Baby Goat: Cabrito, Chevron, Kid

[Liza]

I'm thinking a slow braise with the usual suspects (mirepoix, red wine, bay leaves). Any suggestions?

[CathyL]

What part o' the beast did you get?

[Liza]

Shank - same cut as osso buco. But it's more like a leg, says Davy.

[Wilfrid]

I did once braise a goat shank in Barcelona, in white rioja with lashings of frsh rosemary. Stock? I can't remember. But it was very good, and the sauce left, in the fridge overnight, set as a lovely beige goat jelly!

Simon Majumdar - please post your goat with apples recipe.

[Liza]

I did once braise a goat shank in Barcelona...

Wilfrid's soooo dreamy...and well-travelled!

[Wilfrid]

And so in love with himself.

[g.johnson]

Any lamb curry recipe should work, probably better than it would with lamb since you can stew goat for longer without it falling to pieces.

[jaybee]

I once had a goat in Jerusalem, just outside the walls of the old city, in the Arab quarter.

But I was young and lonley, and that was long ago.

[Orik]

I'm thinking a slow braise with the usual suspects (mirepoix, red wine, bay leaves). Any suggestions?

I'm thinking braised in veal stock and white wine with pears, grapes and Moroccan spices and the braising liquid strained and reduced, then poured into a goat cheese souffle.

[monkeymay]

You could try making birria, a spicy mexican stew that's made with a combination of toasted chiles, garlic and spices, and slow cooked til the meat's falling off the bone.

It's served with a vinegar based salsa, chopped onions/cilantro and fresh warm tortillas.There's a recipe for it in Diana Kennedy's Cuisines of Mexico

I eat birria every Sunday morning at a little stand at the farmer's mrkt. in Hollywood - it always cures whatever misbehavior I have indulged in on Saturday nite.

[Simon Majumdar]

This is a cross between a tagine and a Kleftiko

The slow,low cooking leaves the meat falling off the bone and intensifies the flavours

If you want to you can reduce the sauce, but I prefer it quite rustic

it is very simple and delicious.

INGREDIENTS

4 kid or goat shanks ( or more allowing one per person ) – if you use goat or kid off the bone then reduce cooking time.

1 x small white onion chopped finely

1 x small red onion sliced

2 x fat cloves of garlic chopped

1 inch of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped

2 fresh red chillies de seeded and chopped

1 can peeled and chopped plum tomatoes

1 tsp tomato puree

2 apples peeled and sliced in thickish slices ( I use any good cooking apple – one that will not break down too easily )

1/2 pint lamb stock or water

SPICES

Saffron strands infused in warm milk

1 tsp of ground cumin

1 tsp of chilli powder

1 x cinnamon stick

1 tsp ground ginger

2 cardammon pods

2 x bay leaf

Salt & Pepper

1 tsp sugar

METHOD

You will need a heavy bottomed casserole dish with a tight fitting lid. You could also use a slow cooker. In the casserole, brown the shanks or cubes of goat/kid in a little oil and butter. When well browned remove from the pan and in the same pan fry the chopped onions and the garlic, chili and ginger until they soften but do not colour.

Add the ground spices and the cinnamon stick and sugar and fry for one to two minutes until they lose their rawness.

Return the goat/kid to the pan and turn coating with the spice and onion mixture to make sure it is all coated.

Add the tomato puree, the bay leaves, the saffron, the can of tomatoes and the lamb stock (or water.)

Place the lid on the casserole and seal it in place with a simple dough strip or by painting the edges with flour and water ( just as you would for a Daube a Hydrabad Byriani )

Place in a low oven for 10 hrs or over night ( if using cubed lamb , reduce this accordingly)

When the cooking time has passed, break the seal on the pot and stir in the apples and slices of red onion.

Return to the oven and cook on a moderate heat for a further 15 minutes or until the apples and onions begin to soften but not break down.

Serve with white rice or cous cous

S

[Suzanne F]

Thank you, Simon, for posting that. It sounded so wonderful when you told us about it last week, but who was paying full attention?? Now we can try it. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

[Dave the Cook]

[Suvir Saran]

Thanks Simon! That sounds yummy.

