How to make a St. Martin’s goose? Try recipes from a Michelin-starred chef

Goose it belongs to typical Czech holiday meals since time immemorial. And even though it will be on the menu of almost every restaurant on the upcoming St. Martin’s Day, even at home this feather can be prepared in such a way that even the commissioners of the Michelin guide would be amazed by its taste.

According to chef Marek Lojda, who has experience cooking in a Michelin-starred restaurant, during preparation St. Martin’s Geese just focus on the raw materials used and avoid a few mistakes. The main thing is that it dries easily. “When preparing the goose, you can use several variants. One of them is confit, when we prepare it, or parts of it, in lard. If necessary, we can bake it in the classic way,” advises readers of Deník Lojda.

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To not only St. Martin’s Day goose not dried, the chef recommends preparing it slowly at low temperatures.

“It is ideal to bake it at 120 degrees Celsius for approximately six hours. Then we can cut it into pieces and finish baking the individual portions under the grill in the oven. This will ensure that the meat is juicy and the skin beautifully cooked,” advised the chef, who selected two for Deník readers recipes. In them, he combined not only tradition, but also added a modern concept. For example, the connection with pumpkin cabbage.

However, the chef himself knows that some people they prefer duck to goose. He has some tips for them too. Did you know, for example, that mushrooms “play” beautifully with a duck? “It’s good to use the breast of the duck. We can bake them like a steak. Alternatively, duck confit is good. Duck and fried mushrooms go very well together. Sweet and sour notes also suit this feathered dish, so you can add apples or pears and flavor the cabbage with raisins. As a side dish, donuts with breadcrumbs are suitable,” outlines Lojda’s recipes.

Recipe 1.

Roast goose leg with fluffy dumplings, pumpkin cabbage and apple

Meat:
Goose legs – 3.5 kilograms
salt – 20 grams
cumin – 0.5 grams

Dumplings
Potatoes – 2 kg
egg
coarse flour – 600 grams
salt – 30 grams
rendered pork lard – 200 grams

Pumpkin cabbage
Butternut squash – 1.2 kilograms
onion
honey – 50 grams
wine vinegar – 80 milliliters
salt
vegetable oil – 100 milliliters

Preparation of the fluffy dumpling (approx. 60 minutes): Boil a sufficient amount of salted water in a saucepan. Right next to the saucepan, place a container with cold water and a container with melted lard. Boil half of the potatoes in their skins, peel them, let them cool and then grate them on a fine grater. Peel the other half and grate it raw in cold water so that they don’t turn black. We squeeze the raw potatoes carefully, add them to the container with the boiled potatoes, sprinkle them with flour and mix them lightly with our fingers.

Then add eggs and salt to the loose potatoes and gently mix, do not squeeze. We put the processed part of the dough on a tablespoon and shape it into a nok. We have to properly tighten (squeeze) it so that it does not boil. Put the well-processed nok into slowly boiling salted water. It is cooked when it floats to the surface.

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Preparing the goose (approx. 2 hours): Season the goose legs with salt and cumin, put them on a baking tray and bake them, lightly covered with water at 160°C, with the lid closed, for about 1.5 hours. We check the meat during baking, we pierce it with a fork in the place where the lard is stored, so that the fat cooks better. If necessary, add warm water and remove the baked fat so that it does not burn. As soon as the thighs are soft, remove the lid and bake them for about 10 minutes at 190°C. This way we achieve a beautifully crispy skin.

Preparation of pumpkin cabbage (approx. 30 minutes): Cut the peeled pumpkin into thin slices about 3 mm thick and then cut them into thin strips about 7 centimeters long. Finely chop the peeled onion and fry it in oil until foamy. Then add the pumpkin, season with salt, fry briefly, cover with water and simmer under the lid until tender. Season the soft cabbage with wine vinegar, honey and salt.

Recipe 2.

Goose breast dumpling with boiled potatoes and sauerkraut

Meat and juice
goose breast with skin – 3000 grams
garlic (Czech) – 90 grams
fresh ginger – 80 grams
goose fat – 200 grams
onion
salt
butter
liter of vegetable broth

Sauerkraut
Sour watercress – 1000 grams
mustard seed – 0.5 grams
goose fat – 100 grams
onion
salt – 10 grams
granulated sugar – 20 grams

Method

Loading the meat (approx. 12 hours): The day before, we thread pieces of ginger and cloves of garlic through the goose breast with the skin. Let it sit in the fridge for 12 hours.

Meat preparation (approx. 4 hours): The next day, fry a finely chopped onion in lard until pink and then cover it with broth. Cut the fat part of the goose breast into cubes so that the fat can be cooked better. Roast the breasts slowly in the pan from all sides, first roasting them skin side down. Then we add them to the onion with the broth, add the garlic cloves, the remaining lard and put it in the oven. Bake gently under the lid at a temperature of 120 °C for about 3 hours. As soon as the breasts are soft, remove the meat and garlic cloves and boil the juice to a minimum, strain and soften with cold cubes of chilled butter.

Cabbage preparation (approx. 20 minutes): Taste the sauerkraut and rinse it if it is too sour. If necessary, adjust the length of the cabbage by cutting it. Fry finely chopped onion in lard, add cabbage, cover with water, season with sugar and salt, add mustard seed and simmer gently. We do not thicken the cabbage.