Lebanese Goat Meat Stew With Orange

Chef Benedicto provided this grass-fed goat meat stew recipe with orange peel adapted from and in honor of Salma Abdelnour’s cookbook Jasmine and Fire: a Bittersweet Year in Beirut. We welcome goat meat stew recipes.

A note from customer and chef: “Salma Abdelnour, an acquaintance, has launched her cookbook. As a member of James Beard Foundation, which hosted the event, I was invited to the launch. It was a busy day for me and I had to text my regrets. She was disappointed. Or at least, that’s what she told me. Imagine my surprise when I came home that night to a small package that contained her book. In honor of her kindness and in celebration of her book, I made my favorite Lebanese dish yesterday. Yakhnet Bazella wa Jazar is basically a stew but I really like it a bit dry. Here’s to you Salma…”  

Ingredients for Goat Meat Stew Recipe

1 lb lamb stew meat
3 small tomatoes, sliced and seeded
2 teaspoons butter
1 medium onion
2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup green peas, fresh or thawed frozen
1 orange peeled
1 lemon peeled (2 pieces)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground all-spice the original recipe demands ground all-spice.
Alternative: 12 whole all-spice corns contained in a muslin bag or remove by hand before serving.

Method

• Boil tomatoes in a saucepan for a few minutes to remove extra liquid
• Melt butter in separate saucepan
• Saute onion
• Add lamb and brown.
• Add tomatoes and carrots.
• Cook for three minutes or until tender.
• Add orange peel, lemon peel, and spices.
• Cook another five minutes until you can smell the hypnotic amalgam of sweetness and sourness.
• Add peas.
• Cook until peas are warmed.
• Remove peels (and whole allspice corns if used).
• Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with bread of your choice.

Customer Comment: Do you want to know why I’m using allspice corns? I discovered that ground all-spice, can be so overpowering its taste overwhelms everything. . . . this type provides the most subtle hint . . . now the challenge is how do you serve this…with patience, of course. First, count them. Then pluck these tiny items methodically out of the pan. You have the number, you know how many to discover…

Note: Photographs were contributed and used with permission of customer/chef.