Goat and fresh morels in spring!

A friend we hadn't seen for quite a while was coming over for a casual Monday night dinner. Over coffee at Mocha and Lime in Healesville we thought this would be slow cooked pork belly with some parsnip, broccoli and braised carrot.

Walking into K&B things changes and SP walked out with a goat shoulder in his hand rather than pork. Sure! We haven't done goat in ages.

Whilst shopping for some veggies to go with our goat shoulder we spotted a tray of morels. In disbelief at seeing them casually sitting on the oranges at the local fruit shop - Toscano's - we bought them and dinner took a new turn. For one another guest was invited. A great girlfriend of ours that loves a bit of a cook up, glass of wine and a chat and doesn't require much time to arrive. Perfect morel company!!

As soon as we got home the chicken bones were put on to make a light stock.

The goat was slow braised in said chicken stock, onion, carrots and parsley (very slowly as the power went out for an hour!) on about 160 for a few hours (covered). As it was a shoulder it is was important to make sure there was loads of liquid to guarantee it came out moist.

( At this stage we were drinking Punt Road Pear Cider and eating fresh goats cheese from the Yarra Valley Dairy and nibbling on smoked almonds. )

Smelling great we turned to the other bits. Broccoli -. steam the florets and maybe finish with a splash of rice wine, skin the stalks, finely slice and put in a frying pan. Put a large dessert spoonful of tahini in the pan and stir and cook until all stalks are lightly coated in the paste and it's slightly browned. This gives the stalks a great nutty flavour to sprinkle on top of florets at service.

New spring baby potatoes boiled then thrown in the oven - now the morels ....

SP had made a great reduction sauce - reduce some chicken stock by half, add some red wine - reduce by half, add some pouring cream - reduce again. The fresh morels are sliced and lightly pan fried in rice bran oil then finished with the sauce to cover. Delish!!

All this went to the table as shared family service and we all enjoyed Oakridge shiraz viognier 2008 and Medhurst cabernet 2005 with our succulent, sweet goat and vegetables until the wee small hours of the morning.

Monday night in the Yarra Valley - what a great way to start the week.


PS - We did have a steamed pudding with peach and vanilla to follow but I'll write more about that later ......