How roo'd

Remember a while back I posted about cooking with kangaroo meat (http://creatingastir.blogspot.com/2009/08/faba-roo-ny-yeah-i-have-toddler.html)? I'd been sent some meat by www.roomeat.co.jp for me to have a play with and see how the folks liked it. It occurred to me that I'd prepared two different recipes but, what with all the excitement of the sudden trip to Australia, I forgot to tell you about the second. And isn't is just like me to forget where I found the recipe? I know it was on-line, I thought I'd bookmarked it... Anyway, I'd had to adapt the recipe as I wasn't using beef, and I started off want to make tataki however ended up simmering the meat in a marinade for a few minutes instead of the traditional method of searing the meat. I think I can pretty much remember the recipe. Not sure if this is really tataki, but it went down well with K and was unbelievably simple to make...


Kangaroo Tataki

a good size piece of kangaroo long fillet
3/4 cup sake
1/2 cup mirin
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 cups dashi

Mix together soy sauce, sake, mirin and dashi in a pan and bring to a boil. Add the meat and return to the boil. Cook 3 to 5 minutes (depends on the thickness of the meat, but be careful not to overcook the meat;it should be rare on the inside). Remove the meat, wrap it in foil and put it in the fridge overnight. Continue gently boiling the liquid in the pan until it has reduced to a thick sauce, being careful not to let it burn. Allow it to cool and keep in the fridge overnight with the meat. To serve, slice the meat thinly, arrange over hot rice, pour a little of the sauce over the top and garnish with some sliced spring onion.

Naturally, cooking with kangaroo has generated some interesting conversations. One friend said that she would probably enjoy eating it as long as she didn't know what she was eating (and remember, I didn't tell K the first time I fed it to him as I wanted to see if he found it tasty without any prejudice). That seems to be the main issue - kangaroos are cute! But it is far more ethical to eat the meat of an animal that requires culling than to raise 'ugly' animals battery-style for our dinner tables. Hey - cows are beautiful, just look at those big eyes! I do think that kangaroo meat would benefit from a new name (just as with beef or pork). There has been some attempt to re-brand the meat as australus, but it doesn't seem to be taking! Check out some of the other suggested names here:

http://calorielab.com/news/2005/09/06/kangaroo-meat-touted-as-diet-food/

hahaha, cyril! Don't be shy to have a look at what RooMeat have to offer (www.roomeat.co.jp - it's not all kangaroo!), the site is all in Japanese, but if you send them a note in English I'm pretty sure they'd be very happy to help you work it all out!

Faba-roo-ny (yeah, I have a toddler)

Had a very disappointing day today. Was feeling very sorry for myself until I walked into my kitchen and set to work on a special dinner. Earlier this week I was delighted to take delivery of a very exciting parcel from an AFWJ friend who's family have a business importing meat from Australia (www.roomeat.co.jp), and so a have had enormous pleasure browsing my cookery books for recipes that could be tweaked to suit kangaroo and ostrich meat!

I decided not to tell K what I'd be serving and just watch his reaction to the taste. People can get very judgemental and picky about a new food just from hearing it's name, before even taking a bite. What's cute and cuddly in one country is often a delicacy in another, but I can't be doing with this pick-and-choose attitude - flesh is meat, right? I should point out that I myself am a vegetarian (I don't eat any meat or fish, my personal choice and not one that I force on others), although I do prepare and cook meat and fish dishes for my family. (Oh, and I don't understand people who claim to be vegetarian and yet eat fish, or even chicken, that always seems somewhat hypocritical to me...)

Anyway, on to tonight's dinner! I decided to attempt my own version of a recipe I saw in Nigella Lawson's Feast (Sake Steak and Rice), I suppose I could call it Kangaroo Don but let me know if you can think of anything better!




Kangaroo Donburi (serves 2, but K ate the lot!)

2 good size pieces of Kangaroo long fillet
some thinly sliced spring onion
2 shiso leaves, chopped

Marinade:

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 crushed clove of garlic
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon wasabi

Sauce:

60ml sake
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon wasabi

As I was advised, start by soaking the fillets for a while to remove some of the blood before adding to the mixed marinade ingredients and leaving to steep for a good few hours. Take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you are ready to cook. Heat a frying pan (or a griddle if you have one) and cook the fillets for two minutes on each side. Double wrap each fillet in foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes while you make the sauce.
Put the sake in a small pan and bring it to the boil before adding the remaining ingredients. Open the foil parcels and pour the juices into the sauce. Slice the meat (it should be rare and cooked perfectly), place on top of steamed rice, pour over some of the sauce, and garnish with the onion and shiso - ready to go!

A quick look at the wikipedia entry for kangaroo meat should be enough to convince you to give this a try:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_meat

So if you've read that, you now know that it is free-range, as organic as a wild animal can be, high in protein and anti-cancer and body fat reducing CLA, and very low in fat. But does it taste good? I can't tell you from my own experience, but as I said, K ate the whole lot, mumbling 'oishii, oishii' the whole time, so I can assure you that it gets the thumbs up in this house!

A huge thank you to Eric for the very generous package - friends, please do have a look at his website to see what they have to offer! And watch this space for more recipes, K is now very keen to sample ostrich...