Recipe: Roast Goose 3 Ways by Mark Hix
There can be a fear over cooking goose as it is considered to be a fatty bird and roasting to cook the fat can lead to overcooking. This method removes the legs and backbone, which leaves just the goose breasts on the crown to cook reducing the cooking time to 45-60 minutes.
Preparation and cooking is important to make sure you don’t overcook this delicious meat.
Ingredients
For the roast goose
- Goose weighing 3-4kg
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the confit
- Half a bulb of garlic
- A few sprigs of thyme
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 10 juniper berries, chopped
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 400g goose or duck fat
For the salad
- A couple handfuls of small salad leaves and herbs
- 1tbs red wine vinegar
- 3tbs extra virgin rapeseed oil
- 2 tsp Tewkesbury or Dijon mustard
- 3 tangerines or mandarins, peeled, segmented and the segments halved
- 10 chestnuts fresh or vacuum packed, peeled and halved
Method
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STEP 1
Preheat the oven to 160C/gas mark 3.
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STEP 2
Remove the legs from the goose by pulling them away from the bone and cutting away from the carcass at the joint. Cut the leg in half separating the drumstick from the thigh. Chop the knuckle from the top of the drumstick and push the meat down a little to reveal the bone. Remove the bone from the thigh and cut the thigh meat in half. Separate the crown which the breasts are attached to and the bony back bone either with a heavy knife and or heavy poultry scissors. Put the livers to one side for the salad. TIP - Cook the legs before needed and then you can reheat them when needed later.
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STEP 3
Remove any fat and skin from the backbone that you’ve cut away and put it in a tight-fitting pan with the drumstick, thighs and heart. Add the rest of the ingredients for the confit to the pan, place in the oven with a lid and cook for about 1.5 hours or until the meat is tender. Leave to cool in the fat.
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STEP 4
To cook the crown turn the oven up to to 220C/200C fan/gas mark 7. Season and place the crown skin side down in a roasting tray. Cook for 30 minutes, draining any excess fat from the tray during cooking (add this to the fat from the legs for your roast potatoes) then turn the bird back with the breasts up and cook for a further 20 minutes keeping the breasts medium rare. This obviously depends on the size of your bird so allow a little longer if necessary, remember you can always cook it longer but you can’t reverse it.
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STEP 5
Chop the backbone, thigh bones and neck to make a gravy. Find the recipe here.
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STEP 6
Once cooked remove the crown and leave to rest. Put the pre-cooked legs in the pan the crown was in, along with the pieces of skin and chestnuts and return it to the oven to crisp up for 15-20 minutes removing the chestnuts after 8-10 minutes.
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STEP 7
Season the livers and heart to your taste. Then heat a frying pan with a couple teaspoons of the fat and fry the livers and heart on a high heat for a minute or so, turning as they are cooking and keeping them nice and pink.
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STEP 8
To remove the breasts, cut them away from the breast bone with a sharp knife and slice thinly, or thickly across the breasts with the skin down on the board.
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STEP 9
Slice the livers and the heart and toss into the salad leaves with the tangerines, nuts if your using them and the dressing. Season lightly and transfer to a plate or salad bowl.
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STEP 10
Present the sliced breasts on a sharing plate with the legs with a little gravy and serve the rest in a sauce boat.