Smoked kangaroo fillets, and tomato, basil and smoked macadamia salad make a perfect combination. Served as an entree this dish will impress even the fussiest dinner guests.
In June 2018, prompted by an over abundance of kangaroos and worsening drought conditions the New South Wales Government made common sense changes to the kangaroo management program. The most positive change was that volunteer hunters, assisting landholders with permitted kangaroo control measures, were no longer forced to leave the meat to waste-but instead may now use the meat and hide from any kangaroos they shoot. As I result I found my way into an abundance of kangaroo meat and was able to experiment with many different styles of cooking.
I had been aging some small roo fillets in the fridge for about ten days, when we had some friends visit for dinner. While I would not categories these friends as fussy, they are certainly not accustomed to regularly eating game meat. With that in mind I decided to smoke the fillets and use them in an entrée, in which both the texture and flavour of the kangaroo could be balanced with other elements of the dish. This dish proved to be a real hit with everyone.
Smoked kangaroo fillet with tomato and macadamia salad
Equipment
- smoker
Ingredients
- 8 small kangaroo fillets
Brine
- kosher salt / flossy salt 5% weight of kangaroo fillets
- brown sugar 5% weight of kangaroo fillets
Salad
- 8 tbsp whole egg mayonaise homemade or store bough
- hot sauce (Tabasco, Frank's, etc.) to taste
- 1 punnet tomatoes baby roma, tommy toe, or similar
- 1 handful fresh basil leaves
- 1 handful raw macadamia nuts cashews would also work (but macadmia nuts are native Australian).
- 1-2 cups Parmesan cheese freshly grated
- Freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Weigh the kangaroo fillets and make the dry rub. The rub is 50/50 salt and brown sugar, made to total 10% the weight of the meat. Just to be clear that is 5% salt and 5% sugar, so if the kangaroo weighs 1kg (1000g) you need 50g sugar and 50g salt.
- Evenly coat the fillets, on all sides, in the rub and set aside in the fridge for three hours. The rub will act similarly to a brine and will help lock some of the moisture in the fillets.
- While the meat rests in the fridge setup your smoker, aiming for a steady temperature of 120°C (250°F). I use an upright type smoker with a water pan, and have found the water pan both regulates the temperature and keeps meat more moist.
- Once the smoker hits about 90°C (200°F) , throw a handful of woodchips in and smoke the raw macadamia nuts for about twenty minutes, being careful not to burn them. A pizza tray with a perforated bottom is ideal for smoking nuts. Take the nuts out before adding the roo to the smoker.
- Grate one pile of parmesan cheese per two people onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place the tray into either a very hot (220°C / 430°F or higher) oven, or on the lowest shelf under a hot grill (broiler). Watch the cheese carefully and remove it to cool as soon as it has turned golden. It will harden and be crunchy once cooled.
- Now you can remove the kangaroo fillets from the fridge and with a damp cloth or paper towel wipe off the excess rub.
- Add the kangaroo fillets to the smoker, along with more woodchips. Cooking time will depend on the temperature of the smoker and thickness of the fillets, use a digital thermometer and aim for an internal temperature of 55°C (130°F).Ensure you keep a steady flow of smoke through the smoker over the cooking time to get the best flavour.
- Prepare the chilli mayonnaise by adding hot sauce to taste.
- Make a simple salad by roughly chopping the tomatoes and combining with torn fresh basil leaves. Immediately prior to plating up, add the smoked macadamias to the tomato salad.
- To serve, smear a generous dollop of mayo on each plate, pile tomato salad beside the mayo and top with some cracked pepper. Crack the parmesan crisps into halves or quarters and arrange on the tomato salad. Slice the smoked roo fillets into half-centimetre slices and carefully arrange on top of the chilli mayo.
Notes
- The dry rub/brine is a little too salty for the meat to be left in it for more than a few hours. If you would like to brine the meat for several days reduce the salt content to 1% weight of the meat.
The dish was delicious and tender!
Tried this with store bought Kangaroo fillets over the weekend. I overcooked a little and and it was bit dry and tough. But the flavour was great, the sauce and tomatoes covered up my mistakes pretty well to.
Glad you enjoyed it. The thickness of the fillets will make a considerable difference to the smoking time too.