SERVES 4
The tender, delicate meat of kid goat remains something of a treat. So highly regarded is cabrito in Guadalajara and parts of Castilla that it is the choice for many Christmas tables. The shoulder is a tender, juicy cut, a choice piece of the kid. (Cabrito means that the goat is usually not more than six months old.) The recipe is adapted from Jesús Benavente, the long-serving chef at the Can Ravell delicatessen in Barcelona. His versions of country classics are so popular that at Christmastime, Can Ravell gets some four hundred orders for this kid dish, nearly all as take-out for family meals. (That is nothing compared to the six thousand meat-stuffed cannelloni they sell in the same time period, again largely as take-out.)
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/165°C/gas mark 3.
2. Peel the potatoes and finely slice them crosswise, ideally with a mandoline so that they are similar in thickness and will cook evenly. Soak the potatoes in a large bowl filled with cold water for 30 minutes to leach out some of the starches.
3. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Blanch the shallots in the boiling water for 2 minutes, then rinse and peel under cold water.
4. In a roasting pan, place the onion, carrot, leek, celery, and garlic and moisten with the olive oil.
5. Preheat a grill pan, griddle pan, or large, heavy skillet over high heat and lightly oil. Generously season the kid goat with salt and pepper and, working in batches as needed, quickly sear, turning with tongs as needed, until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. (It is fine if not every part of the kid gets browned.) Place on top of the vegetables. Drizzle with the red wine and arrange the thyme around the kid.
6. Roast for 40 minutes, turning the kid from time to time. Drizzle in about ½> cup/120 ml water. Cover with aluminum foil and roast until done, 20 to 30 minutes more, turning the kid from time to time to cook evenly. Transfer the kid to a platter and loosely cover with foil tented in the middle to keep warm. Strain the vegetables through a chinois, gently pressing out the moisture. Reserve the liquid, and discard the solids.
7. Meanwhile, drain the potatoes, gently rinse, drain again, and then gently pat dry with paper towels. In a sauté pan or deep skillet, heat the sunflower oil until shimmering. Add the potatoes and cook over medium-high heat, gently moving from time to time without breaking. After about 10 minutes, once they have begun to soften, add the shallots. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the potatoes are golden at the edges and the shallots very tender, about 20 minutes. Using a wide, flat, slotted spoon, transfer the potatoes and shallots to a colander to drain well.
8. Transfer the potatoes and shallots to a clean skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of the reserved liquid from the roasting pan, drizzle the sherry over the skillet, and add the butter. Cook over medium-low heat until the vegetables are tender and the flavors have been absorbed, about 10 minutes.
9. Place one shoulder on each plate along with some potatoes and shallots. Drizzle over some sauce and serve.
TRADITIONS
Opened in 1929, this slender “deli” is a gourmand’s delight. Ignasi Ravell began working in a neighborhood colmado (a small general store) before he was a teenager, helping all day and sleeping under the counter at night. At eighteen, he took a job at another colmado, one beside the magnificent art nouveau La Concepió market in Barcelona’s Eixample neighborhood. A year later he bought it from the owner. He changed the name to Can Ravell and called it a mantequería. It had little to do with butter (mantequilla), his son told me, but rather was a refined version of a colmado, with more selective food items. Ignasi eventually bought land in Castilla to grow some of his own products, and also traveled frequently, meeting producers and bringing his finds back to the shop’s clients. In the 1960s, Can Ravell began preparing a handful of traditional dishes in the small kitchen and serving them at long marble tables among bottles of wines and spirits. Ignasi ran the shop until his death in 1994 at eighty-four years old.
Like many such establishments, Can Ravell is a family one, and the son, Josep—who began working in the shop in the late 1970s—took it over. He refurbished the store and increased the staff from three to fifteen. But the founding and fundamental principles remained exactly the same.