Australian · Main
Kangaroo Loin with Mountain Pepperberry
- Intermediate
- 20 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with richness that coats and comforts.
Ingredients
- 600 g kangaroo loin fillet, silverskin trimmed off
- 2 tsp dried mountain pepperberry, coarsely ground
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
- 30 g butter
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 60 ml dry red wine
- 100 ml beef stock
- 1 tbsp riberry or redcurrant jelly
The skills inside
Deglazing & pan saucesSearing: the hard crustResting meat & slicing against the grain
The words inside
Fillet, Steak, Loin & CollarReverse Sear & the Gray Band
Allergen screen
Found: dairy · alcohol
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Bring the loin to room temperature, dry it thoroughly and season with the salt and half the pepperberry; a cold wet fillet needs longer in the pan and there is no fat inside to buy you that time.
- Sear in smoking oil for 60 to 90 seconds a side, turning to build an even crust, and lift it out the moment a probe in the thickest part reads 50C (122F).
- Rest on a warm plate for 8 minutes, uncovered; it will climb to about 55C (131F), which is rare and correct. 8 min
- Deglaze the pan with the wine and reduce to a syrup, add the stock, jelly and remaining pepperberry, reduce again, then swirl in the butter and thyme off the heat until glossy.
- Carve across the grain in 1 cm slices and read the cut face: even deep ruby throughout, with no grey band under the crust.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Deglazing & pan sauces 49 recipes
- The pan still holds its fond. Nothing has been rinsed, wiped, or soaked, and the browned layer is intact on the floor.
- Excess fat was poured off first and the browned layer left behind; the fat is not the flavour and a sauce carrying all of it will not come together.
- The liquid went into a still-hot pan and the floor came clean: scraped while it bubbles, the base goes from stuck brown to bare metal and the sauce darkens as it takes it up.
- The fond was brown and not black. A burnt floor dissolves into bitterness that cannot be seasoned out, and is better washed away than deglazed.
- Reduced first and seasoned afterwards, tasted at the consistency it will be served at rather than at the start.
Where it goes wrong The pan was left to stand and go cold before anybody came back to it. Cold fond will not dissolve, so the scraping lifts nothing, and the sauce arrives thin and pale with the flavour it was supposed to carry still welded to the metal.
Resting meat & slicing against the grain 56 recipes
- It came off the heat BEFORE the target temperature, measured with a probe rather than by time, because carryover keeps driving the inside up after it is out.
- The probe went into the coldest likely part rather than the easiest one to reach: the reading that matters is the lowest one, not the first one.
- Rested for a time matched to its size, somewhere warm, and not cut into partway through to see how it is doing.
- The board is nearly dry when it is finally cut. A spreading pool means it was cut too early, and that liquid should have stayed inside.
- The grain was found and the knife went ACROSS it, so the fibres are cut short, and the blade was sharp enough that the slices hold together rather than tearing.
Where it goes wrong It was cut straight off the heat, usually because everything else was ready. The muscle is still contracted and the juice still driven to the centre, so it runs out onto the board; the meat is drier than it ever needed to be, and the flavour that left it is sitting in a puddle under the knife.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Vermentino or Sauvignon Blanc
- Also Right
- Albariño
- From the Taps
- Witbier
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with citrus
Lean fish, bright acid, done: coastal whites built beside the same boats; the fresher the fish, the leaner the pour.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.