rare
saddle
of
kangaroo
kangaroo
tail
mandarin
bun
BEATING THE BUDGET
It is astonishing to restaurateurs to be told by government and statisticians that food prices have not gone crazy. They seem to forget that in a vain attempt to make a fair profit for our time and effort we do constant costings of the food we cook and sell. We recently ran our current costing sheet against the same sheet from four years ago. With the exception of eggplant, capsicums and some more common types of potatoes nearly everything was at least 25% more expensive so the question has to be asked “where do they get their figures?” Show me the restaurant in Adelaide that has the guts to increase their prices by 25% in the last four years…………no one would dare! The most astonishing increases are flour and garlic. A 12.5 kg bag of organic flour has gone from about $16 to $23+ an increase of a minimum of 43%, but good local garlic has risen from about $12 to in some instances as much as $30 a kilo an increase of 150%. We are all trying to buy local and give our customers value for money, but the truth is it’s a very tough call.
Meeting budget isn’t just tough for restaurants; it is tough for everyone and the reason we love kangaroo. Delicious, easy to cook, healthy (if you care) and so very cheap that a recent retail purchase of 3.286 kg kangaroo saddle [$10 per kilo 2004 and now $22.99 in 2024] and three kangaroo tails 2.866 kg [$7.99 per kilo and now $15.99 in 2024] was a total cost of $55.75 meaning just over $100 in 2024.
It has to be said that if you like your grilled meat cooked medium to well done kangaroo is not a great choice. The meat is almost totally devoid of fat and cooked well done, well, we think you might as well try and eat your silicone spatula. Rare to medium rare, seared quickly in a very hot pan with some butter for added flavour and rested standing on a rack in an 80°C oven for 20 minutes (rare) and 30 minutes (medium rare) it will be succulent, warm to the middle, perfectly set and no running blood. The similarity of kangaroo to farmed venison is obvious to chefs and many of the classic venison dishes are well suited to kangaroo. Get out any old European cookbook and try something as obvious and seasonal as braised red cabbage, potato dumplings or steamed potatoes, meat jus enriched with some black currant jam, crushed juniper and a little red wine vinegar and some grilled well-rested kangaroo saddle and be very, very delighted.
There is one really good kangaroo meat supplier in Adelaide and they are at the Adelaide Central Markets. Originally Kanopy Meats, they are now renamed ‘Australia’s Original Kangaroo Meats’ we have been buying kangaroo from this shop for an astonishing 40+ years. See end of article for details. Whilst a great supporter of vaccing for preserving and tenderising cuts of beef, I do no like the commonly available supermarket vacced kangaroo. It mainly has a sour and unpleasant smell and the meat generally shows signs of discolouration and oxidization and tastes awful. We buy fresh roo, clean it, season it and roll it through our best EV olive oil and vac it but never keep it vacced for more than two to three days before using it.
AO 16 APRIL 2024
[FIRST PUBLISHED IN INDAILY CIRCA 2004, ALSO PUBLISHED IN THE ALBANY ADVERTISER 2006 AND THE JORDAN TIMES]
THE COOKED TAIL BEING TAKEN FROM THE BONE…JUICY AND SUCULENT.
preparing
the meat
There is the minimum amount of trim and to prepare all you need to do is remove the silver membrane. We brown the trim in a 220°C oven and use it in kangaroo stock usually embellished with a roo tail that has also been browned in a hot oven. Stock made with roo tail has a terrific gelatinous quality that when reduced makes a great sticky full-flavoured glaze. We like to use a lot of vegetables in our stocks because it keeps them sweet and balances the meaty flavour. We never use a lot of celery and never use the leaves in stocks but save them instead for salads. Celery leaves, especially the older outside leaves can impart and unpleasant bitterness to a stock not dissimilar to burnt bones.
Trim the ends and use them for a stir-fry, so that you end up with lovely evenly sized fillet portions. Slice the ends thinly and marinate them with a little minced garlic ginger, some sweet soy and Lingham’s sweet chilli sauce (newly rebranded as Thai). This week there have been plenty of the shiny beige skinned Chinese turnips about and we love the contrast between the softness of oyster mushrooms and the crunch of the turnips and bean sprouts. Extra chilli goes without saying.
