This is perhaps one of my greatest culinary achievements. I did this in Melbourne during my last day there. I wanted to cook a full course dinner with kangaroo roast as the flagship for my loved one and here’s the recipe for everything!
I bought everything at Coles Express in Melbourne CBD.
The grocery shopping bill came out to AUD 70.19 (about RM 221) so that’s how much it costs.
There are five (5) courses to the dinner:
Italian Salad with Fresh Garden Greens and Honey Balsamic Dressing
This is the starter (of sorts) – gotta have foliage in the diet.
Roasted Stuffed Chicken with Gravy
I’ll call this the appetizer since that was how we ate it.
Sixthseal’s Seafood Supreme (TM) with cream, white wine and garlic – prawns, Tasmanian mussels, bacon, cheese, exotic mushrooms and macadamia nuts with traditional bread
This is the best dish I came out with, according to Ling, and I’m quite proud of myself. It tastes really great! I think it deserves that (TM) bit. 😉
Herb & Garlic Kangaroo Roast
This is the main dish – the one I slaved over for hours, coz I wanted her to try kangaroo meat.
Kiwiberries + Raspberries with Caramel and White Chocolate sauce
I’m quite proud of this dessert too!
That’s the menu for the night and I started out by preparing the salad.
Italian Salad with Fresh Garden Greens
It’s a bit of a cheat since it came in a ready made bag but I can’t cook everything from scratch. Haha! Even the sauce came in a miniature bottle that was right beside the salad. It’s “sweet, crisp leaves balanced with shredded radicchio and a hint or aromatic parsley”.
I just put the entire contents of the bag into a salad bowl and poured in the 125 ml honey balsamic dressing. It’s store brand but quite good. Ling actually ate a lot of this.
I didn’t.
Roasted Stuffed Chicken with Gravy
This is her suggestion coz she thought I’ll take a long time with the kangaroo roast. She was right. We bought 1/2 a stuffed chicken. It comes in a bag and you just need to chuck the bag into the oven and heat it up.
The bag works to keep the moisture in. I kept the bag to use for my kangaroo roast too.
It’s pretty good since you can’t very well go wrong with a pre-cooked item from Coles. The stuffing was salty, the meat was tender and it’s delicious coz we were so hungry at that point. I was still slaving over the kangaroo roast at this point.
Sixthseal’s Seafood Supreme (TM) with cream, white wine and garlic – prawns, Tasmanian mussels, bacon, cheese, exotic mushrooms and macadamia nuts with traditional bread
My proudest dish! I must tell the entirety of this story.
We bought garlic marinated prawns from Coles – it comes in a package so we didn’t need any other sauces. We were just there for a day and didn’t want to buy large bottles of seasoning.
I also went to the meat counter and got a rasher of bacon. It’s huge! The bacon measures 1 1/2 feet long and several inches wide – there’s a photo of me holding it later. I wanted the rinds to cook with.
Macadamia nuts were from the raw produce section. It’s raw nuts at AUD 33.98 / kg. That makes it AUD 7.56 (RM 25) for the handful of a few nuts I grabbed! I calculated, that’s RM 1.30 per nut. 😡
The mushrooms came in a pack that that was labelled 3 gourmet mushrooms – there are two familiar ones (they aren’t “exotic” to Asians) but the orange fungi is new to me.
I went to the cheese counter and chose bocconcini – a mild mozarella type cheese that you keep submerged in liquid. It would be really hard to find this here but I ate bocconcini for fun as a snack when I was studying in Melbourne.
The best thing we saw was the Tasmanian mussels!
It was marked down to just AUD 0.50! That’s a 92% discount! It was such a good bargain that I wanted it for my seafood bonanza. It’s the best buy of the trip – there’s always price cuts but this just takes the cake.
The traditional bread is supposed to go with this dish to wipe up the creamy gravy (and also to go with the kangaroo roast). There are no preservatives and it’s very good bread – artisan bread handmade using kibbled wheat. AUD 5.50 (RM 17). It’s not cheap, this 800 gram loaf of traditional bread.
The ingredients!
I sliced up the bacon rinds and fried it for a bit before dumping in the rest of the bacon.
I then added in the mussels with all the cream, garlic and white wine marinate…
…and then the prawns with it’s own garlic marinade.
Awesome stuff!
A wonderful smell was starting to waft out and this was when I threw the raw macadamis nuts in.
Added the mushrooms and cheese last and let it simmer for a bit.
It’s delicious! I cooked a mess…
…but Ling plated it so nicely it could be a restaurant dish!
Ta da!
It tasted wonderful – sweet and salty, with lots of seafood and delicious liquids for the traditional bread to soak up.
Herb & Garlic Kangaroo Roast
I had a lot of trouble with this. I set the oven wrongly and the bag nearly caught on fire (which has the potential to trip the fire alarm, causing a huge fine).
Luckily, she smelled something burning and I sorted it out.
I wouldn’t want to go through the arduous process, but it was 3 am when this was finally ready.
