Parāoa rēwena (Māori bread), smoked fish and prosciutto rillettes, and a fun little Chinese-style cucumber salad

A slightly belated nod to Waitangi Day this week.

I like a squidgy, rich bread for dippy things. Don’t we all?

It’s all sourdough this and ciabatta that nowadays, which is well and good, but what about parāoa rēwena, or Māori bread?

Focaccia vibes, but make it kiwi. It annoys me that I don’t see it more often. It should annoy you too.

I recall a magnificent take by Fleur Sullivan, served as a thick wedge, alongside scallops cooked in cream and Pernod, with chunks of thick cut bacon. I think about it often.

Rēwena is usually made with a sourdough style starter. This version - and there are a heap out there - is a little easier, with the addition of dried yeast to help it along.

I implore all baking enthusiasts, at home as well as professional, to start making more of an effort with recipes like these. You won’t see rēwena anywhere else in the world. Recipes like this are part of our national identity, and they’re important.

Oh, and I made the leftovers into French toast, and was not disappointed. Just saying.

I’ve done several versions of smoked fish rillettes over the years but I think this is the one. The piggy goodness just tips it over the edge. Spread thickly over chunks of toasted rēwena bread, it’s very hard to go wrong.

So I try not to subscribe to trends. However.

One lunchtime recently, with a lingering summer hangover that had me both in a foul mood and in need of something fresh and reasonably healthy, I remembered a tiktok video that demonstrated cutting up a cucumber in a way I’d never seen before. I didn’t think it would work. I tried it anyway.

It turned out to be so astonishingly easy and impressive that I found myself exclaiming aloud with the unexpected delight of it.

And the amount of chilli in it damn near got rid of the hangover.

I’ve taken a fairly classic Chinese approach, but you may want to garnish with chopped peanuts and a bit of chopped pickled ginger; maybe some soft tofu to make it more substantial. Delish.

Usually it’s quite difficult to combine a whole newsletter worth of recipes into a single mouthful, but there’s no reason why you can’t finely chop the leftovers of the cucumber and use to pile on top of some smoked fish, on top of some lovely grilled rēwena bread. Ooooft.

Have a lovely week, all.

S xx

PARĀOA RĒWENA