When I spotted Lynn Haven’s stall in the Greenmarket on Wednesday I was reminded that I hadn’t even thought about goat meat in quite a while. After a discussion about what was inside the freezer boxes that day, and a reflection on how much cooking heat I might be able to tolerate in the kitchen on a July night, I decided on one of her tiny racks. I picked the loin, mostly because it looked so perfectly compact, but also because its weight seemed just right for a modest serving of meat for 2 people.

• one goat loin rack (.82 pounds) from Lynn Haven in the Union Square Greenmarket, dry-marinated in the refrigerator for almost 4 hours in a mixture of rosemary leaves from Stokes Farm, removed from their stems; one medium crushed bay leaf from Westside Market; a bit of zest from an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market; a small part of one crushed dried dark habanada pepper; sea salt, and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, allowed to sit, covered, inside the refrigerator for a few hours, then brought to room temperature over an hour before ready to be roasted, at which time it was dried with paper towels and coated lightly with olive oil, the oven preheated to 425º and a heavy oval enameled cast iron pan placed inside for 10 minutes, the goat arranged one of its flesh sides down inside the hot pan and roasted in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes (for rare to medium rare doneness), allowed to rest 7 minutes or so, the ribs separated into 4 chops with a heavy knife and arranged on 2 plates, finished with a squeeze of the lemon from which the zest had been removed earlier, drizzled with a bit of olive oil, garnished with ‘Bull’s Blood’ micro beet from Windfall Farms
• four large cherry tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm, in Carlisle, NY, from Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market, halved, placed cut side down inside the pan from which the goat had just been removed and allowed to begin to soften, turning once, arranged on the plates and sprinkled with Maldon salt and Tellicherry pepper
• two thick stalks of celtuce from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, the leaves removed from the ‘stalks’ and washed several times, wilted in a bit of olive oil and set aside, then the stalks themselves peeled and cut into discs, briefly par-boiled in a low-sodium vegetable broth, drained, dried, and sautéed in a little olive with a tiny amount of finely-chopped red spring onion stems from Alewife Farm over a moderate flame for a minute or two, then tossed with a sprinkling of pine nuts which had earlier been heated in a cast iron pan until they had begun to brown, the celtuce leaves reserved earlier now gently reheated and distributed onto the plates and the sliced stalks and pine nuts placed aside and a little on top of them

• the wine was a California (Clarksburg) red, David Akiyoshi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Clarksburg 2014, from Naked Wines
• the music was a magnificent performance of Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe

It was a Sunday dinner, but only remotely related to the kind Mom served in our midwestern dining room in the middle of the last century.

I’ve liked preparing and have enjoyed eating goat in the past, although it hadn’t shown up on our table in a year. Then, a couple weeks ago, on a visit to the Union Square Greenmarket I saw that Consider Bardwell Farm was advertising meat. I’ve bought veal and goat from them before, and the quality of both the meat and the butchery has been excellent. They’re really focused on the production of some very fine cheese, so the goat [chevon] and the veal is something of a special event (I once heard a farmer who only made ewe’s cheese tell a puzzled customer, explaining the appearance of goat meat at her stall, “have to do something with all the boys”).

I asked Paul, of Consider Bardwell, about goat chops, maybe a partial rack, or perhaps some ribs, but he was out of all those cuts by that time of the afternoon, so I picked up with a small roast, a boneless shoulder, to be precise; it weighed but one pound. I had never cooked a goat shoulder, but I knew it would require a long, slow braise to tenderize the meat. I hit the files, came up with this recipe, and it was more or less the process I used.

It was an interesting operation, and the chevon tasted very good, but neither of us thinks the time and the effort it required would be worth repeating.

Unfortunately (or not) there was too much liquid remaining in the pot to be quickly reduced for a sauce, so I improvised and produced something more like an au jus, enriched with a little rich Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter. It was actually very good (see the mention of veal tongue stock below, in the list of ingredients).

The next time I’ll hold out for those chops, maybe a partial rack, or perhaps some ribs, and yet I know I’d still be a sucker for something different.

• the ingredients for the tiny braise included a one-pound boneless rolled goat shoulder from Consider Bardwell Farm, which I daintily bound in butcher’s twine (I should have taken a picture of the neat pattern); Pimentón de la Vera dulce, in which the roast was rubbed, along with salt and pepper, and left for an hour before the cooking began); garlic and onion from Lucky Dog Organic Farm; celery from Foragers; carrot from Norwich Meadows Farm; chicken broth made with Better Than Bullion chicken base; and, instead of veal stock, veal tongue stock remaining after this March meal and frozen at the time; and parsley from Eataly
• about a pound of parsnips from Tamarack Hollow Farm, cooked along the lines of this recipe, using local Linden blossom honey from Tremblay Apiaries; Aceto Cesare Bianco white wine vinegar from Buon Italia; and chives from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• mizuna from Norwich Meadows Farm, wilted in a little olive oil, seasoned with Maldon salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper
• the wine was a California (Lodi) red, Karen Birmingham Zinfandel Lodi 2014, from Naked wines
• the music was Paul Dessau’s 1974 opera, ‘Einstein’, a 1976 recording from its premier production in East Berlin, Otmar Suitner conducting the Berlin State Opera Chorus,  Berlin Staatskapelle members; it’s a very interesting artifact, with some “bleakly expressive” [Gramophone] music; the text and the music are discussed in these three contrasting reviews: Complete Review, Gramophone, and Suppressed Music

Paul Dessau, Los Angeles 1948, photographed by Curt Bois

 

[image of Dessau from kuenste-im-exil.de]