Goat

[Shed101]

Anyone have some good recipes for goat because I'll be getting a couple soon and I would like to make something special out of them.

We normally eat goat in a morrocan stew recipe made in a slow cooker.

 

[Frank]

I love goat.
The best goat I have ever bought and cooked was from Basfoods Australia, Victoria St, Brunswick, also Halal. I bought the rear half and slow cooked it in a hooded BBQ. For those that don't know the size of goats when killed are normally smaller than sheep so half a goat served 6 with left overs.
In Adelaide the best place I have found is the Halal butcher close to the West Thebarton Hotel on South Road. The red butcher in the Central Markets is now Halal, but have not got their goat supplier worked out yet, but the owner told me they are planning to have it sorted soon.
Also if eating at Goucho's in Gouger St, ask for the whole goat leg, they don't advertise it on the specials and seems to be available only to those in the know.

 

[Mercs Own]

I did this dish on the show and it was delicious!

Goat Ragu with Red Wine

1 shoulder of baby goat boned out approx 900g
10 cloves of garlic peeled
8 eschallots peeled and the larger ones halved lengthwise
3 tomatoes roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
1 bottle of red wine I used Sangiovese from Pizzini Winery in the King Valley
Flour for dusting goat
Salt and pepper for seasoning
1 tbls spoon freshly ground black pepper
cup of sultanas
a cup of pine nuts toasted
cup of chopped parsley

Season goat with some salt and pepper then dust it with the flour patting excess off. Place an oven proof dish on the stove over high heat and add some olive oil. When hot add the goat and brown on both sides when browned add the garlic and the eschallots and cook for a few minutes then add the tomatoes, bay leaves, the bottle of wine and the tbls of black pepper. Give it all a mix and taste for salt and season as necessary. Lay a sheet of baking paper cut to fit inside the oven dish over the goat and ten cover tightly with a lid or alfoil. Bake in the oven at 140 for 2 - 3 hours until the meat is falling away and you can pick pieces off it with your fingers.

Remove meat from sauce and using two forks shred the meat. Using the back of a spoon squash the garlic cloves into the sauce and stir them through\. You should have enough liquid for the sauce but if you have too much then simmer the sauce down, if you dont have enough then add a little water and simmer that so as to incorporate it into the flavours. Add the meat back in along with the sultanas, pine nuts and parsley. Put on the stove over gentle heat and bring to a simmer it is now ready to serve.

You can serve this on pasta, rice or even better on homemade Gnocchi.

 

[leiothrix]

Silly question - what does dusting the meat with flour do?

I know it will thicken the juices, but is it any different to just adding some cornflour later on?

Rob.

 

[Mercs Own]

Silly question - what does dusting the meat with flour do?

I know it will thicken the juices, but is it any different to just adding some cornflour later on?

Rob.

Adding cornflour to a cooked stew at the end of the process is a bit like adding hops directly into the bottle when filling imho. Dusting your meat and then browning adds another flavour component to the dish which blends in with all the other flavours you have delicately and lovingly built into the dish and spent the whole cooking time to develop and ultimately assists in thickening the sauce. Another way of thickening the sauce is to simmer it down thus concentrating the flavours you have spent hours developing. You could make a roux but that is adding in another flavour at the end of the process also. I would much prefer to start with a roux and build the flavours on top of that such as in a Jambalaya, Creole or Gumbo etc

If you dont want to dust your meat with flour then just brown your meat off no flour remove from pan then cook your onions and add in some flour when the onion are done before adding in the next ingredients and cook the flour for a couple of minutes. It will still add some flavour and assist in the thickening process.

Sometimes if I am doing a soup I will not dust the meat in flour.

Sometimes I find dishes thickened with cornflour to be a little gluggy.

 

[manticle]

Also helps seal the meat a bit.

I hate cornflour - especially after watching walter burke throw handfuls of undissolved cornflour into his duck pie mix while wearing footy shorts, chef's jacket and ballet shoes while using all the stoves in my section during my precious prep time.

Two hats my arse.

 

[kirem]

Also helps seal the meat a bit.

Is sealing meat by searing a myth? The science says it is. Is adding flour changing the properties enough that it does seal?

http://www.masterchef.com.au/guest-chef-he...-blumenthal.htm

After four years of reading, cooking and researching, however, he bought a book that made him look at cooking in a completely different way. During a discussion of meats physical properties, it declared: We do know for a fact that searing does not seal...

The book was On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. It encouraged Heston's natural curiosity, showing him the benefits of taking nothing for granted and using a scientific approach to cooking. For if the notion that searing = sealing was untrue, despite being presented as fact in countless cookbooks and TV shows, then how many other rules of the kitchen could be bent, broken or ignored? From then on, the precise questioning and testing of culinary ideas became a key part of his approach, alongside the more traditional kitchen skills.

and

This old saw has been around for ages, probably because searing meat that will be stewed, roasted, etc. does indeed give much better results. It has nothing to do with sealing in the juices, however. Careful experiments were performed in which identical pieces of meat were cooked with and without searing. If searing did seal in juices, then the seared meat would lose a smaller percentage of its weight during cooking than the unseared piece. In actuality, both the seared and unseared meat lost about the same amount of weight.

Searing, or more specifically browning, is important because of the Maillard reaction. When the proteins and sugars in meat are exposed to high heat (searing) a large number of chemical reactions take place, resulting in the creation of lots of new flavor elements. It is these flavors, both in the browned surface of the meat and in any pan juices that result, that make searing such an important step in some recipes.

