'Roo Pie

Last day at home before another work trip ( and last work trip) to China and I decided to spend it gardening and cooking -  things I can't do while away and anything to take you away from packing your bag, right? And after all, it was such a lovely day here in Sydney.

So, I picked a big bunch of celery,

a big bunch of radish

a bunch of baby beets and

a handful of broccoli side shoots.

The celery went into apple carrot and celery juice, and went into 'roo pies (but more on that later).

The beets got pickled and put in a jar.  I am still not partial to pickled beets but the Lad loves these.

And then, to further delay packing the bag, I got going on a long, slow cook.

Recently we have been thinking about cooking and eating kangaroo.  We had certainly eaten it before -  one memorable time after having walked  a good slab of the Larapinta trail in Central Australia and ended at Glen Helen desperate for a proper feed. It was great.

I cant remember how we started thinking about cooking it ourselves -  I think the Lad may have heard a program on Bush Telegraph - a radio program on ABC Radio National about cooking 'roo? Or we might have started thinking about eating 'roo because of our immanent rural move.

'Roo, is very very lean - all that hopping about I guess. It's also high in iron  and protein.  It looks very very dark  and has a unique smell to it. It is quite gamey. Because of the low fat, it can dry out and be very chewy if you are not careful.  It lends itself to either a quick and hot pan or a long and slow bloop. We have now done both.

We started this adventure very carefully.  I bought a pack of rump and the first meal we tried was roo steaks. I read up and  vowed not to cook any longer than 2-3 mins each side.  In the end I went for 2.5 mins and then took off to rest.  I also prepared an onion and pomegranate sauce which was amazing on top and moistened the meat. It was very enjoyable, not tough and had a great taste. I was a little chuffed that it worked!

Today I have tackled the other method -  a long slow bloop with the intention of making filing for a pie.I thought that the gaminess of 'roo would work well with a Spanish interpretation by adding lots of garlic, chorizo and smoked paprika.

'Roo pie (* from the patch)
onion
garlic
celery* cut very fine
carrot grated
kangaroo meat ( I had left over rump and a whole packet of loin)
flour
pepper grinded and whole pepper corns
smoked paprika
chorizo sausage
a little tinned tomato
bay leaves*
1 stubby of beer - 4 Wives Pilsner from James Squire
homemade short crust pastry -  the Lad's speciality
shop bought puff for the top

I coated the meat in flour and set aside. I cooked the onion and garlic and finely chopped chorizo for a while and then added the carrot and celery. After it had softened I added the meat and browned. Then added the rest of the ingredients and blooped on a low heat for several hours.  The need to stir occasionally, sufficiently distracted from packing the bags.

The Lad made the pastry and prepared the pies -  a little sprinkle of smoked paprika on top and  they looked wonderful. (One pie did get a little more than a sprinkle!)

And  we had it with  the steamed broccoli side shoots and a tomato sauce.

Have you tried a new food recently?  Something that was a little scary and you worried about how it would cook? Do you cook 'roo? How?

My next challenge? Rabbit - supplied fresh from the farm.

In the meantime, I will go into blog oblivion behind the Great Fire Wall of China and so will not be able to read or comment on your blogs or make any new posts. Goodbye for a while...