Goaty Goodness

We spit a kid goat (cabrito) on Memorial Day weekend with our friends Dita & Martino at their Olive Oaks home. This was a 35-pounder, grass-feed from Marin Sun Farms. Our first whole goat.

We rubbed it with oil, loads of garlic, salt, pepper and huge handfuls of herbs (thyme, marjoram, rosemary) the night before.  

Drove it to Sebastopol early Sunday morning and gaffed it to a spit under the trees, which is always its own kind of challenge.

Used scissors, pliers, mallet, wire, butcher string, nuts, bolts. Sewed lemons and huge branches of Olive-Oaks rosemary into its belly.  Let's just say Goat was stuffed and anchored. 

We spit it for six hours; brushed it with oil & herbs.  It got crazy gold-crisp the last two.  

The thing was attacked before we could get it carved, with tender, crackling rib meat being the most coveted loot.

And although Goat was the glory-getter, there were other dishes, too, my favorite perhaps: oh vegetal mounds...

...of Smoky Eggplant; Tzatziki-Chive Blossoms; Just Plain Artichoke-Fava Madness; Radish-Fennel-Fresh Chickpea Galore; Gigante Beans w/Honey, Mint, Clove; French & Banana Fingerlings w/Meyer Lemon Confit; Salsa Verde; Skordalia... need I say more? 

Oh yes, Apricot-Frangipane Tart with Wild Thyme, Honey and Greek Yogurt. There.

It was "...life; NoCal: this moment in June" to paraphrase Ms. Woolf; as sweet as any spring moment gets.

ON THE MENU: Grilled Flat Iron Steak, Ragout of Fresh Shell Beans, Cipollinis and Chanterelles with Pimenton Butter

Oh the late Summer booty: fresh shell beans, those wild Italian onions, cipollinis, and chanterelles are spontaneously everywhere. The grow together/go together axiom holds mighty tight here. This dish is a no-brainer as far as mutual affinities go.

Flat Iron (ours grass-fed from sublime Marin Sun Farms) is a rediscovered shoulder/muscle cut that is made more tender in the butchering. The steak is cut around a center fibrous tissue. It is, according to Saveur, the second tenderest cut after the tenderloin.

Still, to me this is no filet. Flat Iron has texture and nap, which I admire in a steak. Manic Kobe worship has always eluded me... why would you want your steak to be foie gras? What's wrong with good old meatiness? And isn't real texture back anyway with our Pollan-inspired grass-fed revolution? This fleshy Flat Iron is toothsome, and because its from muscle, also has serious steaky flavor. Cut across the grain it is racy-succulent.

My adored Spanish Pimenton (smoked paprika) gives breadth to the dainty new beans and sweet, squat onions, and boosts the smoke of the apricoty chanterelles and the charred meat. Think earthy mushroom squeak/honey-onioned goodness.

Ragout of Fresh Shell Beans, Cipollinis and Chanterelles

with Grilled Flat Iron and Pimenton Butter (serves 4)

Pimenton Butter

4 ounces of butter, 1 stick, softened

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 cup chopped chives

1/4 cup chopped tarragon or parsley

3 anchovies, mashed

1 shallot, minced

1 lemon, zest and juice

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Cream together butter, paprika, herbs, anchovies and shallot. Add the lemon zest and juice. Taste and season if necessary. The butter should be pungent. Shape into a log in a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Twist the ends to tighten and refrigerate until firm.

Shell Bean, Cipollini and Chanterelle Ragout

1 pound cipollini onions

Olive oil

Sea salt and freshly gound black pepper

2 pounds shell beans, for about 2 cups shelled, Cranberry, Flageolet,

Cannellini...

1 bunch of thyme

1 bay leaf

1 chilie de Arbol, snapped in half widthwise and seeded

1/2 pound chanterelle mushrooms, cut into 1 inch wedges

1 large garlic clove, minced

3/4 cup chicken stock, preferably home made

2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 375. Fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the cipollinis to blanch for about 1 minute. Drain, cool and peel. Toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil, a good pinch of salt and pepper and spread out on a sheetpan. Bake about 45 minutes or until golden and tender. Check and shake the pan every so often. Set aside.

Place the shelled beans In a medium sauce pan and cover with 2 inches of water. Add 6 sprigs of thyme, the bay leaf and the chilie. Bring to the boil then simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain. Pull out herbs and chili. Toss the warm beans with 2 tablespoons olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside.

