What I Made Yesterday: Goat Stew
I woke up at nearly 2am for no really clear reason except I guess the dogs were restless and I slept a lot today, and since I'm awake...
I'm on this whole "eat locally, sustainably, and if possible organically produced foods" kick. Brad and I are omnivores, so this can get a little tricky. (Actually, it's easier to find local meat than local dried legumes like lentils and beans. That's something I need to hunt up, and it may not actually be possible to find California-grown lentils.) Anyhow, the Santa Cruz and Westside farmer's markets have TLC Ranch, which sells old school pork of utter deliciousness, as well as Morris beef (they're low on beef right now, but should have some in a few weeks), and the Aptos farmer's market has Old Creek Ranch, with beef, goat, lamb, and pork. I decided to try out a goat stew, and since they didn't have stew meat that day got a pound of shoulder and a pound of leg for actually a little less than I'd have paid for the pre-cut stew meat.
This is grass fed meat, which does not like high temperatures nearly as well as corn fed meat, because it is far leaner and has a different fat profile in the fat it does have. I was a little paranoid about searing it and decided to skip that step, though I normally sear meat in a stew. The shoulder was fattier than the leg, but neither cut was very fatty or gristly; both had a few bones in them but again nothing really hard to deal with. I cooked the bones in with the stew because they add flavor and weren't in any obnoxious small pieces that would be hard to fish out or get caught in someone's throat; it was a few pieces of leg bone and a few riblets.
If you haven't had goat before, I generally find it like a less-gamey or strong tasting cross between lamb and rabbit. That's not quite right, but it's as close as I can come to comparing it to other meats. I've heard it can taste gamey if butchered or treated improperly but all of the goat I've had has been very delicate tasting and pleasant. It's a finely grained meat, with less of a stringy tendency than rabbit, that I've almost always had in stews and curries; it tastes less "red" or "warm" than lamb to me, whatever that means. There is no reason why this preparation couldn't be used with lamb. I'd probably switch out the marjoram for some other herb if I were doing beef, but this is really a very basic stew treatment with the heat turned down a noodge to provide lower, slower, cooking for the grass fed nature of the meat. There is no reason at all not to add carrots except that I'm somewhat allergic to them so don't routinely cook with them; my normal substitute is parsnips but I think those are a little too strong tasting to combine with goat.
Goat (or Lamb) Stew
In olive oil, sweat the onion and the celery together with a little salt until starting to turn translucent; add the green garlic and cook a little while longer. (If using mature garlic, add it a little earlier and cook it a little longer; I'm going for aromantic but it doesn't have to be brown or even golden since it's going to take a ton of cooking time.)
Add all of the other ingredients except the potatoes. Add a little more salt to taste.
Cover and cook for 6+ hours in the oven at 225. This would also be suitable for a slow cooker, I'm sure, prepared as any slow cooker stew would be; I still haven't bothered playing around with my slow cooker yet because I have a dutch oven and just keep using that instead. It could probably go overnight if you don't mind it being that cooked; ours actually ended up with a lot more than 6 hours of cooking because I was busy so I got the potatoes in later, so it can definitely tolerate some extra cooking.
An hour or so before finishing, add the pototoes. Let cook for that last hour, test potatoes for doneness. If they are only very slightly underdone they should finish in the carryover heat after you've taken the stew out of the oven.
Let cool, then chill and defat if necessary. Like all stews it's better if it rests a day before serious eating.
This treatment definitely avoids any issues of toughness with the meat. The stew is decidedly meaty-tasting, but not as rich as a beef or lamb stew would be, and the lighter vegetables (I used baby fingerlings), even after all of the cooking they got, make it feel more suitable for the season.
Oh, and this was super duper easy, especially since I was tired so I had Brad handle the "taste the potatoes for doneness" and "chill" steps. Not a usual recipe for the hot part of spring, but it's less warming than beef or lamb stew, and we're still pretty cool over by the sea; the heat wave bothers us not and we're grateful from a break from all of the foggy <65 days we've been getting. It will be even faster if I start getting pre-cut stew meat.
I'm on this whole "eat locally, sustainably, and if possible organically produced foods" kick. Brad and I are omnivores, so this can get a little tricky. (Actually, it's easier to find local meat than local dried legumes like lentils and beans. That's something I need to hunt up, and it may not actually be possible to find California-grown lentils.) Anyhow, the Santa Cruz and Westside farmer's markets have TLC Ranch, which sells old school pork of utter deliciousness, as well as Morris beef (they're low on beef right now, but should have some in a few weeks), and the Aptos farmer's market has Old Creek Ranch, with beef, goat, lamb, and pork. I decided to try out a goat stew, and since they didn't have stew meat that day got a pound of shoulder and a pound of leg for actually a little less than I'd have paid for the pre-cut stew meat.
