Goose legs and curly kale

2 left legs coming from market


Saturday morning and a heavy head, the evening before had been the AGM and a few of us had then gone to the wonderful traditional Christmas market around the old church in the centre of town. It has only about 25 stalls in all, 10 of these selling Glühwein, 5, selling bratwurst and the rest including the inner of the church selling cards, tree decorations and a myriad of festive decorations, knitwear and Weihnachtgebäck (Christmas biscuits), all in a good cause and going to third world projects. Oh the reason for the heavy head was that we had to stop and try a cup of Glühwein at each stall.

But never mind the head I was up and about at 06:30 had a pot of coffee, put some washing in the machine and was out at the market for 08:00. I went to the poultry lady and saw she had goose legs (poor lass) I said I’ll take a pair off you, she said you jolly well will not, I need them to stand on for the rest of the day, but pop around tonight and you can give them a rub. Who said the Germans have no sense of humour “lol” ahem or do you think she was being serious and I missed a trick !!!!

Anyway goose legs purchased, next to my pork butchers (he didn’t look any better than I felt , we had been drinking together the night prior, I got some air dried ham, some cooked roast beef and a couple of Mettendchen, these dried cured sausages peculiar to NRW, are great to have in the house as not only are they good as a snack, but can be a wonderful addition to soups, stews and Eintopfen.

Next to the egg lady (she really sells potatoes, so should be called the potato lady that also sells eggs)

And then to the fish lady to buy a plaice (yours or mine), the plaice are rubbish at the moment, cannot wait until May so I can get out and get the real plump Maischollen from the Baltic

Then I popped into the bakers to get myself a pot of coffee and a roll for breakfast. Then off home by the long way home as I needed a bit of fresh air to blow the cobwebs away.

2 fresh free range goose legs
1 shallot
1  onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 bunch of root vegetables (Suppengrün)
100g of chopped speck (or bacon or Lardoons)
½ ltr of chicken stock
½ ltr vegetable stock

Pricked the legs all over on the skin side and rubbed with salt and pepper, put on a bed of root vegetables, a chopped shallot covered with chicken stock , put into the oven at about 200-210°C for 30 minutes to crisp the skin.

In the mean time the washed curly kale, add to the speck and chopped onion in a large frying pan sweated in a little goose fat and put into the Slow Cooker.

Next removed the legs from the oven, set to one side and then poured the root veg and stock over the kale, mixing well, placed the legs on top set the timer for 4 hours on low and went out to the pub for a couple of pints.

On returning peeled a few spuds and a couple of carrots, into boiling water and served with a gravy made from the kale stock.

A smashing winters meal and I have enough for tomorrow evening and a portion of kale with one of those Mettendchen chopped up for lunch.

Roast Pheasant

First shoot, pluck and draw your pheasant. I will be putting a link here for those that wish to know the ins and outs of doing this (along with skinning and paunching a hare). I won't put the photo's on here as it can be a bit off putting for the squeamish.

Wash inside and out and dry your picked over pheasant(to remove any small wispy feathers and missed pieces of shot).

bunch of root vegetables

10 allspice berries

1 staranis

5 juniper berries

2.5 cm piece of cinammon

5 cloves

10 black pepper corns

3 dried bay leaves and 3 dried curry leaves

Crushed and mixed in with the root veg in the roasting pan

Push butter under the breast skin working it well in,

dust the inside with salt and pepper, rub over with salt, pepper and my game spice. Place a mandarine pulled into segments into the cavity. Cover the breast with some fatty bacon (belly not back) or speck scheiben.

Place on a bed of diced root veg and (Suppengrün) and spices in a roasting pan just big enough to accommodate, pour in enough stock (I had game stock left over, but chicken of vegetable stock will do) to cover the vegetables.

Put into a very hot oven (220°C) for 10 minutes to brown, then reduce the heat to 175-180°C and cook covered with aluminium foil for a further 20 minutes or until the juices run clear.

Remove from the oven, cover and allow to rest. The meat should be juicy, it is often the case that when the breasts are perfect the legs are still tough, I think it better to go for the moist breasts, cut the legs off and cook them a little longer (or better still use them in a game ragout or filling for a game pie).

