The kangaroo of thanks

As I pointed out in my last post, I've been a bit laid up lately with a shattered ankle (boo hiss). I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but at the same time I'm not looking for sympathy, not for self inflicted injuries. My point is, during this time my long-suffering and unfeasibly wonderful better half took care of me, our daughter and everything else around the house while I slumped on the couch feeling sorry for myself.

So now I'm mobile again (sort of), I decided to cook her a special meal to say thanks, not that one meal will make up for a couple of months of convalescent care.

The Menu:
Marinated kangaroo fillet on candied sweet potato with green beans and an orange & star anise sauce.

Kangaroo is such an under-rated meat. It's got everything going for it - high in protein and iron, low in cholesterol, it's amazingly tender and produced with a minimal impact on the environment - all that and it tastes great too! I've heard arguments that it's too gamey for some people, but with the fillet that's just not an issue. To be honest, I think people are just finding excuses not to eat it because of some self-imposed mental barrier to eating skippy. get over it I say. The arguments for it far outweigh those against.

The Meat
Put your trimmed kangaroo fillet in a bowl with five cloves of crushed and chopped garlic and a spice mix consisting of ground black pepper, turmeric, cumin, coriander and caraway seeds. Add a generous dollop of olive oil and a teaspoon of harissa (ours home-made gear, made with a recipe in Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion, is super hot so I use it sparingly). Mix the lot together and leave to marinate while you prepare all the rest.

The Sweet Potatoes
I love sweet spuds with a nice crispy candied layer on the outside. First pre-heat your oven to 200C. Peel the potato and slice it laterally (crosswise) about an inch thick. Boil the slices until the outside has started to soften. While this is going on, dissolve a tablespoon of brown sugar in the a couple of spoonfuls of water and reduce it almost to caramel. Once the spuds are soft, put them in the pan with the sugar mix and allow it to form a layer around the sweet potato slices. Place them on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and chuck them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

The Sauce
Combine a cup of chicken or beef stock with half a cup of orange juice, the leftover sugar syrup from the sweet potatoes and spices, including a stick of cinnamon, two whole star anise thingies and a teaspoon of whole coriander seeds. Reduce on a simmer for around 30 minutes, about the same amount of time it takes to cook the roo and spuds.

Bringing it all Together
When your spuds and sauce are about 10 minutes away, heat up a frypan on the stove until it's almost smoking. Add a drop of oil and sear off your roo fillets, making sure you add all the marinating liquid as well, browning them on both sides. If your pan has a metal handle, chuck the whole thing in the oven to cook through, or else just turn the stove down and cook to your preferred taste (anything more than medium and you're wasting a great cut of meat).
To present, place three of the slices of sweet potato on the plate, top off with a handful of green beans then slice your roo fillet artfully on top. Take the juices from the frypan and from the board you used to cut the kangaroo and add them to the sauce. Mix it quickly and drizzle over the whole concoction.

For a meal like this I had to find a wine to match, so I headed over the hill to the Bird in Hand winery, hoping to snag a bottle of their lovely Pinot Noir. But when I got there I found they were all out. Not to worry, after a quick perusal of their bottles I settled upon a Merlot, described as having "generous fleshy fruit (flavours) and a succulent and supple texture". I found its mellower, more intense fruit flavour better suited to the kangaroo than a more robust red like a Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon, which seem more appropriate with a fattier animal like beef or lamb.

Needless to say the whole meal went down a treat and went at least part of the way to saying thank you. Now, if anyone wants me, I'll be in the kitchen washing up. There's a lot of ground to make up yet...

Still eating, still cooking

It’s ok everyone, I’m still alive. I know it’s been almost nine months since my last post but a lot of stuff has happened since then. Most notably, the birth of my beautiful daughter Matilda. This obviously brought about big changes in my life and coming to grips with them, combined with struggling to finish off the final semester of my degree, left me little time to devote to voluntary pursuits.

Just as I was about to get back into it after graduating, I had to go and break my ankle into five pieces, a state conducive to sitting around writing you might think. Instead I chose to spend my convalescence sitting around mastering the Lego Star Wars game my brother thoughtfully sent me.

So there you go, and here we are in 2009. Another year and a fresh start for my blogging exploits (at least that’s how it’s planned). Hopefully I’ll get my act together enough to regularly chart my culinary exploits post university, post fracture and post 2008.

Until next we speak, happy eating.