Chris Galvin’s Roast Goose with Briased Chicory, Poached Grapes & Walnuts

Serves 4 (with cold goose left over for Boxing Day)

This recipe looks complex, but is quite straightforward. Everything except roasting the goose and making the sauce can be done the day before and heated through before assembling the dish. Eat it with roast potatoes or a potato gratin.

18lb/8kg free-range goose. (Ask the butcher to take off the legs but leave the breasts on the crown.)

For the confit legs:
8 tbsp goose fat (use the fat from inside the goose, melted down)
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
1 clove of garlic
3 tbsp rock salt
4floz/110ml white wine
1 peeled carrot
For the chicory, grapes and walnuts:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 heads of chicory, cut in half lengthways
4 tbsp icing sugar
Juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon
3 tbsp salted butter
1 tbsp grape seed oil or other
mild-flavoured oil
12 small shallots, peeled
12 peeled grapes, warmed
in 2 tbsp brandy
12 lightly toasted walnuts
1 tbsp roughly chopped parsley

For the sauce:
2 tbsp port
4floz/110ml good chicken stock

To confit the legs:

• Mix 2 tbsp goose fat, the thyme, bay leaf, garlic and rock salt together, pounding them in a pestle and mortar. • Rub the mixture into the legs and refrigerate overnight.
• Next day, preheat the oven to 120C/225F/gas mark ½. Rinse the salt off and put the legs in a small, thick-bottomed, ovenproof pan on the hob.
• Pour the wine and remaining 6 tbsp of goose fat in the pan and heat gently. Add the carrot.
• Cover and place in the oven for two hours. (To test if cooked, a knife should easily pierce the meat; or, if the thigh bone is twisted, the meat should easily come loose.) Refrigerate for up to three days. Warm through before serving.

To cook the breasts:

• Heat the oven to 210C/425F/gas mark 7. Rub the goose breast all over with rock salt.
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a thick-bottomed roasting tray on the hob and sear the goose on each breast for two minutes. Then place the goose on its back and put it in the oven to roast for 35 minutes.
• Baste, then turn the oven down to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 for five more minutes. Remove the goose and rest it in a warm place, covered with foil.
• For the chicory, heat a frying-pan with 1 tbsp olive oil. Dip the cut half of each piece of chicory into the icing sugar and place cut side down into the pan. Cook gently until golden and caramelised.
• Pour the lemon and orange juice over the chicory and when it is bubbling add the butter and gently braise until it is easily pierced with a knife (about 15 mins). Take off the heat, drain and keep warm.
• For the shallot garnish, heat the grape seed oil in a pan and cook the shallots with a pinch of sugar until golden. Then add 6 tbsp water, bring back to the boil and add the butter. Continue to cook until the liquid is reduced to a glaze. Remove and keep warm.

The sauce:

Pour off the fat from the goose breast roasting tray (keep it to roast potatoes another day). Pour in the port and the brandy from the grapes, add the poultry stock, bring to the boil and bubble until it thickens to a sauce consistency. Taste and season, then pour through a sieve.

To serve:

• Remove the breasts from the bone and cut across into thin slices.
• Cut the confit goose legs into four.

Place the drained endive in the centre of each plate, putting the hot confit leg on top. Arrange the goose breast around the leg with the warm grapes, walnuts and shallots. Pour around the sauce and scatter with parsley.