Source: On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, Simon & Schuster, 1984.

 

[manticle]

I don't think it forms an airtight seal or anything like that but I'd be surpised if it had no effect (considering cauterising can be used to 'seal' a wound).

My experience of flouring meats prior to cooking is some kind of seal is formed and less juice seems to exit into the pan. I do it only ocassionally though - I enjoy the slight crust that develops on the outside of a chicken piece. Obviously battering and crumbing forms some kind of a barrier too - I would suggest flour is a less dramatic form of these.

It's quite possibly 6/8th's of a bees dick's worth of SFA difference though - I'm not sure.

 

[DU99]

rolling in flour..helps with gravy later,thickens the sauce..bit of stout would help

 

[Fourstar]

Is sealing meat by searing a myth? The science says it is. Is adding flour changing the properties enough that it does seal?

It caramelises the protein in question which enhances flavour, nothing more. its really a flavour building exercise and 'sealing' is just (well now) and old wives tale. All that sizzling and 'sealing' is actually just evaporating liquids from the meat as you form a caramelised crust on the protein. simply weigh a 250g steak raw, cook it till well done and weight it again. im sure you will see the results. if it was 'sealed' it would weigh exactly the same, or marginally lower. Not less than 1/2 its starting weight. - sorry was wrong, 80 g less

As for flouring meat, thats also a falvour building exersice and a thickening agent. In the case of something deep fried, a textrual exercise. :icon_cheers:

EDIT: watch this from 4 minutes in to see explanation

 

[MVZOOM]

Correct, sealing is a myth, it's all about caramalisation for depth of flavour.

Goat and I have been having a fantastic affair for the last 3 months. A new halal butcher opened up cnr of Seven Hills Rd and Windsor rd, 1kg of pieces is around $9. I have made a few curries and an Italian dish so far. I love the meat, I love the eating experience and it suits my love of long, slow cooked food.

Basically, the Italian dish went like this:

Get 1.5kg pieces, brown them off in olive oil. Get a few big handfuls of thyme and sweet origano (speeling??) and throw in a metric shitload of garlic. Get one bottle of dry white wine and add 1/2 to the now-browned goat. Throw in the herbs and leave to cook for a couple of hours. A bit later, grab some lasagne sheets, break them into smaller bits and throw them in. Throw in some white beans of some sort. Toss in frest some lemon rind, salt, peppper. Slosh in some more wine and a couple of handfuls of flat continental parsley.

It's just so damned good.

Eat with some crusty bread and more wine - and your fingers, remember to suck that marrow out!

Cheers - Mike

 

[manticle]

Trying to remember the goat stew recipe I made up the other day. It was a bit of a hybrid.

Definitely garlic, chilli and fresh thyme, fried off till aromatic, sliced bacon added, browned.

Browned the seasoned goat pieces, threw in whole peppercorns, maybe fresh oregano, deglazed with red wine, cooked out, added fresh and tinned tomatoes, carrots, chicken stock (possibly) a touch of port and more red wine, a bit of sugar (1/2 teaspoon) seasoned and tasted (erring on the side of caution) then turned down and simmered, lid on for several hours. Meanwhile I par cooked some fresh whole beetroot (start in salted cold water) which was then peeled and quartered and added into the mix, cooked out for another hour or so till goat kind of fell away from the bones. Possibly added some parsley, chopped at the end and my memory suggests I added a bit of Kofte bahari and sumac at the beginning (toasted in a separate pan till aromatic then chucked in).

Just bought another kilo from the halal butcher so I'll try and invent something tasty and actually record the recipe properly.

The main trick to seasoning slow cooked dishes is that everything will concentrate over the lengthy cooking time and you can't take the salt out. You can add some in

 

[Katherine]

You guys..... Kirim put the explanation up and then you all repeated it in your own way!

 

[MVZOOM]

You guys..... Kirim put the explanation up and then you all repeated it in your own way!

That's 'cause we're all correct, Katie! :icon_chickcheers:

 

[manticle]

You guys..... Kirim put the explanation up and then you all repeated it in your own way!

I think I have been watching too much masterchef.

One of you.............WILL be................

Australia's next master chef.

But for one you..................

the dream ends today

...........and you WILL be going home.

A bit of repetition helps keep things really, really clear.

 

[Mercs Own]

Also helps seal the meat a bit.

I hate cornflour - especially after watching walter burke throw handfuls of undissolved cornflour into his duck pie mix while wearing footy shorts, chef's jacket and ballet shoes while using all the stoves in my section during my precious prep time.

Two hats my arse.

Good old Walter - good dancer, choreographer, cook and bloke and probably a bit of a BS artist - well he was definately an artist! My wife danced with him and also was a waitress in his italian resturant.

Yep no such thing as sealing it is all about browning/caramelising/crusting and flavour!

 

[Katherine]

I think I have been watching too much masterchef.

One of you.............WILL be................

Australia's next master chef.

But for one you..................

the dream ends today

...........and you WILL be going home.

A bit of repetition helps keep things really, really clear.

What are we going to do now with out masterchef? Junior masterchef really 8 year olds with knifes and that much pressure. Surely it wont go for three months. Im just happy Adam won.

 

[Fents]

Trav and his goat on vic swap day, garlic chunks all through it, in a pan soaked with porter and in the webber for 3 hours :icon_drunk: :icon_drool2: