One of the absolute best things about Christmas food is the fact that goose is more readily available in the UK. A Christmas dinner bird that’s far superior to turkey, goose is adored in other European countries yet criminally under-appreciated in the UK, almost impossible to get hold of during the rest of the year. While roast goose is delicious – like duck, it’s also well suited to experimenting and using in a wide range of other dishes, such as this goose vindaloo.
With restaurants in Brixton, Soho, and White City, this goose vindaloo recipe is from chef Will Bowlby of Kricket, taken from the Kricket cookbook. Particularly renowned for its modern Indian-inspired food, this Kricket goose vindaloo doesn’t necessarily focus on utilising leftovers, but instead offers a delightful goose alternative. (N.B. It’s well worth stocking up on goose while you can, especially if you’ve got a good amount of freezer space).
And while the goose vindaloo does take a while to prepare, and uses a fairly lengthy list of ingredients, the results are remarkable. It’s also served with confit leg aloo tiki, Brussels sprout and chestnut thoran, and apple achaar.
To make the goose vindaloo at home, the vindaloo masala ingredients are soaked in vinegar overnight and blitzed, then the goose leg is cured and slowly cooked in goose fat, which is then shredded and pressed into spiced potato patties. A vindaloo sauce also features, plus Brussels sprout thoran made with coconut milk, spices, and chopped chestnuts; apple chutney; and seared goose breasts quickly finished in the oven.
Goose Vindaloo
Ingredients
- 2 goose breasts skin scored
For the vindaloo sauce
- 300 g white onion diced
- 2 green chillies split
- 2 tbsp ginger/garlic paste
- Vindaloo masala see below
For the vindaloo masala
- 50 g dried Kashmiri chillies
- 200 ml malt vinegar
- 5 cloves
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 star anise
- 5 green cardamon pods
For the confit leg aloo tiki
- 1 goose leg
- 20 g salt
- 20 g sugar
- 2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 500 ml goose fat
- 2 large Maris Piper potatoes
- 2 tsp ginger finely chopped
- 2 tsp garlic finely chopped
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp roasted gram flour
- 1 tsp fresh green chilli finely chopped
- 1 tbsp Fresh coriander finely chopped
- Ghee to shallow fry
For the Brussels sprout & chestnut thoran
- 200 g Brussels sprouts finely shredded
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp black mustard seeds
- 10 g fresh curry leaves
- 3 dried red Kashmiri chillies
- 50 g fresh coconut
- Salt to taste
- 50 ml lime juice
- 30 g chestnuts finely chopped
For the apple achaar
- 2 large cooking apples
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 50 ml rapeseed oil
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- 1 small thumb size piece of fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 100 g soft brown sugar
- 50 ml malt vinegar
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Soak all the ingredients for the vindaloo masala in malt vinegar overnight so that the spices soften, blitz to a fine puree.
- Make a cure for the goose leg by combining the salt, sugar and chilli powder. Coat the leg in the cure and leave for 2 hours. Remove the cure from the leg with cold water and transfer to a small roasting tin. Pour over the goose fat and bake in a preheated oven at 160C/Gas 3 for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender and flakes away from the bone, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the fat.
- In the same oven, roast the maris piper potatoes, skin on for a further hour until the flesh is soft. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly before removing the flesh from the potato into a bowl. To the potato, add the ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, chilli and turmeric powder, roasted gram flour, green chilli and chopped coriander, season with salt. Mix well and shape the potato mix into 40g balls and lay on a baking sheet.
- Shred the leg meat and place 20g of it in the middle of the potato mix, and bring the outside of the potato mix into to encase the leg meat, shape into patties and keep for later in the fridge.
- To make the vindaloo sauce, add the diced onions to a saucepan with a little oil. Cook out until the onions begin to soften, add the green chillies and ginger/garlic paste and continue to cook out until the onions have caramelised. Add the vindaloo masala and continue to cook for another 15/20 minutes. You can add a little water at this stage to stop the onions from catching. After 20 minutes blend the mixture in a blender or using a stick blender until smooth. The onions and any additional water should provide enough liquid to loosen the sauce. Season with salt and sugar.
- For the Brussels sprout thoran heat up coconut milk in a frying pan, add the mustard seeds and when they start to splutter add the curry leaves, dried chilli, brussels and coconut and continue to stir over a high heat until the sprouts have softened slightly. There should still remain a little bite to them. Add the lime juice, salt, chopped chestnuts and keep warm until needed.
- For the apple chutney, heat up two tbsp oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and fennel seeds, when they start to splutter add the onion, ginger, chilli powder and continue to cook until the onions have softened. Add the apples and continue to cook out until the apples have softened. Blend the mixture to a smooth puree, season with salt and sugar and set aside.
- Score the goose breast on the skin and add to a cold dry pan and cook over a medium heat to render the fat on the breast. Transfer to an oven at 165C/Gas 3 for 6/7 minutes, depending on the size of the breast, and leave to rest for a further 15 minutes. In that time, heat up ghee in the same pan as you cooked your breast, add the aloo tiki and fry until crisp.
- To assemble, place a ladle of your hot vindaloo on the plate followed by your goose breast, that’s sliced in half. Place the aloo tiki on the sauce and add a spoon of the apple chutney on top of each tiki. Garnish with the thoran.
Related: Turkey crowns are a gratuitous waste of food, time and money