It’s worth the time and the blood, sweat and tears I put in though – it’s cooked to perfection!
Ling tried it and had several more pieces, she said it tasted like liver. Oh well, at least she’s tried kangaroo meat now.
I liked it – I ate quite a fair bit of the kangaroo roast. It’s gamey and flavorful, with chewy meat. I’m glad we didn’t cop out and go for kangaroo burger patties or kangaroo steaks – a kangaroo roast is the proper way to eat kangaroo meat. Lovely stuff!
Kiwiberries + Raspberries with Caramel and White Chocolate sauce
This is the dessert I made for her – kiwiberry is a small fruit that looks like mini kiwifruit and tastes like kiwifruit but it’s much sweeter. You can just pop it into your mouth to eat it without peeling anything.
The raspberries are fresher too and I mixed both fruits into a glass (don’t have a parfait server).
I had two dips of caramel and white chocolate and I spooned each in turn into the fruit mixture to create contrasting textures.
It was so good we finished the fruits the next day by dipping it straight into the leftover caramel and white chocolate dip. 🙂
I had fun cooking for her. It’s a nice change, and it’s kind of her to rinse the plates before I loaded the dishwasher coz I was bushed by then. She got to eat kangaroo meat and it was an awesome way to spend the last night in Melbourne together. It’s a lovely end to a wonderful trip!
Aiseh, gaya betul, never had Kiwiberries before, looks good, i did not try kangaroo meat as my housemate threaten me saying that it was horrible when i was in Perth, should have tried at least once >_<
Yup, kiwiberries are not readily available in Malaysia. 😡
I’ve never seen places stock them – only groups of personal purchases importing them in. I quite like them – like little kiwi fruits, only much sweeter. Bit of a shame it’s not popular over here, they’re really quire delicious! 🙂
Hmm…I don’t think she really liked it too, I just wanted her to try it, she’s okay with the taste but it’s not for people who doesn’t like gamey meat.
I like kangaroo meat though! It’s very high in protein and quite a nutrition source of meat.
Gotta try everything at least once! No worries, you can check it out when you go back mate! 😀
omg! i never thought Kangaroo meat can be eat? legal de meh?
Yup, it’s legal to eat kangaroo meat in Australia. 🙂
A lot of people consider them pests which competes with livestock for resources.
Kangaroo meat it sold at supermarkets, it’s also served at restaurants. You can hunt them too, but it’s quite strict – it must be a “humane kill” e.g. head shot with a 30-06 hunting rifle (no plonking at them center mass with 9 mm handguns, which someone *cough* did) and you must have a license.
They’re quite a good source of protein!
Ummm…I think I’d probably eat if you do not tell me it’s kangaroo!!! LOL!!!
It does look quite good, the haunch of the kangaroo being presented as a roast and tied with twine before being seasoned with herbs and garlic! 🙂
I quite like the taste of kangaroo meat. There was a bit of a push to promote kangaroo meat when I was studying there (as an alternate source to beef) – another push was done during the BSE (Mad Cow Disease) scare.
It’s quite delicious in burgers! It’s relatively cheap too, compared to beef and chicken!
HB, your meal look so good. Mussel is good with lot sauce and bread dip in it like French style of eating it. Dessert of fresh fruit is good with vanilla cream is good.
Thanks! 🙂
I thought I did a pretty alright job too! However, it would have looked very ugly if I served it, it was her plating skills that made it look nice.
First time I cooked everything and she didn’t touch the kitchen though, turned out well.
Food looks great bro! You need to cook these kinda meals more often… and less of the ghetto microwave variety. Haha!
I tried kangaroo in Singapore but didn’t quite fancy it. Tasted like beef with a sourish after taste.
Haha! Thanks bro! 🙂
These meals take a long time though. I really love to cook but I can only do so when I have time e.g. on weekends and such. I find that cooking at home for lavish (or unusual) meals aren’t cheap either so I can’t do it often.
It was good to cook for her instead for a change though – she didn’t touch anything (except plate the seafood), I forbade her to come into the kitchen coz I wanted to cook for her.
Sourish after taste? That’s weird! I’ve never personally tasted that before, but like they say, one man’s meat is another man’s poison!
Love your Angkor Wat photos man, could never get the same awesome quality ones. 😀
I started seeing Kiwiberries in the local supermarket, thought they look cute! Shall get some soon. I do like Kangaroo meat, leaner than beef so must not cook for too long otherwise it will be tough, so kudos for keeping it nice and pink! 😀 The seafood supreme does look very restaurant standard indeed.
Nice! I’ve never seen them in KL before! It’ll be good to have some! 🙂
Yup, they’re wonderfully delicious too! Juicy and sweet, it’s like a kiwifruit except it’s not sour. I love the little things.
I agree, kangaroo meat is a lot better nutrition wise, compared to beef.
Thanks for that Kelly, appreciate the kind words, it took me a long time experimenting with the bag to get the roast to be pink inside.
