Goat Stew
21-Jul-2008
A couple of years ago M and I attended Gourmet Institute, a weekend of seminars and classes held in New York every fall. Overall we enjoyed our experience there, although a few of the seminars were not quite up to par. One class that I really liked, though, featured Scott Conant who at that time was the chef at L’Impero and Alta but is now at Scarpetta.
He made a goat dish that I fell in love with. I’d never had goat before and found it to be a lot like lamb with with a more intense flavor. After that class I found that goat was available in the ethnic markets of New York and once arriving home had been meaning to look in some of our local ethnic markets hoping someone would carry it. I did check Exotic Meats – they are good for so many things – but they did not carry it and it sort of slipped from my mind.
Earlier this year I was at the University District Farmers’ Market before there was much fresh produce available. I was really looking through all the vendors’ offerings and found that Buxton Meat Company (out of Sandy, OR) had goat on their menu of offerings. I bought a pound of stew meat to give it a try.
I finally got around to actually trying it this last weekend. I hadn’t planned on writing about it yet, figuring that I would need a couple of tries to figure out how to work with it (and so didn’t take a photo until after I’d scooped out a dish and was well on my way to enjoying it…) but what I ended up with was great! So I decided to tell you about it – bad photo and all.
I really just made a basic beef stew recipe with a few minor changes.
First, I marinated the goat in olive oil, finely chopped garlic and chopped rosemary over night. (It had already been cut into stew-sized pieces.)
Then I seared it in a little olive oil over medium high heat. Once browned, I added onion chopped in 1" pieces, and celery and carrots cut into 2" – 3" lengths. I let those soften a bit and then added chicken stock about halfway up, a 1/2 cup or so of a hearty red wine, and a couple of quartered tomatoes. And I added salt and freshly ground pepper.
I turned down the heat and let it simmer for a couple of hours – you do need to plan a long simmering time as the goat is rather chewy otherwise. Just before serving I added chunks of potato and let them cook for about 15 minutes – just until tender. While simmering you may need to add a bit more stock.
I removed all the meat and vegetables from the pan, mixed about 1 tablespoon of flour with a little more chicken stock and cooked it into the remaining liquid in the pan until it had come to a boil and thickened. You’ll need to adjust measurements here depending on how much liquid you have – add a bit more flour if there’s a lot or a bit more stock if the gravy gets too thick.
Scoop some of the meat and vegetables into a bowl or onto a plate, cover with some of the gravy, make a salad to go along with it and you’ll have a very tasty meal.
Culinary Fool 
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