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| Goats tethered for Bakrid |
Over the past few weeks the Muslim community here in Hyderabad – as indeed in all parts of the world – has been celebrating the holy festival days of Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adr or Bakrid. These important days in the Muslim calendar occur at the end of Ramadam (or Ramzan as it’s known in India) ... the Islamic holy month of fasting. And, as always in many similar religious festivals of other denominations, food plays a central and vital role in the celebrations.
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| Muslims praying during Ramzan at the Mecca Masjid mosque in Hyderabad |
Eid al Fitr - also known as the “Feast of Breaking the Fast” - occurs the day after the end of Ramzan, during which time all devout Muslims have been fasting from dawn to sunset and are asked to abstain from all worldly desires ; no food, no alcohol, no tobacco, etc. The celebrations around Eid are also a time when families buy new clothes and household goods both for themselves and also as gifts for family and friends, and the night markets around the Old City in Hyderabad are teeming with customers during this time.
Id al Adr or Bakrid is celebrated ten days later and is known as the “Festival of Sacrifice”. This festival is meant to honour the prophet Abraham who was asked to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to God’s will. Luckily for all concerned , apparently God had a change of heart and provided Abraham with a goat instead! (Way too many flashbacks to my Catholic schooling here ... where’s my Christoper Hitchen’s books?!)
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| Goats been sold on the eve of Bakrid festival |
Anyway, as part of the Bakrid celebrations (Bakrid is the Urdu-Hindi word for “goat’) a goat or sheep is sacrificed on the first day and the meat is prepared for a feast. Driving around Hyderabad in the evening in the lead up to Bakrid you see flocks of goats or sheep tethered to the sides of the roads; in the Old City sector this sight in the dimly lit streets, with medieval buildings and mosques casting shadows across the huddled four legged victims, can seem quite surreal ... as if you are in a time warp in the 15th century.
Once the ‘sacrifice’ is done, according to Muslim tradition a third of the meat is kept for the family, a third is shared with friends and relatives, and a third is given to the poor and the needy. I think this tradition is one of the more lovelier aspects of the Muslim faith.
So, surrounded by all this imagery of goats, fasting, sacrifice and religious symbolism, I happened to stumble across a recipe in London’s Guardian newspaper for “Goat Tajine”. The recipe was in a recent weekly column written by Hugh Fernley Whittingstall – or HFW, as I refer to him in my notes – who is described in Wikipedia as “ ... a British celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer and "real food" campaigner, known for his back-to-basics philosophy”.
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| Hugh Fernley Whittingstall - on the right |
Whilst HFW is not that widely known outside of the UK, after a successful career as a print journalist and television food presenter, he established an organic farm/restaurant/cooking school in Dorset known as the River Cottage , and one of his cookbooks published a few years ago – “The River Cottage Meat Book” – is repeatedly described in the foodie press/blogosphere as an “instant classic”.
HFW’s recipe for goat tajine has an interesting technique of sautéing the meat and spices in one pan and then bringing the ingredients all together into the cooking pot which is placed on the stove for more than an hour and a half. With the addition of pre-soaked dried apricots and blanched almonds, the end result is a sublime mix of meltingly soft goats meat offset by the tangy apricots and the crunchiness of the almonds.
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| My Goat Tajine - cooked as part of a Bakrid feast |
Goat tagine with almonds and apricots
Goat lends itself wonderfully to rich spicing and punchy aromatics, as this North African-inspired dish demonstrates. It's particularly good if made ahead of time and reheated a day or two later. Serves six.
Note: In Hyderabad goat meat is more readliy available - and cheaper - than lamb; if you can't access a source for goats meat substitute same amount of lamb.
Ingredients:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 cloves
12 black peppercorns
2-3 tbsp olive, rapeseed or sunflower oil
1kg trimmed shoulder of kid or goat, cut into large chunks around 5cm square ( or substitute lamb)
2 onions, peeled and chopped
½ a cinnamon stick
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated or finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated or finely chopped
1 tsp hot, smoked paprika
1 tin plum tomatoes, crushed with your hands (I use 4 to 5 fresh tomates, skinned and chopped)
250g dried apricots (I use the Middle Eastern ones not the hard Indian/Afghani style apricots)
100g whole, blanched almonds, skinned
1 small bunch fresh coriander, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Method:
Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the cumin and coriander seeds, the cloves and peppercorns, and toast lightly for a few minutes, stirring often so they don't burn. Transfer to a pestle and mortar or belnd in an electric mixer.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in the same frying pan, add half the meat and cook until its brown all over. Transfer to a dish and repeat with the remaining meat, adding more oil to the pan if needed.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan or casserole over medium-low heat. Add the onion and fry gently for 10 minutes or so, until soft. Pound the toasted spices to a powder if using a mortar, then add them to the onions with the cinnamon, garlic, ginger, paprika and some salt, and cook for a couple of minutes more. Add the browned meat to the pot and any juices that have seeped from it.
Deglaze the frying pan with a glass of water, letting it bubble while you scrape up the caramelised bits from the base of the pan, and add all this to the meat pot. Tip in the crushed tomatoes, and pour in enough water just to cover the meat. Bring to a simmer, than half-cover with the lid and cook at a very low, trembling simmer for 45 minutes if using kid meat, an hour to 75 minutes if using goat.
Add the apricots and almonds, and cook for a further 45 minutes, or until the meat is tender.
Taste and add more salt and pepper as required. Stir in the coriander, leave to stand for 15-20 minutes, and serve with couscous, rice or flatbreads.
We served it with plain white rice and a salad ... with fresh chillies on the side, of course! Hope you enjoy the recipe too.
Tony saab/Hyderabad, Nov 2012
