Curried Roasted Leg of Goat

This year I discovered cooking fresh local goat meat.  Well prepped fresh goat meat to me has the wonderful texture of lamb and a mild beef flavor. The key with  goat, as I discovered with lamb, is in the preparation of the meat before marinating or cooking. There is a very thin membrane called, fell or silver skin, that lays on top of most of the larger cuts of meat. This needs to be removed prior to cooking. The best way is to start at the end of the piece of meat and with your thumb or a butter knife get under the membrane and pull off as much as you can without having the roast fall apart. If it starts to tear you'll need a sharp knife to get under the silver skin and cut under and across without cutting away too much of the meat. Yes, you'll loose some meat but the benefit of cooking a nice clean roast without the strong flavor that sometimes comes with lamb and goat is worth the trouble and minimal loss of meat. Now your ready to rub or marinate. This recipe is a delicious curried roast that I just cooked. A 2.5 pound bone in leg of goat served a very hungry four people.

Curried Roasted Leg of Goat  (serves 4-6 )

Ingredients

2.5 lb leg of goat (half leg) bone in
1 cup of Greek yogurt
8 medium sized cloves of garlic
3 limes -juiced
2 mild chili peppers-  Anaheim, cubanelles, or poblanos -chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 tablespoon of garam masala
1/4 teaspoon of sweet curry powder
1/4 teaspoon of vindaloo
Salt ands pepper to taste

Marinating Preparation

In a food processor chop 4 cloves of garlic and 2 teaspoons of olive oil until almost paste. Add chopped chilies and spices and blend to a paste. Add yogurt and blend together. Slowly add lime juice to the yogurt and spice mixture until you have a well blended marinade. Add salt and pepper to taste. When adding pepper keep in mind the spices will build heat over time so don't add too much pepper. Set aside.

Take the remaining 4 cloves of garlic and cut in to large slivers. Take the roast and make enough 1 inch deep incisions in the meat to insert the garlic slivers. The incisions can be on the larger side. This will allow the marinade to soak in.

Take the roast and place in a large 1 gallon zip lock freezer bag and pour the marinade in to the bag with the roast. Lock the bag and shake the bag making sure the roast is well covered. Open the bag slightly and squeeze the air out then reseal. Now rub the marinade into the roast with your hands through the bag. (You also and can pre-rub the roast with the marinade before putting it into the bag but I think you loose too much marinade with this method.) Place in the refrigerator for minimum 24 hours occasionally turning and rubbing the roast through the bag.

Cooking instructions

Pull the goat out of the bag. Lightly wipe off some of the marinade with your hands by massaging it in to the meat. Place roast on a roasting rack in a pan large enough to place some potatoes in it for roasting with the goat. Bring the roast to room temperature which is minimum 45 minutes at a 68 F room temp.

Pre-heat your oven to 500 F.  Keep the oven at 500 F for at least 10 minutes before putting roast in the oven. When oven is ready place the goat leg in the center of the oven and roast for 30 minutes.

After the first 30 minutes high temp cook,  Reduce the oven temperature to 400 and add potatoes and carrot chunks (about 3/4 inch wedges that have been rolled in olive oil and salt and pepper) to the bottom of roasting pan surrounding the leg of goat. Cook the roast and potatoes for approximately 20 more minutes.

Oven temps vary and you will want to remove the roast out of the oven when it is medium rare so check the internal temp of the roast with a instant read thermometer ( make sure to calibrate your thermometer) after the 20 minute 400 F cook time. The temp should be between 125 F and 135 F before removing the roast. Depending on how rare you want the meat. The roast will need to rest for minimum of 15 minutes lightly tented with aluminum foil before cutting and will continue to cook up in temp about 5 to 10 degrees while resting. I find a finished roast of around 135
F internal temp gives a nice pink medium rare.

While the roast is resting you can continue to cook the potatoes and carrots turning occasionally until nice golden and tender.  When ready to serve cut the meat nice and thin surrounded by the potatoes and maybe some fresh raita and naan.

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