Main: Roast goose breast, boulangere of braised legs & offal sauce
Author: Nicolas Kleist
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 5.5kg whole goose with giblets
- 3 onions, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- ½ leek, diced
- 1 celery stick, diced
- 2 garlic gloves
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 bouquet garni (thyme & bay)
- ½ bottle red wine
- 8 maris piper or red skin potatoes, peeled
- 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 ltr chicken stock
- For the offal butter:
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 250ml red wine
- 100ml port
- 100ml brandy
- offal/giblets from the goose
- 200g soft butter
Method
- Remove the goose breast and legs from the carcass, leaving as much skin as possible on the legs, and set aside along with the offal (liver & gizzard).
- For the boulangère: Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6, cut remaining meat from the goose carcass in small bits, place in an oven tray and roast for 25 mins. Set aside.
- Place a pan over a medium heat and sear the legs on each side until the fat has rendered a little and the meat is browning.
- Remove legs and set aside.
- To the same pan, add 1 onion, the diced vegetables, the garlic and tomato purée and sauté until browning.
- Transfer vegetables to a deep pan, add red wine, bouquet garni, goose legs and the meat from the carcass.
- Add 1 ltr water and bring to the boil.
- Place in the oven for 2½ hours until the meat falls off the bones.
- Remove legs and pass the cooking liquor through a fine sieve into a pan.
- Place this pan over a medium heat and reduce until thickening and a nice amber colour.
- Set aside for the offal sauce (below).
- Pick meat from the legs and set aside.
- Discard bones.
- Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas 2.
- Thinly slice 2 onions and the potatoes (with a mandolin if you have one).
- Put potatoes in a mixing bowl, add a few springs of chopped thyme and season with salt and pepper.
- Line a 4cm-5cm deep oven dish with baking parchment.
- Put in a layer of potatoes, then a layer of sliced raw onion, then a layer of leg meat.
- Repeat the process to the top of the dish.
- Pour warm chicken stock over and bake in the oven for 1½ hours.
- Remove from oven.
- When cool, cover with cllingfilm and place a dish or oven tray on top, weighing it down with tins or weights to press down on the potato.
- Chill overnight. Next day, turn the dish upside down, remove the boulangère, and cut into squares.
- For the offal butter: Put the shallots, garlic, wine, port and brandy in a pan.
- Bring to the boil then simmer until the alcohol has fully evaporated (don’t burn the pan!).
- Put in a food processor with the raw giblets/offal (the hot liquid will cook them), blend to a purée and use a spoon to help pass it through a fine sieve so that it is very smooth.
- Add soft butter, mix well, cool and refrigerate.
- For the goose breast: Take the goose breast out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking.
- Preheat oven to 190C/Gas 5.
- Season breast with salt and pepper and sear skin side down in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat.
- Remove excess fat as you go along and sear until skin is golden.
- Turn over to the flesh side and sear gently for a further couple of mins.
- When it colours, place skin side down again and put the pan in the oven for 10 mins.
- Remove from oven and leave to rest for 15 mins before serving.
- To make the sauce and serve: While the meat is resting, cut the offal butter into small cubes.
- Heat the liquor you retained from the braising pan (in the boulangère recipe) in a pan to heat up, and at the last minute add a few cubes of the offal butter and whisk (beware, the offal butter is flavoursome, so don’t add too much!).
- Heat up the boulangère potatoes on a baking tray or oven dish.
- Slice the goose breast and serve with vegetables and the sauce poured over.
- Tips: Prepare everything apart from the breast meat a couple of days in advance, keeping it all refrigerated. Just warm it all up while the breast is cooking on the day. If you prefer, you can use a duck instead of goose. The offal butter is strong, so you won’t need much. The remaining butter can be kept in the freezer and used to deepen the flavour of sauces in future.
