Slow-cooked to fall-off-the-bone, succulent perfection, Sous Vide Goat Shoulder with Polenta, Wilted Spinach and Garlic delivers flavourful comfort.
Hey-hey! I am back with another mouth-watering installment of Sous Vide Sunday; featuring my slow-cooked-to-succulent-perfection Sous Vide Goat Shoulder. With a side of creamy polenta, sauteed garlic and wilted spinach for a little seasonal comfort!
If you follow me on Instagram, you likely saw me making this along with a goat leg, just over a month ago. I've shared many of our sous vide dishes preparation over the years on my IG stories and feed, but have been a little slow getting them to the blog. So, I am playing catch-up.
Goat meat has been enjoyed for decades (maybe even centuries), in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Asia. I grew up eating goat meat, more so than lamb, and usually curried. My grandmother would cook the goat meat to melt-in-your-mouth perfection, using either a screaming, spluttering pressure cooker, or a well-seasoned, blackened from open flames, silver-ish dutch pot.
The latter was my personal fave. It was more flavourful and not as frightening to observe - watching that knob on the pressure cooker cover scream and splutter and sometimes launch into a trajectory, which always seemed directed at me, still scares the shit out of me to this day.
Goat Is Goat
Lamb and goat are both ovine, but that does not mean they are prepared the same. Goat meat is very lean, with fewer calories, compared to lamb, chicken, beef and pork. It is also said to be high in potassium and iron, even more so than beef.
I love goat meat with bold Middle Eastern or Indian flavours, but I normally do it up in a Caribbean curry. This involved making a curry paste to use as a rub/marinade of sorts for the meat and bagging it for the cook with various herbs and spices. It is definitely NOT lacking flavour!
Low and Slow, Baby
Being lean, with little fat, makes goat meat well-suited for a low, slow cook to break down the collagen in the meat. A perfect candidate for sous vide, if you ask me... and even if you didn't.
So, I abandoned my grandmother's pressure-cooking (a.k.a NASA launch) method for this piece of goat and bagged it, sucked the air out of it and gave it a 24-hour bath at 57ºC. Whatcha gotta say about that, grandma? HUH?
You can enjoy this Sous Vide Goat Shoulder in all it's glorious juices straight out of the bag, but a little colour, via the oven, was in order. Cause you know what they say about going black... AHEM!
Simple Sides
Serve it on a bed of what the Dude calls polenta, but I know as cornmeal or cou cou with some add-ins. He always manages to get the polenta much smoother and creamier that I ever have, so that's usually his domain. Sautee some garlic and wilt some spinach and put it all together for seriously DEEEELISH comfort.
Tips for Sous Vide Goat Shoulder Success:
- Start with a good piece of goat meat, preferably local and fresh from a butcher. I like the shoulder and leg, as they yield more meat. Ensure the goat is young - you'll be able to tell by the colour (pinkish).
- If I've learned anything from my Caribbean heritage, other than flavour is KEY, it's to always clean the meat before cooking - and that has stuck. I clean all my meat/poultry/pork/fish with vinegar or lemon juice, usually fresh. They help to remove all the nasties.
- For long cooks, such as this, I double bag if using freezer bags or double seal, if vacuum sealing. A little added protection never hurt no one...amiright?!?
- I browned the meat in the oven after the sous vide and poured some of the bag juices over to keep it moist while browning. I prefer cooking it in its juicy sauce, but wanted to get a dark, dramatic finish, so went the sauce-on-the-side route.
- Strain and use the juices from the bag to whip up some gravy, sauce or jus - you won't regret it.
You will notice that, unlike the dessert recipes I share on here, my savoury recipes don't always specify amounts. We rarely use recipes to cook - unless it is something completely new to us. The Dude and I usually cook together and it is always an adventure; sometimes disastrous, but more often, delicious! The idea is to adjust things to your taste!
VIDEO
Ingredients
For the paste rub:
- 3 tablespoons Caribbean green seasoning homemade
- 3 tablespoons madras curry powder homemade or storebought
- 3 tablespoons garam masala
- 3-4 tablespoons neutral oil or olive oil or water adjust as needed for preferred consistency
For the goat:
- 2 kilograms bone-in goat shoulder cleaned and patted dry
- salt to taste
- Chinese five-spice homemade or store-bought
- fresh thyme I like lots, but 3-4 sprigs is a good place to start
- 7-10 cloves
- curry leaves I usually put a small handful
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 stick cinnamon bark broken in half
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper if you're brave enough
- neutral oil for the bag
For the sides:
- sous vide polenta cooked in vegetable or beef broth
- garlic sauteed in olive oil
- spinach tossed in the garlic above
Instructions
Make the paste rub:
- Mix all the ingredients for the rub until well-combined. Set aside.
Prepare water bath:
- Heat the water bath to 57ºC. You can also do 83ºC for 16 hours.
Prep and cook the meat:
- While the water is heating. Clean the meat with lemon juice or vinegar, wash and pat dry. Rub generously with curry paste on all sides. Season with a bit of five-spice and salt.
- Make a collar at the opening of the bag and add the meat and aromatics and spices - thyme, cloves, curry leaves, bay leaves, cinnamon bark. Drizzle some oil into the bag. Seal with a vacuum sealer, or using the water-displacement method. Submerge in heated water bath and cook for 24 hours.
- About 15 minutes before the cook is completed, heat the oven to 450ºF or heat an oiled skillet on high heat until smoking. Remove the bag from water bath and cut open. Use tongs to remove meat from bag, or strain the liquids from the bag into a small saucepan and cut the bag open for easier removal. Brown in the heated oven or sear in a skillet until a nice colour forms. (Pat the meat dry first, if searing, to avoid being burned by flying oil).
- Heat the liquids from the bag over low heat with pepper, a little flour or cornstarch to make a gravy.
Serve:
- Make some polenta, mashed potatoes, freekah, or other side of your choosing. Sautee some garlic and spinach and serve along side polenta with goat.
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