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Kylie Kwong's wallaby with black bean and chilli

Matt Holden

Fusion food: Kylie Kwong's stir-fried wallaby with black bean and chilli sauce.
Fusion food: Kylie Kwong's stir-fried wallaby with black bean and chilli sauce.Steven Siewert

Kylie Kwong. The name says it all: really Australian, really Chinese. You couldn't make it up.

"Third-generation Australian, 29th-generation Kwong," she says. "My family tree has been traced back to the 1100s, to the days of the Sung Dynasty."

The first Kwong in Australia was her great-grandfather, Kwong Sue Duk, who arrived in the late 19th century. He lived in Cooktown, Palmerston (as Darwin was then known), Ballarat and Bendigo, travelled back and forth between Australia and China and married four women. Between them they bore him 24 children (Kylie Kwong is descended from wife number three – "the first daughter of the fifth son of the first son of the third wife"). He finally retired to Townsville, where he died in 1929.

Cooking fusion: Kylie Kwong.
Cooking fusion: Kylie Kwong.Supplied
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It's some story, and a reminder that Australia was multicultural long before we had a word for it.

But where Kwong grew up – Epping in Sydney's north-west – her family were the only Asians around.

"I always had a very positive experience, no racial discrimination," she says. "The Kwong kids were very popular at school because we always had birthday parties where mum would put on the most incredible spread of delicious Chinese dishes like soy sauce chicken wings, fried rice, Hokkien noodles and sweet and sour fish. All the kids used to come running."

Lucky Epping. Back then – in the mid-1970s – most of us were getting our beef in black bean sauce from Friday-night takeaways.

"Mum taught my two brothers and me how to cook from the age of five. She cooked every single night, and the most important thing is that she enjoyed cooking and enjoyed serving it to her family and her friends. She taught us that food makes people happy and that food connects people," says Kwong.

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The first dish she cooked on her own was fried rice for her grandmother, who lived with the family and used to play mahjong all day with her Chinese friends. "I was about seven. I'd watched my mother cook fried rice for ages. I could barely reach the table, for heaven's sake. I burnt it, but they still ate it. They were so engrossed in their mahjong and gambling they didn't even notice."

Kwong's mother had learnt to cook from her own father. "He was the cook in the house. He had his own vegetable garden out the back. He used to make his own pickles. They're the pickles that I serve at [Kwong's restaurant] Billy Kwong," she says.

Food from her childhood is at the heart of Kwong's cooking: there's also Mrs Jang's eggs, which has been on the menu at Billy Kwong since day one. "When we were little we used to go and spend our school holidays at uncle Jimmy's noodle factory helping wrap up the wonton skins, and we'd go around to Mrs Jang's (uncle Jimmy's mother) for lunch every day. She used to serve us each a bowl of steamed rice with fried eggs on the top and some fresh chilli and shallots. It was the most comforting, simple meal."

Stir-fried wallaby fillet with black bean and chilli. That says it all: really Australian, really Chinese. Only Kwong could make that up.

"It's an authentic Australian Chinese dish because it's rooted in Cantonese cooking – the stir-fried meat with black bean – but I use native meat. It makes sense, it tastes delicious and it's very good for you," says Kwong.

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The wallaby comes from Flinders Island. With the clearing of land there for pasture, wallaby numbers have exploded to the point where local farmers consider them a pest.

"We should be eating more wallaby. It's in absolute abundance. James Madden of Flinders Island Meat sends professional shooters out to despatch them. I get the tail and the fillet. It really is delicious – very clean-flavoured and sweet."

But it's not just her grandfather's influence that taught Kwong the importance of eating what you find in your own backyard.

"Rene Redzepi gave an amazing keynote address at the 2010 Sydney International Food Festival opening night. His whole philosophy is about the importance of using home-grown ingredients. That was an amazing lightbulb moment. I went home and the next day I made a whole lot of phone calls. That's how I found out about Outback Pride, who I've been sourcing all of my Australian native produce through ever since," she says.

"I went on this whole other path in my cooking. That's when I really felt that I was able to offer authentic Australian Chinese cuisine, using all this native produce but integrating it into traditional Cantonese dishes.

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"And when you're a food spokesperson you have a duty of care, so to speak. I think it's very important that we send the right messages out. Using native ingredients in my cooking – not only because they're delicious and they're different – is my way of supporting our original Australians and our local environment.

"Every Australian I know loves beef in black bean and chilli sauce, so this is the Australian Chinese version. The dish really is a direct reflection of who I am: Australian Chinese."

Stir-Fried Flinders Island Wallaby Fillet with Black Bean and Chilli

600g wallaby fillet cut into 1cm slices

1/3 cup vegetable oil

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1/4 cup finely sliced spring onions

Marinade

2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon brown sugar

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Black Bean and Chilli Sauce

1/2 medium sized red pepper

1 small onion, finely sliced

1/4 cup ginger julienne

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

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1 tablespoon salted black beans

2 tablespoons shao hsing/dry sherry

2 teaspoon white sugar

2 tablespoon organic tamari

1 tablespoon malt vinegar

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1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

2 large red chillies, sliced on the diagonal

Combine wallaby with the marinade ingredients in a large bowl, cover, and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Heat half the oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add half the marinated wallaby and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Remove from wok with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add remaining wallaby, stir-fry for 30 seconds then remove from wok and set aside.

Meanwhile, make the Black Bean and Chilli Sauce. Remove seeds and membranes from pepper, cut into fine slices and set aside. Add remaining oil in the hot wok. Add onion, ginger, garlic and black beans and stir-fry on high heat for 30 seconds, stirring constantly to ensure the black beans do not burn.

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Return wallaby to the wok with wine or sherry and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add sugar, tamari, vinegar and sesame oil and stir-fry for a further minute. Lastly, add chilli and reserved pepper and stir-fry for a further 30 seconds.

To serve, arrange wallaby on a platter and garnish with spring onions.

Serves 4

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