Kangaroo Recipes part 2; stir fries

Happy New Year to all! Hope the break was restful, not too stressful, and full of fabulous food… and unlike me eaten in moderation ;)

I finally have a chance to finish off my posts about kangaroo. Over the break we were fed many other types of meat and different functions and I struggled to eat them as they seemed so much heavier than roo. I was nice to come home and have a simple BBQ of marinated roo and salads made from vegies from the garden. More to come on our lovely garden and the vegetables it had waiting for us after 10 days away.

The following pictures are of stir fries I have made several months ago so I won’t endeavour to put up exact recipes. To be honest it would be guessing anyway, as I never follow recipes for my stir fries anyway. As long as the basic principles are followed, tender tasty roo should be the result. I have used both the fillet and the steak that are available from supermarkets in Australia, and while the fillet is marginally better, there is not a noticeable difference.

I found Kylie Kwong’s ‘Simple Chinese cooking’ to be a great resource for simple stir fries and techniques and now use it as a guide only. The basics need to be there – good seasoned wok, peanut oil, metal spatula, very short cooking times and never overcrowding the wok. I also find marinading the meat, particularly for roo which is very lean, to be important.

This dish was a black bean based roo dish. I used Lee Kum Kee Black bean and garlic sauce, which I used to marinade the meat in (mixed with soy and sesame oil). Any vegies you like can be used, cook the meat first for about 1.5 minutes, in batches until seared but tender. Remove meat, then fry vegetables, again in batches and not for long. Return all ingredients to the wok and pour over a sauce made with black bean, soy and sugar. This dish is repeated often in our house as it is so quick and tasty.


This extreme close up is of my take on sweet and sour kangaroo. The sweet was in the form of fresh pineapple and the sour from the sauce based on lemon, malt vinegar, sugar, garlic, ginger and fresh tomatoes. Coriander is a good final addition, and again, marinade the meat in either the sweet and sour sauce or just some soy/ vinegar/ water/ cornflour mix. The meat I sliced very thinly across the grain. I found the meat broke up a little in this dish, I may have over marinaded the meat, but Nathan liked the texture of the shredded tender meat.


This was Sichuan salt and pepper roo, served with steamed Asian veg, rice and pickled radish from the yard. This was an absolute winner. I used the recipe for Sichuan beef from Kylie Kwong and served the Sichuan pepper and salt separately so everyone could put as much as they liked. The meat was super tender and as it had been stir fried on its own, really quick.


The pickled radish was pickled in salt and sugar for 40 minutes, the liquid drained and then tamari and sesame oil sprinkled over the top. I have done this with daikon too and I absolutely love it.

If you would like more specific recipes for the sauces, leave a comment but the idea is to make the sauces to taste with whatever you have on hand. I just love the versatility of Kangaroo; so far I haven’t made a bad dish with it.

And no I do not work for a Kangaroo meat company ;)

Kangaroo Recipes: Part 1

I have been quite tardy with the posts. Life seems to get in the way sometimes doesn't it? My apologies to my small readership ;)

I have been meaning to do a series of posts on my experimentations with kangaroo. Up until recently, my cooking with this native meat of ours was limited to the BBQ and spaghetti bolognaise and lasagne (which I have blogged, see recipe index). All fine recipes and a good substitute for other meats. Lately though we have been trying to think more about hip and up to the minute topics such as food miles, and sustainability. We could never be vegetarians but we are not the typical Aussie type who needs meat in every meal. I am happy with some sort of animal product once or twice a week. If my body needs more it lets me know through cravings.

It seems crazy that we are still farming beef and lamb, which may work in the European countries, but in this tougher land of ours, makes little sense in terms of farming practise in Australia, esepcially in the drought. These ruminant animals with their hooves rip up our topsoil and their four stomachs leads to copius methane production. They require large amounts of water, directly and indirectly through feed. With a figure of 25% of our emissions being due to our four legged friends, at home we really started to feel that this type of meat should be a luxury or once in a while thing, rather than a weekly part of our shopping list.

Kangaroo, on the other hand is a relatively soft-imprint-on-the-land meat. Being mammals they do not produce methane, and are very light on the ground. Moreover, it is very hard to farm kangaroo, but much of our inland pastures are full of these transient creatures (which anyone driving at dusk in country victoria quickly finds out). The method of killing kangaroos, is considered humane - shooting (though is killing any creature ever 'humane'). There are estimated millions of roos in inland Victoria and NSW, and the farming requirements are pretty much nil, apart from needing liscenced shooters to kill them.

Apart from these 'lofty' reasons for eating roo, the mince is supercheap ($6-7 a kilo) and the fillets and steaks are comparitive to other meats. And importantly, they taste great, are low in fat, keep well in the fridge and are high in iron.

Having said all this, my mother would never touch it, considering it a 'dirty' meat and I think this perception is quite prevalent in Australia, probably due to years of kanga mince being sold as pet food. My understanding is that all kanga meat for human consumption is triple checked and export grade (which domestically sold cattle meat is not).

On to the recipes. The easiest way to eat kangaroo is to BBQ it! It is a lean meat though, so should be coated or marinaded in oil and whatever other flavours you like so that is doesnt burn. This is the mariande I most often use, but any other spcies or herbs may be used.

