SLOW-COOKED WITH CHRISTMAS SPICES
If you’ve never had roast goose before, it’s an absolute must. This method is reliable and will give you an experience you definitely won’t forget, whether it’s the first meal from it or using up the lovely leftovers it gives you (if there are any!).
SERVES 8
3 HOURS 30 MINUTES
1 large goose (4kg-5kg), halved lengthways by your butcher
6cm piece of ginger
6 large sticks of cinnamon
6 star anise
2 teaspoons whole cloves
olive oil
2 oranges
red wine vinegar
♥ Get the meat out of the fridge and up to room temperature before you cook it. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Peel and finely slice the ginger, then, keeping everything quite coarse, lightly crush it in a pestle and mortar with the cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Rub into the skin of the goose halves, then put both halves skin-side up in your biggest
deep-sided roasting tray and drizzle with a little oil. Roast for 3 hours (depending on the size of your goose; see my guide to roasting meat in the book, as well as my Facebook chatbot), basting every hour. After the goose has been in for 2 hours, slice the oranges and carefully add to the tray.
♥ The goose is cooked when the leg meat falls easily off the bone. Now you’ve got two choices. Leave it to rest, covered, for 30 minutes, then serve up while it’s hot and crispy-skinned, in which case simply remove the meat to a board, shred the leg meat and slice the breast. Pour all the fat into a jar, cool and place in the fridge for tasty cooking another day, such as in my Best Roast Potatoes (see the book or last week’s extract; details on page 42). Stir a good swig of vinegar into the tray to pick up all the sticky goodness from the base, then drizzle over the meat. Serve with spuds, veg and all the usual trimmings.
♥ Your second choice is to let everything cool in the tray, then place it in the fridge for up to 2 days, with the goose submerged and protected in its own fat, ready to reheat when you need it, getting you ahead of the game and saving you time and oven space another day. To reheat, put the whole tray back in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/gas 4 and let the goose crisp up for around 30 minutes, or until hot through, then shred, slice and serve as above.
LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS
They’ll be delicious shredded into a salad or stew, or used in place of leftover turkey meat for recipes in the Leftovers chapter of the book. Blitz any leftover skin with breadcrumbs, then toast and use as an epic sprinkle.
NUTRITION PER SERVING
487 kcal; 34.4g fat (10.5g saturated); 43.5g protein; 1.8g carbs; 1.8g sugars; 0.6g salt; 0.5g fibre.