I’ve just realised it’s been AGES since I last blogged! It’s been a busy few months (yes, not the best excuse, but it will have to do!). For those of you who don’t know, I went back to uni earlier this year to study a Master of Public Health. In the interests of getting it finished as fast as possible, I went back as a full-time student. Which is great, but I’m still doing a bit of marketing comms consulting, so time is stretched!
I also went to Adelaide for a few days about a month ago to go to the Population Health Congress. A real highlight was catching up with Amanda from the wonderful blog Lambs’ Ears and Honey – she took me to The Locavore for lunch in the beautiful Adelaide Hills. The drive there was stunning, but what I really love is their commitment to serving local food. Wherever possible their food is sourced from within a 100 mile radius, and their wine list is 100% from the Adelaide Hills. I was very impressed [so impressed I didn’t take any photos!]. I would love to see a restaurant in Brisbane with this commitment to local food and wine.
I was only home from Adelaide a few days before going to Killcare (on the NSW Central Coast) for about 10 days. My brother and I are lucky our parents had the foresight to buy a holiday house there about 20 years ago, and we have been having family holidays there ever since. We do rent it out for weekends and holiday rentals, so if you are interested check it out on Stayz. My brother and I both love to cook, so a priority in the recent reno was a decent kitchen with a 90cm cooker. On our last visit I think we had friends pop in for a meal almost every day, so it and the BBQ outside were well used!
One of my contributions to the garden was to plant a small herb garden with a few basics [parsley, oregano, thyme, chilli, chives and lemongrass in the backyard], and on our last visit we added a lime and lemon tree. Hopefully they survive our sporadic visits!
The parsley has gone a bit crazy!
One of our favourite things about Killcare are all the gorgeous birds, who are always very well fed with our leftovers!
Sometimes I think the birds eat better than we do! The kookaburras certainly enjoyed a large amount of our leftover lamb roast!
Anyway, we have been home for about a week and straight into Brisbane summer! It’s almost been too hot to cook so it’s been a week of salad.
This BBQ veggie and kangaroo salad I made last night was a particular winner! I first had it when my friend Sharon cooked lunch for us a few months ago and it’s based on a recipe from a Michelle Bridges cookbook.
I haven’t eaten a lot of kangaroo – mainly because I had a bit of a bad experience when I made a kangaroo spag bol some years back. I didn’t realise what a strong flavour it had, and that you only needed about half the amount of meat compared to using beef mince. The strong flavours were a bit of a shock! However after the gorgeousness of last night’s dinner, it will be making a regular appearance on our dining table.
Terrible photo that doesn’t do the meal justice!
One of the things I love about kangaroo is that it is very lean (so cook it quickly and to medium rare so it doesn’t get tough), and it’s also high in protein, zinc and iron.
Have you eaten kangaroo before? How did you cook it?
What you need
- 250-300g kangaroo steak
- olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 zucchini, thinly sliced longways
- 1 bunch of asparagus
- 1 red capsicum, seeded and cut into chunky strips
- 1/2 small bunch of mint, stalks removed, chopped
- 1tbs lemon juice or a good white wine vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
What you do
- Marinate the kangaroo steak with about 1 tsp olive oil, garlic, about 1/4 of the mint, bit of salt and pepper. Leave for about 30 minutes.
- Pop the zucchini, asparagus and red capsicum in a bowl and coat with 1tsp olive oil, bit of salt and pepper.
- Heat the BBQ (or a frypan/grill pan if cooking indoors). Once hot, cook the kangaroo, turning once. I had 3 small steaks, but one was twice as thick as the other two. The thin steaks cooked to medium in about 3-4 minutes, the thicker steak was cooked to rare in that time. Ideally you want it cooked to medium-rare. Once cooked, set aside to rest for about 10 minutes, then slice thinly.
- Once the kangaroo is cooked, cook the veggies, turning after about 1-2 minutes. I found the asparagus cooked in about 2 minutes as it was quite thin, the zucchini and capsicum took about 3-4 minutes. I cooked it on the grill side and did have a bit of a mishap with a few pieces falling onto the burner [sigh].
- When the veggies are cooked pop them all in a bowl. Add the mint, another tsp of olive oil and the lemon juice/white wine vinegar. Mix it lightly and serve. Add the sliced kangaroo fillets on top of the veggies.
A great introduction to cooking with Kangaroo for novices like me. This sounds like an excellent way to get started. Will give it a whirl this weekend. Thanks for sharing.