KIDDING AROUND

Is this what's for Noche Buena dinner? Baby kid roasted with potatoes and vegetables.

Early on in my life in an Andalusian village, I was shocked to see in the local butcher shop, ten tiny baby goats, still unskinned, hanging by their hind legs from a long rack. Straight from “pre-packaged” American supermarkets, I was disconcerted by meat in such a primary state. Nor had I ever eaten goat.

At that time, several herds of goats were stabled in the village. In the morning, the cabrero led his goats—brown, grey, and dappled—through the village streets, their small bells tinkling as they passed. In some doorways, a goat would come tripping out of the house to join the herd on its day´s outing to graze in the countryside. At another, a housewife stepped into the street with a pail. The cabrero called to one of his flock, “Rosita, ven p’ acá." One of the goats separated herself from the herd and the goatherd, squatting in the street, milked her right into the pail. After the herd passed, I could still smell their presence.

When the kids are born, baby males are culled (they aren't good for much except meat), while the females grow up to be dairy goats. That’s why baby kid was seasonally available from the butcher. It was especially appreciated for the feast of Noche Buena (Christmas Eve).

No goat herds reside in the pueblo nowadays, though some are stabled below the village. Refrigerated trucks pick up the milk and carry it to cheese makers elsewhere in the province and much farther afield (France). I never see the meat in my local market and hadn’t eaten it in years.

In recent years Chivo Lechal Malagueño (baby kid from Málaga) is being promoted and sold in some markets and via an internet site. (Chivo and cabrito are both words for kid-goat.) I sampled a whole goat menu at a local restaurant (goat chorizo, unctuous with ibérico pig fat; goat’s milk croquettes; fried kid riblets; roast leg of kid (cooked sous vide); and arroz con leche, rice pudding made with goat’s milk. That inspired me to cook kid-goat at home.

I found this meat quite expensive (€18 per kilo or about $9.65 per pound). I bought a whole rear half—two legs and the attached loin sections. This provided four generous servings. It would be a stretch to serve six. The meat is very delicate in flavor, somewhere between suckling lamb and young veal. It is very lean, so has a tendency to be dry. The kid cooked sous vide at the restaurant was juicier than my roasted rendition.

Baby goat, food for a festive occasion.

Potatoes and vegetables cooked in wine with the kid are fabulous. Saffron gives them a golden hue.

Kid is "the other white meat." Tender, delicate, very lean.

Roasted Kid-Goat with Potatoes
Chivo al Horno con Patatas 

This dish comes straight from the campo, the countryside around Málaga, where it once was a favorite holiday or wedding meal feast. Prepared in a giant pan (1 ½ feet in diameter), the dish spends most of the day in the slow, fragrant heat of the bread-baking oven.

For special occasions we would order the meal from a local bar. It consisted of a whole baby kid, hacked into fairly small pieces, layered with potatoes and vegetables in the big pan and baked at the local panadería (bread bakery).

If suckling kid or lamb is not available, try this dish using lamb chops. Use more or less wine. Use chicken stock or water for the remaining liquid. Part way through roasting, check to make sure liquid still remains in the pan.

Peel tomatoes with a peeler.

Peeling the tomatoes before slicing them means no annoying loose tomato skins mixed in with the yummy potatoes and vegetables. Use a vegetable peeler to peel firm tomatoes. 

To roast a whole head of garlic, spear it on a fork or grasp with tongs and turn it over a gas flame or put it under the broiler (grill), turning, until it is charred on all sides. Rub off the skin and peel the garlic cloves. 

Two back legs plus the loin sections, ready for the oven.

 

Spices and vegetables.

Serves 4.

 

3 ½ - 4 pounds kid-goat
Salt and pepper
Thyme
½ cup olive oil
2 onions, sliced
8 medium potatoes (about 2 ½ pounds), peeled and sliced ¼-inch thick
2 green bell peppers, cut in strips
4 tomatoes, peeled and sliced
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 bay leaves
1 head garlic, roasted
1 teaspoon saffron threads
½ teaspoon coarse salt
10 peppercorns
2 cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cups white wine
½ cup chicken stock or water

Sprinkle the meat with salt, pepper and thyme and allow it to come to room temperature.

Spread half the oil in a roasting pan or large cazuela. Place a layer of onions on the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of sliced potatoes, strips of green pepper and sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle generously with salt and half of the parsley. Continue with remaining onions, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes and parsley. Sprinkle with salt. Break the bay leaves in half and tuck the pieces in with the vegetables. Peel the cloves of roasted garlic and push them under the vegetables too.

Layer potatoes, onions, green peppers, tomatoes and garlic in the bottom of roasting pan. Pour over spice mixture with saffron. Add oil and wine. Place the meat on top.

Crush saffron and spices.

