Kangaroo Larb

About This Recipe


When hosting an Australian event in a foreign kitchen, I try to get the local chefs inspired to use Australian ingredients as quickly as possible. So during some downtime at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket, I asked the young Thai chefs if they could make me a local dish using kangaroo.

Together with the young Thai chefs we created a Kangaroo Larb. For those that don’t know what larb is, its a traditional spicy salad with made using miced meat and roughly ground toasted rice (kao kua) together with chilli, mint, fish sauce and lime. The most popular variety of larb would have to be Larb Gai, which is a spicy ground chicken, however it can also be made with beef (larb nuea), pork (larb mu).

Apart from using just the kangaroo in the larb, we substituted the lime for Australian lemon myrtle which went well. The Thai chefs were proud of the variation of their dish and this was a great way to encourage the chefs to try something different with Australian ingredients.


Ingredients

250g (½ pound) kangaroo fillet, roughly chopped
30g (2 tablespoons) eschalots, finely chopped
1 spring onion, chopped
30ml (2 tablespoons) lime juice
30ml (2 tablespoons) fish sauce
20g (4 teaspoons) ground red chilli
15g (1 tablespoons) lemon myrtle
1 clove of chopped garlic
Sugar to taste
2 sprigs of mint leaves, chopped
2 sprigs of thai basil leaves, chopped
2 whole red chilli for garnish
30g (2 tablespoon) khao koor (ground toasted rice)


Cooking instruction

In a hot wok or frying pan, heat a little oil and sauté kangaroo till medium, then add garlic, and chilli power. Remove and place into a bowl which will fit all the ingredients. Combine the rest of the ingredients with the kangaroo, mix well and serve with lettuce cups or jasmine rice.

Recipe by Benjamin Christie