AMISFIELD
A journey to the days of Otago’s golden past is brought firmly back to the present with a meal that celebrates the region’s unique history and heritage and the autumn season.
We go on a culinary adventure with executive chef Vaughan Mabee.
“At Amisfield we try to give people an authentic taste of Central Otago.”
VAUGHAN MABEE
It’s a pleasant sunny morning in Arrowtown, Central Otago, and not far beyond the 19th-century gold rush village’s bustling main street, we’re hunting for treasure of our own. The discovery of gold in New Zealand’s Central Otago in 1862 precipitated a gold rush: by the end of that year, some 1,500 hopeful miners were camped here on the banks of the Arrow River where it emerges from the edge of the Southern Alps. At the high point of the gold rush, Arrowtown’s population swelled to some 7,000 people. Modern Arrowtown may be a more genteel community than it was at its founding, but beyond the schist stone and weatherboard period buildings remain some little-known horticultural links to its past.
Led by Vaughan Mabee, NZ Chef of the Year in the 2019 Good Food Awards and executive chef at nearby 3-hatted restaurant, Amisfield Bistro, our quarry isn’t of the mineral variety that brought the prospectors to this part of NZ’s South Island. Instead, we’re hunting for the living relics of miners who migrated here from Guangdong, China, in search of their fortunes.
The Chinese miners were invited by the Otago provincial government to help the region maintain economic momentum as the gold fever took more prospectors away to the newly discovered goldfields on the west coast. They brought their own cuisine and traditional horticultural methods with them, adapting to the harsh climate of Central Otago.
Living relics of their presence can be found around the dwellings they built and the claims they mined – heirloom plums, gooseberries and other fruit planted and tended all those years ago now run wild as nature slowly reclaims this formerly bustling landscape.
These days, the Central Otago region is renowned for its stone fruit, but the commercial orchards are a modern development. In 19th-century Otago, fresh produce was a rarity, and miners supplemented their diet by planting fruit trees and berries in the locations they worked.
The remains of settlements left by Chinese miners are scattered across the gold rush region. Some, like those in Arrowtown, are now a popular attraction; others more remote are lost to the bush, marked only by a few low mounds of stone and the fruit trees that remain. It’s secrets like this that motivate Mabee to explore these places.
“I FIND IT INTERESTING TO TRY TO PAIR INGREDIENTS THE SAME WAY I SEE THEM IN THE WILD.” VAUGHAN MABEE
“It’s what we try to do at Amisfield – really give people an authentic taste of Central Otago,” says Mabee. “Wild fruits such as these are local, low impact and using them brings our history to life in a way that’s intriguing, surprising and I reckon is ultimately respectful to the prospectors. When we make something that brings joy to people, hopefully we’re honoring their legacy – the hard work they put in to till the ground, the isolation from their communities and the segregation they endured.”
It doesn’t take us long to strike it rich as we stroll among a grove of plum trees. The first tree we encounter is laden with fruit and the ground beneath it is scattered with ripe, sweet yellow nuggets. They are perfect for what Mabee has in mind.
Diners at Amisfield Bistro will be served quail as part of the multi-course, Trust-the-Chef degustation that Mabee and the team create five nights a week. Finding and preparing the best of what is locally available and in season is the inspiration behind their award-winning approach. The fruit we’re foraging now will form an integral part of the dish, linking the same place in the here-and-now with the 1860s.
“One of the things I find really interesting is to see if I can pair ingredients together in a dish the same way I see them out in the environment,” says Mabee. “When you find these trees, you often see birds like the quail gorging themselves on the fallen fruit, so pairing the plums with them just feels right and I think it’s going to be pretty special on the plate, too.”
A gentle shake of a branch reveals that some of the fruit is so ripe, it drops to the ground immediately. These tiny, pale yellow orbs have a subtle flavour and a gentle sweetness that’s sublime, but Mabee is looking for more, something to add some contrast and complexity to the dish. He finds what he’s after just a few footsteps away. “These ones aren’t so ripe,” he says, sucking the yellow flesh from the stone of a plum he’s plucked from the tree. He’s right; there’s still some sweetness, but the flesh is firmer and there’s a delicious tart finish to the almost-ripe fruit. “We’re going to use the ripe fruit to make a glaze and a sauce and then some of these more acidic plums as a special garnish,” he tells us. He carefully gives each plum he selects a gentle squeeze between forefinger and thumb to ensure each is at just the level of ripeness he’s looking for.
It doesn’t take us long to collect enough of both the ripe plums and their tart counterparts to have enough for tonight’s dinner service. I’m keen to gather more, but Mabee is convinced we’ve picked enough and so we jump back in the ute for the short drive back to Amisfield Bistro.
“USING THESE WILD FRUITS BRINGS OUR HISTORY TO LIFE IN A WAY THAT’S SURPRISING.” VAUGHAN MABEE
“Only take what we need,” he tells me.
“If we do need a couple more we can go back, but this is just enough. If it goes well, maybe we’ll do it again for tomorrow’s service. Or maybe something else will take my fancy. Let’s try it and see.”
Back in the kitchen, we’re greeted by Amisfield sous-chef Jacques Lagarde. Lagarde and Mabee have worked together for five years and the creative sparks that fly when the foraged produce comes into the workspace are palpable.
The plums are carefully washed and the stones are quickly removed from the ripest fruit. Jacques sets about creating the jam that will glaze the quail.
The tart fruit is left whole and placed in a bowl of salt. “We’ll salt them overnight,” says Mabee, “and then we’ll roast them and they’ll have this lovely umami flavour.”
The quail themselves have already been brined and they’re removed from their bath and carefully deboned.
Mabee heats a large frying pan and melts some butter in it before carefully placing the quail open-side-down with a satisfying sizzle. He tilts the pan and proceeds to liberally baste the quail, continuously spooning hot butter over it as its skin gradually caramelises.
Once out of the pan, the glaze is applied before being gently scorched with a blowtorch. With a couple of light yet gloriously sticky coats, the bird is ready for presentation.
Meanwhile, Jacques is preparing a classic beurre blanc into which he blends the plum jam, adding a little black truffle to finish.
We take seats in the gallery of the bistro overlooking the courtyard and pool, waiting for Mabee to plate up the dish. One quail serves two people and so the bird is presented whole and bisected at the table. On each plate several of the whole salted, roasted plums bring back the bright yellow gold from Arrowtown and sit alongside the pale pink meat of the bird. Mabee pours over a little of the sauce and adds a little more black truffle with a flourish.
The combination of the light, gamey nature of the quail and the gently sweet plum glaze is sublime, with the crisped skin adding a texture and depth of flavour that seems inspired and yet a natural match, just as Mabee had observed in the wild. The contrast with the salty umami roasted plums is equally rewarding. Mabee prompts me not to miss the neck. He’s right; it’s tender yet crisp.
I take a sip of the wine that Amisfield’s sommelier, Valerian Girardin, has matched with the dish, Amisfield’s 2017 Breakneck Reserve Pinot Noir, with its rich fruit and spicy oak notes, and drift back to the threads connecting what I’m eating now with what the miners themselves may have eaten. The Amisfield team have not just created something delicious, but through careful attention to provenance, thoughtful observation of the world around them and an intimacy with their locale, brought history to life in a manner more visceral, tangible, and meaningful than history books or museum labels ever could.