BurbleChaz

We had a table booked this evening at a very good restaurant in St. Kilda. Owing to the ravages of a rhinovirus we've decided to defer that until we can, at least, smell the food. I went to the market instead.

Because of the generally poor state of health in this vicinity, I bought the makings of a stew. Comfort food. A few shallots, some butternut sqaush, some carrots, and two fillets of skippy.

We started cooking by caramelizing some onions, chopping the mushrooms, peeling the squash and so on, when I was struck by the horror of what we were doing. No amount of feeling awful can excuse this. There I was, in my own kitchen, about to stew a kangaroo fillet. Criminal.

So, instead of condemning these poor pieces of meat to a stew, we fired up the oven, and started behaving decently.

We made a bed of caramelized onions on a sheet of aluminium foil, dressed it with chopped garlic and fried mushrooms, and placed the sliced kangaroo fillet on top. Wrapped loosely in foil, this shared an oven with the carrots, pumpkin and a few cloves of garlic for about 35 minutes (160C). Served with lightly toasted and buttered sourdough. Absolutely wonderful.

Wine: Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards, 2003 Grenache- Shiraz-Mouverdre. Rich, fruity, smooth and deep with a lovely long, almost tangy finish.