Recipe: Christmas goose with orange and date stuffing

INGREDIENTS

For the goose:

1 ready-to-cook goose (about 4 kg; with giblets)

1 orange

100g dried dates

200g cooked chestnuts

1 tsp anise seeds

2 tsp mugwort, dried

salt, pepper

For the sauce:

3 shallots

2 carrots

¼ celeriac

½ stick leek

1 tsp powdered sugar

1 tbsp tomato paste

150ml port wine

500ml chicken stock

2 bay leaves

2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

1-2 tsp cornstarch

salt, pepper

Allergens are marked in bold

Preheat the oven to 180 C CircoTherm® top/bottom heat.

Cut off the rump (tail), neck and wing tips from the goose. Set aside with the giblets for the sauce. Remove the belly fat with your hands, setting aside a portion for the sauce as well. Remove any remaining feathers. Wash the goose inside and out under running water and pat dry with kitchen roll.

For the filling, wash the orange and cut into pieces. Roughly dice the dates and chestnuts. Mix with the oranges, anise, mugwort, salt and pepper and stuff the goose with it.

Close the belly of the goose with toothpicks about 1cm apart. Tie the legs loosely with kitchen twine. Rub the goose vigorously with salt. Place the breast side down on a deep baking tray or in a baking dish. Pour in 200ml of water. Cook in the hot oven on the lowest rack for 30 mins.

After 30 mins, turn the goose and finish cooking for another 2.5 hours. After one hour, baste the first time, then every 30 minutes with the rendered fat.

When you are ready to serve stir the yogurt until smooth.

For the sauce, peel and coarsely dice shallots, carrots and celery. Clean leeks and cut into rings. Melt some goose fat in a large, wide pot. Add vegetables and sauté. Coarsely chop the goose giblets. Add everything to the vegetables and sauté over high to medium heat for about 10 minutes until brown. Dust with powdered sugar, add tomato paste and roast briefly.

Deglaze the vegetables with port wine and reduce slightly. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add spices and simmer gently for about 1 hour.

Pour through a fine sieve into a pot. Bring to the boil again. Mix starch in a little cold water, stir into the boiling stock, bring to a good boil again. Season with salt and pepper.

Carve up the goose and serve with sauce, pumpkin dumplings and red cabbage with pears!