Kangaroo Skewers with Black Garlic and Pepperberry Tare

Lunch | Japanese

Prep time: 20 min Cook time: 15 min Servings: 4

Kangaroo is one of the best native Australian ingredients you can cook with. It’s lean, high in protein, and has a deep, gamey red-meat flavour that suits bold, sticky glazes. This recipe pairs kangaroo loin skewers with a tare, a reduced soy-based glaze from Japanese yakitori cooking, but built with black garlic and pepperberries to pull it into Australian territory. The black garlic gives the tare a sweet, umami depth that raw garlic doesn’t have, and the pepperberries bring a fruity, native heat that sits differently to regular black pepper. It’s the kind of dish I like to put out at a Christmas BBQ: something that uses a familiar technique but feels distinctly Australian.

Thin strips of kangaroo loin are folded in a zigzag and threaded onto flat metal skewers, then cooked two minutes per side over high heat and basted with tare as they char. Kangaroo is best at medium-rare. It’s so lean that it tightens up quickly beyond that, so the goal is a charred exterior with a pink, just-warm center. The tare gets made ahead and cooled before you need it, so the actual cook is four minutes from fridge to plate. Make the tare the day before, thread the skewers in the morning, and the only thing left to do when the BBQ is hot is cook them.

Ingredient Notes

Kangaroo loin: Kangaroo is one of the leanest red meats available, which means it cooks fast and dries out quickly if taken too far. Loin is the right cut for skewers: it’s tender and slices into clean strips that hold their shape when threaded. It’s widely available at Australian butchers and in supermarkets. If you can’t source it, lamb leg or venison are the closest substitutes in terms of flavour profile, though neither is as lean so they’ll be more forgiving if cooked a little past medium-rare.

Black garlic: Black garlic is regular garlic that has been fermented slowly under low heat and humidity over several weeks. The cloves turn soft and sticky, the sharp raw pungency mellows away, and what’s left is a sweet, deeply savoury flavour with hints of molasses and balsamic. It adds complexity to the tare that you can’t replicate with fresh garlic. You’ll find it at good greengrocers, specialty food stores and some supermarkets. The recipe lists one clove of regular garlic as the substitute, but the flavour will be sharper and significantly less sweet.

Pepperberries: Pepperberries (Tasmannia lanceolata) are native Australian berries with an intense, spicy heat and a slightly fruity, floral quality that sets them apart from standard black pepper. The dried berries steep in the tare during the reduction, releasing their heat and aromatics into the sauce. You’ll find them at specialty food stores and online. If you can’t source them, pink peppercorns are the closest substitute: they have a similar fruitiness and are milder than black pepper, though the distinctly Australian character of the dish won’t be there.

Equipment

Chopping board
Chef’s knife
Medium saucepan
8 flat metal skewers
Wire rack over tray
BBQ grill
Tongs
Pastry brush

Kangaroo Skewers with Black Garlic and Pepperberry Tare

Ingredients

500g kangaroo loin
1 tbsp olive oil
Tare
2 cloves black garlic, smashed (or 1 clove normal garlic)
40ml soy sauce
20ml sake
20ml mirin
80ml chicken stock
2 tsp brown sugar
10 pepper berries

Directions

Prep the tare
Combine the garlic, soy sauce, sake, mirin, stock, sugar and pepper berries in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
Bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce reduces by a third, stirring occasionally to make sure the garlic doesn’t catch and burn.
Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool.
Prep the skewers
Slice the kangaroo into thin strips. Fold each strip over twice in a zigzag pattern, then thread onto 8 flat skewers, between 6-8 pieces per skewer.
Place the skewers on a wire rack over a tray. Cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.
BBQ and serve
Preheat a BBQ grill over high heat. Season the skewers with salt, drizzle with oil and place them on the grill. Cook for 2 minutes on the first side.
Turn the skewers over when charred and begin to baste with the tare. Continue cooking for another 2 minutes, until cooked to medium rare.
Transfer to a tray and brush the other side with the remaining tare. Allow to rest for 2 minutes, then serve.

Recipe notes

Chef Tips

Cook kangaroo fast and hot, and pull it at medium-rare

Kangaroo is so lean that there’s very little fat to keep it moist as it cooks. Two minutes per side on a hot grill is all it needs. You want the outside charred and the inside still pink and just warm through. An instant-read thermometer should read around 55°C to 60°C at the thickest point. Once kangaroo goes past medium, the muscle fibres contract, the moisture is gone, and the meat becomes tough and chewy. There’s no recovering it from there, so pull it early if you’re uncertain.

Baste after the first flip, not before

The tare should be cooled to room temperature before you use it, and it should go on after the first flip, not at the start of the cook. Basting too early can prevent proper char from forming on the first side, and the sugar content in the mirin and brown sugar will burn fast on a very hot grill if it goes on before a crust has developed. Once the skewers are flipped and the first side has its char, baste freely on both sides and let the tare caramelise in the last minute of cooking.

Storage

Cooked skewers keep covered in the fridge for up to 2 days. I wouldn’t reheat the kangaroo as it will push past medium-rare and tighten up. Eat them cold or at room temperature. The tare keeps in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and is worth making in bulk as it works well on chicken, lamb or beef skewers too.

FAQs

What is Tare? Tare is the general term in Japanese cuisine for dipping sauce and most commonly used for grilled meats, or Yakitori as a glaze. We have chosen to pair this soy-based sauce with some Australian flavours for our BBQ Christmas, utilising Kangaroo and pepperberries.

Can I prep this ahead? Yes, and I’d recommend it. Make the tare up to a week in advance and keep it refrigerated. Thread the skewers the morning of and keep them on a wire rack in the fridge. The actual cook is 4 minutes, so it’s a straightforward finish once the BBQ is hot.

What’s the right doneness for kangaroo? Medium-rare. The meat should be charred on the outside and still pink in the centre, with an internal temperature around 55°C to 60°C. Kangaroo is very lean and goes chewy quickly past medium, so err on the side of underdone rather than overdone. If you’re serving guests who prefer their meat more cooked through, lamb skewers are the better option for this recipe.

Can I use this tare on other meats? Definitely. The black garlic and pepperberry tare works well on chicken thigh skewers, lamb cutlets or beef short rib. It also works as a dipping sauce or drizzled over steamed rice. Make a larger batch and keep it in the fridge: it holds for 2 weeks and the flavour improves after a day or two as the pepperberry heat mellows into the sauce.