And obviously, I have already started to think about the food.
One of the traditional Christmas foods in England is a roast goose. A goose is far too big for the two of us, so I was thinking about dividing it up - confiting the legs for another meal and boning out the breast and stuffing it for Christmas. The downfall of this cunning plan is that I have never boned out poultry before.
So I figured I would start small with a chicken and see how I got on.
It actually turned out very well. It was a bit fiddly and time consuming, but not at all difficult.
I stuffed the boned chicken with a mixture of rehydrated dried porcini, ordinary white mushrooms, pinenuts, onion, tarragon and breadcrumbs, with a little lemon zest. Then I sewed it up and roasted it.
Delicious. The only trouble being that of course stuffing it is actually a way of stretching the meat. So my new cunning plan is to cut off the breasts and legs of my goose, freeze half, and just roast a breast and one confited leg. That should still give plenty of leftovers for sandwiches the following day.
Given that it is still early November, these plans may be subject to change.
13 comments:
A cunning plan indeed, but succulently executed. Well done!
Nice job boning the bird! Mushroom stuffing sounds heavenly, too. Good luck with your Christmas prep, sounds like you've got some great ideas going on there :)
Very impressive! ;-) I have yet to bone out poultry--a little too much time and bonding with the raw chicken for me I think. ;-)
What a great idea! I think goose is so tasty, I really don't understand why people insist on the turkey. In Greece oven roast lamb (and pork sometimes) is very traditional, as it was an expensive meat, so we usually have that on Christmas day.
Well how organised is that? Are you going to have a tree (for Urchin of course)?
My experience of boning chicken is that it is all in the knives. Good knives = easy.
Rachel - thanks!
Andrea - the stuffing was good AND I made too much, so it is stashed away in my freezer.
Deb - yeah, it is fairly hard going. You are very much aware that it is chicken!
Jo - well I would never say no to roast lamb, either!
Mother - when we first got here we bought a tiny little juniper as a living Christmas tree, and this year it is big enough to decorate! I think the boning is all in the knives. I have a good knife (and a good sharpener of knives).
Wow! You are planning ahead. I should try boning a bird. Like Deb, I am afraid it will be a bit too close and personal, but I can see how I would like to explore the options offered by the result. Nice stuffing.
Good job with the boning out, it looks very professional! Have only spatchcocked and jointed a bird before and was a bit squeamish but its a good sense of accomplishment after I think :)
Simona - definitely try the stuffing!
Anne - thanks!
Good idea practicing! We've spatchcocked but never completely deboned, impressed
fact: i've never eaten goose. or duck, for that matter. in fact, the only fowl i've ever eater are chicken and turkey. tis wise of you to practice on a smaller bird--i'm impressed with your ambition!
Kat - get a sharp knife and have a go!
Grace - really?! No quail or anything either? Duck is really delicious, I think it is my favourite.
Exciting. We had Christmas on our own 3 years ago and it was lovely, really relaxed and nice to just do it all at our own pace! We went with a mini Christmas dinner, a really good chicken with all the usual trimmings and had lots of leftovers. A goose sounds fab!
Post a Comment