Salad of Seared Kangaroo, Roasted Red Onions & Red Onion Pickle

Janni Kyritsis

Serves 6

Ingredients: 

3 x 200g kangaroo fillets

3 tbs coarsely ground black pepper

Light olive oil, to cover

6 small red onions

Extra virgin olive oil, to taste

1 tbs Szechwan peppercorns

2 tbs salt flakes

Red Onion Pickle

(Makes about 1kg – great with any cold meat)

¾ cup Mirin (Japanese rice wine)

½ cup white wine vinegar

⅓ cup sugar

2 tbs salt

5 bird’s eye chillies, chopped

1 tsp Szechwan peppercorns

3 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with the skin on

700g small red onions, cut into thin rings

Method:

Roll kangaroo fillets in ground black pepper.  Put into a small dish in a single layer and cover with olive oil.  Refrigerate overnight.

Make the Red Onion Pickle:

Combine all ingredients, except the red onion, in a small saucepan.  Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes.  Add onions and simmer for a further 2-3 minutes.  Discard garlic and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 220ºC.

Roast red onions, skin on, until skin is blackened and onions are soft right through.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.  When cool, peel, quarter and drizzle with olive oil.

Combine Szechwan peppercorns and salt flakes in a small frying pan.  Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture starts to smoke.  Grind in a mortar and pestle or with a spice grinder.

Heat a BBQ plate or heavy-based frying pan until very hot.  Remove kangaroo fillets from olive oil and sear quickly on each side, so that they remain very rare inside.  When fillets have cooled, slice very thinly and arrange flat on plates.  Place a mound of red onion pickle in the centre, arrange roasted onion pieces around the pickle, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with Szechwan pepper salt.

Janni’s tips: You’ll need to start this dish the day before, to marinate the kangaroo and leave the pickle to develop flavour overnight.  Wallaby and venison can also be used in this recipe.

Australia Day 2009 was the day we selected to photograph this dish and we took the opportunity to have a little cook up with a few friends and what meat more appropriate than kangaroo? We are one of the few nations on Earth to eat our national emblems but in reality that’s a lot better than culling and leaving the carcasses to rot. Kangaroo is a wonderfully gamey meat almost free of fat and needs to be cooked for a very short time using very high heat. This dish is simply fantastic! Thank you Janni!