Christmas goose with red wine and ginger sauce

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1 goose, about 5 kilos – freshly slaughtered, stored cool for about 3 days, but also possible frozen
• 2 m.-sized onion(s)
• 2 apples, unsprayed, sour
• ½ liter chicken broth, approx.
• 1 bunch mugwort, handful
• 20 leaves of marjoram, freshly dried, roughly heaped in tablespoons
• 2 onions, for sauce
• 1 carrot(s)
• 150 g celery, celeriac
• 3 tsp, heaped cane sugar, alternatively white sugar
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 bottle of red wine, very dry and fruity
• some chicken stock or goose meat juice if prepared at the same time
• 1 small apple
• 1 sprig(s) marjoram, fresh, dried in about 1 tsp
• 3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 piece(s) ginger root, about thumb size, more if you like
• 1 orange(s), untreated, sweet
• Sea salt
• 30 g butter, cold, for mounting the sauce
• 3 cl Metaxa, or brandy, or wine brandy
• Black pepper, freshly ground
• Salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 6 hours; Total time approx. 7 hours

Peel the onions, wash the apples, and roughly dice both. Remove the fat from the goose and immediately process it into lard. Trim the outer wing bones and the neck. Wash the goose inside and out, pat dry, and season well with salt and pepper. Fill the abdominal cavity with the onion and apple mixture and season inside and out with mugwort and marjoram, then seal the cavity, place it in a suitably sized roasting pan, and let it marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Early the next morning, remove the goose from the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 130°C, pour the chicken stock onto the side, put the lid on, and cook in the preheated oven for about 5-6 hours (about 65 minutes per kilogram for a 5-kg goose). At the end of the cooking time, the goose should have almost no color, i.e., still light in color, but cooked through. Starting during the second hour of cooking, skim off any fat that runs out and let it settle in a tall glass to separate the fat. Reserve the fat and return the meat juices to the roasting pan. In the meantime, or the day before, finely chop the wing bones and neck, roast them along with the goose giblets in a little goose fat in a non-stick pan for about 45 minutes until lightly browned. Add the sugar to the center of the pan and let it caramelize. Stir in the tomato paste, let it brown, and deglaze with a little red wine. Then add a little stock. Reduce the contents of the pan to a thick consistency and repeat the process with the remaining red wine, a little at a time. Add the vegetables and half of the ginger, pour in a little of the stock used to braise the goose, and let it simmer gently or steep, covered, over low heat for a good 30 minutes. Wash the apple, core it, and slice it. After 15 minutes, add it to the sauce along with the marjoram, garlic, remaining ginger, and orange zest. Pour the base sauce through a fine sieve and reduce by half, then add the orange juice and Metaxa. Pour the contents of the sieve into the roasting tin with the goose. Preparing the basic sauce can take 2 to 3 hours, but is worth the effort in the fruity content and delicious flavor. Once the cooking time is over, add the fat-free meat juices from the roasting tin to the basic sauce. This prepares the sauce. Now remove the goose from the roasting tin and cut it up. Rub a baking tray with a little goose fat. Arrange the pieces you want to serve on it, skin-side up. Pour in a little water or stock and finish roasting on the lowest shelf with top heat/grill (around 200-220 degrees, preheated) until the skin is crispy. This takes about 20 minutes; watch the goose while it browns. Rotating tray ovens brown the pieces more evenly; if you use a normal oven, you may need to turn the goose pieces occasionally. Just before serving, season the sauce with sea salt, stir in the butter and about 2 tablespoons of goose fat. If you want an even thicker sauce, you can thicken it after reducing by stirring in a little cornstarch. Homemade red or blue cabbage and dumplings go well with it. Tip: Any goose parts that aren’t needed right away can be easily frozen (vacuum sealed) or kept in the fridge for a day or two. Then thaw and brush the goose parts at room temperature with a little of the reserved goose fat and proceed as above, but first grill for 15 minutes at 160°C, then increase to 220°C so the goose is nice and warm on the inside. This way you can always have a delicious roast goose in no time at all, whatever the season. If it’s fresh, add marjoram to the sauce just before the end and remove before serving. Cook 1-2 tablespoons of currants or cranberries in the basic sauce. This recipe also works very well with duck. At about 2.5 kg the cooking time is just under 3 hours.