Recipe: Savory Salted Goat Caramel Sauce
Top Chef Stephanie Izard is a little obsessed with goat. Perhaps it’s because her last name is a type of Pyrenees mountain goat in French. Or maybe she just finds it delicious. Stephanie stopped by the new Kenmore Studio in Chicago last night to make a batch of Salted Goat Caramel – a sweet/savory sauce that could be served with a variety of dishes. We’ve got the recipe below.
Stephanie’s soon-to-be-opened restaurant in Chicago will be called Girl & The Goat (originally called The Drunken Goat before trademark issues with the cheese of the same name forced the change). We wouldn’t be surprised to see this sauce on the menu, but luckily we don’t have to wait for the opening to taste it again.
There are a lot of flavors going on in this sauce, and some pretty interesting ingredients – fish sauce, sambal, soy sauce and Dijon mustard. So, in addition to sweet, savory and salty, you’ve got a healthy dose of umami here.
The sauce takes quite a while to come together – there’s about an hour and a half of cooking time. The instructions have you stirring it often, but Stephanie told us it should be fine on its own for a while as long as the heat is low. She had to leave a batch unattended recently and said it still came out great.
Stephanie served her goat caramel sauce with some New York strip steak and sauteed cucumbers. We think it would go well with just about any meat or maybe some pan-fried tofu. It would also be a interesting dipping sauce for potstickers or egg rolls.
Salted Goat Caramel
makes 1/2 cup
1 quart goat milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in about 1/2 teaspoon warm water
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sambal
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste
In a thick-bottomed sauce pot, combine milk and sugar. Bring slowly to a boil over medium-high heat.
Whisk in baking soda mixture. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer, stirring often with whisk until mixture reduces and begins to thicken and turn a light caramel color, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
As caramel begins to darken, reduce heat and continue to stir constantly with whisk, making sure caramel does not burn and stick to the bottom of the pot. Continue to cook and whisk constantly, about another 20 minutes, until caramel darkens and is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Mixture will have reduced to about 1/2 cup when finished.
Strain caramel through mesh sieve into a small pot. Add in fish sauce, sambal, soy sauce, mustard and season to taste with salt and pepper. Caramel can be made ahead, up to three days, and reheated when ready to serve.
Related: Top Chef Stephanie Izard Talks to The Kitchn
(Images: Joanna Miller)