Sulum Factum Magus

Kangaroo meat has recently turned up in our local supermarket, and my wife and I have gradually been figuring out how to cook it well. There are many reasons to eat kangaroo meat in Australia – including health reasons, environmental reasons and spiritual reasons. On the health front, the meat is very lean, so is supposed to be better for the heart than more fatty meats. Also on the health front, the meat is from wild, free range animals, so there is no residue of antibiotics or other drug treatments used in farmed animals. Also, they graze over natural pastures, so there is less chemical fertiliser or herbicide residue to deal with than with farmed animals which are fed non-organically produced grains or hay.

On the environmental front, kangaroos have evolved to be a natural part of the Australian ecosystem. They lack the hard hooves of sheep and cattle which are responsible for much erosion and land degradation. However, due to increased water supplies and pasture lands as a result of European farming, and the removal of natural predators (Indigenous people and dingoes), populations in many places are out of balance, leading to environmental degradation. Thus culling of the populations is necessary to prevent overwhelming other sensitive plant and animal species. By eating the meat, one is preventing the wastage which would other wise take place when the animals are by necessity killed in order to keep numbers in check, and contributing to a more sustainable food system, in which there is less demand for more environmentally damaging protein sources.

Spiritually there are a number of factors in favour of Kangaroo meat over other meats. Firstly the animals live wild and free lives (until killed for human consumption). This seems far preferable to me than other alternatives such as feed lots and intensive industrial farming practices. Secondly, for people living in Australia, I believe that consumption of Kangaroo meat in a respectful and grateful atmosphere links one to the spirit of the country side in a way that eating introduced farmed species can never do. Of course, there are many who choose to eat no meat at all. I have no problem with the position, and admiration and respect for those who adopt it out of compassion for other creatures and humans who can’t find enough to eat. However if this were to become a universal position, I believe we would have to reintroduce predation by some other species (besides our selves) in order to safeguard the balance of nature.

However enough of the philosophy – how do you cook it? Well the best way that we’ve found is to stir fry it. Here is my recipe…

1. Cut 300gms of kangaroo meat into thin strips, no thicker than 10mm, and as long as your little finger.
2. Dice thin slices of ginger till there is enough to fill one or two tablespoons.
3. Finely mince enough crushed garlic cloves to fill two or three tablespoons
4. Put the meat in a small bowl, and cover with a mixture of olive oil, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, and mix together with garlic and ginger. The exact amounts are quite forgiving, but as a guide, have more soy than the other two combined, a couple of table spoons of Olive Oil, and a tablespoon of balsamic. Experiment until you find the mixture that suits your taste buds!
5. Marinate the meat for one hour or more in the fridge.
6. Heat a generous portion of Olive Oil in a wok on a high heat, until just before it begins to smoke. Place two or three tablespoons of the meat at a time in the hot oil, reserving the marinade as much as possible.
7. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon till browned all over, then for another minute or two. Test by cutting open a slice of meat. It should be cooked through, but still juicy. It is easy to over cook, and then it goes tough and chewy. Do a small amount of meat at a time so that the oil stays hot. When cooked, transfer to a dish, and do the next batch. Add more oil if required. Three or four small batches should do the job.
8. Finally, pour the reserved marinade into the wok, and bring to the boil. The heat can be turned down. Simmer for several minutes, or until reduced by half. This may be poured over the meat, or kept as a sauce for vegetables.
9. To accompany the meat, cook up a vegetable stir fry – carrots, chinese greens, beans, ginger, garlic, zucchini etc go very well. Just a splash of soy sauce at the end to give some savour and zest is all the flavouring required. And of course some steamed rice completes the meal.

It is a simple and delicious meal, easily prepared, with a lot of good things going for it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Blessed Be

Robyn :)

I have been putting up some pretty serious posts of late – all very esoteric stuff, channelling energy, wands, esoteric practices and philosophies etc. I just love it, and I can’t stop writing about it, and practicing it, and living it. However, there comes a point when a little balance is required – so here is my recipe for Broccoli and Semi-dried Tomato Salad.

