Cooking Your Goose the Savage Chef Way--part 3

The Menu:

Roasted Goose with Crackling Garnish

Roasted Root Vegetables in Goose Fat

Asparagus with Parmesan

Goose Gravy

Goose Liver Cracker Spread

Crackers, Green Olives

Red Wine


This was a really simple meal, but one that left us too stuffed to even consider dessert. The most difficult part about it was removing the excess fat from the goose. The rest of the meal was extremely easy.


Goose Gravy

Decide how much gravy you need and then use 2 T. of goose fat and 2 T. of flour for each cup of broth. Stir the flour and fat together and cook a bit, then add the warm broth. Due to the aromatic vegetables and seasoning in the broth, my gravy didn't need any additional flavoring, but taste yours to make sure. It was a very pale gravy, like chicken gravy, but very tasty.


Crackling Garnish

Simply take the cracklings you've ground up, and serve as an optional meat garnish on the table. They are good on the pate-covered crackers, too.


Roasted Root Vegetables in Goose Fat

Peel and cut up some potatoes, carrots and onions. I wish I had thought to buy those little round stewing onions, but I had to make do with the regular kind. Throw in a few peeled, halved garlic cloves, too. Put them in a small roaster pan and splash them with some goose fat and perhaps a bit of the goose broth or some wine. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and any herbs or whatnot that you like. Either roast with the goose, or wait until it is done and resting. I waited for the goose to come out, as there wasn't quite enough room in the oven. Then I turned the oven heat up to 400 degrees and let them cook until tender and browned, basting them with the goose fat in the pan every once in a while.


Asparagus with Parmesan

This was the easiest of all. I trimmed some asparagus, put it in a shallow baking dish, sprinkled it with salt, covered it with water, and nuked it until it was done. Then I sprinkled some finely grated Parmesan cheese over it when I served it.


Goose Liver Cracker Spread

Take the liver you've had soaking--no, not the one in your body that you've been marinating in bourbon all day; the goose's! Dry it and lay it in a pan with some melted butter. I usually put a squirt of olive oil in the pan first, as it prevents the butter from burning too easily. Cook the liver until it is just barely pink in the middle. Cut it up, and push it through a fine sieve, discarding any hard or stringy bits. Stir in a tiny amount of white wine, (as I did), or red wine, bourbon, or the flavoring of your choice. Scrape the pan and stir in the butter and cooking juices, then stir in a tiny bit of garlic.

The pate spread should be airy and mousse-like. Season it with just a touch of salt, if necessary. I used salted butter, so I added no salt. Season also with a bit of black pepper and either hot Hungarian paprika or a mixture of paprika and cayenne. Either way, it takes very little seasoning, as the goose's liver does not make very much canape paste, just enough for a little snack for everyone. This is very tasty with stuffed green cocktail olives, too. I like the small ones; I think they have more flavor.