Canarian · Main · From the menu Travesía

Kid goat, palm honey, star anise, heritage potato

Baifo, miel de palma, anís estrellado, papa antigua

Shoulder of baifo braised for three hours with star anise, finished with palm honey from La Gomera and served over crushed heritage potato. The most island-specific thing I cook.

Serves
Six
Prep
30 min
Cook
210 min
Cuisine
Canarian

Baifo is young goat and it is on every serious Canarian table, usually fried. Braised instead, it goes silky, and miel de palma at the end is what makes it local rather than generically Mediterranean. Palm honey is not honey, it is reduced palm sap, and it is smoky and slightly bitter. Do not swap it for cane syrup and expect the same dish.

Ingredients

  • 2 kg kid goat shoulder, on the bone, cut into large pieces
  • 2 onions, 2 carrots, 3 sticks celery, all roughly chopped
  • 1 head garlic, halved across
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 tsp black peppercorns
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 300 ml dry white wine
  • 1 litre chicken or light meat stock
  • 3 tbsp miel de palma, plus more to finish
  • 800 g papas antiguas
  • Olive oil, salt, butter

Method

  1. Season the goat well and brown it hard in olive oil in batches, in a heavy casserole. Take your time and do not crowd the pan. Set the meat aside.
  2. In the same fat, cook the vegetables until they take real colour, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the garlic, star anise, peppercorns and bay.
  3. Deglaze with the wine and reduce it by half, scraping everything off the base.
  4. Return the meat, add stock to come three quarters of the way up, bring to a bare simmer, cover and cook at 150C for two and a half to three hours, until the meat pulls away from the bone but still holds together.
  5. Lift the meat out. Strain the liquid, skim the fat, and reduce it hard until it coats a spoon. Whisk in the palm honey and check the seasoning: it wants to be just on the edge of too sweet, then pulled back with salt.
  6. Boil the potatoes, drain and crush them with butter and salt, leaving them coarse.
  7. Warm the meat through in the sauce. Serve over the potato with a last thread of palm honey and a little of the sauce, not a pool of it.

Serve it with. A robust island red, something with listán negro in it.