Christmas in July - Your Goose is Cooked

Christmas usually means lunch with the family enjoying the traditional Australian Christmas fare. Tables filled with roast pork, legs of ham and taking pride of place – the roast turkey. This year I will be breaking from that tradition. I am going to get in touch with the Saxon part of my Anglo-Saxon heritage. Instead of turkey, it will be a tradition German style roast goose on the table.

You may love your turkey but there is nothing quite like a roast goose. Goose has a high fat content and a dark gamey meat that is much richer than turkey - for those of us who love our fat there is no other meat more rewarding. It is similar in flavour to duck, which can be used as a substitute for the recipe below, just bigger, richer and better! A roast goose will also fill your house with beautiful aromas of roasting meat like no other roast.

Although it may be difficult to get hold of a goose, the stuffing in this recipe will be excellent for your turkey. If you wish to prepare the recipe with a duck, follow all of the instructions below; just adjust the cooking time according to the birds’ weight.

To prepare the goose for roasting you need to trim the bird of any excess fat and remove the wings. Simply cut off any of the larger bits of fat you see, especially around the chest cavity and cut the wings off at the first knuckle closet to the breast. Set aside the trimmed fat for the stuffing.

After the goose is trimmed of the excess fat you will need to blanch it in boiling water. Blanching the goose will ensure the skin is crispy. To do this, tie some cooking twine around the bird’s legs then dunk it like a giant tea bag in a pot of boiling water. Do this over the sink as it can overflow. Leave the goose completely submerged in the boiling water for about 5 – 10 seconds then place it on a plate. Pat dry both the inside and out with some paper towel. Make sure the bird is as dry as possible. Put the goose in the refrigerator uncovered for about 3 hours to allow the bird to continue to dry out.

Whilst the goose is in the refrigerator you can make the stuffing. You will need 500g or pork belly, goose fat trimmings, 300g of fatty smoked pork - bacon will do but using kaiserfleisch or speck is much better, 3 large bread rolls, 1 cup of roughly chopped prunes, ¼ cup of pine nuts, 1 onion finely diced, 2 cloves of minced garlic and a good handful of fresh chopped sage.

In a small saucepan, over a gentle heat, add 1 tablespoon butter, the onions and the garlic and cook for about 3-4minutes until translucent. Cooking sulfurous plants such as onion and garlic in this way reduces any bitter flavours they have and releases their natural sweetness. When cooked place the onions in a large mixing bowl and set aside for the rest of the ingredients.

Now you have too mince the pork, smoked pork and goose fat. It is important to remember when making stuffing it should be very coarse. If you make your mix into a well pureed paste it will have an unpleasant pasty texture when cooked. A proper meat mincer works best but if you don’t have a mincer you can use a food processor. Cut the pork belly, goose fat and smoked pork into small pieces. Place them into a food processor then using the pulse button gently hit the meat with several short bursts rather than one long burst. This will prevent the mince from becoming to pastey. Smaller batches work best. Finally, dice the bread into cubes about 1 centimeter, add the prunes, pine nuts and herbs, season with salt and pepper and mix all ingredients together with your hands.

Take the goose from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. This will take a couple of hours, but it is important as it means the bird will cook evenly. Now fill the goose with your stuffing mixture. Make sure you reach all the way to the neck but do not over fill as you will not be able to seal the hole up properly. Use a metal skewer to weave through the excess skin and seal the cavity. Just before the bird is ready to go into the oven gently pierce the skin all over with a skewer. Do this only to a depth of a couple of millimeter, just enough to reach the fat and not the flesh. These little holes allow the fat to run out and self baste the goose as it cooks. Season well with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Place the goose on a roasting tray and then into a preheated oven. Cook the goose breast side up at 225º for 30 minutes. An initial high heat seals the outside then the reduced temperature will gently cook the inside. After 30 minutes reduce the heat to 185º and cook for a further 45 minutes per kilo. This means for a 4 kilo bird you will roast it at 225º for 30 minutes then just a little over 3 hours at 185º. After the goose has been in the oven for 90 minutes take it out and gently turn it over to roast breast side down. This will help to cook the legs, which require more cooking than the breast. 30 minutes before the bird is ready to take out of the oven, repeat this process and finish in the oven presentation side up.

