Goat Curry

I used a whole leg of goat for this pur­chased at my favourite butcher’s Sanagan’s in Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket. They cut it in chunks. bone-in, the ideal way to have it pre­pared it for this dish. I first cre­ated this curry for din­ner when my daugh­ter Ruthie came over with her girl­friend Usha. Usha is from Sri Lanka, doesn’t eat beef and likes her food spicy. You can use more or less curry pow­der and/or curry paste. You can also use hot or mild ver­sions of them as desired. I used Madras curry pow­der from House of spice in Kens­ing­ton and Patak’s korma curry paste. Ghee is basi­cally clar­i­fied but­ter and is optional.

This tastes much bet­ter made a day or two ahead. I like it served over smashed thin-skinned yukon gold pota­toes. Slice and cook them until soft, then drain and add milk heated with but­ter and salt. Smash with potato masher leav­ing chunks.

About 4 lb/2 kg bone-in goat meat

4 tbsp veg­etable oil or ghee

2 large onions, chopped

2 tbsp grated or finely chopped fresh gin­ger root

2 tbsp Madras or other good qual­ity curry powder

2 tbsp curry paste

1 cin­na­mon stick

398-ml can (about 1 ³⁄₄ cups) coconut milk

398-ml can (about 1 ³⁄₄ cups)tomatoes, with juices

About 1 cup chicken stock or water

Salt to taste

In large heavy dutch oven or saucepan with lid, heat 2 table­spoons of oil over medium-high heat. Add goat meat in sin­gle layer and cook in batches until browned all over.

Heat remain­ing 2 table­spoon of oil in large heavy skil­let over medium heat. Add onions and cook a minute or two. Add gin­ger root; cook until golden brown and caramelized, about 10 min. Add curry pow­der, curry paste and cin­na­mon stick; cook a cou­ple of min­utes more or until aro­matic. Add to goat mix­ture. Add coconut milk and toma­toes. Add chicken stock, adding a lit­tle more if nec­es­sary to cover meat. Bring mix­ture to a boil; reduce heat to low and cook, par­tially cov­ered, 2 to 3 hours or until goat meat is soft and just falling off bones. Remove bones. Taste; add salt.

Cool curry, then place in fridge until fat con­geals on sur­face. Remove fat.

Serve with mashed or smashed pota­toes, rice or noo­dles, raita (plain yogurt mixed with grated cucum­ber) and favourite chut­neys and/or Indian pickles.

Makes about 8 servings.

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