Cabrito Guisada

Sometimes, life is super busy and you let things you really enjoy slip to the wayside. That's what happened to me with my cooking and without cooking, I had nothing to blog about. The past six months have been jam packed. I graduated from law school only to spend my entire summer studying for the bar exam. I took the bar exam and then spent most of August being a total bum. I figured I had earned it. And now I find that it's almost October and it's about time I get back into the swing of things.

These tacos are something I made the day after my last final. I had the urge to get creative in the kitchen and jaunted over to to Central Market for inspiration. It just so happened that the store was having a celebration of all things Spanish and had stocked their meat counter with all sorts of goodies from Spanish chorizo and blood sausage to Iberico pork tenderloins to cabrito leg. Now I spent a glorious 13 days in Spain over Christmas and never once saw cabrito on any menu, so I'm not sure exactly what is Spanish about it, but I wasn't asking questions. I was just happy to see it!

Cabrito is a kid (aka baby goat) and quite tasty. It's actually quite a popular meat everywhere else in the world, but I've only seen it at a handful of the more authentic Mexican restaurants in the states, where it's usually served roasted with a side of tortillas. Cabrito leg is a tougher cut of meat so it benefits from slow cooking methods such as roasting, braising and barbecuing. I chose to braise my cabrito leg as I like the moist cooking method braising provides over roasting and I didn't have access to a pit for barbecuing.

As cabrito is rather hard to find, you could sub a lamb of leg or Boston Butt for the goat.

Braised Cabrito

Serves 6

For Marinade:

• 2.5 lb. cabrito leg
• Juice of one orange
• Juice of two limes
• 1 canned adobe chile pepper
• 2 dried Mexican chile peppers*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

For Braise:

• 8oz. tomato paste
• 1 cup water
• 12oz. Bohemia or other dark Mexican beer
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 tablespoon Chipotle chili powder
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander 
• 2 teaspoons Mexican oregano
• 2 teaspoons epazote**
• 2 teaspoons salt

1. Place the dried chili peppers in a boil and cover in boiling water for 30 minutes to rehydrate. If needed, place an object over the peppers to keep them submerged. After rehydration, reserve one cup of the water the peppers were soaking in.

Adding more citrus to the
marinade will reduce the spicy factor.

2. Combine all the marinade ingredients (beside the cabrito leg) and the reserved liquid in a blender. Pulse until smooth. Place the cabrito leg in a ziploc bag and pour over the marinade. Place the bag in the refrigerator and let the cabrito leg marinate for at least six hours but no more than twenty four.

3. When ready to cook, remove the cabrito leg from the refrigerator, and preheat the oven to 350.

4. In a dutch oven, whisk together the tomato paste and water over medium heat until smooth. Add the seasonings and beer and stir to mix together. Add the quartered onion and garlic cloves, then bring the liquid to a boil.

5. Place the cabrito leg and marinade into the pot. The goal is to have the leg submerged as much as possible. Cover and place the pot into the oven. Cook for 2.5 hours or until tender, checking at 45 minute intervals. If, like me, your pot isn't big enough to completely submerge the leg, you'll need to flip the leg over every half hour so that it cooks evenly without drying out.

6. To add more flavor, once the cabrito leg is cooked, remove the leg and place pot on the stove. Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Continue to cook until liquid is reduced by about half. While the liquid is cooking down, shred the meat. Once reduced, add the meat back to the pot.

To serve, I went with the method that was most familiar to me, tacos. I used corn tortillas and garnished with the traditional toppings of cilantro, diced white onion and lime juice. I also added some queso fresco, because everything is made better with a little cheese.

*I used one guajillo pepper and one casabel pepper, but you can vary depending on your preferred heat level and what's available at your grocer.

**Epazote is a Mexican herb that's traditionally used in beans because it's said to reduce their "musical effect" if you catch my drift. I found it in the bulk section at Central Market but it can easily be omitted.