Cooking With Exotic Meats

At Torre and Mordini Gourmet Meats – we stock a variety of exotic and game meats including:

• Baby Capretto
• Buffalo
• Camel
• Crocodile
• Duck
• Kangaroo
• Poussins
• Venison

To see our full range check out our Exotic Meat Page. There are many health benefits from eating game meats, for example venison has a very low fat content. For more information please ask our friendly staff. In this page we are going to provide you with a range of recipes for cooking the meats we stock.

Duck Breast Salad

 

Ingredients

• 1 duck breast
• 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
• 1 pomegranate (halved)
• 3 spring onions (trimmed and sliced)
• 1 sprig fresh coriander (leaves picked)
• 1 sprig fresh mint (leaves picked)
• Watercress
• 1/2 ripe mango (peeled and cut into chunks), or orange segments
• Juice of 1/2 a lime
• Sesame oil
• Salad/lettuce greens

Method

Season the duck breast and dust with Chinese five spice powder. Put in a medium-hot pan and fry for 5 minutes, turning halfway, until lots of fat has come out of the skin and the skin is golden brown. Take out of the pan and slice thinly – the duck will still be raw in the middle but don’t worry. Discard the fat from the pan and put the sliced duck back in. Stir-fry for a few minutes, until cooked through and crispy. Set aside.

Mix the pomegranate seeds, spring onions, coriander, mint, watercress, mango/or orange and crispy duck together. Dress with the lime juice and a drizzle of sesame oil. Season to taste.

Separate the lettuce leaves and arrange on plates. Top with the dressed salad.

Rabbit Ragu

 

Ingredients

• 50-100g speck, chopped
• 1 x 700g wild rabbit, deboned and diced (about 450g meat)
• 35g pancetta, diced
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 1 small leek, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• A small handful of parsley stalks, finely chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 90ml white wine
• ½ small bunch of sage, leaves picked and chopped
• 2 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked and chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 500g tagliolini (or angel hair pasta)
• 4 tbsp mascarpone
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 20g butter
• 40g parmesan
• 40g pangrattato (see note)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 120C. Cook the speck in a casserole over a low heat. Add the rabbit and pancetta and cook over a medium heat for 5–8 minutes, until golden. Add the veg, garlic, parsley and bay, then cook gently for 5 minutes, until soft. Add the wine and herbs and simmer for 5 minutes, until the wine is reduced by half. Stir in the chilli and stock, and season. Cook, covered, in the oven for 3–4 hours.

2. When ready to eat, cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, gently bring the ragù to the boil on the hob, then remove from the heat and keep warm. Stir in the drained pasta, mascarpone, lemon juice and butter, and season. Stir well so every pasta strand is coated and let sit for 1 minute to allow the pasta to absorb the sauce. Divide between plates and serve with parmesan, pangrattato and lemon zest.

Note: Pangrattato is simply Italian for breadcrumb. To make your own, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, add 1 smashed garlic clove and fry until golden. Add about 50 grams of breadcrumbs and some seasoning, and fry over a high heat, tossing regularly, until golden and crunchy.

Lemon Myrtle Crocodile Skewers

Lemon myrtle is a native Australian tree whose leaves have a refreshing, spicy lemon taste. Combined with the crocodile this creates great flavour which celebrates Australian cuisine.

Ingredients

• 500g crocodile fillet
• Juice from 1 lime
• 2 tbs olive oil
• Bamboo skewers
• 1 tspn ginger, grated
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 small red chillies, deseeded and sliced
• 1 tsp ground lemon myrtle (or fresh chopped lemon myrtle)
• Sweet chilli sauce

Cut the crocodile fillet in to 2 cm cubes, mix with olive oil, ginger, garlic, chilli, lemon myrtle and half amount of sweet chilli sauce, marinate for minimum of 1 hour (ideally at least 2-3 hours). Soak bamboo skewers in cold water for at least 20 minutes. This will ensure that they do not burn during cooking. Thread cubes of meat on to skewers. BBQ or pan fry on medium to high heat, until browned on the outside and just cooked through, do not over cook. Serve skewers with sweet chilli sauce and wedges of lime.

Ingredients

• 600g kangaroo
• 1/2 tspn lemon myrtle
• 1/2 tspn aniseed myrtle
• 1 tspn mountain pepper
• Roasted ground wattle seed
• 1 tspn dried ground bush tomato
• 3 tspn sea salt
• 400g warrigal greens
• 2 tspn butter
• 200ml red wine sauce (jus)
• 8 quandongs
• 4 davidson plums
• 20 rye berries
• 20 mungtree berries
• 2 finger limes
• sea salt

Method

Make a spice mix with the lemon myrtle, aniseed myrtle, mountain pepper, wattle seed, bush tomato and salt. Sprinkle generously over the roo. Leave out of the fridge for about 45 minutes. Heat oil in a fry pan over high heat until hot. Add roo and cook for 5-8 minutes. Do not overcook, the roo needs to be rare. Let it rest for about 10 minutes. Heat a fry pan. Melt the butter and add the warrigal greens. Season to taste. Warm the red wine sauce in a pan, once boiled add the fruits except the finger limes. Leave to simmer. Wilt down and turn off. Heat up the roo pan up and quickly warm the roo. Carve into thin slices. To serve, place the greens on the plate, roo over the top and then the fruits and sauce. Scrape the flesh of the finger limes and add with the sea succulent. Recipe from Chef Matt Stone.