Cooking Bush: Orongorongo Valley Tofu and Mushroom Kebabs

Lately I have felt the desire to cook tofu on an open fire, just like our ancestors did. But I am very conscious that this may enrage many of my bacon fuelled readers and so I have come up with a fusion of herbivorous and carnivorous eating to create the perfect omnivorous offering. It has something for everyone!

Orongorongo Valley Tofu and Mushroom Kebabs

Ingredients:

Tofu
Mushrooms
Good splash of soy sauce (It's like bathing Tofu in it's own blood)
Oregano
Juice of the Lemon
Bacon
smoky fire

I constructed these yummies in advance and let them marinate in a container in my pack. Garlic would of been good but alas I was all out. I took a cake cooling rack which served as a marvellous lightweight grill. I think this is one of my best inventions so far. The tofu was not bad, the mushrooms rather awesome, but the rolls of streaky bacon was incredible - all crispy on the outside but yummy moist in the middle with a hint of the lemon and tofu blood.

Yum!

The Orongorongo Valley is nestled at the Southern end of the Rimutaka ranges. The easiest access is via walking from the Catchpool Valley. The sign says 2 hours though if you have a bit of a motor in your boot you can get there in under an hour. But if you are lugging a big pack, or taking your kids then 2 hours is probably realistic (unless of course if you have an 8 year old daughter who is fleet of foot and muscled like a cheetah, in which case more than likely she will be waiting for you for half an hour at the end of the track).

Orongorongo Valley

It is a downright sublime walk. While I blitzed it, got a late start as per usual, it is well worth taking your time to amble along and enjoy the sweet bush. It is like four seasons of bush in one day - Podocarps, stands of beach trees (bitches love the beaches!), Ponga tree ferns, and Nekau palms so unexpected they remind you that New Zealand is part of the Pacific.