{"id":59,"date":"2010-12-02T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/02\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat\/"},"modified":"2010-12-02T14:02:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-02T14:02:00","slug":"has-the-sheep-got-your-goat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat.html","title":{"rendered":"Has the Sheep Got Your Goat?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah.<\/i><\/div>\n
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Okay, congratulations. \u00a0It\u2019s been a few weeks since Eid and you\u2019ve managed to completely block out of your mind the fact that you have an entire sheep in your downstairs deep freeze. \u00a0You roasted a leg immediately after the slaughter and sauteed the liver and other internal bits in a lot of onion and garlic to share with friends and family, then the next day you ordered pizza and from then on the family has survived on Eid-party leftovers and poultry. \u00a0Lots of poultry. \u00a0Last night your husband turned to you and asked the fateful question: \u00a0\u201cWhat happened to the sheep?\u201d<\/div>\n
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You can\u2019t explain to your Arab \/ Indo-Pak \/ African \u00a0husband that you are accustomed to your meat coming into the house in small, manageable chunks in tightly-wrapped styrofoam trays, rather than a 30-gallon trash bag. \u00a0You can\u2019t admit to him that you are at a complete loss when it comes to dealing with a hunk of meat the size of your preschooler. \u00a0You are supposed to be queen of the kitchen, able to whip up dinner for ten last-minute guests in the blink of an eye. \u00a0\u201cHoney, there are some brothers passing through town on their way to a rugby match. \u00a0I\u2019ll just bring them home and you can feed them, okay? \u00a0We\u2019ll be there in twenty minutes, bye!\u201d \u00a0So, what the heck are you going to do with this beast that still looks disturbingly like it was before it lost its skin?. \u00a0And God help you if the head is in the sack there somewhere\u2026.<\/div>\n
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I have found that I have a couple of ways to deal with this. \u00a0First, I donate as much as I can. \u00a0When you slaughter your Eid offering, you are supposed to give one third of it to a needy family, and one third as a gift. \u00a0In theory, this would mean you would have no more than a third of a beast to deal with. \u00a0In reality, you end up with a meat puzzle of mismatched critters because your friends are all gifting YOU with meat faster than you can give yours away. \u00a0You can just wait until the orgy of giving dies down and then instruct your husband to donate bags of meat to some single brothers because \u201cthey need it more than we do\u201d. \u00a0You can send some to Lady Gaga for her next outfit. \u00a0Or you can step up to the plate and look that sheep in the eye socket and tell it that it is not going to get the best of you. \u00a0If you have the courage to take on the challenge, don\u2019t despair. \u00a0I\u2019ll walk you through it\u2026.<\/div>\n
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Okay, best case scenario is that you had the beast chopped into manageable pieces after it was slaughtered and then those pieces were bagged separately and then frozen. \u00a0Yeah, right, I\u2019m laughing, too. \u00a0I have two huge modern-art pieces masquerading as meat in my freezer because I had divided them up, then my husband UN-divided them to make a \u201cbetter\u201d division of them for donating. \u00a0Somehow I came out of this with more meat than I started with. \u00a0Well, anyway, you\u2019ll need to thaw it out somehow. \u00a0I do the unthinkable and let it thaw at room temperature until it is thawed enough that I can hack or pry pieces off. \u00a0I keep larger pieces, like the legs, whole for roasting. \u00a0For the other bits, I find that with sheep or goats there\u2019s a really high bone-to-meat ratio and I need a different technique. \u00a0Enter the stockpot\u2026.<\/div>\n
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In my largest stockpot, I place as much meat as will comfortably fit. \u00a0I mix everything up, so there will be ribs, backbone, and some more meaty chunks all in the pot. \u00a0I cover this with water, toss in a couple of onions, several cloves of garlic, a few beef boullion cubes and spices. \u00a0My spices are salt, pepper, definitely cumin, and oregano, with some Worcestershire sauce tossed in as well. \u00a0I bring the pot to a boil and use a big spoon to scoop of the layer of scum that will come to the top of the pot in the first half hour of cooking. \u00a0Then I lower the heat to medium and let the meat cook for a few \u00a0hours until the meat is falling off the bone. \u00a0I strain the whole thing into another bowl or pot so I have a big bowl of broth and the strainer full of the solid stuff. \u00a0Then I let the meat cool and remove all the meat from the bone, keeping the meat and tossing the bones. \u00a0Or \u00a0I let \u00a0my kids play with them. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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Now I cook rice using the meat broth. \u00a0I prefer Golden Carnilla parboiled long grain rice because I don\u2019t have to rinse or soak it and it gives me nice consistent results and individual grains that don\u2019t glob together. \u00a0Two cups of rice, four cups of broth, put in pot, boil, turn down heat to medium unitil water is absorbed, turn to low to let it steam out a bit. \u00a0Then I fluff the rice and add in the meat that I cooked. \u00a0Sometimes you\u2019ll have more meat than you want to stir back in, depending on how meaty the pieces are that you started with. \u00a0You can save any extra cooked meat and warm it and slather it with BBQ sauce for a great sandwich. \u00a0Add various side dishes with this and you will have one happy family. \u00a0And visiting rugby team.<\/div>\n
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I hope I was able to help you get over your fear of meat that looks like what it used to be, which is sheep. \u00a0It tastes really, really good, and those nightmares you\u2019ll have about an eyeless sheep chasing you across a field will fade over time. \u00a0Or so I\u2019m told.<\/div>\n
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Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah. Okay, congratulations. \u00a0It\u2019s been a few weeks since Eid and you\u2019ve managed to completely block out of your mind the fact that you have an entire sheep in your downstairs deep freeze. \u00a0You roasted a leg immediately after the slaughter and sauteed the liver and other internal bits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHas the Sheep Got Your Goat?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah.Okay, congratulations.  It's been a few weeks since Eid and you've managed to completely block\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Has the Sheep Got Your Goat?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah.Okay, congratulations.  It's been a few weeks since Eid and you've managed to completely block\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Muslimah in Progress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-02T14:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0yMZuk8QSeI\/TPfs4yQzh7I\/AAAAAAAAAD0\/YyCmH_tPcqI\/s1600\/sheep2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat.html\",\"name\":\"Has the Sheep Got Your Goat?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-02T14:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-12-02T14:02:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/6218cbef696f8f6c933831dfcc2096b9\"},\"description\":\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah.Okay, congratulations.  It's been a few weeks since Eid and you've managed to completely block\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2010\/12\/has-the-sheep-got-your-goat.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Has the Sheep Got Your Goat?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/\",\"name\":\"Muslimah in Progress\",\"description\":\"I'm an American Muslimah of a certain age with some pretty strong opinions. 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