192: Roast goose, juniper sauce and apple and lemon puree, p385

New Year's Eve! And the last two recipes! Hurrah! We searched high and low for a goose that wasn't going to bankrupt us and the hubby marvellously managed to find a frozen one in Sainsbury's for a mere £28, on Christmas Eve. Ha! We'd never had goose before, either of us, and ironically found out two days before Christmas that the aunt we were visiting for Christmas Day had decided to roast two geese for lunch this year - so we ended up having it twice in a week! Bizarre. Luckily we both really liked it on Christmas Day - phew.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture until we'd finished eating... whoops... but here's a picture of the carcass :)

It's not really a recipe in the book - no additions other than some salt, but I followed the cooking instructions exactly, and it was perfect. Not dry, not too fatty, crispy on the outside, and I did all of the accompaniments - the onion gravy from the pork leg with added juniper and redcurrant jelly (okay, cranberry sauce, but near enough...), the cabbage with orange and juniper, roast potatoes, and apple and lemon puree. Delicious. If goose wasn't so pricey, I would do this again. Frequently...

Now, on New Year's Day, the carcass has been picked, an enormous pot of stock has been made with the remains, there's a big tub of goose fat saved for future roasties, and I'm going to freeze some of the stock and use the rest to make some restorative noodle soup with the picked goose meat. Yum.

And here are the dinner guests post-goose:

188: Lemon ice-cream tart with gingernut crust, p375

A pudding was required to take to the inlaws for Christmas Eve and this fitted the bill nicely - after a rich dinner, the freshness of the icecream and the sharpness of the lemons made a welcome palate cleanser. The gingernut base was incredibly solid, maybe I didn't need to pack it in quite so tightly, but I was worried it would be too crumbly and wouldn't cut properly when sliced. Halving the recipe made a shallower tart, in one of my smaller springform tins, but it was plenty for five of us to each have a generous slice and there to still be nearly half left over for another day.

180: Roast duck with pancetta and potatoes, p372

I've never cooked a whole duck before. What an odd shape they are! This was a Gressingham duck, so a nice chunky bird, but they are rather... flat chested? And dumpy :)

The skin crisped up beautifully and I collected the excess fat midway through and at the end of cooking, so the potatoes wouldn't go too soggy. The potatoes directly under the duck did understandably go a bit soggy - in hindsight I should have pushed them out from underneath earlier in the roasting time, but they were delicious - meaty, herby, crispy in places, and cooked to perfectly.

The duck was a bit of a pain to carve, not being used to the funny shape of a duck (!) but I managed, just about, lucky we didn't have guests for dinner! Portion size was intriguing here - we had a bird which was slightly over 2kg in weight, which fed us both plenty for dinner plus enough leftover meat for another meal for the two of us (plus the carcass for stock), whereas the recipe specifies a 2.5kg 'duckling' - serve two people?! First of all, that's a jolly big duckling, and secondly - a bigger bird for only two people?? Wow!

This is supposed to be a festive pre-Christmas dinner - not exactly usual Monday night fare for us but time is pressing - so many main courses left, and not enough dinners to do them in if I'm not careful...

Only 13 recipes to go! 18 days left this year (albeit three are taken up with visiting rellies...).

137: Roast leg of pork with onion and Marsala gravy, p383

A friend was round for dinner last night and so I decided I really needed to get a few more recipes under my belt... so a roast dinner it was! Christmas recipes in Nigel's book, but hey ho - it's turning wintery!! Had to pop into the supermarket on my way home to grab a leg of pork - and only boneless available, so I decided since it was a short-notice dinner, boneless it would have to be - inspite of the recipe specifying a leg of pork on the bone. Tough. Sorry :) Delicious crispy skin, but the meat took a bit longer than I thought it would to cook though (pink pork = bad...). The gravy was amazing. Yum yum yum. Onions softened, with a little flour cooked up with them, and then stock and Marsala added. Delicious. Om nom nom.

122: Roast pork with grapes, juniper and Vin Santo, p308

Parents visiting for Sunday lunch today, so followed the Nigel souffle-opener with another four recipes from the book...The fat on the pork loin wasn't scored and it was really difficult to cut into it, even with my sharpest sharpest knife, grrr, so the spice mixture ended up kinda rubbed all over the meat and balanced on top :)

Was a bit hesitant about the juniper berries, can't stand the taste of juniper (yes, that includes gin too therefore...) and this smelt very junipery during cooking, but luckily the end taste wasn't too strong and overpowering. Although it was definitely there... And the dry marsala - yum! Definitely a good thing, and combined with the grapes (which were pretty blackened by the end of the cooking), made the most amazing deep, rich, tasty gravy. Served with roast potatoes as per the recipe, and the baked onions and lemon mint peas as in the next couple of recipes...