Rare
Saddle of Kangaroo with Steamed Buns filled with Kangaroo Tail Braised with
Mandarin,
Star Anise,
Chilli and Ginger, Mandarin
Chilli Sauce
serves 8
for the bun filling and sauce
1 kangaroo tail [approx. 2.5-3kg], cut into sections and roasted on a rack until browned in a hot 220°C oven
250g Chinese cooking wine
300g Ketyap Manis
10g whole star anise
4 cinnamon quills
6 Thai chillies, finely sliced
8 mandarins, peel of 4, strained juice of 8
40g ginger:garlic
65g Chinese black vinegar [or balsamic]
300g caramelised onion
500g cold water
Using either a slow cooker or the oven. Set the slow cooker on high and set a timer for two hours. If you have a Breville slow cooker they seem to be hotter than most other brands so, check after 90 minutes; the liquid should be simmering gently. Turn the heat down to low and cook for another three hours or until the meat is falling from the bone.
OR in the oven 4-5 hours @120°C in a deep baking pan contact covered with baking paper and tightly sealed with aluminium foil.
Allow to cool till just warm and then pull the meat from the bones and chop roughly. Discard the bones and pull the large pieces of mandarin peel and ginger slices from the cooking liquid and pass the rest of the cooking liquid through a sieve.
Moisten the tail meat with a little of the strained sauce and reserve any remaining cooking liquid for the sauce.
THE BROWNED TAIL AND ALL INGREDIENTS IN THE SLOW COOKER
for the
bun dough
click here for the bun dough recipe
FILLING THE BUNS
to make the buns
Roll the dough into a cylinder and cut the dough into 10 x approx 60g pieces and roll them into balls. Cover with plastic food wrap while you are filling the buns. Using as little extra flour as possible roll the bun dough out into a circle that is not more than 1cm thick. Fill with the moistened COLD tail meat, seal the edges with water and fold up.
Place on a small square of baking paper [or the non-stick bun paper] [1] and sit them on a tray. Repeat the process until the dough is finished you should get 10 dumplings at this size.
Cover with plastic food wrap and refrigerate until ready to cook.
Taking the dumplings out to prove depends on the room temperature and the temperature of your fridge. Cold weather two to three hours, hot weather probably about one and a half hours – they should be almost doubled in size before they go into the steamer.
[1] It’s handy to have the non-stick steamer inserts with holes that can be purchased at any Chinese Grocer to stop them sticking to the steamer.
STEAMING THE BUNS…I DO LIKE THE FLAVOUR IMPARTED FRO BAMBOO STEAMERS
other ingredients
2-3 kangaroo saddles, cleaned, seasoned and rolled through EV olive oil [approximately 900g to 1kg when cleaned] butter or ghee for frying
SEARING THE KANGAROO…IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE SMOKE AND THE SMELL OF MEAT DO IT OUTSIDE. THE ONLY WAY THIS IS SUCCESSFUL IS IF IT’S DONE ON VERY HIGH HEAT.
to serve
pre heat oven to 80°C and put a steamer large enough to cook all the buns on the heat.
Put a rack on a tray and put it in the resting oven. Sear the saddle in a very hot pan and put them on the rack in the resting oven and set a timer for 20 minutes.
Steam the dumplings for about 20 minutes and re-heat the sauce, reducing or adding a little water as required to get the perfect consistency.
Slice the saddle about 15mm thick serve as a single plate with buns, meat and sauce or individual plates. Don’t be surprised if a fight breaks out for the last buns.
PLATED AND READY TO EAT…PERFECT!
WHERE TO BUY
AUSTRALIA'S ORIGINAL
KANGAROO MEATS
EECSU Pty Ltd
Shop 15, Unit 9, Market Plaza
61-63 Grote Street,
Adelaide
South Australia 5000
tel: 61 449 208 679
as of April 2024
Saddle and fillet $22.99 per kg – tail $15.99 per kg….very nicely cleaned for those who don’t know how.
AUSTRALIA’S ORIGINAL KANGAROO MEATS, ADELAIDE CETRAL MARKETS….SUCH A CLEAN DISPLAY. NO BLEEDING INDICATING MEAT HAS NEVER BEEN FROZEN. IT’S IN THAT LITTLE THROUGH FARE WITH LUCIA’S ON THE CORNER.
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