Goat chops. An unfamiliar treat on most tables, and, even if we’ve been enjoying them for years (beginning long before this blog), not familiar enough on ours. This is especially how we both feel after this meal.
The chops and the vegetables were local, the goat from west central Vermont, the Japanese sweet potatoes from northwest New Jersey’s Kittatinny Valley, and the kale from the Catskills, northwest of us.
- four loin goat chops, each weighing less than 4 ounces, from Consider Bardwell Farm, first marinated for about half an hour in olive oil, 2 small sliced cloves of garlic from Trader Joe’s, black pepper, juniper berries, rosemary from Eataly, one medium crushed fresh bay leaf from Westside Market, and a little zest from a local sweet lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, then pan-grilled for a few minutes, turning 3 times, seasoned with salt and freshly-ground pepper after the first time, finished with oil, juice from the same lemon, and lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge
- two Japanese sweet potatoes from Race Farm, scrubbed, cut, unpeeled, into half-inch discs, tossed with a little olive oil inside a bowl with salt, pepper, 2 thickly-sliced small garlic cloves from John D. Madura Farm, some small fresh sage leaves from Eataly, and a piece of crushed home-dried dark Habanada pepper, then arranged on a medium well-seasoned Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan, placing each of the garlic pieces on the top of a potato slice (to avoid burning), roasted for about 35 minutes, finished with some cut chives from Phillips Farm
- winter kale from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, washed, drained, briefly sautéed in olive oil in which 2 bruised and halved garlic cloves from John D. Madura Farm had first been allowed to sweat and begin to color, the greens seasoned with salt, pepper, a very small amount of crushed dried Itria-Sirissi chili (peperoncino di Sardegna intero) from Buon Italia, and and a little more olive oil
- the wine was a California (Lodi) red, F. Stephen Millier Angels Reserve Shiraz 2015, from Naked Wines
- the music was Schumann’s ‘Scenes from Goethe’s Faust’, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tölz Boys Choir conducted by Claudio Abbado, with Bryn Terfel, Karita Mattila, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Barbara Bonney, Endrik Wottrich, Brigitte Poschner-Klebel, Susan Graham, Harry Peeters, Iris Vermillion, and Hans-Peter Blochwitz