In a mortar, crush the saffron with the coarse salt, peppercorns and cloves. Stir in the cinnamon. Stir in ¼ cup of the wine. Pour the spices over the vegetables.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Place the meat, skin side down, on top of the vegetables. Pour the remaining olive oil over the meat.

Roast the kid 15 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350ºF. Roast 1 hour more.

Remove the pan from the oven.  Turn the meat skin side up. Baste it with some of the liquid in the pan. If liquid has cooked away, add more water. Return the pan to the oven. Roast 30 minutes longer, until the meat is browned and potatoes are cooked. 

Kid and vegetables can be served straight from the roasting pan. Or, if preferred, remove them to a serving platter.

Allow the pan to set 10 minutes before serving. The potatoes will absorb some of the remaining pan juices. If desired, remove meat and vegetables to a serving platter.

Recipes for chicken and fish prepared in a similar manner:

Chicken for a Crowd.

Baked Whole Fish with Potatoes. 

A SUNNY SATURDAY IN MALAGA

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig. Or small goat. A grand grouper or a heap of spiny sea snails. 

One sunny Saturday a friend and I hopped on a commuter train for the 50-minute ride to Málaga to visit the recently reopened Atarazanas market and have lunch at La Moraga a “gastrobar” that’s been getting a lot of attention since it opened two years ago.

We entered the market through a grand marble arch, all that remains of a naval fortress from the 14th century when Málaga was under the Islamic rule of Moorish tribes. The fortress, known as Atarazanas, gradually fell into ruin and was demolished to make room for a municipal market. Opened in 1879, the market was built of iron struts, somewhat in the style of Les Halles in Paris. It shut its doors two years ago (stall holders moved to provisional locations) for complete remodelling and reopened to the public only a few months ago.

Many years ago, when the variety of produce and food products was very limited in the small Andalusian village where I live, I trekked to Málaga to shop every couple months. Now, with big hyper-markets near my home, I had not been to Málaga market in many years. It was a delight to see the great variety of local foods.

All the parts of a pig—snout to tail, fat and lean, fresh and cured—were on display at market stalls. Blobs of white fatback hung from meathooks and coils of skin for making cracklings were piled on counters. At the delicatessen stall were several sorts of cured hams, both ibérico and serrano, as well as manteca colorá, paprika-flavored lard, the Andalusian alternative spread to butter.

Málaga is famous for its chivo, small kid-goat, as esteemed as baby lamb and just as expensive. It is the meat of choice for Malagueños for the family feast on Christmas Eve.The province is also known for goat cheeses, from the fresh, white ones to crumbly aged ones. The market is the right place to find a good selection of them.

Produce stalls were heaped with seasonal fruits—persimmons, quinces, custard apples, as well as the more usual apples and pears. Wild mushrooms shared pride of place with fresh chiles. Jugs of new olive oil were displayed on many counters and tubs of new-harvest tangy, thyme-scented olives were lined up on others.

Málaga is a famed fishing port, so the market reflects the seafood riches, from the sublime—whole grouper, jumbo shrimp—to the curious—armored fish, spiny sea snails, fatty livers from monkfish (considered a delicacy like foie gras).

 I Checked out almost every shoe shop on Calle Nueva and Larios, Málaga’s main shopping streets; discovered a purveyor of body creams and bath salts called LUSH, where the products quite literally looked and smelled good enough to eat, then wound through the narrow lanes off Plaza Constitución to find LA MORAGA (Calle Fresca 12), a trendy “gastrobar” directed by Dani García. Dani is chef of La Calima in Marbella, a one-star restaurant, but the La Moraga franchise serves up “designer tapas,” or ”haute cuisine in small plates”. (Look for La Moraga to open in New York in the near future.)

At 2 pm on a Saturday, the place was packed with Malagueños, mostly young, some with kids in tow. Most belly up to the bar to select from a varied tapas list. We decided on a tasting menu (menu de degustación) and claimed a small table off the bar. For €20 (about $27) each we selected four different tapas.

We sampled a pair of gazpachos—cherry with a powdering of queso fresco, and peach, with tiny cubes of tofu. Olive oil, Sherry vinegar and a hint of garlic brought them all back into Andalusian focus.


Next came a brace of ensaladilla rusa, “Russian” salad, a tapa bar standard. One was almost classic—smashed potatoes, olive oil mayo, and tuna belly. The other was bound with a smoked salmon mayonnaise, dill and sprinkled with salmon caviar. Quite delicious.

Two croquettes each, crisp balls with hammy-fatty meat (pringá) in one and sausage in the other.

Then a cazuelita of pork cheeks stewed with spicy garbanzos and the house signature dish, bull burger, a patty of oxtail cooked sous vide until meltingly tender, heaped on a mini-bun and served with mushroom-mayo. With a couple glasses of cava to celebrate a birthday, this was a very nice Saturday lunch.