Eating Australian Icons

[Maisy]

I'm having friends over for dinner tonight, and as Australia Day has just passed, I am cooking crocodile and kangaroo for dinner. Both are now available commercially from my local butcher.

Entree is crocodile with sliced mango and a basil sauce.
Main is kangaroo fillets with a balsamic mustard sauce, steamed baby potatoes and baby beans with garlic and butter.
Dessert is grilled pineapple with brown sugar and galliano dressing and vanilla ice-cream.

As I have never eaten crocodile and haven't actually cooked kangaroo myself before, it should be interesting.

For those who are interested, I will post taste test results tomorrow, and I'll try to get a a few pictures too.

[Huey14]

I find it unusual that Australia allows one to kill Kangaroo, a symbol of Australia, but doesn't allow the termination of Possum, simple because it's a native animal. Indeed, it's illegal to *not* render aid to a Possum if you hit one with your car.

Considering the possum does just as much damage as the Kangaroo, and is in far greater numbers, I find this odd.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Huey14

I find it unusual that Australia allows one to kill Kangaroo, a symbol of Australia, but doesn't allow the termination of Possum, simple because it's a native animal. Indeed, it's illegal to *not* render aid to a Possum if you hit one with your car.

Considering the possum does just as much damage as the Kangaroo, and is in far greater numbers, I find this odd.

Glad that isn't the rule in the Southern US, or you would never get anywhere.

Possums are thick here, and the only worry after hitting one is how badly it may have damaged your vehicle.

I know several older people who still like to cook and eat them. Not me.

TR

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Maisy

For those who are interested, I will post taste test results tomorrow, and I'll try to get a a few pictures too.

Please do!

I'm betting it beats the hell out of grilled cobra on a stick.....

Recipe Tip,
NEVER allow more than one live cobra out of the bag at a time!

[brewmonkey]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Please do!

I'm betting it beats the hell out of grilled cobra on a stick.....

Recipe Tip,
NEVER allow more than one live cobra out of the bag at a time!

I usually just go by the rule of don't eat anything that can kill you with one bite.

[jatx]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Recipe Tip,
NEVER allow more than one live cobra out of the bag at a time!

Okay, I'll bite. Spill the beans!

[Spartan359]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Please do!

I'm betting it beats the hell out of grilled cobra on a stick.....

Recipe Tip,
NEVER allow more than one live cobra out of the bag at a time!

Oh, they don't taste that bad TS. Had one when I was in Singapore.

[Huey14]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Glad that isn't the rule in the Southern US, or you would never get anywhere.

Possums are thick here, and the only worry after hitting one is how badly it may have damaged your vehicle.

I know several older people who still like to cook and eat them. Not me.

TR

Pretty much the same here, except you'd be hard pressed to eat them because of all the poison that's been dropped on them.

[Maisy]

OK, taste test results.

Well, it was surprising. Crocodile, and believe me I hate to say this, but....
it's a lot like chicken.

It's a very mild, almost bland flavoured meat, and when cooked the closest comparison to texture would have to be chicken breast. Of course, it's not the same but there is definitely a comparison.

The flavour is so mild that it really needs some type of flavouring to make it interesting. I'd imagine that it would go well with curries, satays, and a good marinade of lemon juice and pesto would also work well. The raw meat has a very clean mild smell, and as you can see in the photo, it is a white meat.

The other thing about it is that it is quite a lean, delicate meat, so it should only be cooked lightly. The fat on it has an unpleasant, oily taste, so all fat needs to be removed before cooking. There was just a very small amount running through the fillet when I cut it up, and even that much I could occasionally taste.

All in all, if I had croc again, I think I would try it in a satay with some peanut sauce or similar. It really is too bland by itself, and although not too bad with the basil sauce and mango, I'd like to get some more flavour into it. Definitely a white wine meat, and make it a very light soft wine at that.

The kangaroo on the other hand, came out really well. The meat is so lean it actually looks like liver, there is no fat in it at all and the meat is almost purplish in colour. Because of the leanness, I only cooked it to medium rare, and it was melt-in-your-mouth soft. Yum! Kangaroo is a red wine meat, the sauce was made with red wine, so a nice 2001 shiraz went well.

I didn't get a photo of dessert. It was divine, but by that time yours truly had downed a couple of glasses of wine, and completely forgot to take a photo.

End result: no-one died and everyone seemed to enjoy their meal, so I declare the experiment a success!

[jatx]

Looks pretty good to me!

[Maisy]

Huey, I'm not sure really how much damage possums do in Australia, but it's not something I hear Aussies complain about, so it can't be too bad. Maybe it's because it is an australian animal and fits into the food chain better over here. Apart from the odd complaint about them being in people's roofs, they seem to be harmless, although I know they have done real damage in NZ. Certainly farmers in Australia have no complaints about them.

Kangaroos on the other hand compete with cattle for pastureland, and a herd of kangaroos can quickly decimate good grazing land. They also love a good crop of grain etc. Most farmers will tolerate a small herd of roos on their place, but if the herd gets too large, some judicious thinning is applied and the cattledogs eat well for a while.

I guess it is the size of the animal and the relative damage it can to to commercial enterprises. The commercial farming of kangaroos has been going on for a while here and roo meat now appears on supermarket shelves, so it's obviously popular.

[Huey14]

They do irreperible damage to the native bush, as well as killing native and endangered animals.

And they keep me awake when I'm in the bush. Arseholes.

[Chris]

Interesting - Sounds good, try anything. I love mangoes!

[vsvo]

Looks good!