Boil-Up

Source: Candi Wihongi & EZinearticles (for help with exact measurements)

Servings: 10-12?
Prep Time: 5-1o minutes
Cook Time: 30-35 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2-3 lbs. boneless pork ribs, chopped into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons of salt
• 6 medium potatoes*, chopped into large pieces
• 2 bunches of watercress ("puha"), wash and remove stems from leaves
• 1 bunch spinach, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cabbage, coarsely chopped
• Dumplings ("doughboys"):
  - 1 c. flour
  - 1 t. salt
  - 1/4 c. water

* Other chopped-up root vegetables, such as sweet potatoes ("kumara"), pumpkin, etc., can be used as well.

Directions:

1. Place pork in a large pot and fill with water (fill to about one inch above the meat), and add the salt.
2. Bring to the boil, and let boil for approximately 5 minutes.
3. Add potatoes* and boil for approximately 5 minutes.
4. Add watercress, spinach, and cabbage, making sure they are submerged in the liquid, and boil for approximately 1-2 minutes.
5. Roll doughboy dough into small balls and drop into liquid.
6. Cook for 20 minutes.

Comments:

In addition to chop suey and Maori bread (both in the Bistro cookbook), boil-up is another New Zealand recipe that I love. Dray even loved this when we went to New Zealand in 2009; Scott's Uncle Alwood would take the tender meat and vegetables out, and mash them up into the best baby food Dray had ever had! Plus, with all the greens and veggies, this is pretty healthy!

Boil-up is really just a throw-the-ingredients-in-the-pot kind of recipe, more or less of each of these ingredients according to taste works fine. I just figured I should look up some exact measurements (thus the website link) so I have a good guesstimate when making it again in the future.

Note:

• You don't have to necessarily have all three types of greens in the recipe. All three, or just one or two of them work fine, although watercress is what really makes it good. Bok choy, chard ("silverbeet"), and other greens can work great, too.
• Make sure to chop the potatoes (and/or other root vegetables) into large pieces so they don't get soggy and disintegrate while cooking. (Which I learned from experience!)
• This is traditionally made by boiling pork bones in addition to the meat. If I can get a hold of pork bones in the future, I'll come back and add my experiment notes to this recipe!