Goat

Fall-apart marinated and slow-cooked Trinidadian goat.

Turn the rich pan juices into a super-flavorful, spicy dipping sauce for this goat (or lamb) birria. 

Though Birrieria Zaragoza uses goat, this deeply spiced braise is equally good with lamb.

Can't find wild boar for this recipe? No sweat; Boston butt from your butcher works just fine.

This dish of tender spiced goat layered with saffron rice, cashews, and golden raisins is a celebratory meal ideal for birthdays and holidays of all kinds.

Egusi seeds—the large seeds of an African melon—are toasted and ground to thicken this popular Nirgerian stew.

This savory vegetarian pie gives a nod to the ever-popular Jamaican patty.

This recipe—a rhapsody for sweet, bitter, and salty—is based on one from Ruth Reichl, published in Gourmet Today.

Barbacoa de Cabrito This goat barbecue typifies a style where the meat absorbs an adobo, a fragrant, spicy marinade of dried chiles and other seasonings. I watched Zoyla Mendoza make this dish in her village, Teotitlán del Valle. Though she and her family can well afford to eat meat, they usually save it for special occasions, so they rejoiced when I asked them to teach me their favorite barbacoa. It was beautiful, breathing the scent of fresh avocado leaves and other herbs. The meat becomes unbelievably tender without drying out or getting mushy. When I came back to my New York kitchen, I set to work to find other methods close to the tender savor of a true pit barbecue. For the type that Zoyla showed me, I feel the best results come from packing the marinated meat in a tightly covered pan just large enough to hold the ingredients and baking it for a long time in a moderate oven. A turkey roaster is good. If you don't have a big enough pan with a tight-fitting lid, wrap several layers of aluminum foil very snugly around the pan to seal in the steam. I make the barbacoa as Zoyla made it, with young goat (kid). Goat is available in some Greek, halal Muslim, and West Indian butcher shops and can sometimes be ordered from other butchers. Ask the butcher to cut it into quarters. Oaxacans always include and specially value the head, which has some extra-tender nuggets of meat. (This is optional for the doubting.) If goat is not available, lamb is the best substitute. At my restaurant, we use lamb shoulder. The dish can also be made with a whole fresh ham or a pot-roasting cut of beef such as round, though you may have to reduce the amount of marinade slightly and experiment with a shorter cooking time. Of course true pre-Hispanic barbacoa was made with turkey—not used as frequently nowadays, but still a notably authentic choice. When the meat is cooked in an authentic pit it yields a lot of rich juices that never develop using the oven method. At my restaurant in New York we approximate this as follows: When the adobo (chile paste) is made, set aside 1 1/4 cup of the mixture and rub the meat with the rest. Cook as described below. When the meat is done, skim the fat from the pan juices and deglaze the roasting pan with 2 cups homemade chicken broth over medium-high heat, scraping up the browned bits. Stir in one 28- to 32-ounce can tomatoes, breaking them up with a spoon. Add the reserved adobo and simmer, stirring frequently, for about 30 minutes, or until reduced to about 4 cups. Let cool slightly and purée in a blender (working in batches as necessary) until smooth. Serve with the carved meat.

The applesauce in this cake makes it exceptionally moist. Although homemade applesauce is best, you could also substitute an all-natural store-bought variety. If you would prefer a larger cake, prepare the batter as directed and bake in two nine-inch pans for forty to forty-five minutes.

These meatballs were inspired by the ingredients often found in a goat cheese tart—pungent chevre, fresh thyme, and caramelized onions. Goat meat has a flavor a bit like lamb, but gamier. Like most game meat, goat tends to be very lean, so it is important to add fat to avoid a dry meatball, and here the goat cheese delivers that fat, along with generous flavor. Try ground lamb if goat is unavailable. Serve these with Classic Tomato Sauce (page 56).

Meatballs are one comfort food trend among many, all of which seem to have been with us since the nineties for no obvious reason. Maybe we've all gotten so very tired of politics and obstructionists and pundits and sign-wavers and bad times and bank bailouts and... OK, comfort foods aren't going away any time soon. So try this Greek-inspired dish, the flavors based on those from the eastern part of the Mediterranean.

In this pure celebration of spring, Middle Eastern spices add warmth and depth to tender goat, while the season’s first tender offerings—fresh chickpeas, slender spring onions, tart sorrel—make a fabulous accompaniment. Letting the sautéed vegetables cool before adding the sorrel allows it to keep its vibrant color, and it also makes this relaxed, do-ahead party food. Prepare the side while the goat rests and be prepared to covet the leftovers. Fresh chickpeas look like abbreviated little fava beans in the pod, and, like favas, they require a two-step shelling process to get to the little green gems inside. If you can find them, it’s worth every minute of preparation. Fresh chickpeas are sweet and tender, with only a hint of the nuttiness that marks their flavor when dried. The spices can be found in Middle Eastern markets or online.

This is a spin on the cream cheese and jam sandwich. We thought the tartness of the goat cheese would marry well with the sweetness of the marmalade, with the rosemary accent to wake you up in the gentlest, nicest of ways and the multigrain bread sending you off on your day feeling you’ve eaten a meal. The marmalade could certainly be made with oranges or grapefruit—the rosemary would complement them as well.

Goat is now increasingly available: it is sold at halal butchers, at West Indian butchers, and at specialty butchers. What you need are some pieces of meat with bone and some without bone. Ideally, the pieces should come from different parts of the animal—some from the shoulder, some from the upper leg, some from the shank, and a few from the neck—and should be cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes. Bone pieces could be larger. I always like to include at least one marrowbone. You can make the same dish with lamb from the shoulder with some bone. Good lamb generally takes about 50–80 minutes to cook, less time than goat. At home, we always ate this everyday dish with chapatis. There was always a dal, such as My Everyday Moong Dal, a couple of vegetables, and some relishes and chutneys. You may, of course, serve a simple rice dish instead of the bread.

This casserole is based loosely on the French home-cooking standard, le miroton. If you fear goatiness, please turn the page. This dish celebrates the sweet carnality of the goat with abandon.

While on a research trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, food editor Ian Knauer met restaurateur and fellow traveling cook Alexandro Garcia, who made a special point of sharing his family's recipe for goat. This dish combines the subtle perfume of bay leaves and cloves with the depth and spice of dried chiles. It's a combination so compelling we found ourselves going back for more even after we were full.

Offer this hearty and satisfying salad with grilled lamb or tuna.

I'd say this is one of the most perfect American appetizers for a group: warm and creamy, full of flavor, easy and spreadable. Toasted pita triangles and crisp toasts are my favorite choices to offer guests to slather this rich mixture on. No matter what you select, you'll probably find this recipe as versatile as I do.