Clean the chanterelles with a soft cloth/napkin. Cut into even sized, 1-inch wedges. Leave them whole if they are small. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium sauté pan until very hot. Add the chanterelles and cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes, stirring every so often, until tender and golden. Add the garlic, a teaspoon of picked thyme, a pinch of salt and pepper and sauté for another minute. Add the cipollinis, the shell beans and the stock. Cook for about 5 more minutes until creamy and sauce consistency. Swirl in butter and taste. Season again if necessary. Set aside.

To Assemble

4 flatiron steaks, about 5 ounces each

Olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

The ragout

The pimenton butter

1 cup arugula, or other fresh, spicy green like watercress

Fire up the grill. When hot, brush the steaks with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill to desired doneness, about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Remove and set on a plate, lightly covered with foil. While the steaks are resting reheat the ragout if necessary. Place about a half-cup of ragout into the center of a warmed serving plate or bowl. Top with a steak and any accumulated steak jus, a round of pimenton butter, and a little handful of of fresh greens.

FROM THE MENU: Goat Shank Tagine

Gorgeous, grass-fed goat is in from Marin Sun Farms. These guys gently graze the hills of Point Reyes sustainably "managing" pastures. I also have a dozen fragrant bulbs of Spring fennel courtesy of Terra Sonoma in Sebastopol, and lemon I quickly preserved to save from ruin. I'm craving intense spices these days, and our menu could definitely use some as well. All of which promptly leads to tagine in my book. I quickly consult my Paula Wolfert.

I had a revelatory 16th birthday dinner at Dar Maghreb in Los Angles, and visited Morocco itself briefly in my early 20s ...the astonishing flavors of the place immediately etched themselves into me, and I had to figure out how they worked. Wolfert - one of the first food writers I turned to for authority - had lived in Morocco, and was a brilliant guide into those layers of saffron, ginger, garlic, sweet onion, green coriander & preserved lemon. Tagines have become an essential piece of my food lexicon. I crave them habitually as I crave any faithfully made pozole or bouillabaisse; any sating, true stew.

Fennel in the index of Wolfert's Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco gets me Lamb Tagine with Fennel, a "fragrant meat tagine," which I learn, as a group, usually involve preserved lemon, olives and vegetables. I substitute our newly arrived rich goat shank for the lamb shoulder, augment dried ginger in the recipe with beloved fresh, add a little tomato for some bricky earth, cinnamon stick because I can't resist its perfume, and a spoonful of honey to pull on the sweet notes of the melted saffrony onion. So, while I've ultimately made my own way in the recipe, both in ingredients and technique (French training and restaurant kitchen Batterie de cuisine!), Wolfert is always lingering in the background, too. The braise hums madly. Serve on couscous with lemon, chickpeas and scallions.

Goat Tagine with Fennel and Olives

6 meaty goat shanks

Sea Salt

Freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, sliced in half lengthwise, then into 1/4-inch slices lengthwise

2 medium bulbs of fennel, cut in half lengthwise, then into 1/4-inch slices lengthwise

1 large pinch of saffron threads, lightly finger-crushed

6 medium garlic cloves, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons freshly toasted, ground coriander seed

1 teaspoons freshly toasted, ground cumin

2 teaspoons freshly toasted, ground fennel seed

3 tablespoons honey

3/4 cup fresh tomato peeled and chopped, or good boxed/canned chopped tomatoes

4 cups of chicken stock or water

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro), stem and all, tied with butcher string

1/2 cup oil-cured olives

1 large preserved lemon, rinsed and quartered

Preheat oven to 375. Salt and pepper the goat shanks. Brown them over medium-high heat in a large, deep casserole that will fit all the meat and go in the oven. Remove shanks from the pan and add olive oil, onions and half the fennel and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the saffron, garlic, ginger and all spices and cook another 5 minutes. Add the honey and tomatoes and cook a few minutes. Add stock and tuck shanks back into pot along with the cinnamon stick and tied cilantro. Bring to a simmer. Cover and braise in the oven until tender, about 3 hours. Check every so often; add more liquid if necessary. Add olives, lemon and remaining fennel to the stew the last 15 minutes of cooking. It is finished when the fennel is tender and the meat is buttery and falling off the bone. Taste and season as necessary.