New Year's Goose with Elad

Another yum!  A few days before New Years, a bunch of listened as Gonzalo, a Spaniard visiting Tel Aviv during a break from his studies in Budapest, describe the Spanish tradition of consuming 12 grapes at midnight, one for each gong that rumbled from the church towers across the country and also played on national television.  Leemor decided that we ought to replicate that tradition here.  We went to the Shuk to buy a number of thing, but alas grapes are out of season in Israel.  So we purchased some raisins and I brought them home and after washing them, left them in a jar with some courvoiser and poire williams and a bit of water to infuse.  Rather than 12 grapes at midnight, we would swallow twelve slightly alcoholic raisins each.  Unfortunately no one knew what the intended purpose of the raisins in the jar was and as a result next to none were eaten.  I returned home with 90% of my raisins uneaten and decided to cook them instead.

Several days earlier I had bought some goose legs at the Russian supermarket in the Shuk.  Russians traditionally eat goose on New Years and so the large supply meant cheaper prices than usual.  I defrosted them for 24 hours, render out some fat, fried a few onions in that fat and then combined it all with a bit of duck stock.  I poured the raisins and onions into a pyrex roasting pan and lay the browned goose legs on top.  Left in the oven for about 2.5 hours, the skin was perfectly crispy, the meat incredibly tender, and the combination of alcohol and sugars in the raisins left a perfectly caramelised accompaniment.  Elad came over and we ate some goose, watched some Star Trek and had an excellent New Year's Day dinner. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 lb of golden raisins

1.5 cups of courvoisier (or other brandy)

1/2 cup poire william brandy

water as necessary

2 goose legs, fresh or defrosted

1 spanish onion, sliced radially

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 cup duck stock

S+P to taste

Directions:

Combine the raisins with the alcohol in a jar then add enough water to cover the raisins by 1".  Allow to infuse for at least 24 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 350F/175C.  Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium for about 3 minutes.  Add the goose legs, skin side down, into the pan and allow to render fat and brown the skin for 4-5 minutes.  Flip them over and brown the flesh side for a minute or so and remove to a plate.  Enter the onion into pan and lower the head to medium-low.  Sauté for 8 minutes, then add the cinnamon and cloves.  Add the raisins and then immediately add the duck stock.  All to come to a simmer.  Pour mixture into a pyrex roasting pan, place the goose legs skin side up atop the raisins and onions.  Sprinkle S+P genergous over the whole thing then wrap tightly with tin-foil. Place in the oven.  After 1.75 hours remove from the oven, remove tinfoil, return to the oven and lower to 325F/160C.  Remove after 45 minutes. Serve immediately with your favourite mashed potatoes recipe. B'Teavon!

Comments

[Elad]

Deeeeeeelicious. Deeeeeeelicious. Twas, deeeeelicious. Thank you. What could possibly be better than tender yet crispy goose and Jean-Luc Picard?

[Avi]

It was entirely my pleasure. And there is but one answer and that is it would better to have consumed that goose on the Enterprise with Picard! Alas... we'll have to wait a few hundred years.

[bt]

One of the great missing elements of Star Trek is food related scenes. Occasionally we see the crew in a bar with odd sounding earth-like beverages. What the creators imagined the crew ate, how they ate it, when they ate it and how they survive for years without obvious replenishing the supplies, would make excellent material for a new ST series.
I am quite happy to think about Jean-Luc eating goose. Seems fitting. I would love to see him in a ST that portrayed all sorts of interesting things - cooking (if they do it), eating and of course recycling.
Sounds like a fun and delicious dinner.