Wild Kiwi Kitchen

16/10/2026

This sloppy dough focaccia really is ☑️ no knead and ☑️ no fuss 🙌
I made this on the fly to go with a roasted Cauliflower & Black Garlic Soup - both were fab and I don't think I'll ever knead a focaccia again!
🎯 Pro tip: The secret to light bread dough is using Italian 00 flour. It's non sticky and creates a really light crumb that doesn't leave you feeling heavy after eating it 🙌 00 flour is so worth hunting out - try your local specialty foods store if your supermarket doesn't have it (I get mine from Ricco Gourmet Foods | Rotorua + Taupo).
Recipe & method up on my website overnight 👉 wildkiwikitchen.com
Or comment for the link 😍

15/10/2026

14/10/2026

Planting patio citrus 🍊 🍋 😍
My Bears patio lime has done so well the last couple of years that I'm feeling confident enough to add a couple more container citrus. To me, trees like citrus are a long term investment, so the best quality potting mix for container planting is key - fertiliser, airation & saturation are super important for healthy root growth & fruiting (particularly for porous pots like terracotta), as is ongoing & regular fertilising 💛💛
So off with my dog child to Mitre 10 Rotorua where the gardening team helped us 💪 40L bags of Tui Garden & Home premium potting mix (& bonus right now Tui organic sheep pellets only $10 with the potting mix purchase! Winner winner 🐔 dinner 🙌).
** I KNOW I should remove the flowers and let them grow a bit first year in ... but I just CAN'T 😆**

13/10/2026

Home-Grown Mushrooms Tutorial
🎯Part 1: Spore Germination
(No Fancy Tech Required).
Mushrooms aren't cheap to buy, yet can actually be grown at home from other mushrooms plus homegrown taste amazing 🤩 🤎
Sure there's the odd thrills and spills along the way the same as growing anything at home, - but the process is fascinating, reasonable to set up cost-wise, and it's super satisfying to start and harvest your own mushrooms!
The initial spawning and feeding medium is simply achieved with brown rice or popping corn, a few recycled jars with metal lids, paper tape for air exchange, a bit of boiling to sterilize, and patience. Once the spawn has taken, I plan to fruit the mushrooms in cheap reusable plastic pails with a wood fire pellet growing medium (ie: sawdust)
Home grown mushrooms are also a fascinating experimental project for kids (with supervision) as the mushrooms grow super quick once in the fruiting stage.
Save and follow along for Part 2 🤎🤎

11/10/2026

Here's my favorite Guac recipe 🥑😋
👇
2 soft avos mashed
1/2 red onion finely chopped
1 ripe tomato, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
Ground sea salt and black pepper
Handful cilantro, chopped (optional)
a pinch of chipotle salt or chili powder (optional)
Here I used:
tiopablonz Chipotle Salt for a nice chili bite + Citrus Chili Totopitos corn chips picked up from our local gourmet foods store Ricco Gourmet Foods | Rotorua + Taupo 🙌

08/10/2026

Pork Lard Pastry. Likely the most delicious savory pastry you'll ever eat in your life 😂 🙌
Made using:
Chilled Rotorua water
Libby’s Pork Crack pork lard
Pams economical high grade flour
For recipe & method
👉wildkiwikitchen.com

08/10/2026

A Black Garlic, Smoked Chicken & Mushroom Sauce with homemade Fettuccine for two.
Im loving the depth Neudorf Black Garlic smokey black garlic puree brings to everything I cook with it, and this quick week-night dish is no exception!
And homemade egg pasta is also super easy - you'll taste the difference!
👉 For fool-proof pasta dough I typically use 1 egg to 1 cup 00 Italian flour 🙌 (yes, the flour makes ALL the difference)
👉And always add a ladle of pasta cooking water to your dish to thicken the sauce 😋
For the light cream sauce:
Mix 1 dessert spoon of flour to a paste with ~150 mls of fresh pouring cream, 1.5 tsp whole grain mustard and 1.5 tsp black garlic puree (measure by your heart)
Here I used:
Tegel Take Outs smoked chicken
Wainui Valley Mushrooms oyster mushrooms I grew from a kit
Ricco Gourmet Foods | Rotorua + Taupo Italian 00 flour
Kitchen garden Japanese chili and parsley to garnish

07/10/2026

Green Serrano Salsa with Braised Fresh Sausages
Who knew humble sausages could look & taste this good!?
I wanted a 'green' sauce for this Mexican-style recipe and planned to use a large tin of tiopablonz Tomatillos - except I discovered at the last minute I didn't have any on hand! 🤦😵⚠️ While tomatillos are *always* my preference for a green sauce base, I had to quickly pivot to a can of Pams plain chopped tomatoes and a bunch of bok choy from my kitchen garden - but it still tasted great 😃 🙌👌
The secret to this recipe is good quality fresh sausages (I used our wild venison fresh sausages by James Wright) and a good vegetable-forward recaudo-style base of onion, celery, garlic, carrot, and the bright crisp taste of seeded green serrano chili pepper blitzed together with tomatillo or tomato 😋👌Purists will say no celery or carrot in recaudo but I went wild 😜 🤷
Recipe & method on my website
👉 wildkiwikitchen.com

06/10/2026

A super simple homemade pasta ragu for lasagne, spag bol, cannelloni or any pasta dish.l 🙌😋
Here I've simply cooked basic soffritto vegetables in a little olive oil then added:
Woolworths New Zealand own brand economical plain diced tomatoes
Pams handy tube tomato paste McKenzie's Foods red lentils OXOFoods beef stock cube
Wild venison mince packed by James Wright
(but lamb, beef or pork mince will work, too 🙌).

For recipe & method for this ragu and my no fuss homemade green lasagne sheets head to my website
👉wildkiwikitchen.com