Five-Spice Goose Legs with Squash and Baked Plums

Five-Spice Goose Legs with Squash and Baked Plums, Lay The Table

If your oven isnt big enough to hold a whole goose, then goose legs, cooked long and slow, confit-style, in the slow cooker are the answer. The meat becomes meltingly tender, and the skin as crisp as parchment. Bake some plums as an accompaniment, then mash the sweet flesh of the fruit into the falling-apart meat of the goose. Gloriously Christmassy.

Serves 2

2 goose legs
300g goose fat
1 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A little oil for frying

For the squash and plums

1 butternut squash, deseeded and chopped into chunks, skin on
6-8 plums, de-stoned and halved
Big knob of butter
1 tsp cinnamon powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve: Potatoes, roasted in goose fat.

1. for the goose legs. Add a drop of oil to a frying pan and brown the goose skin. Transfer the legs and the goose fat to a slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 3-4 hours until the meat has shrunken down the long leg bone and is very tender.

2. Remove the legs from the slow cooker and transfer to a roasting tin. Reserve the goose fat to roast parboiled floury potatoes. Rub the skin all over with a little oil, Chinese five-spice powder, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven, preheated to 180C/Gas 4, for approx. 20-25 mins, until the skin becomes very crispy.

3. Lay the squash chunks and plums on a baking dish. Dot the plums with butter and sprinkle over a little cinnamon. Season the plums and squash liberally with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven at 180C/Gas 4 for 20-25 mins, until the squash and plums are very tender. You can roast the potatoes at the same time.

4. Ideally, serve with something green and leafy (such as kale or cavalo nero) but I forgot to buy some. You could also make a make a gravy with chicken stock, but I prefer to mash the tender flesh of the plums into the tender flesh of the goose. Glorious!

Five-Spice Goose Legs with Squash and Baked Plums, Lay The Table
Five-Spice Goose Legs with Squash and Baked Plums, Lay The Table

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