14
Nov

baby goat & head-ready for oven  copy

Well, the baby lamb and stuffed tripe of a few weeks back were a trial run for last night’s dinner which I cooked for four chefs, an eminent food writer and a restaurant owner. Except that this time, the beautiful baby was a goat, all tender and pink like a baby should be with the sweetest and teeniest testicles I have ever seen.

baby goat-two testicles 2 copy

It also had the pluck still inside which was incredibly fresh with the most beautiful colours and after I cut it out, I asked my lovely Nuria to hold it so that I could take a picture. I nearly gave it to Lee, the chef at St John’s, this morning but he forgot to pick it up and I had to throw it away sadly. Such a waste given how fresh it was. And it is not every day that you can get goat pluck in London.

baby goat - pluck copy

Never mind. The baby was big, nearly 8 kilograms and initially I worried about not being able to fit it into the large shallow baking dish that I had bought for it at Dentons, my old local when I lived in Clapham, but with a little bending it worked. I prepared the same marinade as for the lamb but decided to also use a tamarind basting sauce with rose water, saffron and Emirati spices. The baby took two and a half hours to cook in a 200º C oven.

baby goat 2 copy

I started the dinner with sautéed lamb brains served with a salad d’haricots verts and sautéed testicles with a parsley, onion and sumac salad. Talking about testicles, I have now become quite adept at peeling them and it is amazing how many blood veins there are in the skin. As you pull the skin off, some of the thin veins pull out from inside the testicles.

baby goat-skin of testicles copy

In between the brains, testicles and baby goat, I served lovely little parcels of stuffed tripe with the broth that I had spiked with garlic and lemon juice to freshen up the taste of the tripe. That was the only problem of the dinner. Last time I prepared tripe, it took me forever to clean it. This time, Andy had brought me clean tripe which was great until I realised that it had been treated in such a way as to be almost pre-cooked which is not a good thing if you want to stuff it — it tore easily. Still, I managed and the good thing is that two stomachs came with the honeycomb part.

stuffed tripe-honeycomb copy

I served the goat with biryani rice and I nearly had a disaster. Either I or Nuria must have inadvertently touched the knob for the induction burner turning it up to medium from very low which burned the bottom of the rice slightly. Lucky I smelled the burning otherwise it would not have been a good moment. As they were eating the goat, one of them asked why they were not eating the head saying that the best part was the brains inside which is true except that Andy had not cracked it open. Then one chef had a lot of fun trying to crack it open with a small cleaver while I worried about bits of head and brains flying all over my kitchen. I stopped him before the counter became too splattered with brains, bits of bones and cheeks and I scooped the brain from the cavity he’d created to give them all a taste. I also tried to give one of them an eye but I had no takers. Chefs, squeamish? Allons donc!

baby goat-hacked head copy

To round the dinner off, I had made rose water and mastic ice cream, one plain and the other churned with slivered pistachios. They were all happy and they went home leaving behind a rather depleted baby. I am now plotting to roast another baby goat. Perhaps for Christmas!

baby goat-leftover copy


There is 8 comments on this post


  • Warning: Undefined array key 36 in /data/40/0/131/109/783598/user/802494/htdocs/anissahelou/wp-content/themes/Anissa/functions.php on line 377

    Dear Aunty A, what is pluck please? From the photo I’m guessing it’s a term for some or all of the offal but I didn’t have any luck googling for more details?
    Kavey


  • Warning: Undefined array key 36 in /data/40/0/131/109/783598/user/802494/htdocs/anissahelou/wp-content/themes/Anissa/functions.php on line 377

    it’s the lungs, liver, heart, sweetbreads, kidneys, all the insides except for the stomach and intestines. funny that you couldn’t find it on google 🙂


  • Warning: Undefined array key 36 in /data/40/0/131/109/783598/user/802494/htdocs/anissahelou/wp-content/themes/Anissa/functions.php on line 377

    This looks very much like Emirati Meshwi. Stuffed goat coated in Bzar and Saffron along with other spices and coated in a very thin layer of bread called rgag 🙂


  • Warning: Undefined array key 36 in /data/40/0/131/109/783598/user/802494/htdocs/anissahelou/wp-content/themes/Anissa/functions.php on line 377

    it is my home adaptation of your medfoun or mechoui depending on how it is cooked, and the lovely ladies at the sharjah heritage centre gave me the bzar. totally delicious. the chefs loved it 🙂


  • Warning: Undefined array key 36 in /data/40/0/131/109/783598/user/802494/htdocs/anissahelou/wp-content/themes/Anissa/functions.php on line 377

    I probably needed a way to narrow it down, all the stuff in first pages of results were about plucking a bird of feathers or having pluck, as in courage!
    THANKS!


  • Warning: Undefined array key 36 in /data/40/0/131/109/783598/user/802494/htdocs/anissahelou/wp-content/themes/Anissa/functions.php on line 377

    Anissa tu n’as pas des photos de tes plats servis!!!!!!!
    Plus appetissant que cette pauvre bete…..
    Tes combinaisons sont interessantes: cervelle et haricots, et ta salade de testicules, mmmmh


  • Warning: Undefined array key 36 in /data/40/0/131/109/783598/user/802494/htdocs/anissahelou/wp-content/themes/Anissa/functions.php on line 377

    parce que j’etais trop prise par le service mais je pense qu’ils ont pris des photos. je leur demanderais. je dois dire que le diner etait genial meme si c’est moi qui le dit, eux l’ont dit aussi mais obviously pas en public comme moi 🙂 xx


  • Warning: Undefined array key 36 in /data/40/0/131/109/783598/user/802494/htdocs/anissahelou/wp-content/themes/Anissa/functions.php on line 377

    I imagine your guests were thrilled with what you made for them, I would be! I have just bought a small jar of rosewater myself and am keen to use it in savoury as well as sweet dishes.

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