Roast goose with roast winter vegetables, apple sauce and gravy
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- Easy
- Serves 6
Ingredients
- 1 (order from your butcher) or buy a whole goose and cut the legs off to use later goose crown
ROAST VEGETABLES
- peeled potatoes, par-boiled for 5 minutes in well-salted water, cut as you like, and scratched with a fork
- peeled and cut as you like parsnips
- peeled and cut into 5cm cubes celeriac
- scrubbed and dried Jerusalem artichokes, but unpeeled and left whole
- peeled and cut into large chunks swede
- raw beetroot, peeled and cut into large chunks
- cut into chunks pumpkins or squashes, seeds removed but unpeeled
- big donkey carrots carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
- whole and in their skins shallots or baby onions
- whole bulbs in their skins garlic
- cut into 5cm lengths leeks
GRAVY
- goose stock or chicken stock
- red wine
- optional butter
- optional flour
APPLE SAUCE
- 3 bramley apples
- butter
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
Method
- STEP 1
Heat the oven to 220c/fan 200c/gas 7. To roast the goose, prick the surface of the breast all over with a sharp fork and rub well with a little coarse salt and pepper.
It can be served ever so slightly pink, which is best achieved by roasting fast in a hot oven for about 50 minutes. Let it rest for 20 minutes before carving. - STEP 2
To make the apple sauce, peel, core and slice the bramleys and cook them with just 1 tbsp of water, a small knob of butter and the caster sugar until they disintegrate.
Keep simmering gently for 10 minutes or so until you have a nice, thick apple purée. Sweeten to taste with a little more caster sugar if you like (I recommend you keep it tart to cut the fat of the goose). - STEP 3
Any of the vegetables listed above can be prepared and roasted in a good 1cm depth of rendered goose fat. (truth be told, good-quality lard, beef dripping or best olive oil can also be used to delicious effect.) The fat or oil should be thoroughly heated in a roasting tin in a fairly hot oven (200c/fan 180c/gas 6) before any of the vegetables go in.
They do not all take the same time to cook, so can be added at staggered intervals. Roasting times are as follows: potatoes 40-45 minutes; parsnips, celeriac, jerusalem artichoke, beetroot and swede 30-35 minutes; pumpkin, squashes, carrots, shallots and garlic 30 minutes; leeks 20 minutes.
All should be turned once or twice during cooking and seasoned towards the end with salt and pepper. - STEP 4
To serve, drain the roasted vegetables on kitchen paper, pile them in a hot dish and give a generous final seasoning before taking to the table.
- STEP 5
To make the gravy you need stock either made from the giblets and neck of the goose or a good chicken stock. Add one third as much red wine as there is stock and bring to the boil to reduce. The stronger the reduction, the less you need for each guest.
Do not season until the end or it will become unpalatably salty (and peppery) as it reduces. If you like a thicker gravy, whisk a little beurre manié (soft butter mixed to a paste with a little plain flour) into the boiling juices until you get the thickness you require. - STEP 6
The gravy can be supplemented at the last moment by the juices strained from the roasting tin, deglazed with another splash of red wine. But skim off as much fat as you can and whisk the gravy well to incorporate the little fat that inevitably gets through.
- STEP 7
Carve a couple of thin slices of breast per person, plus at least one piece each of the various different roast vegetables, a good trickle of the very rich gravy, and a generous tablespoon of the apple sauce.
