Goat Curry

At the weekend we went to our local Farmers' Market, and as well as some of our regular purchases like Loosehanger cheeses and Trout pate, we also got the first locally-grown Rhubarb and Asparagus. I have heard that goods sold at this type of market have to be produced within (I think) a 50 mile radius, so this Asparagus will certainly have travelled a lot less Food Miles than the stuff from Peru that our supermarkets persit in selling. In addition to all these things we also bought some goat meat. I have been wanting for some time now to make a Caribbean-style Goat Curry, and now I have had the opportunity.

Goat meat is available in the Asian butchers' shops in the big towns round here - like Reading, where there are big Asian and Caribbean communities, but it is not commonly found in either the supermarkets or our local butchers' shops. Fortunately, there is a stall on our Farmers' Market which sells goat meat. It is called Devese Farm Animals, and their business is based in Wickham, near Southampton.



As you can see from the photo above, we bought 340g of diced Goat Mutton, a quantity perfect for feeding two people. The meat is lovely and lean, and very dark coloured. It's rather similar to very well-aged Lamb.

Goat meat has a reputation for being tough, so I planned to cook my curry for a long time - about three and a half hours. So here's my recipe:-

Caribbean-style Goat Curry (serves two)



Ingredients

Approx 350g goat meat, diced

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

As many fresh red chillis as you like (or for authenticity, a Scotch Bonnet if you have one), roughly chopped

1 bunch spring onions, separated into white parts and green parts, roughly chopped

1 5cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 Tbsp Dunns River All-Purpose Seasoning

1 Tbsp Carribean curry powder (one with lots of Fennel and Allspice in it)

1 Tsp dried Thyme

1 Tsp ground Allspice

Several sprigs of fresh thyme (leaves only)

Several twists of freshly-ground black pepper

1 litre of stock (I used beef)

Approx 3 Tbsp vegetable oil, for frying and marinating

Method

1.Make a marinade

Put about 1 Tbsp oil in a large bowl, along with:-

the crushed garlic

the grated ginger (grate it over the bowl to avoid losing the juice)

the All-Purpose Seasoning

the curry powder

the dried Thyme, black pepper and Allspice

about half of the white bits of spring onion, and half of the fresh Thyme

[the rest of the fresh thyme and spring onions are used in the accompanying Rice and Peas dish]

Mix the ingredients to form a gooey paste

Add the meat to the bowl and massage well to ensure it is thoroughly coated with the marinade

Cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge for a few hours

2. Make the curry

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a  flameproof pan and brown the meat, having removed most of the marinade from it

Remove the meat to a bowl and keep it warm

Put the final 1 Tbsp oil into the hot pan and soften the onions over a low heat (approx 5 mins)

Add the remaining marinade and stir it into the onions; cook for another couple of minutes

Return the meat to the pan

Add the chillis, and all of the green parts of the spring onions

Add the stock

Bring the pan to the boil, and then cover it and put it in the oven

cook for about 3 hours or until the meat is very tender, adding more stock/water if required to achieve a nice consistency of sauce.



Just before adding the stock

At serving time



3. Serve

My curry was accompanied with Rice and Peas (home-grown black beans in this case), cooked with coconut milk, fresh Thyme and the white parts of some spring onions (see above), along with some plain-boiled Spring Greens (like Collards) - on this occasion pretending to be Callaloo!

Well, so much for the stereotype. The Goat meat was meltingly tender and beautifully tasty. We shall definitely be buying it again. Very impressed. I was a bit disappointed in the lack of heat in the curry (it really needed the Scotch Bonnet), but the taste was lovely. I particularly enjoyed the flavour of Allspice - a current favourite of mine. And what can I say about the rich coconutty Rice and Peas? Heavenly!