Accompaniments for roast goose for Easter

Easter. 2004 thinking duck made

There are dozens of ways to cook goose; here is my favorite method with notes, etc. They may help a bit; I serve this with the prune stuffing and mashed potatoes as you will get quite a bit of great sauce. The recipe is derived from Pellaprat. Cheers.

pavane

Today's geese are much leaner than the traditionally fatty thing.

Oven 325.

Defrost goose, remove any visible interior fat, prick very gently around the leg/thigh/body area. Don't penetrate into the meat of the bird, just run a pointy thing parallel to the body and do a few pricks in that area.

Fasten the neck skin to back with string or skewers. Stuff goose (my favorite Danish stuffing is below or any good stuffing will work.) Tie skin closed around stuffing and secure the legs. Cut off the tip of the wings. Rub the goose with the juice of a lemon and salt and pepper it all over.

Put goose in large roaster (you should measure beforehand to ensure that the goose will fit) and roast for about 16 minutes per pound, or until the drumstick feels soft and the joint moves easily. Siphon out the grease as it accumulates during cooking, leaving a bit to get drippings for the sauce. After it is done remove, put onto a cutting board and let sit for 20 min or so before you carve.

Stuffing:

2 C pitted prunes 2 C tart sliced apples 1/2 C port

Plump the prunes by mixing with port, microwave until the port boils and then let it sit until cool, refrigerate. Do this ahead of time. Mix the prunes and port with the apples, stuff into the goose. Sew up the goose.

Sauce

All of the trimmings from the goose: neck cut into small pieces (very hard to do), wingtips, pieces of trimmed skin, giblets, etc. Some of the goose fat removed from inside the goose Vegetables: large carrot, 2 stalks celery, celery leaves, medium onion chopped coarsely Herbs & spices: thyme, salt, pepper, bay leaf Chicken broth: about a quart or a bit more 1/4 C currant jelly

Chop the fat, render it in a largish pot. Add the goose trimmings and brown them well, very well. Add the veggies and brown them very well also. Add about a teaspoon of thyme, salt, pepper and a bay leaf. Cover it all with chicken broth, scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan and let it simmer slowly until the goose is done, about 3 hours or more. It should be very dark and smell fabulous. As the goose comes out of the oven strain the stock and degrease it a bit. If you want giblets in the sauce (I usually do) cut the giblets into large pieces before making the stock, fish them out of the strainer, cut them up and add back into the sauce at the last minute.

Heat the roasting pan on stovetop, add goose stock, dissolve all browned pieces, cook down a bit, strain and degrease, add as you think necessary some of an equal mixture of flour and butter to thicken the sauce, finally add currant jelly, dissolve it and taste, balance the sweetness with lemon juice if necessary. The sauce should be extremely brown, rich and savory.