Saturday 13 April 2013

Goat Curry

  



I love Jamaican food most importantly I love scotch bonnet chillies, I think they are completely unique because they have a lovely sweet flavour, mild they are not but they are totally addictive. I have tasted Goat curry at a few food festivals and have always thought that it was a let down, I feel as though the heat factor is dumbed down for the sake of our British palate, when I eat Goat curry I expect a full on assault of fire and flavour, so when I try a dish that I have high hopes for but turns out to be a bit of a damp squib I set myself a little mission to research the dish extensively and cook it for myself, sad I know but when your passion for food runs deep these are the sort of insane things that one might do. 
 
This was also the first time that I had ever cooked Goat, now most would be put off by goat but I will happily fly the flag for goat meat, it's like a mild lamb, without the copious amounts of fat, and far tastier than lamb. If you cannot source Goat meat, lamb will work, but you can easily source goat meat in good quality butchers, continental stores or online so there are simply no excuses! I have to say that this is just my take on Goat curry, every recipe that I came across differed from the last, so I took the best of my findings and went with my instincts. I welcome any suggestions for authentic Goat curry, after all cooking is trial and error.

You will need:
1 tbsp of coconut oil
500g of diced goat shoulder
5 tbsp of Jamaican curry powder
2 sliced red onions
50g of fresh ginger
50g of garlic
2 tbsp of maldon salt
1 tsp is all spice
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 whole scotch bonnet chillies
3 sliced spring onions
3 tbsp of dark brown sugar
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 can of coconut milk
                                  200ml of water
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees c
The night before cooking I sprinkled the goat pieces with two of the five tablespoons of curry powder and let it infuse over night. In a large dutch oven or cast iron pan start by melting the coconut oil and browning the pieces of Goat on a medium heat, add the rest of the curry powder,   all spice, spring onions and red onion. In a pestle and mortar crush the peeled ginger and garlic using a little of the salt as an abrasive, when you have a fine paste add this to the goat meat, fry this a little to soften the garlic flavour and add the thyme, scotch bonnets, sugar, coconut milk, water, soy sauce and salt (please use maldon because it is very mild, for conventional salt you must use far less). Place a lid on the pan and cook in the oven for three to three and a half hours, until the sauce is dark, thick and reduced. 
Serve with my rice and peas recipe and mango salsa. Perfect for heat addicts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

See here's where I have a problem. A curry includes a great curry mix - and a chilli includes a great chilli. So If you're extolling the virtues of a curry with a chilli, then is it a curry - or - a chilli recipe?

Unknown said...

Well actually Curry does not necessarily mean that you use a curry mix at all, it actually derives from the Tamil term Kari meaning sauce. There are so many dishes throughout the world that are curry dishes, take thai for instance, they use chillies in their curry paste, does that mean it's a chilli? No! I have travelled right around the globe and have tasted many curry recipes, at least 90% of the curries I have tasted had Chillies in of some kind, even a curry blend has dried chillies in. The term curry has such broad spectrum, whereas a chilli is one dish. Thank you for your comment though I hope I have made you understand

Anonymous said...

What a strange comment! I think he's saying that all dishes that contain any chilli's are then technically a chilli! So all these cultures of Jamaican, Thai, Chinese, Malay, India have not been making curries for centuries, they've actually been making chilli's! Somebody better let them know quick! Anyway I'm to try this recipe out next week, thanks Annika.