My Aboslute Favourite - Jamaican Curry Goat

If you ask me what's my favourite Jamaican dish is......the list of probable responses would be:
a. Jerk Chicken
b. Escovitch Fish
c. Oxtail stew
d. Curry Goat

and my answer every time would be Curry Goat, I've only had it a few times here in Oz (always at a restaurant) and have been wanting to make my own. Finally the other day we went to the markets and came across an ethnic butcher and I decide to poke my head in and see what's available and what do you know, right in front of me is a tray of "curry goat" meat. It's like calling to me to take it home.

I was so excited and quickly messaged a few friends to come over for a Sunday night dinner party.

The goat turned out amazing! I saw a piece left on Mr ShyGuy's plate and I thought he wasn't having it so I quickly stabbed it and transferred it to my plate, only to have him turn around and tell me he was saving it and was just going to get a knife to cut it down.... o well, you snooze you lose....heehee

Here's the Jamaican Curry Goat Recipe:

Ingredients:

the curry goat bubbling away happily on my stove

• 500g curry goat meat
• 2 onions, sliced
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 potatos, cubed
• 2 carrots, cubed
• 2 sprigs spring onion, chopped
• 1 habernero chilli, chopped
• curry powder
• all spice
• thyme
• Ketchup
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Supar
• Salt and Pepper
• Oil

Directions:

• Add 1 of the sliced onion, garlic, chili, curry powder, salt and pepper to the goat meat and let marinate for at least 5 hrs or overnight
• Heat up oil in your heavybased sauce pan and brown the goat meat, leaving the onion/chili stuff behing
• After meat is browned on all sides, all remaining marinating stuff to the pan and top with some boiling water until meat is covered, put lid on and simmer on medium/low heat for 1 hr
• Add the chopped up vegetables and top with more curry powder
• Add seasoning and cook down uncovered til the sauce is thick and gloppy

Serve with white rice, I'm so making this again soon!

2014 Cooking and Eating

I meant to post earlier but then my laptop died O.o and I really couldn't do it properly from my phone, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

There's been a few highlights so far:

Firstly Fijian Kokoda, this was one of the food highlights from my trip to Fiji last year, I kept thinking about it upon my return. It was the perfect meal on a 40+ degrees C day.

Fijian Kokoda - Cerviche with Coconut Cream

Ingredients 

• Any Firm fish 
• Celery 
• Spanish Onion 
• Tomato
• Capsicum
• Chili
• Salt & Pepper
• Light Coconut Cream
• Lemon/Lime juice
• Parsley

Directions:
Dice up all the ingredients, add the Lemon/Lime juice to "cook" the fish for 30 minutes, then add in the coconut cream and mix. Top with chopped parsley.

Pan seared Salmon, Creamy Feta with Beetroot Salad
and Orange Sesame Salad

Another dinner I was particularly pleased with was this Pan-Seared Salmon with 2 salads. The Feta was the souvenir from my trip to the Hunter's Valley with some friends at the Smelly Cheese Shop and it is divine! Really lifted the simple Beets and Mint with Feta salad.
The 2nd salad was an orange with sesame salad for some citrus notes to cut through the creaminess and sweetness of the other side. the Salmon was cooked skin side down until the skin was crispy and there's still a hint of the bright pinkness in the middle of the flesh. Perfect!








It's been a while since I made my Jamaican curries and since Mr Shy Guy doesn't eat beef, the usual meat substitute I use is Kangaroo, when I first posted this picture on FB, my Yaardie friends were all slightly horrified (and intrigued no doubt). It was actually really yum, the sweetness of the kangaroo meat added a twist to the usual Caribbean flavours, with thyme, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and habanero chili for the extra kick - which is what makes it stand out from the other curries.

Jamaican Curried Kangaroo

Tikka Masala Chicken with Raita

 Here's a couple more dinners I made

Sweet potato and Quinoa Patties with Fig Salad

Slow-cooker Venture

Jamaican Stewed Peas before cooking

I do love my slow-cooker, especially during Winter. I often just chuck stuff in right before bedtime and wake up to an aromatic house. Honestly I think the smell wakes me up most of the time. LOL

So I've used my slow cooker over 4 times in the past week and a half, because my cooker is so big, I generally make a massive pot enough to feed 6 people - but there's only me. So I get sick of left overs really really fast. My friends and colleagues at work have been dragged into

tasters of my slowcooking venture. So far I have made Chinese Soups, Jamaican Stew and also an Italian dish.

Stewed Peas ah Ready!

Here's the Jamaican Stewed Peas recipe:
Ingredients

• 2 tins of Red Kidney Beans
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 ham hock
• 1 pack of gravy beef/chuck steak
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 clove garlic chopped
• 1 tspn ginger
• bunch of spring onion
• bunch of thyme
• Chili (I added lots)
• sprinkle of allspice, cloves, cinnamon
• Salt & Pepper to taste

And basically you just chuck everything in the slow cooker and wake up to deliciousness! This is such a comfort food dish for me and always brings a smile to my face. The authentic Jamaican version would have pigs tail instead of hamhock and also spinners (little doughy fingers that I was too lazy with)

Before: Chicken Cacciatorie

And the other thing I made was Italian Chicken Caccaitore, though it was ok for me. I have friends who raved about this dish, but maybe I used too much liquid and it was too soupy. Even though I left the lid off 2 hours before end.