We had it served on the bed of root vegetables and accommpanied by:

Creamed cheesy leeks:

Slice the white and light green of a leek (or 2)

Slice a red onion

Crush and chop a clove of garlic

50 g of speck (bacon pieces)

200 ml of stock

100 ml of cream

200 g of good strong cheese (appenzeller, greuytzer or good Cheddar) grated

Fry the speck in a little oil until it starts to give off its fat

Add the Onion and garlic and fry until translucent

Add the leeks and sweat to remove the rawness

Pour in the stock and simmer covered  until the leeks are soft and the stock reduced

Pour in the cream, add the cheese, finished!!!

Mashed lumpy  mustard spuds and turnip (swede) (turnip could have done with a few more minutes, I will never learn).

1kg of floury potatoes,

500 g of Turnip (Swede)

2 teaspoons of mustard powder (Colmans)

Good knob of butter

50 ml cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the Neeps and tatties in plenty of salted water

Dry the Neeps and tatties on the still warm stove top, cover with a clean teatowl, this helps absorb the moisture.

Lindas spiced red cabbage A la Hairy Bikers!

The juices from the pan boiled down are used as then sauce and served  a rather nice plate of grub.



Kikoklu Christmas Dinner 2011

We had agreed that we would have 2 Christmas dinners in 2011, we had our first in February so now in December it was time to have the other.

The venue was to be the Healy Hall, a palatial residence just outside of Kiel. Carolyn, the Lady of the Mansion, had decided (for she as the person(s) supplying the venue, made the main course) on Goose.

The motly crew had assembled:

Kalle and Linda. Ahem getting a bit close there old boy

A smiling relaxing Marianne

Me, making sure no one got too much

It says "das muss so" (it's got to be)

Carolyn had run out of glasses so had to drink out of her hand

So the menu was to be:

Pre-dinner drinks:

Canard-Duchêne (Charles VII Brut) Champagne

Starter: Kalle's calf liver and chicken terrine.

Soup: Rich's Wildkraftbrühe mit Haseleberspätzle einlager - Game Consommé with hare liver spätzle

Main: Goose with an Irish potato stuffing, Linda's spiced red cabbage, Chrystalised orange slices, in goose fat roasted potatoes, roasted parsnips and shallots, gibblet gravy.

Refresher dessert: Marianne's fresh fruit salad and vanilla ice cream.

Main dessert: Carolyn's Christmas pudding (2009 vintage)

First we had a little tete a tete as normally in the kitchen.


We next adjourned to the main dining-hall and opened the bottle of Champagne for pre-dinner drinks

In between chatting and just idling around, the goose was being cooked,

 The pud was boiling and Kalle presented his wonderful terrine.

Kalle's terrine:

Calves liver marinated in cognac, chicken breast filets rubbed with fresh ginger, minced pork, pork fat to cover all in the terrine form. Sliced and served with a lamb's lettuce salad, Pomegranate dressing and a homemade Cumberland sauce, accompanied by a Swedish rosemary cracker.

Rich's Soup game-consomme-with-hare-liver-spatzle

The main course
The goose stuffed with potato stuffing.

Before

And

After

The wonderful juicy goose meat

Roasted parsnips and shallots

Roasted potatoes in goose fat

Carolyn's spiced Orange Rings

6 firm, medium-sized (bio) oranges


400 ml white wine vinegar


350 g soft brown sugar


cinammon stick


1/2 tsp whole cloves


2 blades mace






Wipe oranges well but do not peel. Cut them into thin, even slices. Put them into a saucepan and barely cover with water. Boil and simmer for 30 min. or until soft.


Drain liquid into a clean pan, add vinegar, sugar and spices. Heat gradually until sugar has dissolved.


Put drained slices in a few at a time when it is boiling hard and simmer until rind becomes clear.


Transfer rings to warmed jars until almost full.


Boil syrup again until it begins to thicken (ca. 15 min). Then leave to cool a little and pour over orange rings. