Pulled Goat
Sorry it's been a while. I've been finishing off the latest book. I pressed "send" yesterday. Whew. A book on whole grains as main courses--no side dishes. And no grain flours or pearled grains. Instead, whole grains themselves. But that's not out until next year at this time.
Right now, it's still goaty around here. So I thought I'd share a recipe from the book. You have a copy, right? If not, click here. I promise you'll not only get a book about meat, milk, and cheese. You'll also laugh a whole lot. Did you know Bon Appetit declared this month that if in five years we're all eating goat, it'll be because of our book? Crazy. We were thunderstruck. And then went back to eating goat.
So here's a Texas-sized recipe for pulled goat. It's spicy, sweet, savory, salty, and even a little umami. Have it on buns with pickle relish or chow chow. Maybe a sliced red onion, too. But first, you've got to make it.
You'll need to get a chile paste together. Stem and seed 4 dried New Mexican chiles and 4 dried ancho chiles. Put the bits of flesh in a bowl and swamp them with boiling water. Set aside to soak for 1 hour.
Drain the chiles, reserving that soaking liquid. Place the pieces of chile in a mini food processor or in a mortar. Add about 1/4 cup (60 ml) of their soaking liquid and grind to a thick paste, either in the food processor or with the pestle in the mortar. Make sure every bit of the chiles gets ground into the paste.
Now heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Swirl in 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive or peanut oil, then add a batch of 4 pounds (1.8 kilos) boneless goat neck meat, stew meat, or shoulder meat. You might have to buy a boneless shoulder and cut it up yourself. Bruce used neck meat for this incarnation of the recipe--and it was decidedly more savory.
Brown the heck out of it. Seriously. Don't skimp. Brown. It's all flavor. And don't crowd the pot. You want it to brown, not steam. The attendant moisture has to have room to boil away. Transfer the browned bits to a cutting board as you work. (You can see he had pretty big bits of neck meat.)
Add 1 large chopped onion and stir it over the heat until softened, about 3 minutes. Dump in 1/2 cup (75 grams) raisins and 4 minced garlic cloves.
Give these a stir over the heat before you add 2 tablespoons (23 grams) packed dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoons (30 ml) Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons mild smoked paprika, 1 tablespoon dried oregano, and 2 teaspoons ground cumin. Also stir in all of that homemade chile paste. Stir until ridiculously aromatic, less than 1 minute.
Dump in 3 1/2 cups (800 grams) canned diced tomatoes, 3/4 cup (180 ml) beef or chicken broth, and 1/3 cup (75 grams) sliced pitted green olives. Stir it around a bit to loosen the brown bits in the pot as the liquids come to a boil, then nestle the browned meat back into the pot. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer very, very slowly until the meat is falling-apart tender, 3 to 4 hours. Poke and prod it with a fork to see how tender it is. In the end, the fork has to be sufficient to rend the meat into threads.
Use two forks in the pot to shred the meat. Stir in 2 tablespoons cider vinegar and serve it up! No one will want to wait.
braise, braised goat, goat, goat meat, pulled goat
Reader Comments (4)
Thank you thank you... I'd love to try this one .
How did you know this is so want I want to do. Yes, Americanize goat meat. Make something my friends and family won't eye suspiciously because it's goat. Not that I don't love my experiences as I delve more and more into mid eastern type dishes but if we're all going to be eating goat within five years...I want to know how to make it work for barbecue!
@Pepy: I can't wait to hear if you make it and how it is!
@Barbara: Yep, as apple pie. Sort of. But darn fine on buns with chow chow.
M.
Wow - that is high praise from Bon Apetit and not undeserved.
Ina few weeks, I return to my birthplace of Nigeria where goat meat is commonplace. I PROMISE that this will be on the menu once the boxes are unpacked!!!!