Kangaroo 'gringo' tacos

Let's face it--most tacos you get in the west, they're nothing like the Mexican ones. For starters, Mexican tacos don't use minced beef or cheese or lettuce--the primary ingredients of the tacos we're familiar with. I'm going to upload an authentic recipe next week, but tonight's effort will be my own bastardised tacos. Instead of using the usual beef, though, I'm using kangaroo. The strong flavour of kangaroo makes for an interesting change. Too, you'll find they're much better than the usual 'gringo' tacos.

Kangaroo mince can be had cheaply at most supermarkets in Australia. It's very low in fat--'98% fat free', proclaims the packaging--and, yeah, it's delicious. I've said this before, I think, but many people falsely believe kangaroo is tough and dry. It shouldn't be. With the mince, the trick is to marinate it and then cook it low and slow.

Too, the seasoning mix I use. The quantities of spices I give will make for some leftover. Save it and use it for something else within the next few days.

Ingredients:

400 g kangaroo mince
10 hard taco shells
2 limes, juiced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jar taco sauce or tomato salsa
1/2 red onion, diced
1/3 iceberg lettuce, shredded
2 tbs whole allspice berries
1 tbs whole coriander seeds
1 tbs whole cumin seeds
1 tbs whole white peppercorns
1 tsp coarse chilli powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp sweet paprika
oil
sliced fresh chilli, to garnish

Put the allspice, coriander, cumin and peppercorns in a small, non-stick frypan. Roast over a gentle heat, shaking the pan occasionally to move the spices around. You'll know they're finished roasting when they smell spectacular. Roasting spices isn't an exact science. Use your senses. Tip the spices into a mortar and grind with the chilli powder, sea salt and sweet paprika until you have a fine powder.



Add 3 tbs of the spice mix and the lime juice to the kangaroo mince in a bowl. Combine thoroughly with your hands. Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate for a hour or two.

Heat some oil in a large fry pan over a medium-low flame. Add the garlic and fry until it starts to soften, then add the seasoned mince. Stir and fry until cooked through.

Meanwhile, heat the taco shells in the oven according to the instructions on the packaging.

Don't overstuff the tacos. Add a little lettuce and onion, then add a bit of mince. Spoon taco sauce over the meat. Add chilli slices if using.

Curried Morton Bay bugs

Morton--sometimes spelt as Morten--Bay bugs are my favourite crustacean. Easy. The meat-to-shell ratio isn't too bad in comparison with, say, scampi and crab. The flavour is tops. And too, in Melbourne, where the bugs aren't as popular as they are in Sydney, they're reasonably affordable. I picked up a few on special today and figured I'd make a curry with them.



Of course, if you're not from Australia, you probably don't have access to bugs at all. I'm not sure if we export them, but if we do they'd probably be ridiculously overpriced. Feel free to substitute the bugs with a crustacean of your choosing--scampi, prawns, crayfish, crab, whatever. Keep in mind you may need to adjust the quantity of gravy and cooking times if you're using something other than bugs. This recipe makes enough for two people.

Ingredients:

8 Morton Bay/Balmain bugs (12 if they're small)
200 mL can coconut milk
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large shallot, peeled
1 small lump of ginger, peeled
1 piece of tamarind* that's about the size of your thumbnail
1 small lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp poppy seeds
vegetable, sunflower or peanut oil
steamed rice, to serve

Place the piece of tamarind in 100 mL hot water and set aside.

Combine 100 mL of the coconut milk with 200 mL water. Leave the other 100 mL undiluted.

Blitz the spices, garlic, shallot, ginger, lemon juice and 1 tsp water in a food processor. This will be your curry paste.

Extract the meat from the tails of the bugs by twisting the tails off and then breaking a couple of tail segments with your fingers or the tip of a knife. If you do it right, you'll be able to pull the meat out in one piece.

Heat a generous splash of oil in a small saucepan over a low flame. When hot, add the curry paste and fry for five minutes. Add the diluted coconut milk. Stir. Cook for fifteen minutes. Pluck the tamarind piece out of the water it was soaking in. Don't worry if there's a little bit left behind. Pour the water, along with the undiluted coconut milk, into the saucepan. Cook for a further fifteen minutes before adding the bug meat. Simmer for a couple of minutes or until cooked through.

Use a pair of tongs to fish out the bugs and distribute them evenly atop two piles of steamed rice. Spoon over the gravy and serve.



* Tamarind can be found in Indian and Sri Lankan grocers. You can buy it in concentrate form, but in this recipe we're using a bar. In my local places, at least, tamarind bars are sold near the spices. They're about the size of a small block of chocolate and look, well, kind of nasty. Like they're mouldly. Feel free to substitute the concentrate for the bar, but be careful--the concentrate is really potent stuff, so you'd only want to use the tiniest amount.

Kangaroo with pepper sauce

Kangaroo deserves to be more widely consumed. It's accessible--most supermarkets I've seen stock it--and it's lean and it's delicious. It's relatively affordable, too. Sure, it's gone up in price lately, but is it as cheap as steak? Well, no. Not really. Not for steak that's actually good. Rubbish two-star supermarket steak doesn't count. Kangaroo is another meat that people can be a little worried about preparing. It has a bad reputation. Overcook it and it'll dry out due to its leanness. The solution? Don't overcook it. Kangaroo has a very strong flavour--stronger than venison, even--and that's swell, really, as it means it stands up nicely to strong-flavoured sauces and rubs like this one, which combines three varieties of peppercorn. Speaking of which, you're not aiming to grind the peppercorns into a powder. For this, simply cracking them is enough. When fried, the steaks will have a crunchy, peppery crust.

Ingredients:
4 kangaroo steaks
1/2 cup beef or veal stock (either home made or good quality store-bought stuff)
1 tbs freshly crushed black peppercorns
1 tbs freshly crushed green peppercorns
1 tbs freshly crushed white peppercorns
1 tbs sea salt
a shot of brandy (or cognac or cheap whisky)
olive oil
5 tiny knobs of butter, softened

Rub a little olive oil into the surface of each steak, along with the salt and the cracked peppercorns. Retain any excess peppercorns--you can add them to the sauce at the end.

Pre-heat the pan to medium high. Place the steaks in the pan and fry for 3-4 minutes a side, depending on their thickness and how long they've been out of the fridge. When you turn them, spoon a knob of butter over each one. Once the steaks are cooked, place them on a plate and leave in a warm place. Immediately add the excess peppercorns and the shot of brandy to the pan. Careful, here. If the pan's hot enough, the alcohol could flame up, setting your curtains and/or you on fire. Stir with a wooden spoon while the alcohol reduces. Once it has reduced, add the stock. Once that's reduced by at least half, add the final knob of butter and cut the heat. Stir the butter in and spoon the sauce over the steaks.