Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Main
Skill Level: Easy
INGREDIENTS
- 3.5 – 4kg goose
Stuffing
-
1 cup walnut roasted and skins rubbed
-
80g butter
-
250g dried apples minced
-
30 sage leaves
-
¼ cup Verjuice plus more if needed
-
1 cup pale green celery leaves
-
100ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-
4 large brown onions finely chopped
-
1 nutmeg freshly grated, to taste
-
2½ cup breadcrumbs Stale grated breadcrumbs
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Bring goose out to room temperature an hour before cooking.
- For the stuffing, roast the walnuts on a baking tray in the oven until they just begin to colour. While still warm, rub their skins away in a tea towel then, using a sieve or colander, shake the discarded skins away leaving the nuts to cool. Chop the walnuts roughly and set them aside.
- Heat the butter in a large non-stick frying pan, then sauté the apples and sage and, when almost cooked, deglaze the pan with Verjuice, add celery leaves and transfer to a mixing bowl.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 160ºC.
- Wipe out the pan and return to the heat and add the olive oil, then sauté the onions over low heat until just coloured. Add a little nutmeg to taste.
- While the onions are still hot, add the breadcrumbs, walnuts and apple and sage mixture, then moisten with a little extra Verjuice if needed to just bring it together.
- Stuff the bird with this mixture and secure the cavity; either sew it up or plug with a whole apple to stop the stuffing from escaping. When I use an apple, I find sealing the cavity with a metal skewer sufficient to keep the stuffing from falling out.
- Coat the stuffed goose with the Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Verjuice (this will caramelise the skin as the goose cooks), season well to taste, then place in an oven bag and transfer to a large roasting pan.
- For a young goose, cook for 45 minutes, then turn the bird over and cook for another 45 minutes or until the legs come away easily from the bone. For an older goose, turn the oven down to 120ºC about 3 hours in total (I have sometimes had to cook an older goose for almost 5 hours until it was cooked).
- Take out of the oven and carefully turn the bag over, being careful not to burn yourself.
- When cooked, open the oven bag and carefully pour hot juices into a jug and refrigerate to set fat. When set put aside free of any juices and refrigerate to use to roast potatoes. Reduce juices as a sauce. Increase the temperature to 210ºC, then return the goose to the oven to brown the breast skin for 10 minutes. Then rest the goose upside down for 20 to 30 minutes at least before carving.
- You will know if the goose is cooked at this stage by feeling the bag – if soft and the legs seem like they can be pulled away.
- For a casual meal, the goose is beautiful at room temperature or cold as leftovers the next day. I would serve the goose with Apple Aioli rather than a sauce.
SHOPPING LIST
Golden Rooster
- 3.5 – 4kg goose
Camberwell Market Fresh Fruit & Veg
- Sage leaves
- Celery leaves
- Brown onions
- Nutmeg
Nick & Sue’s Gourmet Deli or Camberwell Deli
- Butter
- Verjuice
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Bread
Sweeties Fruit & Nuts
- Walnuts roasted
- Dried apples
