Cooking With Dappled Cities

Roasted Caribou Loin

Cookbook

Written by Sarah Guppy on 1 July 2012

What were your food influences when you were growing up and what kind of food did you eat at home or with your family?

I used to be a picky eater. Then all of a sudden I ate anything. When I was growing up we used to eat a lot of BBQ, spag bolognaise, strirfrys and so on. Dinner was an important time in my household – not necessarily for the food, more for the time together. A time to sit down and chat about your day. I do remember, however, my mum often saying “well, we’ve all got our heads in the trough” as we sat their in a delirious end of the day state and shoveled food into our mouths.

What dish or cuisine do you most like to eat on tour and why?

Asian food. So much Asian food. I think every band eats heaps of Asian food because it is simple and delicious and easily accessible. Whenever you go out for a “quick” steak or a “quick” 12 course French degustation it always takes so damn long. All you want is some noodles in a broth with some meat and wontons and vegetables and chili and maybe some of that green stuff that comes with Chinese noodle soups and some hoison and some fresh chilli and some of the red chilli sauce. When we went to San Francisco we lost it in their Chinatown because it was so much like the Sydney one. And if we had to eat one more burger in a truck stop we might have all turned into burgers. I’d rather turn into a noodle soup any day.

What type of food do you hate, and what is the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten? Tell us the story

Hate is such a strong word. And one I don’t think I could apply to any sort of food. I’m not so hot on Lamb’s Fry or Chicken’s Feet – but I couldn’t ever say I hate them. I can safely say that the most disgusting thing I ever ate though was 1 cent chicken wings on a cold NY night. It was some sort of special deal – buy a beer and get as many chicken wings as you want. We must have gotten 200 or so (2 bucks!) and I think the 6 of us had a bloody good crack at it. All I can remember is being totally stuffed, a bit drunk and watching Eddy shovel the ones that no one wanted into his mouth. It’s an image that will haunt me til the day I die.

What type of food do you make sure to avoid before a gig or going on stage?

We always so no to Indian but often we eat Indian. Indian is the worst. You eat it and think “yea, I feel ok”. Then, as show time approaches, so does the flatus and the burping and the general feeling of disgustingness. It’s not the food’s fault, it’s ours for thinking you can have Indian before playing an hour of indie rock. People often think that Tim turns to me because he’s rocking hard. I can assure you, however, that mostly it’s because one of his holes has ejected something more powerful than the Terminator in Terminator 2. And while on that theme, you’d probably need a vat of molten lava to kill it.

Imagine for a second you can request anything on your rider at a gig. What food do you put on it?

6 tonnes of BBQ pork, King Island camembert, cabanossi and cheddar platter, all the components of steak tartare, a teppanyaki chef with all the trimmings to chuck steaming hot egg at us, pasta (carbonara if possible), balmain bugs, a vat of oysters with some sort of spicy sauce, calamari (whole please), lamb chops cooked on the BBQ with some oil and salt and rosemary, Texas meat plater, hamburgers, 1 zinger burger, potato salad, Tasmanian salmon (raw), Pizza shapes, coleslaw – hope you guys have a big van to get this to all the gigs.

What has been your biggest cooking disaster to date? Tell us the story.

My life is a cooking disaster.

When you tour overseas, what food from home do you miss the most?

I miss good wholesome lamb. Three lovely aussie chops. Let’s be fair though, overseas probably get most of our best meat so what am I talking about. But to be honest, food overseas is so good you don’t really miss anything from back home. I just went to Hanoi and I didn’t think about a hotdog from Wendy’s once. That’s how good the food was.

This is your last day on earth, what is your final meal?

Really? I guess I’d eat something weird like Caribou. Yea, I’d go find a caribou and eat it.

Am I meant to say mum’s bread? Something wholesome.

Maybe dolphin. I mean, if I was gonna die anyway.

Listen to new Dappled Cities ‘Run With The Wind’ (Tales In Space Remix) here:

Ingredients

4 (4-ounce) portions caribou

2 1/2 ounces butter

6 1/2 ounces wild mushrooms

2 tablespoons currant jelly

1 shallot, minced

1 cup veal stock

3/4 cup red wine

Salt and pepper

potatoes for mashing

Roasted Caribou Loin

Method

Caribou Loin and Sauce: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put 2 1/2 ounces of butter and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large saute pan and heat. Season the caribou with salt and pepper. Sear caribou over low heat. Remove the meat from the pan, add the wild mushrooms and shallots. After searing the meat, put it in a pan and cook in the oven for 15 minutes. It is very important that you served this meat rare or medium rare.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine. Add the veal stock and the current jelly. Reduce the mixture by half. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Potatoes:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Peel the potatoes and boil for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain the potatoes and mash. Place back in the pot with 1-1/2 ounce of butter, the mashed roasted garlic, the roasted bacon and the hot milk.

In a plate, place a quenelle of mashed potato and then the meat.

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