Inspired for Goat

I’ll admit quickly that I love watching My Kitchen Rules Australia.  The casting is brilliant with plenty of characters to love, hate and talk about the next day over morning tea.  For obsessives like me, it reinforces knowledge while also learning something new though it’s also just exciting to see how and what people cook when under pressure.  The question at the back of my mind: could I pull that off?

For MKR Season 4 followers, you’ll know who I’m talking about when referring to the ‘Spice Girls’ - a pair of girls from India and Bangladesh who were very vocal and very critical.  High expectations were therefore created for their ‘Instant Restaurant’ and these were by no means met.  

I was, however, inspired by their mistakes.  They proposed a goat biryani for the main course and the result was unflavoured rice compiled haphazardly with stewed goat, nuts and tomatoes.  While biryani vary from region to region and country to country, it often means a rich curry-like stew cooked separately to rice but served layered together to let flavours mingle shortly before serving.  When I saw the Spice Girls cooking their rice in the microwave, I immediately wished for a more pullao (or pilaf) style preparation.  All those beautiful spices creating a flavourful curry - why not cook the rice in it? 

Luckily, our local Pak n Save often stocks cuts of goat and I had recently stocked up on some key Indian spices (coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom, cloves, mustard seeds, cinnamon, etc).  Due to my boyfriend recently finding out he is allergic to night shades (i.e. tomatoes, peppers, chillies, etc), I also had to think about how to create the curry without a typical tomato and chilli base.  One thought was to use chicken stock, but I went with the can of coconut milk I had in the cupboard for a rich creamy texture.

Goat needs slow cooking, so the strategy was to braise the meat low and long in the spices and coconut milk in my Staub cocotte (the best French cookware, in my opinion) with rice added towards the end. I’d let it continue to cook in the turned-off oven overnight, in the hopes of awaking to perfectly cooked goat and rice.