Montserrat Goat Stew: Goat Water

Thank you Montserrat for this dish! I really enjoy it.

 

Montserrat is an island in the Caribbean named by Christopher Columbus for the Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat near Barcelona in the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain, which was founded about a thousand years ago. Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory and Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state, but the island has its own legislative branch. The island saw many Irish Protestant settlers beginning in the mid 1600s, and a large, but unknown number of African slaves also. In the mid 1990s, volcanic eruptions on the southern part of the island led to devastation and evacuation, and that entire area is excluded for living or travel. As a result of the volcanic activity and evacuations, the population of Montserrat is about 4700, down from about 12,000-13,000 prior to that time.    

 

There are many variations in recipes for "Goat Water," as it's the national dish of Montserrat, and everyone has their own way of preparing it. The native population of Montserrat (including the people who have had to move elsewhere) often uses bone-in goat meat, or a mixture of bone-in and boneless meat, and I have the butcher bone the meat, but he bundles up the bones for me to use in the stew. Admittedly, the bones are tough to chew, but then I realized they were just for seasoning. hahahahaha And I'm glad I figured that out, because if you think they're tough going down, wait until the next day, as their exit doesn't get any better! 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 1/2 to 2 pounds goat meat, boned shoulder meat

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 to 3 Scotch bonnet chilies (or habanero or other chili pepper), according to your heat preference, cut into thirds

1 cup peeled and sliced carrots

2 stalks celery, chopped

5 whole scallions (green onions), chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground mace

1 tablespoon thyme leaves

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 bay leaves

1 1/2 cups water

1/3 cup flour mixed with 2/3 cup water

1 tablespoon Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet

 

In a pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and stir for about 45 to 60 seconds, then add the onion, garlic and meat (if you have the bones separate, as I do, you can add them a little later). Let the mixture cook over medium heat, stirring to allow the meat to brown, but not to stick or burn (about 6 to 8 minutes). Add the chilies, carrot, celery and scallions, stir to mix and let cook another 5 or 6 minutes. Add the allspice, mace, thyme leaves, ground black pepper and bay leaves, as well as the plain water; stir well to mix (you can add the separate bones after you've mixed everything together well), let the stew come to a simmer and adjust the heat to maintain a simmer, not a rolling boil. Cover and let cook over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the meat is tender. Uncover, remove the loose bones (if using) and add the Gravy Master/Kitchen Bouquet and stir to mix it in. Add the flour/water mixture and stir, then let the stew come back up to a simmer until the stew thickens somewhat. It's not supposed to be highly thickened; after all, they call it "Goat Water."

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Kilt-This word for a "pleated skirt" is strongly identified with the Scots, although kilts are also common with the Irish. There is a good deal of uncertainty about this word's distant history, but it is likely in some way related to "child," a word from the Germanic roots of English (the Old English ancestor of modern "child" was "cild," and "cildhama," literally "child home," was one of the Old English words for "womb"). "Kilt" was borrowed into English from North Germanic, "probably" Danish, first in the verb form, as "kilten," in the 1300s. Danish had "kilte," meaning, "to tuck," and "kilte op," meaning, "to tuck up"), which went back to Old Norse "kjalta," which seems to have had the meaning "to tuck or fold up around the upper legs or knees;" thus, the noun meaning, "lap." Gothic, a language from the East Germanic branch of Old Germanic had "kilþei" (=kilthei) meaning "womb," and Gothic "inkilþo" meant "pregnant." Anyway, you get the idea of the words being related. The "kilt" was initially a piece of clothing worn to cover much of the body in the 1500s, but by the 1700s the lower half of this clothing (a type of skirt) began to be worn with other garments being used for the top of the body. By the 1800s the hatch-patterned cloth (tartan) of wool became strongly identified with Scotland. It "seems" the word was borrowed by English in the early decades of the 1700s. Note: Whether the word "kilter" (sometimes also spelled "kelter") is connected in some way is unknown.