52. Shish Kebab–now with goat!

Darlings! I feel as though it’s been forever since I’ve posted. Actually, it has been forever. Perhaps it has something to do with the MLK holiday, but I’ve been all kinds of discombobulated.  Speaking of MLK day, I went to the parade on Monday and I’m  now totally enamored with the Baltimore Westsiders Marching Band. I love me some marching band. But a marching band with sequined booty shorts and faux fur boots? That’s so awesome my head may fall off. This video is from one of their older performances, but it’s the best quality.

I like to think that the old dude in the striped shirt is bustin’ a move.

I love the Westsiders and totally want to march with them. Yes, I know that they would not want me. But if I show up at the armory on a Tuesday night with $40 they’d have to take me. I think it would make for an awesome reality show–30 something suburban white girl tries to make it in inner-city dance team. The opportunities for humor would be endless.

Maybe after I master all of the songs on Dance Central.

Gosh, what was this post supposed to be about…?

Oh, yeah. Shish Kebab.

So I made goat. Yep, you heard that right. Goat. Right in my very own home.

I like goats. I think that they’re cute and funny. I joke that if I ever have a plot of land I’m gonna get myself some goats and a donkey.

Why am I fond of goats? This photo from the Pittsburgh Zoo:

I don’t know how old I am there. And I don’t know if that is a “ew, this place smells” face or a “I’m gonna make a run for it, go to the aqua zoo, hang with Chuckles the sad Amazon dolphin, and then eat a giant cookie” face. Who can say? All I know is that I would totally rock those sunglasses and muscle shirt in 2012.

Anyhoo. Now time for a monster non-sequitor!

Since I began writing this post pre-Xmas vacation (!) and have come back to it weeks later (chronological order be damned!) I have no idea why I put this right here at this time:

But anytime is a good time for some Nic Cage! When I studied in Prague one summer (1999?) there was a Nicolas Cage film festival going on at the same time. No lie. I had to go. Sadly, I saw the last movie which was the very disappointing 8mm–a light-hearted movie about snuff films!

Anyway, so I guess it’s odd that I cooked goat? Although #52 called for lamb, I decided to order some cubed goat from Arganica. It said right on the package goat for kebabs. Sold. Let’s move onto the cooking portion of our program, shall we?

I put the goat and the marinade in a Ziploc bag the night before, so this made this a (relatively) easy weeknight meal. I began #52 at 5:35 by slicing the eggplant which would eventually be fried.

5:45: After some prepwork–cleaning the mushrooms, slicing the onions and peppers, cutting the tomatoes (big heirlooms from Arganica)–I began to assemble the kebabs.

5:55: had to pause momentarily because I stabbed myself in the finger with one of the wooden skewers. Puncture wounds are fun! Once I bandaged myself up, I returned to kebab assembly.

The vegetables and lamb were pretty big and my wooden skewers were relatively small so the process was a little cumbersome. But at 6:15 they were complete. And looked rather nice. I put them to the side and did a little kitchen maintenance.

6:28 I got the rice pilaf together. #52 called for packaged Cracked Wheat Pilaff or Buckwheat Groats. However, since I don’t know what the hell a groat is, and I am pretty damn sure that they wouldn’t carry it at the Charles Village Safeway, I went the Roni route.

6:36: Eggplant breading and frying commenced. I wanted to use my electric skillet for the eggplant, but since I utilized the microwave for my Pilaf-roni, I had to go with an old fashioned saute pan. You know, in order to avert a fuse-blowing crisis. Oh, and update–we just got a tiny 4 cup coffeemaker and I can’t run that with the microwave or the toaster oven or the electric skillet, either. Fantastic. 

But my regular ol’ frying pan worked just fine. I fried the eggplant in 3 different batches and then put all of the slices in the oven to keep warm while the broiler was going. 

That brings me to 7:00: the kebabs went into the broiler.

Cleve helped me at this point–turning the kebabs, basting the kebabs, photographing the kebabs

Well, I use the term ‘photographing’ very loosely.

He tried.

7:30: Dinner is Served!

In all fairness, my photography wasn’t something to write home about this time around, either.

The goat was good. Some bits were a little chewy because of the fat and sinew but it had a good taste, quite akin to lamb. I really liked the marinade on this meat. It tasted like something you’d get at a Middle-Eastern joint. And aside from the fact that the heirloom tomatoes completely dissolved while in the broiler, all of the veggies were quite tasty.

Obviously this dish would’ve been more successful had I cooked it on an actual grill but I don’t have one of those and it’s winter.

The rice pilaf was just as one would expect–it was Rice-A-Roni–but it did the trick.

My eggplant wasn’t terribly pretty, but the taste and texture were solid.

I think that Cleve may have had an Italian Ice for dessert. But this was so long ago that I can’t remember.

All things considered, #52 was a success. A goat WIN. I could have done without the stabbing, but to quote Bette Davis “Don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.”

Or in this case, goat.