MOANASIDEWITH KĀRENA AND KASEY
I grew up going to an annual Greek-Cypriot picnic, where hundreds of people would gather somewhere between Wellington and Whanganui, all cooking over charcoal. THEO PAPOUIS
CHOOSE YOUR COMPANYWISELY
Community barbecue vibes are equally important to Theo Papouis, owneroperator of Wellington’s Oiko’s Hellenic Cuisine. “Choose your company wisely,” says Papouis, and keep the food coming. “It has to be generous, but also, keep it fresh and exciting. Salads and sauces and dressings are just as important as a good cut of meat, nice cold booze and taking your time. Enjoy everyone’s company, but you’ve got to be generous. There is nothing I love more in the world than cooking on charcoal,” he says.
Barbecuing runs deep in Papouis’ blood; his Greek-Cypriot dad would spend hours tending to the charcoal. There would be big gatherings at home or down at the beach. “I grew up going to an annual Greek-Cypriot picnic, where hundreds of people would gather somewhere between Wellington and Whanganui, all cooking over charcoal.” The charcoal itself used to be hard to source, but is much more common now, and for someone who spends the bulk of his week in a commercial kitchen, cooking on fire is his favourite thing. “It’s the opposite to cooking in a restaurant. It involves ritual, and it’s a real process. It forces you to slow down.”
It’s one of Papouis’ great pleasures in life to have the time over summer to host a barbecue. Part of the joy is that you can’t just whip it up after work. It takes time and effort. He is extremely enthusiastic when talking about how vegetables flirt with getting burnt, before being dressed simply with olive oil, lemon juice and herbs. With fire you have to engage all your senses: smell, watch, and really get a feel for it. You can’t just switch it on like you can a gas barbecue.
His tips for the barbecue season include having a bit more attention to quality and cut of meat, and not just whacking anything on a dirty grill and serving with lashings of tomato sauce. He says don’t be scared to grill something, season it, and then marinate it – serving with a sauce or dressing after cooking means you avoid burning, which often occurs with pre-marinated meat. His giant skewers (usually chicken, pork or lamb) on his rotating barbecue over charcoal are cooked simply with salt, before getting a generous dousing of lemon juice and eaten hot. Likewise, a dollop of tzatziki will make the meat sing after it has had the long, slow charcoal treatment. Peppers stuffed with feta, and halloumi cooked and then drizzled with pomegranate and mint make for simple and extremely impressive sides. “Cold beer” is the essential element to a good barbecue, according to Kārena Bird. Music is also crucial, and not having too many options. Kārena and her sister Kasey have had a busy few years since winning MasterChef in 2014. Their day-to-day work includes consulting on menus, planning dinners and events, and writing their third selfpublished cookbook, this time exclusively in te reo Māori. Quality seafood is inherent in their cooking, often caught locally in their hometown o fM aketū. Kārena paints an idyllic picture as she tells me one of her earliest memories of cooking on fire was collecting and cooking pipi at bonfires on the beach. She’ll be at the helm of the barbecue this summer, where they’ll be feasting on crayfish and scampi served with a selection of their homemade butters: watercress and bacon, or lemon and dill.
“Cooking on fire takes us back to our caveman days. There’s an intrinsic connection between humans and fire, and cooking on heat is special because you have to watch it so closely. You feel the heat and have to adjust.” A gas barbecue absolutely has its place though: “it’s just so easy in summer. Crank up the hot plate and get some nice meat on there.” They love to cook kamokamo in fat rounds on the barbecue after marinating in chilli, garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper, and asparagus is “obviously amazing” with the heat treatment, too.
A lot of the seafood they cook for themselves and for events they smoke in their fridge-sized Traeger smoker, where they’ll often simply smoke crays or fish using mānuka wood for the embers, and then serve with a sauce. They also cook on a charcoal Weber barbecue, on gas barbecues, and they’re often cooking hāngī, especially popular for events they’ve catered since Matariki.
Their travel TV show Kārena and Kasey’s Kitchen Diplomacy saw them travel the world learning about different cultures and food. The episode filmed in Phoenix, Arizona, about American barbecue changed the way Kārena saw food. “It really made me realise the depths you can go with food and cooking. If you wanted to, you could spend your whole life dedicated to perfecting it.” The variables when slow cooking on an American barbecue get right down to the humidity, air pressure, moisture levels in the wood, percentage o ff at on the meat. She happily accepted she was an “enthusiast but not an expert” and thinks a simple approach to Kiwi-style barbecues is the way to go. One beautiful piece of meat, fresh veges, some nice sauces and butters.