Sauce for the Goose...

Mary Bailey: Bread... that this house may never know hunger. Salt... that life may always have flavour.

George Bailey: And wine... that joy and prosperity may reign forever.

Today was my first real day back to work after the long Christmas break (I came in for a couple of days between Christmas and New Year but it was too quiet). The first day back after the Christmas/New Year break is always a little strange. It’s almost like nothing has changed because unlike when you go away on holiday for a couple of weeks, nobody has really been around to make things change. In fact it’s almost as if the days around Christmas and New Year didn’t really happen in the everyday world, although they must have for lots of people; emergency services, utility workers, and all the people on this planet who don’t celebrate Christmas.

By the end of the week it’ll be like this Christmas never happened. It will meld into all the other Christmases that we’ve known over the years and become another generic Christmas memory. Before much longer we’ll be looking forward to next Christmas and wondering what to buy as presents this time around and doing it all again in pretty much the same way. Should we have turkey this year or should we try something else? Should we have langoustines as our starter or should we have spinach and Goat’s Cheese tart? Should we have Brandy butter or a Rum custard with the pudding?

So many choices, so many opportunities and in our house I think we enjoy planning Christmas dinner even more than we enjoy eating it.

Yes, Christmas is over. I’m back at work and I’ve taken down the decorations but the outside lights will have to wait until the weekend. I’ve bought some more lights in the sales (so next year we’ll have a dozen eighteen inch high Christmas Trees glittering away around the cottage), and we drove back from Wales yesterday afternoon.

Christmas is over. Well maybe not quite...last night we had Cassoulet of Goose made from the leftover goose that Gaynor roasted to crispy perfection for our Christmas dinner. It was astonishingly good.

Yes…DANGER…there’s a recipe coming.

Now be warned, if you are going to use leftover Goose you have to strip the Goose meat from the carcass before it cools and get the meat into some stock immediately (we learnt this from Nigella). So it means doing it as soon as you’ve finished your meal and before you wash up, because if you wait for the Goose to cool it will dry, and nothing dries out as quickly or as completely as Goose and all that you will be left with is something that looks like cardboard that is impossible to chew, let alone eat. It’s a military operation to get it right but it‘s worth it and it’s worth (as we did) making up a good stock to put the Goose into as you make your Christmas dinner. You can add any gravy you have left over from the dinner to the stock (particularly if you made it from the Goose giblets) and any red wine you have left from the meal (fat chance).

We froze our beautifully succulent stock-covered Goose into two small loaf-tin size portions, but we could have made it into four smaller ones and we’ll probably half the amount of Goose we use for the next time we make the recipe below. I’m looking forward to it already.

Leftover Goose Cassoulet

Ingredients

Pre- cooked goose chunks kept moist in stock (as much as you think you need)
A smallish tin of haricot beans or a bigger one if you love haricot beans
A handful of fine green beans cut into 2 cm lengths
2 small chopped onions
A ramekin of cooked ham or boiled bacon cut into cubes
2 smoked sausages (or spicy if you prefer – we used spicy and pre-cooked them in the oven first) cut into slices
3 tablespoons of tomato puree
A little goose fat
Salt and pepper
A few fresh breadcrumbs (not those horrible golden packet things - they don’t work)

Process - this couldn’t be simpler

1. Drop the chopped onion into a saucepan with a little goose fat and fry until slightly brown

2. Add the tomato puree, haricot beans, green beans and some of the stock you have been keeping the goose in

3. Season well with salt and white pepper, bring to the boil and then simmer for a few minutes

4. In a casserole dish with a lid add half the bean mixture, arrange the goose, ham and sausages on top of the mixture then pour the remaining mixture over the meat. Add more of the stock at this point if you wish – but don’t drown it.

5. Cover and bake in a moderate oven (halfway on the dial is what I use) for 20-30 minutes.

6. Remove the casserole lid and sprinkle on the breadcrumbs – we soak ours in a little hot goose fat and allow them to cool. It makes them a little harder to sprinkle but they go crispier.

7. Bake on a highish heat for about 10 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are golden.

8. Serve with hot French bread and lots of red wine, perhaps a nice Claret.

This is really nice, so nice it’s definitely worth buying some goose to make it now rather than waiting until next Christmas…and it knocks the stuffing out of Turkey casserole any day (so sorry).