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O Tama Carey is the owner of Lankan Filling Station. Her first cookbook is Lanka Food. She is a food editor of The Saturday Paper.
Credit: Photographed remotely by Earl Carter
Winter’s end is near but there is still time for us to talk about braised meats. Slow cooking has the advantage of being easy: combine a pile of ingredients, add some heat and you’re done. Put a pot in the oven in the morning and, with no fuss, dinner will be ready by evening. Your home will also be warm and filled with mouth-watering aromas.
One of my favourite versions is Chinese red braise. I love the balance of flavours – woody, citrusy and sweet – which combine to create a heady, almost overpowering scent. I believe red braise has magical powers. You can make a large batch, keep reusing it with any number of meats and cuts, and it will get better over time. Simply strain it, freeze it and then next time freshen it up with any of the spices or fresh ingredients that it’s lacking.
Red braise is laden with soy, sweetened with rock sugar and flavoured with cassia (which gives a woody earthiness), star anise (for sweet licorice notes) and orange or mandarin peel (for citrus brightness to help balance the salty soy and sweetness). In this recipe I have drifted from tradition and added fennel seeds for extra anise, cloves for depth, and coriander seeds because I like them. And then I throw caution to the wind and season the dish with balsamic. Even though it doesn’t make sense in terms of this being an Asian dish, it does in terms of flavour. Red braise can be overwhelmingly sweet and, if you want to make it into a sticky caramel sauce at the end, you need the acid. The dark notes of balsamic match the braise and are a delicious combination, while the orange adds a fresh acidic flavour.
Into this mishmash of cuisines, let’s add kangaroo, our national emblem. It makes sense that we should all be eating more kangaroo, but this is easier said than done as it’s not the most convenient meat to source. Supermarkets do sell it sporadically, but if you want to find a certain cut, such as tail, then you need to go hunting (not literally). The other obstacles are that people often feel funny about eating something so cute and it’s also not the most straightforward meat to cook. It is super lean, can sometimes have quite a strong flavour and it needs to be treated nicely.
I have had success serving it as a tartare (this works wonderfully with rump) and there is also a very good kangaroo jerky recipe floating around our house.
The tail is my favourite cut. It’s well suited to braising as the meat is gelatinous and soft and falls from the bone with the flavours of the braise embedded. The sauce is sticky and rich, and the toasted spices add bite and extra bursts of flavour. This dish is by no means subtle and needs to be served with accompaniments for relief. You can go the Chinese route and serve it with steamed rice and greens or embrace the cultural clash and make a radicchio salad and some soft polenta. Either way, it’s a warming winter treat.
Time: 2.5 hours preparation + cooking (can be broken into stages)
O Tama Carey is the owner of Lankan Filling Station. Her first cookbook is Lanka Food. She is a food editor of The Saturday Paper.
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