Ostrich Steaks With Spicy Marinade And Citrus Sauce

Ostrich Steaks With Spicy Marinade And Citrus Sauce

Lean and full of flavor

Course Meal

Keyword Tabasco Sauce

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 35

Total Time 45

Servings Servings

Calories 537kcal

Ingredients

The ostrich and its spicy marinade

2 pounds ostrich medallions or ostrich filets
2 teaspoons Tabasco hot sauce or hot sauce of your choice
1 tablespoon thick soy sauce If you have dark mushroom flavored soy, even better
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice approximately the juice of two limes

The orange and ginger sauce

2 ounces salted butter
2 large oranges peeled, segmented, and with the pale pithy bits removed
4 tablespoons fresh orange juice
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon ginger root grated, heaped teaspoon
2 cloves garlic peeled and very finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground sea salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prepping the ostrich

Empty the meat and its juices into a bowl and add all the marinade ingredients. Give the lot a good stir, so the ostrich gets well coated in the marinade. Set aside for about 30 minutes while you make the orange and ginger sauce.

Cooking the sauce

Melt the butter on medium-high heat in a saucepan. When it foams, add the orange segments, salt, and cinnamon. You’re looking to get a bit of color onto the outsides of the segments, so cook for about five minutes, turning them a few times. They will soften but be gentle in their turning so they don’t lose their shape.
Next, add the garlic and ginger and cook for 90 seconds over that constant medium-high heat before adding the rest of the sauce ingredients. Bring it to a simmer and keep it that way for 15 minutes - with an occasional stir. You want the liquid to reduce and thicken to a syrupy consistency that barely drips from a spoon and gives a glossy coating to the orange segments. Done!
Turn off the heat and put a top on the pan. Time now for the ostrich – and warming its serving dish.

Cooking the ostrich – hot and fast

Quickly arrange the ostrich in a single layer on a grid over evenly spread hot coals. Leave well alone for three sizzling minutes – don’t fiddle with it. (You’ll see the ostrich starting to constrict a little and form into plump pillow shapes. That’s excellent.) Now turn the ostrich and, again, leave well alone for another three minutes. Cooked!
Immediately take the ostrich off the heat and onto your warmed dish to rest for 90 seconds. Then plate it for your fellow diners and spoon the orange-segment sauce alongside it – not over it.

Notes

Side-dish? Top of my list would be buttery mashed potato. I’d add four cloves of peeled and roughly cut garlic to the water for boiling the potatoes and then mash the lot with warmed milk and butter, plus a ‘to-taste’ seasoning of salt and white (yep, white) pepper.

To drink? Your favorite big, red wine. Go large with the budget here – the big bird deserves it.

Although South Africa produces about 65% of the world’s ostrich products – meat, eggs, and high-end, very distinctive leather – ostriches are also farmed in the US and Europe. A quick Google search should lead you to a convenient source for the meat.

Fillets and medallions often come in 18-ounce (500gm) vacuum-packs and can look alarmingly bloody. That’s fine – it’s a typical characteristic of ostrich meat. You’ll probably get four medallions / fillets in a pack, each about a bare inch thick and sort of the diameter of a proper straight-sided whiskey tumbler.

Another great thing about ostrich is that its ultra-low fat content means it freezes really well. I’ve eaten both fresh and frozen – never been able to tell the difference. And any leftovers are great when thinly sliced in a sandwich – much like the way you might use rare roast beef – with mayo, mustard, a dash of chili sauce, and perhaps some lightly salted slices of tomato.

Nutrition