Recipe notes by Raymond Blanc
Roast goose isn’t as popular as turkey for the Christmas feast – supermarkets sell just a few thousand geese per one million turkeys – but it’s really worth considering if you fancy a change. It’s expensive and produces half the meat of a turkey so you’re unlikely to get any leftover sandwiches out of it, but it is so delicious.
The flesh is rich and juicy, the skin is the crispiest gold, and the goose fat is like liquid nectar for the ultimate roast potatoes. Plus goose meat is surprisingly lean. Even the fat is good for you when compared with other fats – it is high in ‘heart healthy’ monounsaturated fats which can lower blood cholesterol level.
Ask the butcher to prepare it for you: to remove the legs and excess carcass, to chop up the wings and neck into 2cm pieces and to remove the wishbone (this makes the goose easier to carve). If you were to roast the bird whole then the breast would be over-cooked and the legs would be tough.