Goat Skewers with a Vinegary Herb Sauce
It’s Summer and the outdoor BBQ entertaining season has begun! To change up your typical BBQ consider adding goat meat dishes to the menu. Add benefit – they aren’t detrimental to your waistline. Staying healthy, but yummy is easy with this great appetiser idea using the hero meat – goat!
Goat Skewers with a Vinegary Herb Sauce are best made from leg meat, which has a sweeter, more subtle flavour, is a great choice for taste and can also be cooked relatively quickly. Prepared kabob style and grilled, these skewers feature a vinegar-based marinade sauce full of bright green herbs, cardamom, and paprika. They showcase the best of what goat can be—bright and fresh tasting with a unique savouriness that you can only get from premium goat meat.
YIELD: 4
ACTIVE TIME: 30 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 4 hours
Ingredients
1/4 cup (55 g) minced fresh chives or the green bits of a scallion
1/4 cup (55 g) stemmed, packed fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup (55 g) stemmed, packed fresh parsley leaves
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup (165 ml) olive oil
1 1/2 pounds (680 g) goat meat chunks from the leg, cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) cubes
1 teaspoon mild paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
4 metal kebab skewers
Directions
STEP 1. Mix chives, cilantro, parsley, vinegar, pepper, and salt in a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. While the machine is running, pour the olive oil through the open feed tube in a slow dribble to make a light sauce.
You can also make this sauce by rocking a knife through the herbs on a cutting board until they’re minced, almost puréed, then adding coarse-grained salt and wiping the side of the knife’s blade across the mess, using the grainy salt to further mash the herbs into a pulp. Scrape all this into a bowl, stir in the vinegar and pepper; then whisk in the olive oil in a slow, steady stream.
STEP 2. Place half of this herb sauce in a large bowl (reserve the remainder in a separate bowl in the fridge for a garnish). Add the meat cubes, paprika, and cardamom. Stir well, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 12 hours.
STEP 3. Thread the meat cubes onto the skewers and set them aside at room temperature while you prepare the grill, either heating a gas grill to high heat (288°C) or building a high-heat coal bed in a charcoal grill. As the grill is heating up, take the reserved sauce out of the fridge so it comes back to room temperature.
STEP 4. Set the skewers directly over the heat (or in the grill pan). Grill for 6 minutes, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides and an instant-read thermometer inserted into a cube without touching the skewer registers 71°C. Serve the skewers with the reserved sauce on the side.
ENTERTAINING TIP: Wine pairing recommendation: Simply roasted younger goat meats pair similarly to lamb. Try Chianti or Grenache.
Adapted from Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. Copyright © 2011.
