Dawson Valley Free Range

Dawson Valley Free Range

Monday, July 17, 2017

Goat Meat

You either love goat or hate it! I certainly love it! We are developing quite a following for the goat meat that we supply, but I've noticed that the most popular by far is the diced goat, closely followed by the goat roasts and shanks. Neck chops, ribs and loin chops are not so popular. One of the reasons we do the little loin roasts are to do something other than chops. They are very good too and quite popular.

A lot of the traditional goat curries that you find in the restaurants are made with a bone in cut of meat. My butcher and I can't quite work out how to cut it like that, so the closest thing we do is offer the loin chop and just the bones. Some of our Frequent Free Rangers received goat loin chops in their order last week, so I thought I'd cook some last night just to confirm what I did suggest to a couple of people. It worked quite well.....

Chops or Ribs - oven baked with vegetables

Slice up some veg as you would if you were doing a potato bake and layer them in a baking dish. I used the following, because I wanted to clean out my fridge of old vegetables before I put in my new lot.

  • Potato - normal and sweet
  • pumpkin
  • zucchini 
  • squash
  • capsicum
  • carrot
  • garlic
  • onion
I sprinkled the layers with some salt, poured over about 1/2 cup of bone broth and then placed the chops and ribs on top. I baked them for 1.5 hours, turning the meat over half way, and then sprinkled with a mix of coriander, parsley and mint. Or you could layer the herbs in with the veg.

The chops were perfectly cooked and tender, but the ribs could've done with another 1/2 hour.





.........

One thing to remember with our goat is that it will always need to be slow cooked in some form - either in the oven, crockpot/slowcooker or even just braised on top of the stove. I'm sure it would also work okay in a pressure cooker, I just haven't done it. Even the little loin roasts would need a good hour in the oven to ensure that they are tender and tasty. If you would like to have goat chops that look more like grilled chops, they can be oven roasted on their own, just toss them in something nice * and place on a tray on the oven and cook for a an hour and a half, turning half way. * I really like garlic, rosemary or parsley and lime juice as a marinade.

Goat is really flexible, so don't be scared to try it. If you have a favourite lamb shank recipe, try it with goat shanks. Cook the neck chops like you would cook beef osso bucco. Marinate and oven cook the ribs like you would beef or pork ribs. Slow cook the goat roast and pull it like pulled pork, and serve on tortillas with salsa, yoghurt and avocado. 

If you do something nice with Goat or even any of our meat, please feel free to post it on our Facebook page. It might help to give inspiration to someone else to give it a try.




Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Frequent Free Rangers, markets and recipe ideas


Markets again this weekend in Rockhampton and Yeppoon - 15/16th July. We will have beef, goat, pork, ham and bacon available. We will also be supplying our Frequent Free Rangers with some great value meat. If you haven't heard of our CSA style subscription, then please read through to the end for more information on it. If you want to be involved, please email me with the required information and we will include you in the next market delivery. We have a three week break before the next market - 5/6th August.

If you live in South East Queensland, Maitland our son will be visiting the area on the last weekend of July. If you would like some of our great tasting tender meat, please email me for more information. dawsonvalleyfr@bigpond.com

Bacon Chops
This weekend we will have some bacon chops. We had some last night - ours were loin bacon chops from a sow we processed some time ago, where as the ones this weekend will be shoulder bacon chops. I just fried them and served with onion and parsley white sauce and vegetables. They were really good and a nice change. Why not give them a go?




Sausage Rolls
This is not my recipe, but an idea from one of That Wholefood Place's customers. Leanne bought some of our paleo sausages and made a quick dinner for her kids. Lucky them! What a great idea.

Frequent Free Ranger Group
This is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) inspired group, where subscribers pledge to purchase between 4-6 kg of meat on a regular basis, at the fixed price of $15/kg. The meat will be randomly chosen by Lucy House and will be roughly based on the following approximate amounts:
  • ·       1 pack Prime cuts of steak or chops (beef or pork)
  • ·       1 Roast Type (Beef, Pork or Goat) – this could include pickled pork or cornbeef
  • ·       1 Stewing cuts –  could include diced, osso bucco, chops, stewing steak, diced goat or bones etc
  • ·       1 Mince or sausages
  • ·       1kg Bacon and Ham
  • ·       or whatever else I have a lot of at the time

I will try to swap this around each week so that you don’t get the same cut, but if we have a lot of subscribers this may prove to be too difficult. Please let me know if you aren’t getting enough variety or if you really like one particular cut.  The main purpose of this is to clear some of the items of meat that don’t sell as readily, or that I have an abundance of one week. It is also a way to reward regular customers and to try to reduce the cost for those regulars.
  • ·       Nominate whether Fortnightly or Monthly
  • ·       Nominate if you don’t want goat
  • ·       Nominate preference for Nitrate Free or Conventional
  • ·       Nominate number of people to feed (eg, don’t include babies or toddlers that don’t eat any or much)
  • ·       If you are unable to collect – please arrange for someone else to, and failing that, you can drop out for that weekend, but please let me know by Friday night.
  • ·       Cancelation – if you find that you are not happy with the selection you get and want to opt out of the subscription, you can cancel at any time. Please give me as much warning as possible, but at least by the Friday night before the market.


If you would like to join the group, please email me on: dawsonvalleyfr@bigpond.com