1) Eid Al-Adha is perhaps the most important Muslim holiday. It is certainly in the top 3. It commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son as God commanded. You doubtless know the story -- Abraham is super old, wants a son more than anything, with God's help he ends up with 2: Ismail, the older, born of Hagar, Abraham's Egyptian slave, and Isaac, the younger, born of his elderly wife Sarah (miraculously). Isaac becomes the father from whom all Jews are descended, while Ismail is the father of future Muslims. Christians and Jews believe God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, which he was prepared to do without Isaac's knowledge. Muslims believe it was Ismail who was to be sacrificed, and that Abraham, fraught with worry, told Ismail what God had asked him to do and asked for his advice. Ismail told him that if God commanded it then it had to be done and he consented to be sacrificed. In both stories, at the last minute God calls off the sacrifice and gives Abraham a lamb instead. (If I fucked any of that up please forgive me, I am no authority on Biblical stories). SO, now, Muslim families that can afford it slaughter a lamb or goat or whatever they have (or, more often these days, have it slaughtered) on Eid and donate the meat to poorer families. The mascot of this holiday is, somewhat morbidly, a smiling cartoon lamb. Very reminiscent of Thanksgiving and all the happy turkey pictures . . .
2) Meat at the supermarket is RAUNCHY. We went veg for awhile after some bad experiences, but vowed to someday try going to a local butcher. There are 3 in our neighborhood. The way the butcher works is they kill an animal every day and butcher it and sell it -- if they have lamb they have lamb, if they have goat they have goat, and if they have beef it is a very special occasion indeed. In other words, you don't choose what meat you want, you either take what they have or leave it -- but it is always incredibly fresh. People here don't usually distinguish between sheep and goats, so you can't always be sure what you're getting. But yesterday we went to the butcher, and with a little inquiring we learned that the meat that day was goat meat -- being that it's Eid, goat and sheep are ubiquitous.
Being undaunted by the prospect of cooking goat meat, unfamiliar territory, we bought a half kilo and headed home.
Many hours later, this is what we had:
1) Wash meat thoroughly with lemon or lime juice, then rinse with water. Our extensive internet research told us that goat meat smells bad if you don't citrus-ize it first. Judging by the smell in the butcher's I'm inclined to agree.
2) Heat a few Tbs olive oil (side note: this should be GREEN. Not greenish, not yellow-green, GREEN. If your olive oil is yellow that means it's diluted with corn oil and that is not ok) in a pot on medium heat. Stir in some spices, enough to make it a little pasty. We used mansaf seasoning (which is kinda curry-esque? kinda?), cumin, chili powder, and a little cinnamon, plus salt and pepper. Cook the spices for a minute or so until they smell really good and turn a little darker.
3) Brown the meat on all sides in the spice oil and then remove, leaving the juice in the pot.
4) Add one chopped onion, two minced garlic cloves, and one minced hot pepper to the pot and sautee until the onion is clear.
5) Add the meat back to the pot and add water until everything is about 3/4 covered. You may need more later.
6) Bring to gentle simmer and cover. The heat should be quite low. Check often to make sure it's simmering but not boiling.
7) When meat is tender-ish (for us it was about 2 hours), add chopped potato and carrot to your liking. I used 2 of each. At this point you might want to try the broth and add seasoning if it needs it.
8) Cover and continue to cook until potatoes are soft and meat is very tender.
tips: If I'd had flour I probably would've put some in to thicken the broth. As it was it was fine, and gluten-free too! Also, start early because it really does take hours. We ate at 10pm . . . We had it plain but it would be really good over rice methinks. Oh, and maybe some of you Northern-dwelling family could try it with venison! Any really lean meat I think would work great. Finally, for those of you who work or are lazy or are otherwise not in a position to devote 4 hours to a meal, I'm pretty sure a crock pot would do the trick.
Wheat should not be added to thicken the broth. Wheat is bad.
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