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I grew up in Saudi Arabia. You may have seen pictures or in movies how the Bedouin eat. They roast a goat and serve it on a platter of rice, sit on the ground, and eat with their right hands (left hand is for toilet). We used to call these 'goat grabs'. So goat is not something unusual for me. Besides, goat is really close to lamb and so if you like lamb, you'll like goat.
This month Mulvaney's Family Dinner was featuring goat. Patrick Mulvaney was thinking in terms of his wife's birthday and that she is a Capricorn. I booked a table for my Dining Galore group and we enjoyed a very tasty meal. The great thing about these monthly dinners is that for $45 (tax/tip included) you get an excellent four course meal, all you can eat, and you can even take leftovers home.
Upon entering the banquet foyer we were confronted with goat carving. One of the chefs was busy taking all the meat off the goat carcasses. While watching, John Bledsoe of Bledsoe Pork came up. Turns out he supplied the goat for the evening. I said I hadn't realized he was now offering goat. He said he doesn't to the public because he barely keeps up with the demand from the restaurants. We chatted for a while about his business and then I said I knew the goat would be as great as his pork always is.
Later I talked to Dan, bartender and family friend, about getting some of the bones for stock. He later came to my table with a bag of bones for me which I directly threw into a crockpot as soon as I got home.
During the cocktail hour there are waiters that come around with appetizers. It's hard to get them as they go quickly. Don't sit at your table and expect to get any. I had to nearly tackle a couple of waiters in order to get a few.
The first course was a chopped salad that featured goat meat chorizo. The sausages must be very thin because the slices were so small. The salad was topped with a Meyer lemon vinaigrette.
The pasta course was made by Mulvaney's Pasta Dave. It was agnolotti filled with a homemade fresh goat cheese ricotta. There were shavings of Pecorino cheese on top and then a light butter sauce with mint and thyme. Everyone loved this course and our Dave took the leftovers home.
The entree was the chili rubbed goat meat served with roasted potatoes and broccoli rabe. It was so very tasty! We did have two minor complaints though. The entree was virtually cold by the time we ate it and the goat meat was really hit and miss. One minute you would have a super tough, fatty piece and the next you would get a tender morsel. But they keep refilling the bowls til you are satisfied. Dan took those leftovers home and I took any ribs and threw them into my bone bag for stock.
The dessert was two part. The first was a pine nut cheese tart. I eat pine nuts in moderation, so eating a tart crammed full of them was not to my liking. I only ate a couple of bites. It was the least favorite thing for all of our table but Sue liked it enough to take the rest (half a pie) home.
The goat milk ice cream was another story. Yumm! I had seconds and thirds of that. They flavored it with just a tinge of caramel. It was so nice and creamy. You should really give goat milk ice cream a try because it has more calcium, less lactose, less cholesterol and fewer allergens than cow's milk. It's also more easily digestible than cow's. This weekend I even went to the Coop and asked that they start stocking it.
Anyway, almost all of us had some goodie bag to take home with us. As I said, my bones went immediately into the crockpot so that I woke up this morning to goat stock aroma in my house. I plan to add veggies and barley for a fabulous soup. But that's another blog entry...
