Sfakiano Goat Yiahni

One of the “must see” regions of Greece is the island of Crete. It’s a big island and your strategy would be to either see it over a few visits or concentrate on one area.

The westernmost prefecture is Chania and in the southern part facing the Libyan Sea is the Sfakia area. This goat dish comes from there but you will find some version of this dish made all over the island.

Goat is leaner than lamb and my preference for this dish. It is important that you source your meat from a butcher that sells a lot of goat.

The meat of young goat will be pink in colour with some white fat on the outside. The meat will have no gamey smell. If you can’t find young goat, look for young lamb. If you can’t find either – it will take much longer to cook this dish (older animals take longer to cook).

Here in Toronto, seek goat meat from Greek, middle eastern or Halal butcher shops. These are shops that cater to people who eat lots of goat meat.

Like Cretan cuisine, the recipe is simply prepared, using quality ingredients. This recipe/instruction is courtesy of Chef Manolis Papoutakis. I first met Manoli at his restaurant called Haroupi, located in Thessaloniki.

He currently hosts a cooking show on EPT (Greek state TV) called “POP Magiriki” and he cooked this goat dish last weekend. This dish turned out exactly as he instructed and you’ll be amazed at the how good it is!

Sfakiano Goat Yiahni

(serves 4)

1 kg. young goat shoulder, cut into 2 inch chunks (ask butcher)

approx. 1/3 cup olive oil

sea salt and ground pepper

2 medium onions, peeled and roughly sliced

1/2 cup white wine

3-4 sprigs fresh thyme

juice of 1/2 to full lemon

dried Greek oregano

1. Season your pieces of goat with salt. Place a heavy-bottom pot on your stovetop over medium-high heat. Add enough oil to cover the bottom and brown the meat on all sides.
2. Add onions, wine, thyme, a touch more salt and fresh ground pepper. Turn heat down to medium-low and cover. You want the meat to simmer.
3. Simmer covered for 1 hour. Remove cover, poke meat with a fork (it should be tender). If not tender, cook covered for another 15 minutes.
4. Using your tongs, flip your pieces of meat to brown the other side. Remove meat with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate or platter.
5. Squeeze lemon juice, sprinkle sea salt and dried Greek oregano and serve with roast lemon potatoes or my full-proof fries.

Cool info: When you uncover the goat to see if it’s tender, you’ll notice that the onions has melted away. The onions offer flavour and some moisture to make this dish magical.