Kangaroo Lasagne

As promised, here is the recipe for the kangaroo lasagne. Lower in fat than traditional lasagne, better for the environment than beef, pork and veal, and also a lot cheaper ($6/kg of kangaroo mince? You don’t get cheaper than that!).

The bolognaise sauce can be used for any minced meat. I have found over the years that everyone does something different to their bolognaise or ‘bog’ sauce. So I have slowly collected everyone’s ‘secret’ ingredient into my own until I have formed what I think is the best sauce ever (big call that one!). The most important thing is to have a good quality sugo (tomato puree), and use fresh herbs.

Serves 6 (or 2 all week! Freezes well)

Bog

1kg kangaroo mince
2 big brown onions, diced
As much garlic as you like, minced
Celery stalks and inner leaves, diced
2 carrots, diced
Red capsicum, diced
Zucchini, diced
Handful of diced mushrooms
1 cup of verjuice or wine
200g diced pancetta or bacon
Jar of good quality sugo
Tinned tomatoes
Handful of parsley and basil, finely chopped
Teaspoon curry powder
Tablespoon of vegemite
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

Béchamel Sauce

40g butter
40g flour
1 cup milk
Nutmeg, cheese

Fresh lasagne sheets
Grated light mozzarella if on a diet, otherwise I use a mixture of gruyere and parmasen.

For the bog, brown the mince in a large pot with some ground pepper and set aside. In the same pot, fry onion, celery, capsicum, pancetta and carrots for 10 minutes until cooked and starting to go sweet. Add the zucchini, mushroom and fry for a few minutes. Add the verjuice and cook on high heat until reduced by half. Add the sugo and tomatoes, curry, balsamic and vegemite, season well, and bring to a simmer. Add a bay leaf and a cinnamon stick if you want. Leave on a low simmer for at least an hour, but the longer the better. It is even better if you make this the day before eating, as the flavours really infuse. This can be frozen and heated later for spaghetti sauce or lasagne. Towards the last 20 minutes, add the fresh herbs and stir in. taste for seasoning. Sometimes I add a little sugar.

For the béchamel, melt the butter on low heat and then beat in the flour until well combined. Add the milk and slowly heat up while stirring all the time until the mixture thickens. At this point I add nutmeg and whatever cheese I am using.

To assemble lasagne, alternate layers of lasagne sheets, bog and béchamel in a deep lasagne dish. Finish with béchamel and then top with cheese. Bake at 180C for 40 minutes or until cheese is golden. Serve with a fresh salad, bread and preferably a big glass of red. Share with kookaburras if you dare!