1. Icelandic wild goose with apples and prunes roasted in the old-fashioned way. Wild goose, salt, pepper, apples, prunes, parsley. Massage the washed goose and season it with salt and pepper, both inside and out, before placing it on the draining board and preparing the stuffing. The stuffing is made with apple wedges, soft, pitted prunes and chopped parsley. Shove the stuffing into the goose and close the opening with a skewer or by sewing it. Ensure you also close off other holes the stuffing could leak out of, such as the neck cavity. Then place the goose, breast side up, on a roasting pan and fry it for several minutes at high heat. Pour boiling water over the goose and carry on roasting it at a low temperature for 2–3 hours, depending on the bird’s age and size. The bird can be turned over while it is being roasted, although it is not necessary. It is customary during roasting to wet the bird with its juices at 15-minute intervals to prevent it from shrivelling or burning. The goose should be eaten in good company and with baked potato wedges, home-cooked red cabbage, green peas, carrot purée, apple and walnut salad with crème fraîche, a rich, thick sauce and redcurrant jelly.
2. Boiled goose with potatoes and onion stuffing á la Irish. One goose, salt, pepper. Broth: neck, heart and gizzard of goose, a small onion, a carrot and fresh thyme, parsley, a little celery, 6–7 peppercorns, water. Stuffing: 10 medium-sized potatoes, 7 onions, 6 apples, 50 grams of butter, one tablespoon of chopped parsley, one tablespoon of chopped lemongrass, salt and pepper. Pluck and torch the goose in the same way as Icelandic wild goose. In Ireland there is an old tradition of hanging onto the feathered wings to dust the dark corners of the house. The smaller feathers went into pillows. Start by preparing the stuffing. Boil potatoes in salted water, and then peel and mash them. Chop the onion and brown it in a pan or pot for 5 minutes, without burning it. Add the sliced apples to the onion in the pan and cook them until they soften. Regularly stir the onion and apple mix. Add the mashed potatoes, parsley, lemongrass, salt and pepper and blend them well together. Allow the stuffing to cool before filling the goose. Clean out the innards of the Irish goose in the same way as the Icelandic one. To make the broth, throw the neck, heart and gizzard into a pot with a small onion, one carrot, thyme, parsley, celery and the peppercorns. Drown them in cold water and allow them to simmer at a low heat for 2 hours. The wings can be added if one wants. Season the washed and dried goose with salt and pepper, both inside and out, and insert the stuffing. Rub sea salt into breast exterior. Place the goose in a big roasting pot, slip it into the oven, add water to the pot, place a lid over it and boil at a moderate temperature for 2–3 hours or for as long as it takes to remove all traces of the accident. Lift the lid off the pot 3–4 times during the boiling and spoon off the fat and juice and keep in a jar for another occasion. The fat can be kept for a long time in a jar in the fridge and can be put to a variety of uses, e.g. to pour over potatoes in the oven. In the olden days it was considered beneficial to rub the goose fat into the chests of people with respiratory problems. Goose fat was also used to polish kitchen utensils in Irish homes as well as leather garments. Add the potatoes to the goose and allow them to cook with it for an hour. For the last 30 minutes remove the lid from the pot, and turn up the heat to brown the goose. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Filter the broth, add the cooking juices and fat from the goose, taste and season (dilute with water if the broth is too strong) and bring to boiling point again. Thicken the sauce according to taste. Eat the goose with the stuffing, baked potatoes, apple mousse and sauce. While the goose is cooking, use the opportunity to take a stroll around the cemetery. SLICING ONIONS
Peeling and chopping seven onions can be a daunting task for sensitive souls. The use of swimming goggles is recommended or ski goggles, when available, since the latter are, of course, bigger and work better in many cases. Some people are of the firm belief that holding one’s breath during the cutting is an effective antidote. It normally takes less than a minute to peel and chop an onion, but seven onions represent a far greater challenge. There are also those who recommend peeling the onion under a tap of running cold water. If none of these remedies work, it is best to ask the nearest person to you to cut the onion, a man, for example. Although this is by no means a universal law, their emotional make-up is often structured differently, particularly with regard to the thickness of their skin. CARROT MOUSSE (SIDE DISH WITH GOOSE)
1 kilo of carrots, ½ cup of carrot juice, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 cup of cream, ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg. Wash carrots and boil in a pot with as little water as possible. The carrots are cooked when they become soft. Put them into a food processor or mixer, if you happen to have one handy in your home (if not mash the carrots with a fork) with a little bit of carrot juice, cream, salt, sugar and nutmeg. Eat it as a side dish with the wild goose or roasted lamb (see recipes). The same method can be applied for the making of turnip mousse by substituting turnips for the carrots. Or you can even mix the two vegetables to make carrot and turnip mousse. SUCCULENT REDCURRANT JELLY (SIDE DISH WITH GOOSE)
1–2 shrubs of redcurrant, sugar (60 % of the weight of the fruit). If you don’t have any redcurrants growing in your garden, you can always negotiate with a neighbour who doesn’t make any use of his or her bush — due, for example, to back problems or old age — and bribe them into allowing you to pick the berries in exchange for two succulent jars of redcurrant jelly. The island is littered with unexploited redcurrant bushes, particularly in the older neighbourhoods of towns. One needs to bear in mind that there is considerably more waste in the making of redcurrant jelly than other types of jelly. Pick the redcurrants and rinse them. There is no need to strip the currants from their light green stalks. Place in a big pot. Put on heat for 2–3 minutes and allow to boil or wait for the berries to start bursting. Turn off the heat and let it simmer a while in the pot. Tip the whole lot into the sieve and allow it to drip through. Add sugar (600 grams for each litre of juice). Boil for a few minutes or until it starts to thicken. Skim the froth off and make sure the juice does not boil for too long. The succulent redcurrant jelly is ready when it slides off a silver spoon in long blobs. If there is no silver spoon in the house, a normal spoon will do. Allow to cool and place in small jars. Remember to give your neighbour his/her jars. SPAGHETTI CARBONARA