Lake Houston Texas - August 18, 2019
It has been an interesting two days. Yesterday Eva took a few minutes, and together we created a couple paragraphs of a sermon that she might conceivably have given, but didn't, for a story we are working on. It probably wouldn't be the nicest situation for her if one of her parishioners were to read verbatim last week's Sunday sermon in one of our creations here, as enlightened as that might prove them to be.
It's been in the high nineties, that's like 200*C for our friends enjoying winter in Oz :cool: , and dry this weekend. So we enjoyed the lake's relatively cool waters both yesterday evening and this afternoon. It's funny, we get dressed to go swimming, and undressed after we shower. We have been working on a story about our move to Alaska almost exactly forty-four years ago, and our fact gathering turned into another enjoyable trip down memory lane. We have come to the conclusion that it is more fun to discuss the what we did, and when we did it with our lovers - to relive our past glories - than it is to actually write the stories.
It was an epic journey of over 4000 miles that took us eight days to complete. We filled the humongous trunks of George's Electra and Punch's Cutlass and made a schedule. We tried to cover 600 miles per day by rising at dawn, and driving three hours before stopping for a meal and gas. The plan was to repeat this process four times a day so that we could be on the road 12 of the 14 daylight hours available. Well, no plan survives first contact with reality. We took longer stops and made a lot of short side trips, and ended up with over two hundred extra miles on each odometer from AAA's estimate.
But nobody here wants to hear about the National Windmill Museum in Lubbock. (Which is good because we didn't go there, but we did drive around the Tech campus. So when we say that we went to Texas Tech, that is a true statement.) When we say we made a schedule, oh boy we did - it was a drive and fuck schedule. Big cars, big backseats, seven drivers, we took turns, and we all switched positions with every stop. One driver per car, usually two under a blanket in the backseat of the Cutlass, and three in the backseat of the Electra. Following our written out schedule we went four days without an exact duplication of the sexual pairings in those back seats. We managed to repeat each pairing twice, although we had some short shifts on that last day in order to accomplish the feat.
Last night for dinner we had four crown racks of goat that we dry rubbed in the flat with salt, black pepper, white pepper, and thyme in the kitchen. Then we tied them in string with some fresh rosemary sprigs from our garden, and barbecued outside on our charcoal (not gas) grill's rotisserie spit. Its a very funky grill some artisan made, an oval not a circle, and its not airtight which makes it a perfect smoker. A few additional sprigs of fresh rosemary were placed around the grill's rack before we slow cooked the meat for several hours. We knew it was done when all of the meat was cooked to 145°F as measured by a meat thermometer in the thickest part.
Cabrito and Chivito are popular dishes back home in southwestern Texas. Of middle eastern origin, they were brought to Old Spain by members of the Diaspora after Rome reconquered Judea in 70 AD. A multitude of recipes were brought to Monterrey by Jewish refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, the founders of that city. During the twenty-five year long Mexican war of independence and subsequent revolution both Texas and Nuevo Leon were part of the "northern kingdom." Far less densely populated they had a different, more European, culture than the more populous southern and western parts of Old Meijco. We must have a dozen different Meijcan barbecue goat recipes.
About an hour before the goat was likely to be done, we melted a stick of butter in one of those 9" x 9" recyclable aluminum pans. We mixed in the juice of a fresh squeezed Rio Grande Valley lemon, two cloves of crushed garlic from our garden and a pinch of salt. Then we washed two pounds of red potatoes, quartered them and sealed them in. We tossed the potatoes before putting them on the rack of the grill with the goat, and a few times over the next fifty minutes or so.
Our crown rack roasts were paired with a Saint Arnold Santo, a black Kolsch made here in Houston. We sliced the roasts between the ribs, and ate the chops with fresh sliced tomatoes from the garden, and those garlic potatoes. The combination of the dry rub and the rosemary really imparted a good flavor to the meat. We left the smaller pieces of chopped goat meat from the roasts on the serving plate and enjoyed tacos today after church. We served it with guacamole made from San Antonio grown avocados and our own tomatoes and chilies. We had green onions, radishes, carrots and peppers from the garden and we made our own pico de gallo for the tacos which we served on soft corn tortillas from Tomas' on Main.
An "inside" goat barbecue in adobo sauce recipe,
Tear a dozen stemmed and seeded dried red ancho chilies into large pieces, and cook them over medium heat in a dry skillet. Cook until they are lightly browned and aromatic. Put them in a large bowl, and cover them with boiling water. Set the bowl aside for twenty minutes. While the chilies are soaking melt four tablespoons of bacon grease over medium heat in a large Dutch oven. Add two small chopped yellow onions and eight medium chopped garlic cloves. Cook for about three minutes, stirring the mix often, until it wilts. Move the onion and garlic to the sides of the pot, and add three pounds of boneless goat meat, cut into 1-inch cubes. Add the meat in batches, browning each piece well in the grease. As the cubes brown, move them to a plate and continue adding more until they are all done.
Remove the Dutch oven from heat, and spoon the onion and garlic out, putting them in your blender. Drain the chilies in a colander over your sink, and add them to your blender with two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, two teaspoons of dried thyme, two teaspoons of dried oregano, a teaspoon of ground cloves, a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper and a bay leaf. Blend the mixture until it is smooth.
Return the Dutch oven to medium heat. Melt the remaining four tablespoons of bacon grease in the oven, and pour the blenders contents into the oven stirring the mix constantly for about three minutes. Add the goat meat and any juices on the plate to the oven together with two cups of chicken broth and two tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring it occasionally. Cover it, reduce heat to a very low setting, and cook, stirring the mixture occasionally for an hour. Add four ripe plantains, peeled and cut into one inch pieces to the mix and continue cooking, stirring the mix every once in a while, until the meat is so tender it is falling apart. That should be sixty to ninety minutes.
We like this served on a bed of rice, saffron or white, and we have substituted canola oil for the bacon grease, and water for the broth.