But the slow cooker is great for Chinese soups! OMG why haven't I been doing this before? I looove soups, my family used to nickname me "Tong Wun" aka Soup Bowl because I would just drink bowls and bowls of soup everytime at dinner. I made Ginseng Chicken soup and also Dried veg with pork bones, carrots and shitake mushroom soup and they were great!

Special Request - Jerk Chicken

It was Cartoon Dude's Bday and he did some serious hinting the last time about craving Jerk Chicken. so I caved in and asked Mami, Dr Rats, The Double Ls and Cartoon Dude's Jetlagged Buddy to come along for a meal and wine to celebrate his bday. Mami also brought along CrazynLoud and my flatmate is finally back!

So with 9 people around, the menu for the night included: Jerk Chicken, Creole Fish, Garlic Eggplants, Chilli Prawns, Curry Fish Balls, Rice and Red Beans, Pineapple Salsa, Tomato, Basil & Bocconcini Salad and Avocado and Tomoato Salad along with a loaf of Olive Sourdough Bread.

Rice and Red Beans

Ingredients

Can of Red Kidney Beans

Can of Light Coconut Milk

Rice

Allspice

Salt

Directions

Wash Rice

Add Beans and Coconut Milk

Add Seasoning

Turn on Rice Cooker!

Jamaican Night Take 2

Dear Blog,

It's been nearly a month since my last dinner party. Has my friend's forgotten my cooking? Have I forgotten where everything is in the kitchen?

The dinning table has been cluttered with junk. This calls for time in the kitchen and having a few friends around for some food and drinks.

So I gathered my troop with a couple newcomers along with the usual suspects. There was a bit of thyme in the fridge plus I recently purchased a "Caribbean Cookbook" so I decided to give Jamaican Night another go.

This time for a party of 6 the menu included: Rice and Beans, Curry Goat, Osso Bucco, Stew Fish and just a simple cucumber, tomato and avocado salad - since I really didn't have time for a vegetable dish.

My favourite of the Night was the Stew Fish, though the Curry Goat did rekindle many fond memories of home. I was so pleased I was able to recreate the taste. But the Goat meat was slightly tough and my new friend Ms Exotic Asian wasn't too impressed with the texture, surprisingly Dr Rats was able to get pass the gamey taste and didn't mind the Goat meat despite hating lamb. so Score for Piggie.

Creole Stew Fish

• Fish pieces
• Vinegar
• All Spice
• Nutmeg
• Paprika
• Black Pepper
• Salt
• Sugar
• Garlic

Marinate for 2 hours or overnight in fridge, then coat lightly with flour and fry evenly on both sides for 5-1o mins

Sauce

• Onion
• Garlic
• Red and Green Capsicum
• Tomatoes
• Chilli
• Tomato Paste
• Stock
• Cinnamon
• Pepper

Directions

Heat oil and melt butter and then add all ingredients, add fish and cover.

Jamaican Night

The cold wet weather is making me miss my home - Sunny Hot Jamaica, so I decide to make some Ja'can food to help cure my homesickness. When you talk to anyone about Ja'can food the first thing you'd hear utter is Jerk, Jerk this and Jerk that.

Many people have asked me what and why "Jerk" (as they snicker away). It is just the name of the marinate we use for bbqing or grilling meat. It has such intense flavours - tangy, spices, sweet, peppery and chilli. Imagine there's this burst of flavours in your mouth having a party. It is best paired with Red Stripe Beer, unfortunately I couldn't locate any for tonight. But I did have some Malibu with Strawberry Liqueur & Lemonade cocktail - yuuuum

I personally Loooove Soup, any type of soup. For my dinner party of 7, I also made some Red Peas Soup. The thick soup with sweet potatoes and coconut milk and bits of Red Kidney Beans and Spinners made this a very satisfying entrée. Actually the soup alone could have been a meal on its own for me. But since I wanted to make sure all my guests are very well fed, oxtail stew was also on the menu. This is one of my all time favourite stews. By the end of the night, not even the boys had seconds because there was just so much food! My fridge is now well packed and it's just the way I like it!


Red Peas Soup

Ingredients

- Can of Red Kidney Beans
- Can of Coconut Milk
- Sweet Potato diced
- Green Capsicum diced
- Carrot diced
- Onion diced
- Garlic minced
- Chilli chopped
- Parsley
- Soup Bones blanched
- Spinners (dough fingers)
- Seasoning : Allspice, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Mixed Herb
Salt & Pepper
Directions

- Add everything (but parsley & salt) to pot, fill with water and cover.
- Blend half the soup and then return to pot, add parsley & salt
- Serve with fresh bread

Jerk Chicken

Ingredients

- Scallion
- Onion
- Thyme
- Oil
- Soya Sauce
- White Vinegar
- Chilli
- Garlic
- Allspice, Nutmeg, Cloves, Cinnamon, Brown Sugar, Pepper


Directions

Add everything to food processor/blender, mix and then marinate meat over night. Cook meat on BBQ grill or Bake in Oven