goat meat?

[lagatta]

I can't find any threads about goat meat, although it is one of the most eaten meats on earth. Have any of you made goat stew or any other goat meat recipes?

Here is a VERY simple one. If I make it, I won't go looking for "chilli beer" as I have a can (almost 500ml) of a very good local dark beer, St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout (which is less bitter than Guinness). Easy to add some kind of pepper!

www.cookistry.com/2013/08/goat-chili-beer-and-slow-cooker.html

Or, I could make it not hot-spicy at all, and use aromatic spices such as caraway, which is great in beer braises. Or do that and add a bit of heat. Depends on the guests.

And a slightly more complicated, but still easy, Brazilian version:

flavorsofbrazil.blogspot.ca/2011/12/recipe-goat-brewmaster-style-cabrito.html

This is for kid, and of course the young animal's meat is not as long to cook, and doesn't have as strong a flavour. A beer (or wine) marinade can tone down "goatiness".

I like the idea of boiling down the marinade, as actually you don't want too much liquid if using a slow cooker.

[Deleted]

I've only bought goat once, at Superstore, for a curry. They have a frozen meat and fish section that has all sorts of "ethnic" varieties. It had little tiny shank bone sections that were a little disconcerting. I haven't picked it up since. I seldom make curry at home and when I do it's usually chicken. Lamb is prohibitively expensive for such a use.

[Deleted]

I came very close to buying goat at my closest (and probably most ethnic) Carrefour hypermarket recently. It looked nice and fresh and quite appealing but the pieces they were selling were much too large for me, and since I don't own a bone saw, I wouldn't even be able to cut it up to freeze part of it. So, no kids for me for the time being. Maybe one day I will finally visit one of the Sri Lankan goat butchers down the street.

[lagatta]

I asked pretty much the same question at chowhound (home cooking board) and someone suggested this Jalisco-style braise:

www.fronterafiesta.com/cook/meat-poultry-pork/250-slow-braised-lamb-or-goat-jalisco-style

This can of course be made more or less spicy depending on how wimpy or heat-addict the guests are. I'm thinking of a couple of rather heat-averse Argentinians. (Heat can be to northern Italian or northern Spanish levels, not very hot).

Aromatic spices are fine.

What do our Mexican residents think of the recipe?

[lagatta]

Well, I bought the goat meat. Think I have about 1.5kg, but of course that is on the bone. It looked very nice and fresh, and is local Québec goat. I don't think it is from a very old animal, but it is not a tiny cabrito either. Most of it was chops and shanks, there was a bit of flank that isn't as meaty, but I got a good mix. It is in the slow cooker, after browning all the pieces a bit, then browning a large, mild Spanish onion (adding a few chopped garlic cloves) in the same cast-iron pan. I added a bit of harissa to the onion mixture, not for a "spicy" dish, but just to liven up the flavour a bit. Also added some oregano, a spice mixture for lamb (no salt or odd chemicals, from a local Greek supplier) and some caraway seeds - I like caraway. The dark beer. Nothing else; if I add any other ingredients, that will happen tomorrow. I want to add a bit of fresh ginger, but that is definitely later on.

I'm still concerned about the cooking time - some of the recipes give 3h on low in a slow cooker. I've turned it to high (which isn't very high; this is an old slow cooker. They originally had a lower "low" which was unacceptable to the health authorities, it seems. I started it at 4:30 p.m., perhaps I'll check its progress at about 9 pm. I'm afraid to let it go overnight as that would be far too cooked in terms of the recipes I've looked at.

The goat meat (on promotion) was 8.80kg, about $4lb. I don't know what it would cost where other any porters live.

[Don Cuevas]

May 4, 2014 2:20:14 GMT lagatta said:

I asked pretty much the same question at chowhound (home cooking board) and someone suggested this Jalisco-style braise:

www.fronterafiesta.com/cook/meat-poultry-pork/250-slow-braised-lamb-or-goat-jalisco-style

This can of course be made more or less spicy depending on how wimpy or heat-addict the guests are. I'm thinking of a couple of rather heat-averse Argentinians. (Heat can be to northern Italian or northern Spanish levels, not very hot).

Aromatic spices are fine.

What do our Mexican residents think of the recipe?

Looks like a slow cooker variation of birria de chivo. The spicing seems nice, but I have, so far been disappointed with the birria de chivo I've had locally. It's just too many little bones to be pleasant. Generally, I get birria de borrego (Lamb/mutton stew) when I have a choice. Beef birria can be good also, but not as "interesting" as the ovine variety.

[lagatta]

I think I'm going to bone this before serving it to guests. Though obviously it has to cook on the bone - that provides much of the flavour.

Have you got any advice on the cooking times? I think I'll leave it until 9pm or so (I've turned it to low) and cook it some more tomorrow if it is still tough. The pot liquor is very yummy indeed...

[Don Cuevas]

Lagatta, I'm sorry that I can't advise you on the cooking time, other than cook it slowly until it is tender. I've never made it at home, as it's one of those dishes best left to specialty places. In fact, there is nearly one on every corner, as well in the front of the Pátzcuaro mercado.

