Jamaican Jerked Goat Neck

It was decided over the weekend that the time had come to dive in and use up the goat neck that we’d gotten from meat club.  It's not that we were afraid of it or anything; we’ve eaten (and loved) goat before, and are all about trying new things -- we just knew it’d require a long cook process and had not had time in so long.  So, we researched, and settled on a jerk seasoning flavor profile found on the NPR website (scroll to the bottom of the linked page for the original).  The seasoning mix is where following someone else’s recipe ended.  After that, I worked on my own and came up with what both Hubby and I think was as pretty darn good meal (or four, or five -- there were, as always, leftovers).

So the first thing I did, as instructed by the “Goats in The Kitchen” dude, Bryan Miller, was to marinate the goat neck in a mixture of beer and lemon juice over night.  I used an Amstel Light and one whole lemon’s worth of juice.

The next morning, I put together the jerk rub by combining the following things in the food processor:

• 1 onion, rough chopped
• 10 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon whole allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1 hot pepper

I let the machine run for a minute or two until a paste was formed....

...and then smothered the goat neck with the paste.  Covered with plastic wrap, into the fridge it went for a four-hour rest as I went off to the store for additional ingredients and other groceries.

Four hours later, the crock pot got its turn.  Into it went a bed of collard greens, topped with 4 or 5 plum tomatoes (I forget how many I used) quartered and crushed.

Next, I put the goat neck in the middle, and surrounded it with sliced sweet potatoes and some frozen mango chunks that we’d had in the freezer for a very long time trying to figure out what would happen to them.

I poured in about a cup of water, turned the crock pot to low and walked away.

5 hours later (and just as Hubby was walking in the door -- I know, I'm soooo domesticated), it was done!

This is what the veggies and meat looked like immediately out of the crock pot.

The flavors were great, with a nice balance between sweet and spicy.  My only “complaint” is that there isn’t a lot of meat on a goat neck.  Should I be surprised by this?  Probably not.  Here is how much we actually got:

We ended up with 4 moderately-sized portions of meat, and 5+ generous servings of vegetables.  So, we each ate a plate for dinner, made two full containers for lunch leftovers, plus one large veggies-only container as lunch leftovers.

One thing that did surprise me about goat neck was that the bone was not simply a spinal column.  It was one piece that came off like a vertebrae and then one much longer piece that didn’t come apart.  You can see the pieces in the picture above.  Weird, silly goats with their square pupils and apparently stiff necks.  Lol.

A Saucy Experiment

I have been meaning for a while now to try making tomato sauce from scratch.  I mean, really from scratch....no canned tomatoes, no processed/packaged tomato paste....but actually starting with fresh, whole, raw fruit.

Well, yesterday, I did it.  Completely without a recipe and without even researching beforehand.  I invented this all on my own, and Hubby and I both think it's pretty darn good!

I started with about 4½-5 pounds of tomatoes.  I bought the most affordable ones there were at our market, because, well, this was an experiment after all and I didn't want to waste too much money if it turned out to be a total fail.

Preheating the oven to 400-degrees, I chopped them up and piled them into our largest enameled cast iron dutch oven.

I decided to mash them up a bit before popping them into the oven.  In hindsight, I doubt this step was necessary, but since I did it, I am recounting it here.

3 hours later, this is what they looked like:

Next, I put the pan on top of the stove and started the process of simmering and stirring every 10-15 minutes.  But first, I whipped out the stick blender and pureed it all.  At this point, I also added about a half cup of vegetable stock (also homemade from scratch - we keep it in the freezer in ice cube size portions), because I wanted to loosen up the consistency a bit.

After a little while, it was time to add spices.  I went with about 10 cloves of fresh garlic (minced), dried oregano, dried basil, salt, black pepper, a small amount of red pepper flakes, and a teaspoon of sugar.

After about another hour and a half of simmering and stirring, basically until I felt the garlic was cooked and starting to dissolve, I decided it was done.  I gave it one more ride on the stick blender, and this was the final result:

(before the final blending)

(after the final blending)

Finally, we "packaged" it into old salsa jars that we had saved, and into the freezer they went.  These are just the right size for a meal for just the two of us.  :)

Now, I know that there are other ways to make sauce from total scratch, such as pureeing the tomatoes while raw and/or doing all of the cooking on the stove top (skipping the oven completely).  This was just the way I chose to experiment, and it turned out quite well.  I am sure I will try other methods in the future, but one thing is for sure....we will never (well, at least very rarely) buy prepared tomato sauce or canned tomatoes again.  :)

As for the cost, this turned out to be approximately $5.00 for what amounts to about a jar and a half's worth of store-bought sauce....so it's a little more pricey, but we think well worth it.