This is grass fed meat, which does not like high temperatures nearly as well as corn fed meat, because it is far leaner and has a different fat profile in the fat it does have. I was a little paranoid about searing it and decided to skip that step, though I normally sear meat in a stew. The shoulder was fattier than the leg, but neither cut was very fatty or gristly; both had a few bones in them but again nothing really hard to deal with. I cooked the bones in with the stew because they add flavor and weren't in any obnoxious small pieces that would be hard to fish out or get caught in someone's throat; it was a few pieces of leg bone and a few riblets.
If you haven't had goat before, I generally find it like a less-gamey or strong tasting cross between lamb and rabbit. That's not quite right, but it's as close as I can come to comparing it to other meats. I've heard it can taste gamey if butchered or treated improperly but all of the goat I've had has been very delicate tasting and pleasant. It's a finely grained meat, with less of a stringy tendency than rabbit, that I've almost always had in stews and curries; it tastes less "red" or "warm" than lamb to me, whatever that means. There is no reason why this preparation couldn't be used with lamb. I'd probably switch out the marjoram for some other herb if I were doing beef, but this is really a very basic stew treatment with the heat turned down a noodge to provide lower, slower, cooking for the grass fed nature of the meat. There is no reason at all not to add carrots except that I'm somewhat allergic to them so don't routinely cook with them; my normal substitute is parsnips but I think those are a little too strong tasting to combine with goat.
Goat (or Lamb) Stew
- One large onion, chopped.
- A little olive oil for sweating the onion.
- 2 ribs celery
- Salt to taste
- One bunch green garlic (4-5 stalks), chopped. (Could use 3-6 cloves mature garlic instead depending on your taste for garlic.)
- 2 lbs goat meat, trimmed of fat and cut into 1" cubes
- 1 large (baseball-sized) kohlrabi, diced to about half inch (could use rutabega or carrot instead, but I think the mild earthy taste of kohlrabi goes well with the goat.)
- a tablespoon or two more of olive oil because really this meat is very lean and a stew needs some fat
- palmful fresh thyme leaves, chopped (I have small hands)
- handful fresh marjoram leaves, chopped (I have small hands)
- fresh ground black pepper, to taste (about 8-10 grinds for me)
- 1 cup red wine (I actually used red port since it was on hand; you may want to use one and a half cups red wine if you don't have port)
- 1 normal sized (not jumbo) can crushed tomatoes; I like Muir Glen's fire roasted tomatoes because they add an interesting flavor
- enough broth or stock to just cover the meat; I used vegetable because it's what I had, but beef would be better and even chicken or mushroom would be fine
- a pound of fingerling potatoes or any waxy type potato, cut into bite sized pieces if they're larger than bite-sized
In olive oil, sweat the onion and the celery together with a little salt until starting to turn translucent; add the green garlic and cook a little while longer. (If using mature garlic, add it a little earlier and cook it a little longer; I'm going for aromantic but it doesn't have to be brown or even golden since it's going to take a ton of cooking time.)
Add all of the other ingredients except the potatoes. Add a little more salt to taste.
Cover and cook for 6+ hours in the oven at 225. This would also be suitable for a slow cooker, I'm sure, prepared as any slow cooker stew would be; I still haven't bothered playing around with my slow cooker yet because I have a dutch oven and just keep using that instead. It could probably go overnight if you don't mind it being that cooked; ours actually ended up with a lot more than 6 hours of cooking because I was busy so I got the potatoes in later, so it can definitely tolerate some extra cooking.
An hour or so before finishing, add the pototoes. Let cook for that last hour, test potatoes for doneness. If they are only very slightly underdone they should finish in the carryover heat after you've taken the stew out of the oven.
Let cool, then chill and defat if necessary. Like all stews it's better if it rests a day before serious eating.
This treatment definitely avoids any issues of toughness with the meat. The stew is decidedly meaty-tasting, but not as rich as a beef or lamb stew would be, and the lighter vegetables (I used baby fingerlings), even after all of the cooking they got, make it feel more suitable for the season.
Oh, and this was super duper easy, especially since I was tired so I had Brad handle the "taste the potatoes for doneness" and "chill" steps. Not a usual recipe for the hot part of spring, but it's less warming than beef or lamb stew, and we're still pretty cool over by the sea; the heat wave bothers us not and we're grateful from a break from all of the foggy <65 days we've been getting. It will be even faster if I start getting pre-cut stew meat.