How we'd cook it

What you need

• 2 porterhouse, 3cm thick
• Salt flakes
• Neutral oil — not olive
• 50g butter
• 2 garlic cloves, skin on, squashed
• A few sprigs of thyme

Method

1. Out of the fridge 40 minutes before. A fridge-cold steak cooks grey on the outside before the middle wakes up.
2. Pat both sides bone dry with paper towel, then salt generously. Wet meat steams; it won't brown.
3. Heavy pan on high until it's just starting to smoke. Oil the steak, not the pan.
4. Lay it down away from you and leave it alone. Three minutes. Don't poke it, don't move it.
5. Flip once. Another 3 minutes for medium-rare on 3cm. Sear the fat edge by holding it on its side for 30 seconds.
6. Butter, garlic and thyme into the pan. Tilt and spoon it over for the last minute.
7. Onto a warm plate and rest 6 minutes minimum. Cut it early and the juice ends up on the board instead of in the steak.

Tip: Ask us for a thick cut, not two thin ones. Thin steak gives you no window between raw and overdone. We'll cut it to 3cm if you ask.

What you need

• 1 pork fillet, trimmed
• 8–10 rashers streaky bacon
• 120g halloumi, in batons
• Handful of parsley, chopped
• Cracked pepper, no salt

Method

1. Oven to 200°C. Butterfly the fillet — cut it most of the way through lengthways and open it like a book.
2. Lay the halloumi down the middle with the parsley. Pepper it. Skip the salt entirely; the bacon and halloumi bring plenty.
3. Fold it closed. Lay the bacon out slightly overlapping, sit the fillet across it, and roll it up tight.
4. Sear seam-side down in a hot ovenproof pan for 2 minutes to glue the bacon shut, then turn to colour all over.
5. Straight into the oven for 22–25 minutes. You're after 62–65°C in the thickest part.
6. Rest 10 minutes before slicing into thick rounds. It'll carry up a few degrees while it sits.

Tip: Don't overcook it. Pork fillet is lean — past 70°C it goes dry and there's no rescuing it. This is the one cut worth owning a thermometer for.

What you need

• 1.5kg pork neck bones
• Big bunch pūhā or watercress
• 4 potatoes, halved
• 1 kūmara, thick slices
• 1 onion, quartered
• Salt, pepper

Method

1. Bones into a big pot, cover well with cold water, bring to the boil.
2. Boil hard for 10 minutes, then tip the whole lot out and rinse the bones and the pot. This first water carries the scum — losing it is what keeps the broth clean.
3. Back in the pot with fresh cold water and the onion. Simmer gently, lid ajar, for 1½ hours until the meat is falling away.
4. Potatoes and kūmara in. Another 20 minutes until a knife slides through.
5. Wash the pūhā hard and rub it between your hands to knock the bitterness out. In for the last 10 minutes.
6. Season at the end, not the start — the broth reduces and you'll oversalt it.

Tip: Ask us for neck bones with a decent covering of meat. Say it's for a boil-up and we'll put the good ones aside.

What you need

• 8 sausages, whatever's in the flavour rotation
• Splash of water
• Small knob of butter to finish

Method

1. Never prick them. Every hole you make lets the fat out, and the fat is the flavour.
2. Cold pan, medium-low heat, sausages in, splash of water and a lid on. Six minutes.
3. Lid off, let the water cook away. They're now cooked through and gently, not blasted.
4. Heat up slightly and turn them every couple of minutes for 6–8 minutes until browned all over. Tongs, not a fork.
5. Butter in for the last 30 seconds and roll them through it.
6. Rest 2 minutes. Yes, even snags — cut straight in and they'll spill.

Tip: On the barbie: same rules. Medium heat on one side, cool zone on the other. Start cool, finish hot. Flames touching sausages means burnt skin and raw middle.

What you need

• 8 marinated skewers from the cabinet
• Lemon or lime
• Nothing else — the work's done

Method

1. Barbecue on medium. High heat burns the marinade black before the chicken is anywhere near cooked — this is the mistake everyone makes.
2. Out of the fridge 20 minutes before so they don't hit the grill cold.
3. Skewers on, lid down if you've got one. Three to four minutes a side, turning through all four faces — 14 minutes all up.
4. Check the thickest piece: juices run clear, no pink at the centre. Chicken thigh is forgiving, so a minute extra won't hurt.
5. Squeeze of lemon over the lot while they're still hot. Rest 3 minutes.

Tip: Bamboo skewers? Soak them 30 minutes first or the ends burn through and you'll be chasing chicken across the grill.

What you need

• 2–2.5kg lamb shoulder, bone in
• 1 bulb garlic, halved across
• Rosemary, a few big sprigs
• 2 onions, thick slices
• 250ml water or stock
• Salt, pepper, olive oil

Method

1. Oven to 220°C. Score the fat cap in a diamond pattern, cutting into the fat but not the meat.
2. Oil, salt and pepper rubbed in hard, right into the scores.
3. Onions in the base of the tray as a rack, lamb on top, garlic and rosemary tucked around. Water into the tray, not over the lamb.
4. 25 minutes at 220°C to get colour on it.
5. Drop to 160°C, cover tightly with foil, and give it 3 to 3½ hours. Top the water up if the tray goes dry.
6. Foil off for the last 20 minutes to crisp the top back up.
7. Rest 20 minutes under loose foil. It should pull apart with two forks — if it fights you, it needs another half hour.

Tip: The tray juices are the gravy. Skim the fat off, squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins into it, and reduce it on the stove for five minutes.