BBQ marinade

Olive oil

garlic

native or other pepperberries, crushed

lemon myrtle

parsley

Mix ingredients and coat kangaroo fillets for at least an hour. Bring to room temperature before grilling. Cook for 3-4 minutes per side, depending on the thickness, rest for 5 minutes, season, and enjoy. Do not overcook, this really does need to be medium at the most. Lemon is also very good in the marinade.

The picture below shows a meal I made for myself one night. I made a quick mushroom sauce with the steak and instead of potato mash i made cauliflower and parmesan mash, which was beautiful.

Shepherds pie and variations

Kangaroo mince goes absolutely beautifully in shepherds pie. I use this recipe with modifications. One is that I obviously use kangaroo mince, the other that i had a spoonfull of vegemite and of curry powder to the mince. The shots below show two different accompanying salads. One was a grated carrot salad which is a staple in this house, and the other was a salad that involved some cherry truss tomatoes, roasted.

I have also experimented with topping with a pumpkin/ potato mix mash and this is just lovely. There needs to be at least one potato in the mash or else it is too runny, but this can always be fixed by adding breadcrumbs.
I have also made a kangaroo stew. I used home-made chicken stock and seared the kanga before adding it to the mix. The stew doesnt need to be cooked for too long with the meat, but after 40 minutes, I found the meat was still tender (which can be a worry when cooking kangaroo due to its lean-ness) . I wont include a recipe as most people have a stew recipe they use.

Arabic Mousakka

I didnt know what else to call this dish. It resembles a Mousakka, but contains no bechamel or cheese, and is served with rice.

2 eggplants, sliced

onion

1kg mince

tomato paste

salt, pepper, mixed spices

pinenuts

2 potatoes sliced

2 tomatoes sliced

parsley

Firstly, grill or fry the eggplant slices

Brown the mince with onions and garlic and spices (mixed spices are good) until cooked and add parsley and pinenuts.

Lightly grease a baking dish. Arrange potato slices in one layer at bottom of dish. Top with one layer of eggplant slices. Place cooked mince on top of each eggplant slice and then top with another eggplant slice (like a sandwich). Top eggplant with tomato slices. Dilute a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste into enough water to just cover the dish contents. I also added a tin of tomatoes to the top, but this is not really necessary. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes or until bubbling and fragrant

Serve with rice and salad

I have also been using Kangaroo fillet in Chinese style cooking, which tastes great! The quick stir-frying technique works really well for kangaroo and I have tried many different variations and haven't been dissapointed yet! More recipes to come in part 2... enjoy

Kangaroo Lasagne

As promised, here is the recipe for the kangaroo lasagne. Lower in fat than traditional lasagne, better for the environment than beef, pork and veal, and also a lot cheaper ($6/kg of kangaroo mince? You don’t get cheaper than that!).

The bolognaise sauce can be used for any minced meat. I have found over the years that everyone does something different to their bolognaise or ‘bog’ sauce. So I have slowly collected everyone’s ‘secret’ ingredient into my own until I have formed what I think is the best sauce ever (big call that one!). The most important thing is to have a good quality sugo (tomato puree), and use fresh herbs.

Serves 6 (or 2 all week! Freezes well)

Bog

1kg kangaroo mince
2 big brown onions, diced
As much garlic as you like, minced
Celery stalks and inner leaves, diced
2 carrots, diced
Red capsicum, diced
Zucchini, diced
Handful of diced mushrooms
1 cup of verjuice or wine
200g diced pancetta or bacon
Jar of good quality sugo
Tinned tomatoes
Handful of parsley and basil, finely chopped
Teaspoon curry powder
Tablespoon of vegemite
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

Béchamel Sauce

40g butter
40g flour
1 cup milk
Nutmeg, cheese

Fresh lasagne sheets
Grated light mozzarella if on a diet, otherwise I use a mixture of gruyere and parmasen.

For the bog, brown the mince in a large pot with some ground pepper and set aside. In the same pot, fry onion, celery, capsicum, pancetta and carrots for 10 minutes until cooked and starting to go sweet. Add the zucchini, mushroom and fry for a few minutes. Add the verjuice and cook on high heat until reduced by half. Add the sugo and tomatoes, curry, balsamic and vegemite, season well, and bring to a simmer. Add a bay leaf and a cinnamon stick if you want. Leave on a low simmer for at least an hour, but the longer the better. It is even better if you make this the day before eating, as the flavours really infuse. This can be frozen and heated later for spaghetti sauce or lasagne. Towards the last 20 minutes, add the fresh herbs and stir in. taste for seasoning. Sometimes I add a little sugar.

For the béchamel, melt the butter on low heat and then beat in the flour until well combined. Add the milk and slowly heat up while stirring all the time until the mixture thickens. At this point I add nutmeg and whatever cheese I am using.

To assemble lasagne, alternate layers of lasagne sheets, bog and béchamel in a deep lasagne dish. Finish with béchamel and then top with cheese. Bake at 180C for 40 minutes or until cheese is golden. Serve with a fresh salad, bread and preferably a big glass of red. Share with kookaburras if you dare!