checked the Chuck's Charcoal Chicken? Uh, checked Chuck's Charcoal Chicken Tuesday. Chook ` check. BOTH: Choice. Hey, did you ring at Kings'? Uh, yep. Kings; Keatings; Kipling's Couplings; Werring's Herrings. Rang at Huang's? I rang Huang and the gang. Met Fang. (GROWLS, YAPS) Dang. Let's nip to Nick's Taranaki Knick-Knacks next. (KNOCKS) Knock-knock, Nick. No Nick? Ah! 'Back in a tick.' It's Greg Grover from Nova. CHUCKLES: Oh, don't start that all over. (JAUNTY ACCORDION MUSIC) Christel and Richard Vinbrux and their family arrived in Oamaru from Germany with a dream of living a self-sufficient life. And that dream came true. With their 34 acres of well-tended earth, they eat like kings. Their organic milk, butter and cheese come straight from Christel's beloved dairy cows. Richard's big love is his wood-fired bakehouse. Each Monday, he makes the family bread for the week using his lovingly restored antique bread maker. This looks like the gingerbread house. I hope it's a happy ending. (LAUGHS) Hello. Hello! (LAUGHS) Are you the bread maker? I am. I can help, buddy. I'm a good worker. Ah, wonderful. I like that. Wow, what a beautiful old machine you've got here. Hey, that's been designed by my great-grandfather, who was a baker and then started in the 1880s to design mixers that kneaded. Wow. That one's from 1927. If you can get the dough out ` hold on, I'll put a little bit of flour over it. And have you been a baker for a long time? I've been a baker since I'm 17. And is it in the family to make bread? It's in the family. I'm fourth generation; my son's the fifth generation. Wow, you must be really proud that they're carrying on the tradition. Yeah, it's nice, actually, to have something like that. You fold it over towards the centre. Pull it over, push to the middle. Yes. OK. Was it a good move? Does New Zealand`? It was a good move. I'm glad we came here. We would have never been able to do that in Germany. You're doing pretty well ` for a country-and-western singer. (LAUGHS) That's right. And you're gonna bake it in a` looks like a giant pizza oven, eh? It is a little bit like a giant pizza oven. Yeah. What possessed you to come all the way to New Zealand? It was too busy in Germany, and... Well it's a bit of a contrast here then, isn't it, eh? (LAUGHS) Whoa, watch out for traffic. Look at that. It says 'pause'. Everywhere else it says 'stop'. Beautiful, isn't it? I wanted to be a farmer since I was 4. You couldn't really realise that in Germany. New Zealand was the best choice. This is your butcher's shop? Yeah, that's Danny's butcher's shop ` our son number three. Gidday. Looks pretty good, buddy. They're all German-based sausages, are they? Yeah, pretty much. Based on German recipes... Mum supplies the meat. Yes, yeah. That's pretty amazing, eh? It's pretty cheap, too. (LAUGHTER) Perfect. What have you got for us? We're going to cook up something at home. Uh, I got sauerbraten, which means 'sour roast', equivalent to corned beef. Sounds good to me. It's done in vinegar, not salt, so it's a bit different. It's like a secret piece of meat ` it's already packaged up so we can't see it. Yes. Exactly. Do you know what the recipe is? Yeah, I do. I got the recipe from my parents. Oh, I don't. And nobody else is allowed to know either. (LAUGHS) We'll try and keep it that way, eh? That's the bakery. The second son is Jan. Hi, Jan! He's got little packages. He's coming out. He bakes and delivers. What have we got there, Jan? This is the bread for the knodel. Bread for knodel. And the biscuits for the gravy. Biscuits for gravy. And a treat for you. And a treat for me. Oh my God. Look in there. That looks very edible. Are you gonna have dinner with us tonight? Yes, I will. OK, well we'll see you then. OK. Thanks very much. There you go. Well, we've been to the butcher and the baker ` does anybody make candles at your place? Judy made candles for Christmas before, yeah. But not professionally. (LAUGHS) That's my daughters, Judy and Sarah. Hi, girls. Aren't they pretty? What kind of horses are they? They're Icelandic. Icelandic ponies. We came here, we brought four mares and a stallion with us. The first Icelandic stallion in New Zealand. Yeah. Come all the way from Germany? Flying business class. (LAUGHS) Don't ask me what it cost. Don't ask me what it cost. You got the best job on the farm, riding the