Birria estilo Sinaloa or Roast Goat Soup

Recently one of my co-workers had a close encounter with a live centipede in her grilled chicken salad. No, I’m not going to tell you what business this came from since I’m not a health inspector; but this event did spark a talk amongst my co-workers so far as to what odd animals we’ve each eaten. Of course my co-workers are mostly finicky eaters who haven’t even tried most of New England’s specialties, much less those of other countries. What really surprised me the most is that they couldn’t picture anybody in their right mind eating goat. Their loss I guess, where I grew up goat stew is a delicious and spicy way to take the edge off a hangover on Sunday morning. This meat is quite tasty, somewhere between beef and lamb with a little extra sweetness. Also expect to find it pretty cheap and given the low demand in America you might notice a lot of the benefits of free range in the flavor. Ok, let’s get to a goat recipe:

Ingredients:

3 pounds of cut up goat

3 dried peppers (Guajillo or Pasilla)

4 diced cloves of garlic

Beef stock to cover the meat in the pot

Olive oil

White Vinegar

Oregano

Ground black pepper

Salt

Garnish:

Fresh cilantro

Limes

Diced red onion

1)      Lay the chunks of goat out on a foil covered baking pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with very lightly with olive oil, this should keep the delicious goat drippings from smoking or burning as you will need these later.

2)      Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for an hour with a sheet of foil on top. After that you can uncover the meat and bake it for another half an hour or until it starts to get toasted.

3)      While the meat bakes cut open 3 peppers, remove the seeds and rehydrate them in warm water. For the photo I used three different peppers: a New Mexico, a Mulato and a Chipotle pepper.

4)      After soaking for ten or twenty minutes you may proceed to dice the peppers up with a knife or food processor. Mix in a little extra salt for flavor.

5)      In a sauce pan fry the garlic and add the finely diced peppers. Fry for a few minutes on low heat and this shall be the base of your soup.

6)      Add the chili mixture into the soup pan and bring to a slow simmer with a couple of cups of water. If the goat is ready add the goat to this mixture together with whatever drippings you can collect from the pan.

7)      Add enough beef stock to cover the pieces of goat. Personally I used three small bullion cubes for this. Also add about a quarter of a cup of white vinegar and two pinches of crushed oregano.

8)      Boil this mixture on low heat for a couple of hours. Skim any solids that may form on the surface.

9)      Serve in a bowl with the following: lime slices, hot sauce, corn tortillas or tostadas, diced red onion, salt and cilantro.