I always maintain that if one can’t put on a decent dinner party, and have your guests’ mouths watering, then you have no business calling yourself a witch, wizard, mage, sage or hierophant. Well, in fact, I have never met anyone who calls themselves a hierophant, and expects everyone else to have a straight face abut it. But then again, I may be just displaying how badly connected I am!

In my opinion, the kitchen is the place where magic is shown off to best advantage – cooking is a marvellous expression of creative manifestation, where intuition, inspiration, rationality, and practicality all get to play their part. And what better way to get people talking, laughing and loving, than a jolly good mouth-watering meal and a nice bottle of wine (or two!). You can tell I am Cancerian, can’t you?

So here is one of my kitchen creations that I hope will get your mouth watering:

Ingredients

Two large heads of broccoli

four or five cloves of garlic

Handful of semi-dried tomatoes.

Handful of good quality marinated black olives

Three or four table spoons of extra virgin olive oil

Splash of Balsamic vinegar of Moderna.

Just in case you are wondering, Semi-dried Tomatoes are available from good delicatessans, particularly Greek ones (in these parts, anyway), and are dried tomatoes preserved in oil and herbs. They are softer and moister than Sun-dried Tomatoes, which can be a bit chewie if not softened up by soaking in oil or water.

Cut the broccoli into individual florets, each no bigger than the size of your thumb, and trim off any fibrous parts of the stem. Bring a cup of water to the boil in a steamer, and steam the broccoli until dark green and fork can be pressed into the stems (about five minutes). Remove the broccoli from heat, and rinse in cold water to sop any further cooking. Place in salad bowl.

Crush the garlic cloves, remove skin, and dice into small pieces. In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil until hot. Do not allow it to smoke. Sautee the garlic pieces until they begin to brown nicely. When done, pour the garlic including the oil over the broccoli. Add the handful of semi-dried tomatoes, the handful of olives, and a dash of balsamic vinegar. There should be enough tomatoes to give the dish a cheerful red look against the dark broccoli green. And that, my friend, is all there is to it. The broccoli should be firmish, not soft, and must be rinsed under cold water before the dark green stage is passed and it becomes pale and washed out looking.

Wonderful with any Mediterranean dish, to accompany meat dishes, or try with a risotto, as we did tonight! And of course do not forget your invocation to your gustatory Gods, to bless the food so that all who eat may be nourished in mind, body and heart.

Enjoy!

Rob

I thought I would pass on this recipe to you, which is one of my creations in the witchin’ kitchen. First of all, though, I need to explain a little bit of background. You may be aware that I am a member of that unfortunate crowd of people who have developed food intolerances and reactions to various common food stuffs. I have many theories on this, but that’s another story! But to set the scene for the pan bread, imagine what you would eat for breakfast if you (a) can’t eat any wheat, oats, barley or rye ( because they contain gluten) (b) can’t have any milk or dairy product, (c) fruit or fruit juice unless separated by 4 hours from any other food. Believe me, it can be quite a challenge! Fortunately, I am in a much better position than some, as I can still eat eggs and soy milk in moderation.

Well that pretty much rules out the cereal, muesli thing. True, I can have rice bubbles, millet puffs, and corn flakes, but these taste most unappetizing with water. I can’t have Soy milk more than once or twice a week, Almond milk is way too expensive for everyday, and rice milk is very acidifying on an everyday basis. So here is part of the solution to the problem of breakfast – Wizard’s pan bread.

