THE HUNT: GRUFF BUT TENDER
In fairy tales, goats come across as surly and tough. But braised or curried, the other red meat is a tasty and healthy alternative to beef.
In fairy tales, goats come across as surly and tough. But braised or curried, the other red meat is a tasty and healthy alternative to beef.
‘here, sit down and let me serve you a nice, hearty plate of chevon.”
Chances are, you’ve never heard of such a dish, which only underscores the lack of marketing success that American agriculture mandarins have had since their 1928 coining of a French-sounding portmanteau intended to replace a rather less glamorous name: goat.
That’s not surprising. As the go-to red meat preferred by three-fourths of the world’s carnivores, goat doesn’t require a fancy-schmancy marketing gimmick to tempt its principal buyers on this continent: immigrants from Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East, who already cherish goat for its leanness, nutrition and rich flavour. It’s mostly we North Americans of European descent who need to be reminded—if we ever knew.
Like many Calgarians, I only developed a taste for goat as a young adult, almost certainly in the form of a Caribbean-style curry served at some longago reggae concert. I liked it right away. Although I don’t hold with the descriptor most often applied by first-time tasters—“gamey”—I do recognize that its brawny taste is a step beyond your everyday beef.
So, too, is the raising of what the farm community calls “meat goats” in contrast with those raised for dairy or fibre. According to Merna Gisler, a director of the Alberta Goat Breeders Association and an Innisfail farmer who tends a herd of Boer goats, a South African variety, “Goats require less infrastructure to raise than cows.” She notes that as a single woman herself, she can still handle a viable operation on her own. There’s an environmental upside, too. “Cows are grazers, but goats are browsers who like weeds and bush and things besides grass. They complement one another. A small herd of goats will clean all the thistle off a cow pasture in just a day or two.”
It’s surprising that more ranchers don’t give it a try, since even though Alberta goat production is steadily growing, it’s nowhere close to meeting domestic demand. “Around 95 percent of what Albertans eat is imported, frozen, from Australia,” says Gisler. At Calgary’s now numerous halal butchers, that’s the product you can buy any day for around $12 per kilogram. (Halal, by the way, simply means “permissible” to the Muslim faithful, and like its analogue, kosher, implies that a cleric has blessed and approved the slaughter.) Acquiring fresh goat is a bit more of a challenge. Central Halal Meat (4655 54th Ave. N.E.) brings in locally raised goat on Thursdays. At Crossroads Market, Kelly’s Specialty Meats offers various fresh cuts like shoulder and leg. Expect to pay around $18 per kilo.
The next time I make it, I vow to do a nice shank in the wine-rich Bourguignon style, which I’m told is well-suited to flesh that retains its deep red colour even after a lengthy braise. But I’ll confess that the goat I often crave still comes stewed in a spicy tropical curry that, somewhat paradoxically but not surprisingly, is an ideal restorative after a long summer day in the outdoors.
Use lots of onions, a bit of tomato and a healthy sprinkling of anything that purports to be hot, Madras-style curry. If you want authentic Trinidadian and Tobagonian fare (that country takes no back seat to Jamaica as lovers of the dish), Chief brand Hot & Spicy Duck/Goat Curry Powder comes highly recommended. And for whatever reason, it doesn’t feel right to serve a curry without some sort of rice and red beans, preferably well constituted with coconut milk, ginger and garlic.
And although I seldom recommend store-bought condiments, due to my belief that virtually all of them can be bested by scratch-made efforts, I’ll make an exception this one time. There’s something inimitable about the papayabased, scotch-bonnet essence of Matouk’s Calypso Hot Sauce, another Trinidadian favourite, which pairs especially well with goat. I mean, chevon.