The plating was done by Ling, I did all of the cooking (forbade her from the kitchen) but she wanted to plate the seafood and it was a job well done.
Cheers! 😀
Lovely meal! Those are raspberries by the way, not cranberries. Trust me, you do not want to eat fresh cranberries. Hard and sour.
Thanks for the correction mate! 🙂
Yeah, they’re raspberries. It’s written on the package, the bill, and I’ve eaten them often enough to recognize them as raspberries (while I cannot say the same for cranberries) but I just have the latter on my mind these past few days. Haha!
Cheers! I’ll fix it later, can’t believe I wrote so many instances of cranberries and didn’t realize it.
It was a good meal indeed, and a nice dessert to finish it off. One of my better kitchen accomplishments! 😀
Last day in Melbourne, can you finish all the food?
Nope, we couldn’t finish everything but we tried to! 🙂
Chicken was gone, most of the salad too and seafood too. Dessert was totally gone. I think the only thing left was 1/3 of the kangaroo roast. We brought the bread back coz it was soooo good.
it’s supposed to be low in cholesterol.. and tastes great too.. I like it with a sauce made with figs – tried in in Cairns.. very yummy!
Yup, that’s kangaroo alright! 🙂
I’ve eaten it in burgers mostly, those are quite common in Melbourne at the right places.
Some restaurants also serve steak.
The sauce with figs sounds tasty! 😀
Wow, that’s a very lovely meal! Love the mussels and love its price even more haha 😉 The macadamias are only $1.60 if you look closely at your grocery bill. I carted home loads and loads of nuts, including macadamias, from my last few Aussie trips so they can’t be that expensive. I really love their nuts…absolutely fresh and addictive! 🙂
Oh ya you’re right! 🙂
Thanks for the correction!
Yeah. I remember macadamia nuts to be very cheap too, I just got confused and looked at the next item instead of the one in line.
Their nuts are one of the popular stuff to bring back and yeah, it’s really good!
The mussels were a real bargain – glad we saw that at Coles! 😀
Dear, thanks for being my personal chef in Melbourne and the luxury home cooked dinner..You can cook very well and I am looking forward for more yummy dishes.
I’m glad to have a fitting end to our Melbourne trip dear! 🙂
I’m glad you like the dish too and I’ll always be your personal chef.
Love you always dear, and looking forward to the new chapter in our lives! <3
Real kangaroo meat? Seriously?!
Everything look so yummy. Their frozen food also look so fresh wan!
Fruits with caramel and white chocolate? Wahhh…..I like!
Yup! 🙂
It’s widely available in Australia – a lot of kangaroos cause accidents coz they tend to jump into cars instead of away from cars. Injuries, deaths and car damage is so common that people install roo bars or ultrasound devices in certain rural areas.
The kiwi berries are awesome with the caramel and white chocolate dip! 😀
I really salute you and you make a good gentleman for taking all the trouble to cook and pamper her. If I am on a holiday… Ccooking would be the last thing that I would do. The only thing I ever cooked was “SOS Cup Noodles” that I often packed in my suitcases! LOL
Honestly, it made my tummy turn a bit to hear kangaroo meat. They look too cute to eat and my sister who graduated from Adelaide Uni often told me how OZ cars often banged the wild kangaroos to death along the highways! I should try it someday and not be biased since I eat chicken, fish and everything else. We need high protein! ha ha…
Cheers buddy! 🙂
It was late when I finished though but I had a lot of fun cooking for her as well.
Kangaroos are considered pests in Australia coz of the crop damage they do. They also cause a lot of accidents! So much so that Victoria Roads advice you to slow down for a head on collision instead of swerving to avoid them so you won’t hurt/kill yourself (most fatalities are caused by swerving into incoming traffic). A lot of people install roo bars just to avoid totaling their cars.
I love kangaroo meat! 😀
Tried kiwiberries on my last trip. Nice:D
Yup, kiwi berries are awesome stuff! 🙂
Too bad it’s not readily available here…
Ling’s hand can do magic… haha~~ After she plated the dish, really very presentable!~ Cool!
Indeed! 🙂
It was a horrible mess in the pan, she made it into a beautiful, restaurant quality dish!
I was amazed! 😀
It’s so nice when the man can cook. I’ll be over the moon if my hubs can boil me an egg @_@
Well, I can’t cook better than her but I try my best! 🙂
I love cooking for her though, and I love cooking with her even more.
Yes! Lawson’s Traditional Bread is awesomely delicious. To me, the best bread in the world!
I totally agree! 🙂
It was so good we brought it back to Malaysia and shared it. Haha!
Kangaroo roast!Looks superb delicious..the dishes have restaurant standard after your gf plated the dish
Thanks Hazel! 🙂
It’s all due to my girlfriend. Haha!
I just did all the cooking, she did the plating. It’ll have looked like a mess if I had made it, but it looks good after she plated it. Cheers!
I want to buy kangaroo meat in Malaysia. How can I buy it?