The kangaroo mince in our local supermarket comes from South Australia. It’s really unfortunate. Coz otherwise it fits every criteria for the Witches Kitchen definitions of good, good and good.

It’s good for you – lean, low cholesterol, high iron, organic, free range. It tastes good – pretty much like lean beef mince – in things like this I can’t tell the difference. And it’s virtuously good – soft feet, no greenhouse gas farts, wild harvested and ethically killed, from species that are not in any danger.  It’s just not local. At least the kangaroo mince in the supermarket isn’t.  But in the scheme of compromises, it’s a small one.

The Recipe:

The key to a good burger patty is cottage cheese in the mix.  It makes it hold together nicely without going dry.

To make 4 large patties, mix

• 300 grams of kangaroo mince,
• one finely chopped onion,
• lots of garlic,
• a finely chopped chili  (or not)
• a good swig of Worcestershire sauce,
• 1 egg,
• a couple of big spoonfuls of cottage cheese
• a couple of  spoonfuls of wholemeal plain flour
• salt and pepper

Use your hands to squish it all well together. The mix should be sticky but not sloppy.

With wet hands, shape into burger sized rissoles.  Fry in a little olive oil for a few minutes each side.

Fried onions are essential, so while the burgers are cooking, fry some sliced onion in olive oil. I like thick slices of fried tomato too.

You also need some home-made 2 minute mayonnaise.

Allowing everyone to assemble their own is a nice way to serve, so while the burgers are cooking, make up a platter of greens – cucumber, lettuce and rocket. Assemble some condiments – chutney, sauce, mustard.  Burger buns, the fried onions, the kangaroo patties and dinner is served.

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Some friends for dinner who had never eaten kangaroo before and were a bit dubious.  In this pie, you really can’t tell the meat is kangaroo – it could just as easily be chuck steak.  Not that I usually try to disguise it – kangaroo is our red meat of choice these days, for all sorts of reasons –  ethical, ecological, cost, health benefits – but taste is also up there.  Maybe I’m just used to it now, or maybe methods of harvesting and processing have changed, but I find the kangaroo meat I get in the supermarket these days isn’t gamey at all, and for most people it’s just the idea of eating kangaroo that gets in the way. For me, the idea works the other way.  I like the idea of organic, free range, non-greenhouse-gas-producing, adapted-to-the-environment meat. My problem is with the idea eating meat from factory farmed animals.

You could easily undo the health benefits of a very lean, low cholesterol meat, by putting it in a pie with a standard shortcrust though.  I’ve been playing and experimenting lately with making pastry without butter.  This pastry is a bit fragile and tricky to roll out, but it is lovely and short and no saturated fat.  Meaning the whole recipe is super heart friendly.

The Recipe:

The Pastry:

Mix 2½ cups of wholemeal plain flour and a teaspoon of salt in a bowl.

Fill a cup half full of low fat milk and top it up to full with olive oil – half a cup of each.  You don’t need to mix them.

Tip the cup all at once into the bowl.  Stir and then knead just enough to combine into a dough.  Don’t overwork the dough or it will get tough.

Cover the bowl and put the dough in the fridge to cool while you make the filling.

The Filling

Put a handful of plain wholemeal flour in a plastic bag.

Dice 400 grams of kangaroo steak and put in the bag.  Shake to coat the meat in flour.

Heat a good dash of olive oil in a heavy pan till the pan is very hot, then brown the floured meat.  You will probably need to do it in two batches so it sears rather than stews.

While the meat is browning, dice two onions and several cloves of garlic.  Take the meat out, add another dash of olive oil, and sauté the onions and garlic.

At this stage I like to add a little bit of something with some heat – either a diced chili, or a teaspoon of seeded mustard, or a couple of teaspoons of green peppercorns. They all create something different but they’re all good. But if you don’t like spicy food you can leave it out.

While the onions are cooking, slice 250 grams of mushrooms.  Add them to the onions.

Return the meat to the pan and add a jar of tomato passata and half a cup of water.

Simmer to reduce and thicken.

Filling and Baking

While the filling is simmering, roll out the pastry.

This pastry is quite fragile.  The easiest way to do this is to divide the dough into two balls, one slightly bigger than the other.  Put a sheet of greaseproof paper on your bench top, put the bigger ball on it, and cover with another sheet.  Roll the pastry out between the two sheets, turning once or twice to un-wrinkle the paper. You can then peel the top sheet of paper off, flip it into the pie dish, then peel the other sheet off.

Line a pie dish with pastry, fill, cover with the other sheet of pastry.  Pinch the edge decoratively and poke the top with a fork to allow steam to escape.

Bake in a medium hot oven for around 30 minutes till brown.

Really good served with potato or parsnip mash and steamed greens.

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This recipe is challenging. It is much better the next day.  Now that is hard to achieve in our house!