[Nick]

Place the lid on the casserole and seal it in place with a simple dough strip or by painting the edges with flour and water

Thanks for that idea. I don't know where I'll use it, but I'll remember it.

[Wilfrid]

Yep, I'll be doing Simon's goat too, if you see what I mean.

[johnjohn]

Simon's goat recipe calls for a low oven. Is 250 - 300 considered a low oven? Or would it be even lower.

johnjohn

[Liza]

I shall try Simon's goat, too, with the next one. Did this one just like osso buco and it was marvelous, really tender meat which reminded D. of spring lamb.

[Dave the Cook]

Simon's goat recipe calls for a low oven.  Is 250 - 300 considered a low oven?  Or would it be even lower.

johnjohn

For a long braise like this, I would go for 250. You're trying to accomplish two things: 1) allow the flavors sufficient time to meld; 2) melt the collagen in the meat to get that silken texture characteristic of a perfect braise.

The first can be accomplished by braising until done, then letting the braise sit over night. But heat will accelerate reactions, and some reactions take place only in the presence of heat, so longer is better.

The second you want to do without driving all the juice out of meat too early. It will happen eventually, because a braise is by definition well-done meat, and well-done by definition is dried out. But you want to replace the juice with the melted collagen. If the meat dries out too early, the protein matrix will tighten up, and there will be no place for the collagen to go but out into the liquid. It will make for great sauce but dessicated meat. The meat needs to remain at about 200 (collagen melts at around 180, if memory serves) for a few hours in order to allow complete conversion of the collagen into gelatin. I think it needs to be as high as 250 because you will have some heat loss from the oven and the pot. (If you've got a really well-insulated oven, you could try 225.) But at 300, I think you're going to be boiling most of the time, and this is what you want to avoid.

This explains a common phenomenon. People say they don't like pot roast because it gets so dry. So they cook it less--and they like it less--so eventually, they don't cook it at all, which is really too bad. They need to cook it more--four hours for a 3-1/2 pound chuck is about right.

But this is just my theory (and opinion, and I do go on sometimes).

johnjohn, sorry if I'm explaining stuff you already know, when all you wanted was a number.

[Priscilla]

I shall try Simon's goat, too, with the next one. Did this one just like osso buco and it was marvelous, really tender meat which reminded D. of spring lamb.

And...what did it remind YOU of, L.?

Simon's thing with the apples I can almost wrap my mind around, only my mental palate keeps wanting to kick out the apples, every time I run the tape, even if I try to sneak it in catching myself all unawares.

Lamb with the apples, for some reason, does not cause the same rejection. Wonder why that is, and if Simon would approve of lamb in this preparation.

[Wilfrid]

I have been sold on apples in all kinds of braises, since I ate a carbonnade de boeuf in a little restaurant in Brussels, and was shown the whole peeled apple at the bottom of the pot when I asked why it was so delicious.

[Adam Balic]

Simon's thing with the apples I can almost wrap my mind around, only my mental palate keeps wanting to kick out the apples, every time I run the tape, even if I try to sneak it in catching myself all unawares.

I wouldn't try to wrap my mental palate around Simon's thing with apples if I was you, but you know, each to their own I guess.

[Priscilla]

I do like apples in long-cooked savory things.

The whole apple in the pot sounds charming, Wilfrid, but probably was in there for the duration, though, would you say? Also doesn't carbonnade have bacon, the Magic of Bacon, eminently apple-friendly. Bacon, or beer, doesn't carbonnade have.

I'm thinking it's the semi-crunchyness specified in Simon's preparation that my mental palate is rejecting. Although I could be convinced. Assuming sufficient citation, can one be convinced of nearly ANYthing?

Got these nice Anna apples on my tree, which I'm trying to use in a befitting manner.

[Liza]

I guess I thought Davy's comments were interesting as he was raised on lovely Irish lamb (not exclusively, of course of course). If that's what lamb should taste like, I think I've been eating the wrong stuff. Next up: Belle Rouge chicken.

[Priscilla]

Yes, that was interesting to me, because one thinks of spring lamb as being the teeny-tiny pink impossibly tiny rack, all Frenched and pantied and whatnot to a fare-thee-well, doesn't one. Not a long-cooked braisey-braise sort of thing. Must have tasted very very very good, your Braise o' Goat, that's all I can say.