Entertainment For Lively Minds
Your Favourite Christmas Birds
Posted by David Wright on 22 December 2009 - 4:44pm.
This year I will be eating the usual Turkey for Christmas dinner.
I feel I should be bolder one year and try some Goose (although it can be greasy) or maybe a partridge, duck or a pigeon in flight?
What is your Christmas dinner of choice and is Turkey overrated? It can be dry if not cooked properly basted.
Are you a breast or leg man, or maybe you don’t eat any game birds at all over Christmas? Maybe something far more exotic?
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This year
I will mostly be eating Youghurt!
Actually - chicken, beef & gammon.
Turkey? Not a big fan, can be grainy and dry if not cooked well. Also, why do you need such a big one? (oo-er).
Breast or Leg - definitely Breast (have you seen the wife?)
having goose for the 1st time this year
Can anyone suggest a condiment?
This is my favouite goose
This is my favouite goose recipe from Simon Hopkinson http://www.womanandhome.com/articles/292970/christmas-lunch-simon-hopkin... Can't beat homemade bread sauce at Christmas, or indeed anytime and I alway use this recipe, which is again from Hopkinson http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Roast-Grouse-with-Bread-Sauce-and-... .
Homemade apple sauce would also work well with the rich meat http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/roastbellyofporkwith_73883.sh... (that recipe is from uber-knob James Martin but it'll do fine).
I'm sure you know this, but when roasting a goose, there will be fat; lots and lots of it. I use a roasting tray with a rack so the bird is roasting rather than poaching in its own fat and it makes it easy to get rid of the excess during the cooking process as you can just lift the bird up on the rack and pour off the fat (which you should reserve for cooking your potatoes with) which you'll need to do a number of times. There isn't a massive amount of meat on the bird so you certainly won't be eating it until the new decade, but it's so rich that you won't want or need as much anyway.
The wife's mum always cooks capon (a castrated cockerel) at Christmas. It's a big bird, more flavour than your average chicken and with none of the dryness of turkey. You'd need to order it in advance from your butcher.
So, in a nutshell ...
Only do birds with a decent rack.
(Sorry Andy, couldn't resist. Goose-roasting hints much appreciated)
That's been the code I've
That's been the code I've lived my life by so far.
Samosa
We've just got back from Sainsburys with a nice deli samosa in the bag for me to enjoy while all everyone else tucks into a more carnivorous meal which I think is turkey but I don't really care.
Mother Of A Goose
Roast Chesnut stuffing and whipped cream potatoes with some leek chopped finely in them.
yum!
Sounds great. Cheers!
German goose
I'm cooking a goose with some German friends. Whilst I am holding out for proper roasties, I have been informed that only red cabbage and apple will be necessary as a side dish.
Doesn't seem right, somehow. Have bought some sprouts, just in case.
Paula Wilcox from Man About The House Xmas spesh c.1974
But if I can't have that then it's turkey again.
We were going to have beef...
but my mother looked so sad when I told her, that I had a change of heart. We're now having turkey, mum's favourite!
Red Cabbage :-)
It's a must with Goose. We usually have it on Christmas Eve with all the family over (Old European tradition that some of my family brought over from "the old country"..we open some presents too )But we also have peas,dumplings and carrots with the goose. I must say it's a struggle getting the full English in on Xmas Day morning before turkey and trimmings at about 3pm but a brisk walk with the dog early doors seems to pave the way for the bacon,eggs and snorkers :-)
BTW.... A by product of my six hour journey back from work yesterday (usually one hour) is that the festivities have begun early, as i did not attempt work today and off from tomorrow, so some off the cuff cocktail making is taking place. Winner at the moment is vanilla vodka, Di soronno, OJ and cranberry..Sweet but lovely!
Sounds a plan...
Red cabbage it is! Although there will be roasted potatoes with the infidel sprouts. I don't know German attitudes towards roast potatoes yet, but am hopeful of success
My GLW has ordered
a "three bird roast" from the Butcher
My understanding is that a pheasant gets stuffed inside a duck, which in turn gets stuffed inside the turkey.
I'd stopped listening to the finer points of the process after the fateful words - "a normal turkey was £58 and this was only thirty quid more......"
I heard of a similar preparation
in the USA. It labours under the appealing name of 'Turducken' and is a confection of duck in chicken in turkey. For maximum grease, can be served deep fried. Yum!
Us as well
My GLW has ordered a boneless three bird joint for us consisting of a pheasant inside a chicken inside a goose. She assured me that I didn't want to know how much it had cost, but "I'm sure it will be good value and a lovely change!" Let's hope so !
now this
Now this is what I call a thread. You wouldn't get goose recipes on any other rock'n'roll website.
Anyone got a goose going spare?
Always wanted to cook one for Christmas, but tradition dictates a trek from Cheshire to Scotland where my Mum insists on a ten ton turkey and several hundredweight of trimmings.
However, with the weather in Central Scotland the worst my sis has ever seen, we've just agreed to postpone Christmas until next week - so we're off on a last minute hunt for something to cook at home on Christmas day.
So, anyone know of someone with a spare goose they're trying to sell before Christmas, somewhere between, ooh, Northwich and Wrexham? There's only the two of us so doesn't have to be too big. Otherwise it's fish fingers.
Goose at the parents...
... and 4 (count 'em) bird roulade (ooooh!) at the in-laws Christmas day. Have volunteered my bread sauce making skills and will attempt lingonberry sauce tomorrow night...
Also a sausagemeat and prune stuffing (add sage, breadcrumbs, egg and soak the prunes in red wine overnight then mix to make a solid stuffing and add cinnamon, mace, ground ginger). Belting.
And my brother in law to be *keeps a sensational cellar*
Game Pie
Has anyone ever had pigeon? I'm curious to try, but reckon there won't be much meat on it.
Also what do you prefer, pork pie or game pie?
You'll need a brace of wood
You'll need a brace of wood pigeon per person for a main course (get it from your butcher as its stupidly over priced in supermarkets these days) and only the breast meat is really edible, unless you want to get into confiting or braising the legs seperately.
Farmed squab from France is a great deal more expensive but one per portion will be fine as its a bigger, plumper bird and you can eat the legs. The meat is more tender and the flavour is more rounded and subtle than the wild variety. Properly cooked, both are delicious.
As to your second question, I like pie!
Pork pie for me please
The humble pig is the unsung hero of the Festive Feast. I'm roasting a rolled joint of belly pork alongside the streaky bacon clad turkey. There will be pigs in blankets and pork and sage stuffing for trimming purposes and if I could think of a way of sneaking some lard into the Christmas pudding, I would seriously consider it.
We'll be having chicken...
Coated with cajun spices and cooked on the barbecue with a can of beer shoved up it's jacksie!
Yum!
Talking of beer can chicken,
Talking of beer can chicken, this is an amusing and rather odd animated recipe for the dish http://www.8legged.com/DeepFriedLive/DFL01_01.html
Mmmmmmmm
Favourite Christmas bird ???????????????
Gotta be Nigella !!!!!
No contest !!
Homemade Beef Wellington on Xmas Day....
Tradition in our family. It's magnificent.
Turkey on Boxing Day after coming home from football.