Things To Do / Gathering Shellfish

Gathering Shellfish

One of the more popular activities by campers...

is gathering shellfish. Cockles, pipi and kokotua are readily available at low-tide in front of the camp but the most popular are the tuatua. To get these you have to cross the estuary and walk to the beginning of the east beach (about 10 minute walk) which is where the tuatua beds are. Tuatua are also plentiful across on the 90 mile beach.  If you have a boat there are oysters across the other side of the harbour and mussels at the entrance.

Keith’s tuatua fritters are legendary – here is his recipe…

Open sufficient tuatua to make up a cupful of raw shellfish. When you are opening them try to capture as much of the juice as possible by opening them into a sieve within a bowl. Take about a cup of minced or finely chopped tuatua and add to it a finely chopped onion,  about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of flour, about ¾ of a teaspoon of baking powder, an egg, and garlic,  salt and pepper to taste. If you have some finely chopped parsley you can throw that in as well. Being careful to ensure that any sand stays in the bottom of the bowl pour in enough of the retained juice to make the tuatua mixture into a smooth batter.  Heat up some oil in a pan and melt some butter in with the oil. When the oil just starts to smoke its ready to spoon in your first spoon of batter – turn when bubbles appear in the batter or the base gets golden brown.

If you want to eat the tuatua whole, a great way of cooking them is to put the unopened shellfish in a pot. Cover the shellfish with boiling water, put on the pot lid and then wrap the whole lot in a towel to keep the heat in … leave for about 1 ½ hours and then serve … they will be tender and succulent!

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