Recently I was sent “Goat: Meat * Milk * Cheese” by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough in exchange for a review. If you’ve encountered any of Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough books, you already know you’re in for a fun, hilarious, delicious round of good cooking! This book is no exception. This is their 18th cookbook and it’s all about Goat! Meat, Milk and Cheese! According to Bruce and Mark, Goat is the world’s primary meat. Upwards of 70 percent of the red meat eaten globally is goat! Surprised?? So was I.
While I have to tell you that I couldn’t find any “Goat” meat in any of my local stores, they do give a list of suppliers in the book on where to obtain it. Some investigation and a little research and you should be able to find a supplier locally, or at least semi-locally, and I found several places online where you can order. (Thank goodness for Google!) The milk, cheese and butter the recipes call for, are a lot more accessible in local groceries and I had no problem finding fresh Chevre.
Written in what I’d like to call classic Bruce & Mark style, the book is filled with hints and tips under the labels “more to know”, “Less to do” and “Go all out” , perhaps suggesting a nice accompaniment to accompany the dish. Very helpful (and tasteful I might add). And peppered throughout the book you will find, “Goat Stories”, that is sure to leave you with a smile on your lips.
The book is broken down into chapters, starting with Meat:
Get your Goat, Hunks, Chunks, Curries, Mole, Ground, and If You’ve Got Nothing But Time – And Goat – On Your Hands
Next -
Milk & Yogurt – The Smell Of Goat In The Morning, Savories, and Sweets
and last but not least:
Cheese – Bits & Bites, A Match Made in Norway, Comfort Food, Little Nothings, and Bigger Somethings.
This time, we don’t get a meat dish with my review because I didn’t find any without having to travel a little farther than I could at this time, but as far as the book goes, it’s in here. I can’t wait to get some local (semi-local in my case and still looking) goat so that I can try these goat meat recipes out. In the meantime, there’s plenty of other recipes in the book to make, using goat milk, butter and cheese.
The recipe I picked out – Rugelach! Who can resist?
Goat Cheese Rugelach
From: Goat: Meat * Milk * Cheese
Here’s the classic New York deli pastry, reinvented with goat cheese in the dough, rather than the usual cream cheese. When Bruce was testing this recipe, I inadvertently told my mother about them one day. She made me promise to put a bag in the freezer, in anticipation of their visit months away. From then on, every time she called, she asked if the bag was still there. Sheesh, it’s tough raising parents. – Mark Scarbrough
8 oz. (225 g) fresh chevre or soft goat cheese
8 Tbsp. (1 stick 115 g) cool goat butter (or unsalted cow butter, if you must), cut into chunks
1 2/3 cups (205 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 tsp. Salt
3/4 cup (170 g) raspberry jam
1 cup (225 g) sliced almonds (I had some chocolate covered almonds I ran through the food processor, chocolate can’t hurt!)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1. Beat the goat cheese and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy and light, almost like beaten cream cheese, 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Pour in the flour and salt; continue mixing at low-speed until a soft dough forms. Scrape down the inside of the bowl, mix a few seconds more just to make sure everything is incorporated and the flour has all dissolved, then divide this mixture into thirds and form them into three balls. Put 1 of the balls on a large sheet of wax paper, on your work surface. Spread it into a circle about 1 inch (2.5cm) thick. Fold the wax paper around it and put it in the refrigerator. Repeat with the other 2 balls. Chill them for at least 3 hours or up to 3 days.
3. Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. (175 C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
4. Dust a clean, dry work surface with flour, then place 1 of the chilled dough rounds on it. Roll into a 12 inch (30.5) circle. Do it slowly and carefully, repositioning the rolling pin after each pass so the circle is as even as you can make it.
5. Spread the circle with 1/4 cup (55 g) of the raspberry jam; sprinkle 1/3 cup (76 g) of the sliced almonds and 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon over the top.
6. Cut the circle into 12 pie-piece wedges, like long, narrowing triangles. The best way to do this is to make 2 perpendicular cuts, 1 toward you and 1 parallel to where you’re standing. The circle is now in 4 quadrants. Cut each of these quadrants into long, thin pie-wedge triangles. Separate the triangles from one another a bit and then roll each of them up, starting at the pointy tip and rolling toward the curved back. Some of the jam will ooze out a little or just be exposed at the edges. Set the rugelach on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 with the other 2 dough circles, re-dusting your work surface with flour each time and making sure there are no little bits of dough anywhere that can cause subsequent circles to stick. In fact, you can bake-off 1 batch of rugelach and save the other 2 circles in the fridge for other times in the days ahead.
8. Once you’ve got all you want on the baking sheet, bake the rugelach until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack and continuing to cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Seal them up in a plastic bag and store them at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for God knows how long, until your mother comes to visit.
As Mark Scarbrough says: The first-ever, all-goat book–meat, milk, and cheese! If you want to know the butchering schematics for goat and then a whole heckuva lot beyond–like how goat cheese is made, how goat milk differs from all other mammal milks, why it’s considered the “universal” mammal’s milk, how there’s a whole cheesy world beyond creamy chèvre–this is the book for you.
This book is well written, funny and chock full of delicious recipes, this is a book that will move you beyond, and into a world of Goat meat, milk, cheese and butter (lets not forget the butter here folks!). While I was not able to find goat meat in any of my local stores, I do think this is a world that I need to explore. While you find a local source for the goat meat, this book is chock full of delicious recipes to get you started on the goat milk, cheese and butter. I find this book a very welcomed addition to my cookbook collection! The cookies? Delicious!!, Worthy Mom Fare. (But, sorry Mom, mine will never make it to the freezer!) – Fire up the Oven
You can find Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough at their website for additional stories, recipes and laughter. You’ll also find a Blog Only Goat recipe: Fudgy Buck Brownies, made with fresh Goat cheese.
