Kiwi Recipes

Get a taste of New Zealand and acquire New Zealand cooking skills to show off to your friends and family! Here are some basic Kiwi recipes.

If you’re looking for a more detailed introduction to New Zealand cooking, buy yourself a copy of the famous Edmonds Cookery Book – a Kiwiana item found in every New Zealand kitchen!

Pavlova

• 3 egg whites
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 3 tbsp cold water
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 3 tsp cornflour
• whipped fruit and cream to decorate

Preheat oven to 150°C. Beat egg whites until stiff, add cold water and beat again. Add castor sugar very gradually while still beating. Slow beater and add vinegar, vanilla and cornflour. Place the mixture on greased paper on a greased tray and put into the oven for 45 minutes. Leave to cool in the oven. When finished, decorate with whipped cream and fruit.

Anzac Biscuits (or ‘bikkies’ in good old Kiwi slang)

• 125 g flour
• 100 g butter
• 150 g sugar
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 cup grated coconut
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2 tbsp boiling water

Preheat oven to 180°C. Mix sugar, flour, rolled oats and coconut. Melt butter and syrup, dissolve the baking soda in boiling water and add to butter mixture. Mix dry with liquid ingredients. Place mixture in spoonfuls on greased trays and then bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Whitebait Fritters

• 180 g whitebait
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp soft white breadcrumbs

Beat eggs and add other ingredients. Heat some butter and fry on both sides. Serve with lemon slices.

Floaters (fried Maori bread)

• 5 cups white flour
• 5 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1½ cups lukewarm water
• cooking oil

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Create a well in the centre and add water. Stir together until the mixture starts to look like dough. Knead dough just a little until it develops a smooth texture. Roll out to a thickness of about six centimetres. Cut into two-centimetre squares, pricking each with a fork. Heat a pot of oil till very hot and add dough pieces, turning as they brown. Eat with lots of jam and butter.