Spaghetti with a spicy kangaroo and mushroom sauce

Kangaroo mince is wonderful. Cheap, lean and tasty. It works well in pasta sauces. You could use it in place of beef in bolognese, if you wanted. This, of course, isn't bolognese. Bolognese--real, honest-to-God bologonese--includes at least two meats. Mine includes four. More if you count the plethora of pig-related products I throw in in addition to the mince.

Too, the addition of curry powder. Adding curry powder to a meaty pasta sauce, for me, is a nostalgic thing. My father used to do with his heavily Australianised 'bolognese' and to this day I can remember the smell of the stuff wafting through the house on the one evening a month or so he'd be in the kitchen.



Ingredients:

600 g kangaroo mince
500 mL beef stock
handful of mushrooms of your choosing, sliced
100 g tomato paste
1/3 cup brandy
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery sticks, diced
2 chillies, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 1/2 tbs hot curry powder
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt

In a large sauceheat, heat some oil over a low flame. Add the onion, garlic, chillies, celery and carrot. Stir and fry for five minutes, then add a tablespoon of curry powder. Stir and fry for another five minutes, then add the mince. Stir well. Brown the mince over the course of 2-3 minutes, then add the brandy, stirring as you do. Let it reduce, then spoon in the tomato paste. Stir it in, add the stock and cover the pan. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Remove the lid. Stir in the remaining curry powder. Simmer for a further 25 minutes, then add the mushrooms. Simmer for five more minutes, then cover the pan and take it off the heat. Let it sit this way while you bring some lightly salted water to the boil and cook some spaghetti. Don't cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions--use your senses by tasting the pasta when you think it's about done. It should be soft, but have just a little bite to it. Al dente. Toss the pasta and sauce together.