I don’t have a freezer, not even a little one in the fridge.  We live with stand alone solar power, have done for nearly 30 years now.  It’s a very good way to learn about the electricity use of various appliances, and how to make educated decisions about their costs and benefits. And a freezer has never warranted the cost.

Thus I’ve never got into the habit of cooking ahead.  But this one, when I make it I make a decent sized batch and we eat it for a couple of lunches and dinners.  It’s just as good cold as hot and good enough to still look forward to the third time!  We rarely manage to postpone the first serving, but the second one the next day really is much better.

If you’ve visited here before, you will know my thoughts about kangaroo as the red meat of choice for Australians. This recipe is a kind of fast and easy moussaka-ish dish rendered double healthy by using, besides the very lean kangaroo, low fat dairy foods, eggs, and lots of vegetables.

The Recipe:

Part One: The Meat Sauce

This is simply a matter of making your favourite  bolognese sauce using 300 grams of kangaroo mince. My version is:

In a heavy fry pan

• brown 300 grams of kangaroo mince in a little olive oil, breaking it up with the back of a wooden spoon.
• Add two diced onions and two diced carrots and continue cooking till they start to brown.
• If you like a bit of spice, add a sprinkle of crushed dried chilies or chili powder
• then add
  • lots of chopped garlic,
  • some diced mushrooms,
  • good handful of finely chopped oregano,
  • and (this time of year) a jar of tomatoes.
• Depending on how rich your tomatoes are, you might also add a spoonful of tomato paste.

Salt and pepper to taste and simmer for a few minutes till it is a nice thick sauce consistency.

Part Two: The White Sauce

This version is much faster, simpler and healthier than the traditional bechamel.

In a food processor or blender, blend together:

• 3 eggs
• 250 grams low fat cottage cheese
• 250 grams low fat greek yoghurt
• 60 grams low fat feta

Part Three: The Silver Beet

Remove the centre vein from a dozen large silver beet leaves but don’t chop the leaves.  Blanch by pouring boiling water over them in a pot, putting the lid on, and leaving for a couple of minutes, just to soften them so they will lie flat.

Part Four: Assembling and Baking

The baking dish I use for this is 30 cm by 20 cm. Spread half the meat sauce over the bottom, then a layer of silver beet, a couple of leaves thick over this.Spread half the white sauce on top, then the other half of the meat sauce, another layer of silver beet and another layer of white sauce.

Sprinkle grated parmesan lightly over the top, then bake in a medium oven for around half an hour until the top is lightly browned.

It’s great served with a green salad with a vinaigrette dressing.

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If you’ve visited here before, you will know my thoughts about kangaroo as the red meat of choice for Australians.  The recent controversy about live cattle exports has brought it to the front of my mind again.

I am comfortable with being a predator as a general concept.  There’s an essay here, from a book by Lierre Keith, that captures the ethics of it so lucidly. But I am not at all comfortable with intensive farming of livestock, or abbatoirs.  I’d much prefer a wild animal hunted cleanly.  Australian beef and lamb mostly falls somewhere in the middle.  But then, when you add greenhouse gases, and soil conservation, and water management into the ethics equation, kangaroo comes out way ahead.

This has been one of our favourite winter meals lately – fast and easy, healthy, warm and tasty, cheap and ethical – all the boxes. The combination of hot soup, ginger, lightly cooked vegies and kangaroo meat feel just right for this time of year.

The Recipe

Serves 3 or 4 for dinner, 2 or 3 if you are very hungry.  Like many Asian recipes, it comes together really fast.

The Meatballs:

In the food processor:

• 300 grams kangaroo mince
• 1 onion
• 2 dessertspoons soy sauce
• half a thumb sized piece of ginger
• 1 egg
• 2 dessertspoons cornflour (corn starch if you are in USA – but then if you are in USA, maybe venison is the comparable meat?)
• salt and pepper

The Stock:

• 5 cups of stock, or 5 cups of water with a couple of dessertspoons of miso
• half a thumb sized piece of ginger, julienned
• 1 chili chopped fine

Bring the stock to the boil, then add the meatballs.  Use wet hands to make small balls and drop them in one by one.  Cook 5 minutes from last meatball in.

The Noodles

• While the meatballs are cooking, put some egg noodles on to cook in boiling water – more if you are active, less if you are keeping carbs down.

The Vegetables (all julienned):

Add to the meatballs in the stock:

• 2 spring onions
• 10-12 beans or snow peas (I’m still harvesting the last of the green beans)
• 2 carrots
• 3-4 leaves of chinese cabbage

Cook just a couple of minutes.  Don’t overcook.

Seasoning at the end:

Put the noodles in bowls and ladle the meatball soup over top.  Taste and add seasonings to taste.  I like

• a teaspoon honey
• a little swig of soy sauce
• a squeeze of lemon juice or vinegar
• chopped coriander on top to serve

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