Kangaroo Kale Rolls

If you don’t have kale, I think the filling in this recipe will work just as well with cabbage if you  reduce the water and the cooking time a little.

But if you don’t have kale you’re missing out!  It’s a real super-food, with a big range of vitamins and minerals and some important anti-cancer phytochemicals.  And it’s also really delicious, especially cooked long and slow as in this recipe. I have so much cavolo nero kale in the garden at the moment, just half a dozen plants yielding more than we can eat or foist on visitors, but I keep expecting the white cabbage moths to arrive soon and end the bounty.  So I’m making the most of it.

Kangaroo is my red meat of choice, for a whole heap of reasons. – ethical, ecological, nutritional, and not least economic. This recipe made a big platter of rolls, enough for dinner and lunches, or a platter of party finger food.

The Recipe:

Cut the top two-thirds off  30 large cavolo nero kale leaves.

You will use six of the bottom thirds (where the central vein is thickest) to line your cooking pot.  Put the rest of the bottom thirds aside to use for another recipe (or, if you have garden bounty, feed them to the chooks who will think it is Christmas and give you super high vitamin A eggs in return).

Blanch the leaves in boiling water for a few minutes, just to soften them so that they roll easily.

While the kale is blanching, saute a large onion, finely diced, in olive oil.  Add 500 grams of kangaroo mince and brown.

Add:

• a teaspoon of coriander powder
• a teaspoon of cummin powder
• half a teaspoon of cinnamon
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 good dessertspoons of pine nuts
• 3 good dessertspoons of currants
• half a cup of rice (we have a local grower growing biodynamic rain-fed rice)
• half a cup of finely chopped mint and /or parsley

Saute for a few minutes until the rice goes white and opaque.

Lay a kale leaf, top side of the leaf up and vein side down, with the leaf tip towards you. Place a dessertspoon of the mince mix near the tip and roll, folding the edges over to make a nice tight roll.

Line the bottom of a heavy pot with the 6 blanched kale bottoms.  Arrange the filled rolls on top of them in layers.

Mix together and pour over:

• 100 ml lemon juice (1 lemon)
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 3 cups of water
• swig of olive oil
• salt and pepper.

Put a lid on the pot and simmer on a very very low heat for about two hours.  Towards the end, watch that they don’t boil dry.

They’re good hot but even better cold.