Gillbachtaler Free-range Goose, Apple Red Cabbage and Mashed Potatoes with Chestnuts

Red cabbage

• It is best to clean the red cabbage two days before dinner and cut it into fine strips. Then peel the apples and cut into thin slices. Finally, marinate the red cabbage strips and apple slices with 200 ml red wine and red wine vinegar for two days. On serving day, peel the onion and cut into small cubes. Then put the spices in a bag (cloth bag or tea filter) and tie with a little kitchen twine. Put the red cabbage with the marinade in a saucepan and heat on the stove at medium temperature. Add the 300 ml red wine, chopped onions, spice sachets, butter, lard and sugar, add a little water and mix. Now cook everything covered until soft, stir occasionally and add a little water if necessary. Then remove the spice sachet, season the red cabbage with salt and pepper and mix in the quince jelly.

• Tip 2: The red cabbage tastes even better if it is prepared a day or two in advance so that it can permeate. Then it only needs to be warmed up on serving day.

goose

• For the goose, remove the innards and the goose fat (Flomen) from the goose and separate them. Remove the wing bones up to the first joint and add to the innards. Pluck any quills with the help of tweezers. Carefully wash the poultry inside and out, drain and pat dry. Season the goose with plenty of pepper from the mill inside and out, but only salt well inside and sparingly on the outside! For the filling, quarter and core the apples, but do not peel them. Peel and roughly chop the onions, thinly rub the peel of the orange. Mix everything with the spices. Pour the prepared filling into the goose's abdominal cavity, pin the opening together with a piece of wood or sew it together with kitchen thread. Place the prepared bird breast up for 45 minutes on a wire rack in the oven preheated to 180 ° C. Pour approx. 500 ml more water into the fat drip tray. After 45 minutes, regulate the oven to approx. 80 ° C. Insert the core temperature probe on the goose's breastbone into the meat up to the bone, set it to 74 ° C and let the goose cook for approx. 9-12 hours. Overcooking does not take place if the actual core temperature does not exceed 74 ° C! Halfway through the cooking time, make a small cut at the base of the leg to help the fat escape. Pouring over the leaked fat two or three times during the cooking time is recommended.

• After the goose has been braised in the oven for 8 to 12 hours, take the goose out of the oven, remove the filling and close the goose again. Put the leaked fat from the drip tray into a bowl with the goose flavors. The lard is made from this later. Let the goose cool for about an hour at room temperature until the core temperature has dropped to 60 ° C. During this time, the sauce and, if necessary, the lard can be prepared.

sauce

• For the sauce on the stove, fry the neck and wing tips of the goose in oil in a saucepan over high heat. Then clean the carrots, celery and leek, cut into walnut-sized pieces, add with the other innards and let them take on color. Season with pepper and salt. Add the honey and let it caramelize. Now add the removed filling and let it sit while stirring. Top up with poultry stock and red wine and reduce to 2/3 of the liquid for about 60 minutes. Pass the sauce through a hair sieve and degrease. Season with pepper and salt.

lard

• For the lard in a saucepan on the stove over a moderate heat, leave out the goose flavors and the collected frying fat (approx. 45 minutes). Pass through a hair sieve. Heat again and peel and dice the shallots, add the apple cubes and the yellowish residue from the hair sieve (greaves) and stir occasionally over a moderate heat until the cubes have turned a golden yellow color. Remove from the oven, let it cool down and season with salt and pepper. Then stir in the chopped herbs. By adding approx. 20% lard, the goose lard becomes firmer in consistency.

marinade

• Mix and heat all the ingredients for the marinade. Preheat the oven to 180 ° C, evenly brush the goose with the prepared marinade and bake in the oven again for about 30 minutes until the surface is evenly crispy and brown. Continue to brush the goose with the marinade several times during the crust. The goose is ready to serve when a crispy and brown surface has formed! Possibly add the liquid that has collected in the drip tray during the crust into the sauce.

• Tip 8: Cut the goose liver into small pieces and fry briefly in foamed butter, season with salt and pepper and a little brandy and Madeira. Serve with a starter or with the goose!

potatoes

• Boil the potatoes with their skins in salted water until cooked. Take the potatoes out of the water and peel them. Then press the potatoes through with a potato masher and mix with butter and milk. Season the finished mashed potatoes with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.

Chestnuts

• Cut the chestnuts crosswise on the round side with a sharp kitchen knife. Preheat the oven to 200 ° C. Then cook the chestnuts on a baking sheet with a little water for about 10 minutes and then peel them. Next, lightly caramelize the powdered sugar and honey on the stove in a pan and deglaze with the white wine. Add the butter, sherry and chestnuts and cover and reduce until syrupy. Swirl the chestnuts so that they are glazed on all sides. Set aside some chestnuts. Chop the remaining chestnuts with a chopping knife or knife on a wooden board. Toss again in the pan in the remaining stock and arrange on the plates in a nest of mashed potatoes. Place the whole chestnuts on the plate as well.

• Tip 11: You can also use chestnuts that have already been peeled (in a jar or vacuum-packed).