Although there aren't any new ingredients for me in this dish, it's definitely a new recipe idea.
Maybe some of you reading this haven't used kangaroo before, if not, I highly recommend it for so many reasons. I don't want to get too preachy on you here but- it's all pretty much organic and free range, kangaroo meat production has much less environmental impact than other red meat, it's really lean, it's high in Omega-3 (because the animals are mostly grass rather than grain fed), but most importantly, it's delicious!!! The things that might take some getting used to are the fact you're eating the coat of arms, it smells kind of funky (I recommend sitting it on some kitchen paper before you cook), and it has a game-y flavour (which personally, I really like but I guess it is an acquired taste for some).
With Roo, I generally buy only the fillet (mainly because it tends to other wise be sold as non-descript cuts, so you don't always know what you're getting). I usually like to leave it sit in a spice rub for a few hours before searing it on both sides for only a few minutes, if it's a chunky piece I'll finish for a few more minutes in the oven, and then lastly and importantly, letting it sit for another 10 minutes before eating.
Can I just say I was pretty proud with this effort. Roo and sweet potato are always a great match for each other, and I discovered that thai flavours and mango are equally fabulous matched with roo. It was all pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Fresh, summery and altogether mod-oz.
Spicy kangaroo with roasted sweet potato mash and mango salad
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| Spicy kangaroo on a bed of sweet potato mash, and a thai mango salad |
Ingredients
- 1 packet of Kangaroo fillet
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- 1 dry chilli or powdered chilli
- 2 sweet potatoes
- olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- one mango
- handful of corriander leaves
- handful of mint
- handful of thai basil
- one cucumber
- 1-2 green shallots
for the salad dressing:
- 2 limes
- sugar
- fish sauce
-soy sauce
-vegetable oil or peanut oil
Top with some roasted, slightly smashed up cashews or peanuts
Method:
I didn't have time to marinate the roo for long so I just seasoned it well with salt and pepper, squeezed some lime juice on it, then as a last minute thought I ground up a whole scotch bonnet chilli and seasoned the roo with that too. It added a bit more heat than I was expecting, but that was a good thing for this dish! The roo sat like that for probably around 30 minutes while I got to work on the sweet potato.
With the sweet potato I started off boiling it and then thought the mash would turn out gross and watery if that's all I did. So I ended up boiling them only until kind of soft, then took them off, drained them, and put them in an oven tray, doused them in olive oil and salt, threw in a couple of heads of garlic (skin and all), and roasted them in the oven. Worth it, so much more delicious. I guess it was around the 170 Celsius mark... After it had roasted for about 20-30minutes, I just mashed it up, retaining a fair bit of the oil, and popped the garlic cloves out of their shell into the mash.
For the mango salsa/salad whatever you want to call it, I diced up one mango. I put in some corriander leaves, thai basil leaves (you could use sweet basil), mint. I cut up some green shallots - for salads I like to have long slices, say 5cm, and then cut it up in quarters down the length... they come out looking pretty, kind of curly looking. I also cut up some cucumber in similar sized julienned slices (scooped out the seeds in the middle). I held off on the chilli this time but go ahead if you're a heat fiend.
Steve made up a nice Thai style dressing for the salad for me, using lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, soy and a touch of peanut oil (or you could use vegetable oil). I'm not good with saying what the quantities for these dressings are, I always just taste and add bits until it tastes right.
The roo was prepared like I said earlier, in a non stick pan with some olive oil, I just got it brown on each side, then put it in the oven with some foil over it for a few more minutes because the pieces were chunky. You don't want the roo to be cooked too much, trust me! You want it to be at least medium rare. If it's cooked any more than that it will be dry and tough and inedible really.
While the roo was in the oven, I crushed up some cashews and roasted them on the pan briefly.
I got into the spirit of "plating up" and made a little round bed of the mash using a mould, placed the roo on top, the salad to the side, and sprinkled the crushed cashews over the top. Happy summer eating.
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