If you ever fancied a holiday dinner straight out of Dickens story, here you go.
Roast Goose with Prunes and Chestnuts
Recipe abridged from Cooking Meat.
Serves 6 to 10, depending on the size of the goose
Ingredients:
1 (9–11 pounds) whole goose
1 orange
2 cups dried prunes (divided)
6 bay leaves (dried is fine, divided)
Salt and pepper
1 cup honey
4 shallots, chopped
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup Madeira
1 cup prune juice
2 cups Beef Stock
2 Tbsp reserved rendered goose fat from the roast
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup peeled chestnuts, roasted until golden
Method:
- Have a roasting pan with an elevated roasting rack ready.
- Three hours before you plan to eat, remove the goose from the fridge and inspect it for small feathers and feather “plugs”). Place the goose, breast side up, on your cutting board and remove the wishbone to making carving easier. To do this, lift the flap of fatty skin from the front of the goose and use your fingers to locate the wishbone. It runs in an inverted “V” down from where the two breasts meet. Using a paring knife, cut the meat away from each side of the wishbone, slowly exposing it. Wriggle your fingers in, grasp the wishbone, and pull it out. Save it for the pan sauce. Use the paring knife to score the goose breast in a crosshatch pattern at ¼-inch intervals, making sure that you’re only cutting through the skin and not into the meat of the breast.
- Roll the orange on your work surface to break up the cells of the fruit inside. Using the tip of the paring knife, poke 8 to 10 holes all around the fruit. Place the orange, 1 cup of the prunes, and 4 of the bay leaves inside the cavity of the bird.
- Truss the goose to seal the cavity. Season the goose all over with salt and pepper, place it on the roasting rack, and set the roasting pan on the center rack of a cold oven.
- Turn on the oven to 400˚F. Roast the goose until the skin is golden, about 20 minutes from when you turned the heat on. Turn down the oven to 300˚F and roast for another 2 hours.
- Fifteen minutes before the goose is due to be finished roasting, heat the honey in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove the goose from the oven, brush it all over with the honey, and return it to the oven for the final 15 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165˚F. Remove the goose from the oven, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes.
- While the goose is resting, make the sauce. Drain the fat and roasting juices from the pan into a bowl and set aside. Set the roasting pan on the stovetop over medium heat and add the wishbone and shallots. Cook, stirring well and scraping up any bits of roast that are stuck to the bottom of the roasting pan, until the shallots are translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the remaining 2 bay leaves, red wine, and Madeira, bring to a simmer, and reduce by half. Add the prune juice and reduce by half again. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
- Using a tablespoon, skim the fat from the top of the reserved roasting juices and reserve 2 Tbsp of it (refrigerate any excess for another use—roast potatoes are ideal). Add the roasting juices and beef stock to the saucepan, bring to a simmer, and reduce by half again. Season with salt and pepper.
- To thicken the sauce, mix the reserved goose fat and flour in a bowl to make a paste. Slowly whisk this paste into the sauce, bring the sauce to a simmer, and allow it to thicken for about 5 minutes. Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean saucepan. Add the remaining 1 cup of prunes and the chestnuts and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Carve the goose and arrange on a platter. Spoon some of the prunes and chestnuts from the sauce around the goose and serve with the remainder of the sauce on the side.