OK, here’s the list of ingredients:

(1) Two tablespoons brown rice flour

(2) Two tablespoons millet meal or flour

(3) Two tablespoons of besan (chickpea) flour

(4) 1 teaspoon ground tumeric

(5) 1 teaspoon ground coriander

(6) 1 teaspoon ground cumin

(7) Salt and pepper per taste

(8) 1 onion, sliced

(9) 1 tomato sliced

(10) A couple cloves of garlic, crushed and sliced fine

(11) A handful of olives, seeded and sliced

(12) Tablespoon of Apple cider vinegar

(13) Splash of Olive Oil

(14) Optional: Herbs and spices as the fancy takes you. Fresh Rosemary is particularly yummy

(15) 1 cup of vegetable stock, water will do at a pinch!

(16) Optional: Egg. Not necessary, but will help hold things together.

Method:

Mix together dry ingredients till even colour. Add chopped vegetables and combine. Add vinegar, oil, egg (if using) and mix. Add stock or water a bit at a time till the mixture is thou roughly moistened, but not runny. Not much is needed. Consistency should be like a thick cake mix. Heat a heavy pan over a medium heat, with a thin layer of Olive Oil over the bottom. When the Oil just begins to look as if it might smoke, spread the mixture evenly over the pan, so it is about 1 inch or so thick. Put a lid on the pan, and after a couple of minutes, turn down to a low heat. After ten or fifteen minutes, remove the lid, and let the top dry off, before turning. Turn the heat back up to medium for three to five minutes, then remove and eat! Very yummy dipped in Olive Oil and Balsamic vinegar, or with soup, or with a few fresh salad makings.

As regular readers will know, I have to be very careful with what I eat. Part of it is to avoid all dairy products. Now, occasionally, being a fair dinkum Australian, I have a yearning for toast with melted butter and vegemite, for which there is no substitute. I indulge, and regretfully suffer the consequences, and become strictly non-dairy again until the discomfort fades with the passing of time, and I am tempted again to non-compliance! Well sour cream is not in the same class as hot buttered toast (with or without vegemite) but still something that can be missed on a non-dairy diet.

Well yesterday, I was doing up some herbal tinctures, and had the coffee filter papers out for straining purposes, when the urge came over me to fill up a glass with soy milk, and add vinegar to it, to see what would happen. I had been reading that soy milk and soy products are very difficult to digest, and I thought I would try adding some vinegar, as vinegar is used traditionally as a means of marinating protein products to make them more digestible. So I did, and it sat on my bench for a couple of hours, and the next time I noticed it, the milk had separated into a clear liquid and some thicker solids. So I popped it into a filter paper, thinking, this is great, I will make some soy cheese. Actually a cheese cloth would have been better, but I am afraid the old cupboard was bare when it came to cheese cloths!

More time passed, during which I made a pot of pumpkin soup. When it came time to eat it, I thought, hey – some sour cream would be really nice with this soup. And then it struck me. I had just made some sour soy cream. So I squeezed out the filter paper, and there it was, nice and sour thanks to the vinegar, and rich and creamy. In fact by this time, quite a thick cream, and almost like a fetta cheese. It was very enjoyable in the pumpkin soup – not exactly like sour cream mind you, but enjoyable on its own terms.

So here is my recipe for sour soy cream, or soy fetta, depending on how thick it ends up being.

1. Fill up a tumbler with soy milk. I suspect that good quality soy milk made from whole soy beans will work better than the cheaper variety made from soy protein isolate.
2. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. (Less will probably work fine too, and not be so sour)
3. Let sit for an hour or so
4. Strain in a cheese cloth or coffee filter papers.
5. After an hour or so, squeeze the fluid out of the cheese by tightening the cheese cloth or filter papers.
6. Voila. Sour soy cream.

As a side note on the esoteric side of things, this is an example of the moon manifestation cycle. Something emerges out of the depths as an impulse or urge, whose direction is clear, but for which there seems no apparent reason or end point in view. A process unfolds, during which the mind, at various times, conceives of it in various different ways, and at the end of it, one sees with surprise that one has created something quite unanticipated, that perfectly answers a need. Of course this mode of creation is quite foreign to the modern rational mentality, but one with which the Wise are comfortable.

Blessings to Thee dear Mother.

Robyn Wood