Cinnamon Scented Goat Curry

BigJ's family come from good farming stock

His Mother's family ran the town dairy, his uncles grew wheat, and raised the odd animal or two for table. His step dad's side were sheep people and even now his step dad has a miniature shearing shed with working shears in his suburban backyard.

One of the benefits of family farms is that everyone chips in when there's work to be done- shearing, grading...and butchering. The family often dispatched a job lot of beasties for the freezer and when we were married we often came into a share of the goodies for ourselves.

Farm meat tastes very different from supermarket meat. The sheep were often a bit older than those typically sold on polystyrene trays, and has a stronger flavour that we really love. If we manage to get up in time on the weekend we can usually grab a roast of Mutton or Hogget at the Farmers Market, or if we don't get our fix there we can get some wonderful young goat meat from the butcher instead as it's so similar and one we eat quite often as well.

Young goat meat is lovely, not stringy or gamey at all.  I did a taste test with some friends where I cooked a leg of lamb and a leg of goat side by side, served them up identical slices and asked them which they liked more. Every single one picked the goat because it was just so tasty, and every single one was surprised! I wasn't.

Although young goat can be cooked exactly the same as lamb nowadays, and doesn't require long slow cooking, I just happened to want to make a warming curry for the wet Spring weather we are currently enjoying. I've taken the recipe from The Curry Cookbook- one of those compilation books that doesn't give individual authors but is a mix of the publishers favourites I guess :)



Cinnamon Scented Goat Curry
with my variations

1 kg Goat or Lamb pieces- on the bone adds more flavour
4 tbs Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp Salt
4 tablespoons of Oil
couple of Cinnamon Sticks
5 Cardamom Pods- bruised
5 Cloves
1 large Onion- finely chopped
2 tsp Ginger puree
2 tsp Garlic puree
2 tsp ground Cumin
1 tsp gound Turmeric
1 tsp Chilli Powder
tin of chopped Tomatoes
about 2/3 cup of Water
1 1/2 dried Fenugreek leaves (from Indian supermarkets)
1/2 bunch of finely chopped spinach




Pop the meat into a non-reactive bowl and rub in the vinegar and salt. Let it sit for half an hour or so

I always like to brown the meat off before braising as I think it adds a better depth of flavour, but you can skip this step if you can't be bothered :)

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil on low heat, then add the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Let the sizzle away for 30 seconds and let the lovely spicy fragrance fill the air

Bring the heat up to medium, then add in the onions and cook until the onion is soft

Add in the ginger and garlic puree and cook off for another couple of minutes, then put in the cumin, turmeric and chilli powder and stir for another minute or so. This will toast off the spices and help release their full flavour potential

Pop in the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are more of a paste like consistency and the oil separates from the paste a little

From this:

To this:

Now add in the meat, fenugreek leaves and water

Bring up to a simmer

Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 mins or so until the meat is nice and tender

Stir in the chopped spinach and let the residual heat wilt it down into the sauce

I served my curry on some steamed rice with a side of Masala Aloo- yummy spiced potatoes
Wonderful warm spices, earthy and sweet, tender meat all wrapped up in a steamy fragrant sauce...Perfect for rainy nights and thunderstorms

So Dear Readers, do you come from the Town or Country, and have you ever eaten goat?

Dukkah Crusted Lamb Cutlets with Fig and Goat Chese Salad

Some lovely finds at the market this week.

Soft ash goats cheese, tiny lamb cutlets, and beautiful fresh ripe figs. Yumm.... Obviously they needed to be combined together.

This seems like a lot of steps for one dish Dear Readers, but really they don't take long at all.
The dukkah can be made days in advance, and the cutlets can be coated a day ahead as well if you like. The salad is 5 minutes work, tops. So there's no excuses for missing out on a lovely meal even if you're in a hurry, with just these few ingredients in the fridge.



Dukkah

3/4 cup Hazelnuts
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon sumac
Good pinch of salt flakes

Toast the hazlenuts in a dry pan over medium heat, until starting to change colour.

Add in the rest of the ingredients, and toast until the seeds are a lovely golden colour and the spices are releasing their aromatic oils. Make sure you keep stirring or shaking the pan so they don't burn. Pull out a few hazlenuts to keep as a final garnish.

Let them cool a bit, then pulse them in a food processor until they are roughly- but fairly finely chopped.
That's it, dukkah's done and dusted.

Pat your little cutlets dry with kitchen towel, then dip all over in a lovely olive oil- I used a beautiful smoked olive oil for a bit of extra va-voom!

Let the excess drip off, then dip the cutlet into the dukkah. Make sure it gets into all the nooks and crannies. This coating is not only delicious, but will help protect the meat from over cooking and drying out in the pan.

Pop the coated cutlets into a preheated pan on medium heat. There's no need to oil the pan, as you don't want to burn the dukkah or fry it too hard in oil. The oil you dipped the meat in will be fine.

Little cutlets like this don't require much cooking at all, they should be served nice pink and juicy, so watch them carefully.
If you had quite a lot of meat to cook off, it would be easier to sear them well, then put them all on an oven tray to finish cooking. That way they are all ready and hot at the same time for plating up.

Now, while all the lamb is cooking, it's time to make the salad.

Rip open a packet of pre-washed rocket leaves and scatter them artistically about your serving dish or plate.

Cut some perfectly ripe figs in half so that the luscious pink insides are showing, and pop them about too.

Slice or crumble on your goats cheese for the gorgeous creamy tang it brings to the party, scatter over the reserved hazlenuts, and voila!

Looks like something from a magazine doesn't it?

Now a bit of dressing is lovely to help the greens go down, but I like to serve mine separately, or srizzle it on after you've served your guests. My dressing consists of some scrummy Pukara Estate Fig Balsamic Vinegar whisked with a bit more of the olive oil. It tastes fantastic, but the dark colour stains the food.  Please serve it separately, you'll thank me.

So my Dearest Readers, so you like fresh figs, and how do you like to serve them when they're in season?

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