horses, eh? Yes, it is quite the pleasure. Righty-oh. Have a nice ride, eh? OK, see ya. See ya. You must be proud of your kids. Yeah. They really chipped in right from the start. What's it called again? Sauerbraten. Sauerbraten? What are they you're taking off? The peppercorns and stuff. Peppercorns? And mustard seeds and what have you. Now, I'm telling you the recipe; I should be quiet now, eh? (LAUGHS) Did you personally know that cow? Yes, I did. Rosa. I started her milking, and she kicked like mad. When they kick, they only make one season. (LAUGHS) I'm not prepared to take any kicking cows. Is there a bit of an art to working with a wood stove like this? There kind of is a bit, yeah. You get a feel for it. Sounds pretty good. Now I put a lot of salt and pepper on there. Yup. On top of the onions, because that spice up the gravy straight away. OK, so you want a lot of pepper in your onions, cos it spices up your gravy? (LAUGHS) Yeah. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) These are all your winter crops? That's our winter crop. We've got all the potatoes out already; that's kind of half a ton. Wow. A few pumpkins. A few of the beans are left. You just see they're all full of stuff. There's something really magical, eh, about picking something out of the garden. Oh, yeah. Look at that ` straight off the old stem. They're my favourite. A lot of people don't like Brussels sprouts. Oh, they're the best of the cabbages, I find. You think so? Yeah. Yeah, me too. I love them. But you'd be bottling and preserving a lot of food? Oh yeah, yeah, we do a lot of that. You know, we freeze a good bit, but we also do a lot of bottling. For some things, that's just nicer. Perfect. Watties have been doing it for years. Yeah. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) So, now the biscuits for the gravy. Now, these are sweet biscuits, aren't they? They're called 'Printen'. Tastes like it's got ginger in it. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't have ginger in it? No. (CHUCKLES) How do you get that ginger-y taste? That's definitely a secret. That's a secret? Sugar, I can tell you, and flour. Righty-oh. What goes in next? Cream. Just cover that? Oh my God, look at that. It's so thick! From my lovely cows. Unbelievable. So you pour that in with all the meat and the onions and everything? Whoa. We just leave it standing here, and at the end it goes in the gravy. That's gonna go in the oven. Loving German food. Christel, what's this one called? It's a custard bun. Custard bun. Custard bun with crumble on top, yeah. (LAUGHS) And it's real custard, you know. That particular stove there, what one is it? You'll have to ask Richard that question. Does Richard know everything about wood fires? Seems like this, and the orchard is Richard's thing. And the bakery, of course. Are they his best qualities? His best qualities I won't tell you. (BOTH LAUGH) It's a secret too, like the recipe, is it? That's a secret too, like the recipe. (LAUGHS) Did Christel make this butter? Yes, she did. Of course she did. She can do anything, can't she? She is very handy to have around, I'll tell you. (LAUGHS) We met at school, actually. At school? Yeah. So we know each other since 14 years of age. We're now married 30 years. Beautiful, buddy. What a terrible life we're living (!) Sitting out in the woodpile, eating bread and butter. Someone has to do it. Might as well be us. (LAUGHS) Exactly. Who's hungry? Wow, they look amazing. They're knodels. Exactly. Two. Two? The knodels are a big hit down here, Toppy. Daniel, cos you made this piece of meat, you better have... Yes, please. ...that really big piece. What do you reckon? Are you having a knodel? Is this everybody's favourite dinner, is it? Sour roast. Pretty much, yeah. There must have been quite a lot of 'knodeling' going on to have this many around the table. An awful lot of knodeling, yes. (LAUGHTER) (FIDDLE MUSIC) When man invented fire, it changed the way we ate. Now that we had hot food, we had to make a plate. Bangers, steaks, and pizza, all cooked upon the grill. The flames, the heat, the sizzle, the excitement! What a thrill! You can't beat the taste of food cooked over flaming wood. The hint of smoke, the crisp of char ` it's simple and it's good. Ken! Ken! My sausage is on fire! Ken! Oh, don't worry mate, I'll save ya! (YELLS INDISTINCTLY)