Farm cook Phillipa Cameron lives with her family on a high-country sheep station in North Otago.
She posts recipes for smoko classics like cheese scones and cinnamon scrolls on Instagram and is the author of the 2021 memoir/cookbook A High Country Life.
In a new cookbook out on 1 April, Phillipa shares more traditional Kiwiana recipes, "great laughs" and "great yarns".
Farm cook and writer Philippa Cameron Photo: Philippa Cameron / Instagram
Otematata Station – where Phillipa lives – is about equidistant from Oamaru and Cromwell and near Lake Benmore.
On "an absolute stunner of a day" last week she sat on its shore and chatted to Anna Thomas.
Listen - Philippa Cameron talks to Jim Mora about serving meals on a high-country station
As a station cook, Philippa likes to stick to traditional workers' fare.
"Scones are a daily thing... A lot of pastry, a lot of bacon and egg pies. You name it, we'll give it a go."
She usually gets out of bed at 5 but that morning had to get smoko and lunch out the door by five so rose much earlier.
The crew were served: "lots of fresh fruit, bacon and egg pie, corn beef and relish sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, caramel slice and date loaf – and a jar of lollies from the Rainbow Confectionary seconds shop in Oamaru".
Philippa likes to keep her bacon & egg pie simple – peas are the only addition – and she also makes a picnic pie, described as basically the same but with pieces of sausage and dollops of relish added and also known as "a meal in a handful."
When you're cooking for a group, tried and true is the best way to go, Philippa says.
"A lot of people have lost the basics of cooking and we often look at cooking shows on telly or really fancy cookbooks and they can be quite daunting."
Her family are known to gnaw on mutton shanks while hanging out by the lake.
"There's nothing better than a bit of mutton… god, it's all we eat at home. When it's slow-cooked it's delicious, it falls off the bone, it's got flavour…"
Photo: What's for Smoko Instagram
Recipes (find more of Philippa's smoko recipes on her website)
Soft, easy and delicious cinnamon scrolls without having to wait for yeast to proof.
Photo: Phillipa Cameron
The Lightest and Fluffiest Cheese Scones
These light and fluffy cheese scones will soon replace any old cheese scone recipe that you have been making. No need to rub any butter – in fact, they have no butter in them!
Photo: Philippa Cameron
