Moo, Baa, La La La

I don't eat with my girls as often as I should during the week. I am in the kitchen with them but, I am unloading the dishwasher or repacking school bags. All that end of the day mom stuff.

So what I do a lot is feed them some of the leftovers from the night before. For instance, if my husband and I had chicken and veggies, my girls the next night will have a chicken veggie pasta. My husband gets home well after the girls have eaten. And, selfishly I will admit that I like that time with him.

Last night, there were no leftovers. Not one bite. Why? The goat was just too yummy. Yep, I made braised goat shanks. Young, Texas goat. I am not sure why that is relevant but, the dude at the farmers market was very excited about those points. I had wnated to get some lamb. I love lamb and so does my husband. But, I was late that morning and my lamb guy was sold out. But, he pointed out he had one more package of goat shanks.

Goat was rich like lamb but leaner. The shanks were small and easy to handle. And, now I have three lovely bones in the freezer wanting to someday flavor a rich stock.

So, I first carmelized some onions, celery and carrots in a heavy pot. Then, I pulled those out, added a bit more olive oil, and seared the shanks until they were a bit browned and I could smell that yummy browned meat smell. Then, I pulled those out and poured in most of a bottle of inexpensive merlot (yes, most of the bottle. I had to have a chef's sample of the wine of course). I scraped all the crusties on the bottom of the pot up and added some garlic powder and garlic salt to the simmering wine. I put the shanks back in and dumped the veggies on top. I added some leeks too as they had been forgot in the bottom drawer and were a little sad looking for another dish.

Since I had poured such a big glass of wine, I had to add some stock. I just used chicken stock as that was all I had in the frig. I put the top on the pot and put it all in a 325 degree oven. Almost three hours later, the meat was falling off the bone tender. It still had that rich flavor.

I served it with brown rice. Now, I will admit I hate brown rice. I grew up with minute rice. That nuttiness of brown rice is a bit off putting to me. To get around that flavor, I added half a cup of the braising liquid to the rice and replaced another half cup of the water with stock. The rice had a nice richness to it. I served carmelized broccoli with it.

And it vanished into thin air.

Braising is a favorite cooking method of mine. First, once I learned that all it really is is searing the meat and slow cooking it, I realized "hey, I can do that". I like braising with wine. But, if I don't have a cheap bottle on hand, I will use stock with a bit of apple vinegar or wine vinegar. I like to buy wine on sale an then by the case or half case (to get a further discount). I buy stuff that I will actually drink. I dont cook with the stuff I would serve my parents in law but with something drinkable. Remember these flavors are getting cooked into the food.

I am going to get more goat this weekend. My little carnivore would love it. Take a leap this week and try something new.