I do think the slow cooker method is an approximation of the traditional method. But somehow, I doubt that those many street corner birrerias do anything but cook a chunk of meat on the stovetop.

The image below is of the rather repellent, IMO, view into a steamer kettle of birria de chivo surtida, in a place on the outskirts of Morelia, across from Costco. Surtida means "an assortment of whatever odd morsels of offal", while "maciza" is solid muscle meat.



The next image is of a near perfect bowl of birria de res (beef), at the little stand of Sr. David, on the highway near Tzurumutaro, Michoacán.


I found a better photo.



Now I want this for breakfast, on the way to Morelia tomorrow.

[lagatta]

Don C, everything worked out fine. I unplugged the crockpot and let it cool a bit, then I removed all the pieces of meat - muscle meat; don't have a ready supply of goat guts, though I'm sure there are people here who do. And I'm sure it is fine.

I did remove the bones. You can just slip them out - unlike most mammalian meats I've cooked, the flat dry bones are no longer really connected to the muscles after long, slow cooking. I removed the meat with tongs rather than with my skimming and meat-lifting tool, as there was a lot of onion, garlic etc in the broth and I didn't want to discard it.

The broth from the stew and dark beer looks and smells lovely. I poured it into a glass bowl with a plastic lid, which I'll simply let sit all night (the kitchen is still very cool) so that the fat rises. In the morning, I'll skim the fat off and reduce the stock somewhat, though I don't think I need it all. I want to make a more solid stew than your birria, though I do want some sauce. Don't worry, nothing will go to waste.

I'm also going to add a bit of tomato paste (I freeze little containers of it, as it goes off so quickly, even in the fridge, in the winter) and some fresh ginger.

Any other advice is welcome. Should I add vegetables (including potatoes or other roots) into the stew, or serve them on side? Bitter greens? If nothing else, parsley or coriander (cilantro).

[Don Cuevas]

Lagatta, the Birrería Don Prisci's in Pátzcuaro makes its birria de borrego o de res with small diced vegetables in it: potatoes, carrots, green beans. I have seen this nowhere else. Undoubtedly, it's in there as an economiser, but I don't object to it, as it tastes fine.

The traditional condiments for birria  are chopped onion, chopped cilantro, lime wedges or halves to squirt on,  al gusto; and small dishes of your favorite salsa picante.

(We ended up breakfasting at home, by the way.)

[lola]

When I lived in northern NM along the Rio Grande, festive occasions called for a goat roast. It involved a suckling cabrito, marinated, spiced, and wrapped in grape leaves then aluminum foil. They dug a pit, lined it with stones, built a big fire and let it burn down to coals. The goat was placed on the coals and stones, covered with metal, then buried with sandy riverside soil. Hours later, after everyone had worked up an appetite drumming, dancing, swimming, the cabrito was unearthed, put on a big table under the cottonwoods and unwrapped. Potluck sides.

I was too vegetarian in those days to eat any, darn it. But it smelled wonderful.

[Deleted]

We have discussed goat meat somewhere on here but, I'm not sure where.
Like Don C.,I've not cooked it myself because of so many places specializing in it.
The best variety of goat dishes I have had were in Miami beach with the large population of Haitians.
One restaurant in particular near my friends house does it in a variety of ways from what Lola described, in their back yard and served straight to the table (yum!!!) to goat stew (with potato and carrots along with the usual onion, garlic, I'm not sure about the ginger...)and a fabulous curry style.
Yours sounds delish Lagatta.
I personally would hold back on using greens in it...

[lagatta]

Yes, finally I didn't add any greens. I heated up some of it with a bit of Indonesian sambal (spicy paste) and small cubes of eggplant, some red onion, garlic and fine slices of sweet red pepper. The latter mostly for colour.

A friend who travels to Cuba often says she has never seen goat meat there. Nor goat cheese, though she has seen goats, so obviously they are consumed one way or the other, and probably both. Haitians here cook goat at home, and there is a lovely homey small restaurant, more a takeout counter than anything else, where they do a wonderful goat stew. The climate here is so different that there isn't the same presence of the type of Haitian restaurants you find in Miami Beach (I remember your photo report there).

The English-speaking Caribbeans, such as Jamaicans and Trinidadians, do goat curry. I had some made by a woman we know from Grenada, an island slightly smaller than the island of Montreal. We were holding a fundraising supper for Grenadians affected by Hurricane Ivan, ten years ago.

Grenada has recovered very well, by the way.

[Deleted]

So, have you served it yet Lagatta?
It sounds wonderful.
I may be inspired to buy some got meat at the farmer's market this week.

[lagatta]

Yes, I've served it and eaten it myself, at least three times. I've frozen the rest, because while goat is not fatty like lamb, I try not to eat much red meat.

I'm still dreaming of your, and fumobici's suppers, but I guess I should dream about those in the proper thread...