Now your goose is cooked! Rest the bird on a serving platter for 20 minutes before you start to carve. When rested, carve the bird as you would a chicken, turkey or duck. The tradition German way to serve goose is with potato dumplings and braised red cabbage. Enjoy and Fröhliche Weihnachten (Merry Christmas).

Smoked Eel

Of the many bush foods that the south west has to offer, one of our finest exports is our short finned eels. Eels have long provided an excellent food source for the local Aboriginal people and since colonial settlement, been very popular amongst the European settlers. Now our smoked eel is much prized in countries such as Denmark and Poland.

The Gundij Mara people built eel traps that forced the eels into smaller and smaller ponds where they can be simply picked up by hand have been used at Lake Condah for tens of thousands of years.

Smoking eels is the traditional way that eels have been prepared and is also the preferred method for the European market. The woody and eucalyptus flavours of smoke perfectly compliment the natural oiliness and earthy flavour of eel.

Eel can also be prepared fresh however should you catch a wild eel and want to eat it fresh, keep them alive in fresh water for a few days prior to cooking so as to remove any muddiness. When cooking fresh eel a BBQ is a fantastic way to cook them appropriately. Simply marinate with a little teriyaki sauce and grill for a couple of minutes on each side. Should you ever meet a traveler to Warrnambool asking for ‘another shrimp on the barbie’, tell them we do it with eels down this way.

One of the local eel fishermen who has been smoking eels is Rusty Taylor. Rusty and his son Zac from the Parratte Eel Company have been harvesting eels from The Gellibrand and The Curdies for three years now. Once the eels have been harvested they are taken back to his property and purged. This simply involves keeping the eels in filtered fresh water to allow all of the muddy water out of them. The eels are then hot smoked.

Hot smoking differs from cold smoking by not only imparting the smoke flavours the heat also gently cooks the eels in their own skin. Rusty says there was quite a bit of trial and error to begin with but “I think we have got it right now”.

Their eels are perfectly cooked with a terrestrial fresh water taste. They are of a good size with thick fillets. Rusty says he smokes them in three different types of wood. “Gum tree twigs, oak and the secret ingredient and there is no way I am telling you that”. The different woods impart a very distinct flavour into the eels.

Smoked eel is great to serve cold with salad, in a risotto with wild rice or just eaten as part of some antipasto with some black olives. As eel is quite rich and smoky you can serve a wide variety of wines with it. Try a nice oaked chardonnay or if your feeling a little extravagant, a French chenin blanc.

Smoked Eel Brandade

Smoked Eel Brandade

Brandade is a European dip that can be served hot or cold. It is traditionally made from salt cod however it works great with smoked eel. This is a great dip to share. Try it with a nice bottle of champagne.

Ingredients
1 Smoked eel – skin on cut into 15cm lengths
2 Chat potatos cooked in there jacket
1 cup of milk
1 cup of chicken stock
1 onion
¼ cup olive oil
4 bay leaves
Sprig of thyme

Combine milk, stock, bay leaves and half the onion roughly chopped in sauce pan. Add eel sections and poach on medium heat for 10 minutes.

Strain liquid and keep ¼ of cup for later. Remove the skin on the eel by gently peeling it away from the flesh. Carefully peel the meat away from the bones. Discard the skin and the bones.

Finely chop the other half of the onion and sauté on medium heat until cooked. Add the roughly chopped eel, thyme and the peeled and roughly chopped potatoes.

Use a potato masher and mash the mixture together. Take it of the heat. Add the oil and cooking liquid little by little making sure to beat well with a wooden spoon between additions.

Add a good amount of salt and pepper and the juice of ½ a lemon. Serve hot or cold with some crusty bread or as an accompaniment for blanched asparagus.