It all started with Swedes. Not Abba. Tonight’s dinner is based on a James Kidman recipe from his wonderful book Renaissance. It’s out of print. I bought a kilo of goat offcuts for $10 reduced from $20. I used to buy half a goat at the Adelaide Markets for $9 a kilo. Then the price jumped to $22! This was just offcuts, but I love goat. And it is lean and it is the most consumed meat in the world, apparently.
James’ recipe seems to be missing some ingredients, as you’ll see from my description below.
He had a shoulder of goat. I had a kilo of goat bits. My recipe is a bit of him and a bit of me.
You’ll need
Goat – you decide how much
1.5 – 2 litres chicken stock – heated (recipe said 3 litres for shoulder)
1 carrot, diced
1/2 leek, diced (recipe says 1)
1 medium brown onion, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
200ml muscat (the recipe said 300ml. I had no muscat so I used 200ml good sherry and 100 ml good tawny port. It really needed muscat. Adjust the overall amount to suit the meat.)
50g dried porcini mishrooms (we were out of porcinis! So I used several sliced swiss browns and a tsp of porcini powder)
olive oil
See about the veg below.
Heat oven to 110C.
Brown the goat well in olive oil in a hot pan.
Remove goat from pan and add the chopped veg and stir till it begins to brown.
Add the muscat and stir to deglaze the pan. Let the wine reduce by half.
Add the goat. The recipe said to add herbs and spices but none were listed! So I added some thyme sprigs and a star anise.
Add chicken stock until the contents are covered.
Cover the pan and put into the oven for 2-3 hours. (I really must try this with a shoulder of goat!)
After that you take out the goat, strain the liquid and reduce it to a sauce. I did that but added butter and splash of balsamic vinegar. OK I also thickened it with potato flour.
Anyway, James adds blanched, sliced baby turnips, radishes, carrots and leeks on top.
This all started with a Swede. Not Bjorn. Or Benny. This recipe had baby swedes (well, turnips actually). A turnip’s cousin. In the US its called a rutabaga. I know! No. Not Studebaker.
Anyway, I peeled one Swede and sliced it into three. I parboiled it for 5 minutes (could have been 8). I made a mixture of a couple of tablespoons of white miso with 12/3 cup warm water, added 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine and 1 tsp kecap manis. I brushed this onto the swedes and baked them at 200c, turning and basting twice for about 40 minutes.
Butternut pumpkin, sliced and baked with skin on. Olive oil and sea salt. Leek sliced thickly and sauteed in butter.
As per recipe, I sprinkled parsley, lemon thyme (from the garden), and lemon zest on top.
It’s a fabulous recipe which would only be made better by using muscat and knowing what the secret herbs and spices are!
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