Fruity Roast Goose

Roasted goose is a traditional Christmas dish. It makes an extraordinary main course and quite a spectacular centerpiece in the dinner table. It has crisp and golden skin and moist and flavorful flesh if cooked right. This recipe for roast goose, adapted from The Farmer Country Kitchen Cook Book by Margaret Landin, involves stuffing the whole goose with apples and sausage, and seasoned with croutons, butter, celery, onions, parsley, applesauce and chicken stock, and roasting it in the oven. The result is a remarkable feast that will create memories in the mind of your guests that will last a lifetime.

One of the things to keep in mind when cooking goose is that it contains a high percentage of fat compared to turkey or chicken. It will release a lot of grease as it bakes, which needs to be removed from the pan from time to time. Overcooking the goose not only dries out its flesh and it also makes it taste livery surrounded by pools of liquid fat. Similar to duck, goose is a red meat bird and unlike chicken or turkey, the breast should be a bit pink when served. The layer of fat in the goose helps keep it moist, tender and juicy but it should not be allowed to collect at the bottom or it will overwhelm the taste of the meat.Check out other chef recipes to help you out.

Choose a bird that smells and looks fresh when buying a whole goose. Before stuffing wash and dry the bird well. The excess pockets of fat from inside the cavity of the bird can be removed and this fat can be cooked slowly on low heat for use in baking or roasting in the future. Goose fat is very flavorful and makes tasty cooking oil for other meats. Prick the skin of the goose through the layer of fat covering the bird to allow the grease to come out while being roasted. But do not prick the meat or it can make the meat tough after cooking.You could always look for other ways too cook goose, just go to Gourmandia.ca and you'll be fine.

Ingredients

1 whole goose (8 to 9 lbs.)
8 oz. stuffing croutons
½ lb. ground sausage
¼ cup butter
2 tablespoons sausage drippings
1 cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 cup applesauce
1 cup chicken stock

1 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Then add the sausage and cook through. Remove the sausage using a slotted spoon, and place it in a large bowl. Add the croutons and mix well. Into a separate bowl pour the liquid in the skillet. Set the croutons aside.

2. Add the butter to the skillet and melt over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the sausage drippings. Add the celery and onions and sauté until tender and golden. Remove the celery and onions using a slotted spoon and place in the bowl with the croutons. Then add parsley and applesauce. Mix well.

3. Add a tablespoon or two of stock to the skillet. A little at a time add the remaining stock to the stuffing, until the stuffing is just moist. Spoon the stuffing into the goose. Truss the wings flat and tie the bird’s legs together.

4. In a roasting pan place the goose breast down. Roast 3 ½ to 3 ¼ hours, or until an insta-read thermometer reads 165 degrees F. When the goose is 2/3 done, turn it breast side up. Do not baste but periodically spoon off the fat collecting at the bottom of the pan.

Apple and Rhubarb Dessert

Rhubarb adds a refreshingly tart flavor to the traditional apple crisp. Their combination creates an extraordinary dessert for a special occasion. Like in this recipe, sliced apples and diced rhubarb are tossed with sugar, ginger, and flour and topped with a crispy crust made of flour, ginger, baking powder, egg, sugar, oatmeal and vegetable oil. Choose a sweet crisp and juicy apple to contrast with the robust and tart flavor of the rhubarb for this recipe.

Always remember that only the stems of the rhubarb are edible. Make sure to remove the leaves of the rhubarb, rinse well and pat dry. Trim the ends of the rhubarb then slice the stem into one-inch chunks. There are times when the stems can be stringy, and can be tough when added to the dish what you can do in this case is to strip or peel off the outer layer thinly the same way that you would when preparing celery. However, some varieties of rhubarb are very tender, and need not be peeled.

Those apples with a blend of sweetness and tartness are the best apples for making apple crisp or for baking for that matter. Some examples that are on the sweet side include Golden Delicious, Jonagold, and Braeburn, while those that are on the tart side include Empire, Cortland, and Granny Smith. You don’t have to worry about too much tartness since you will be adding sugar to the apples and rhubarb and the sugar will contrast and complement the acidity of the ingredients.

Cinnamon is the spice commonly used to flavor the classic recipes for apple rhubarb crisp. However, in this recipe a different twist is added by using ginger instead. This gives the dish a tangy and invigorating taste. Crystallized ginger is used in this recipe combined with the fruits, while to mix with the upper crust, ground ginger is used.

Ingredients

2 cups diced rhubarb
3 apples (peeled, cored and sliced)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon minced crystallized ginger
1 tablespoon all purpose flour

For the Topping:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 in. baking pan and set aside.

2. Stir together the rhubarb, apple slices, 1 cup sugar, crystallized ginger, and 1-tablespoon flour in a large mixing bowl. Then pour the rhubarb mixture into the prepared pan.

3. Stir together the 1 cup flour, ground ginger, baking powder, egg, ¾ cup sugar, oatmeal, and vegetable oil in a separate bowl. Blend until just moistened.

4. Pour the flour dough over the rhubarb mixture. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven when the topping becomes golden. It is best to serve this warm.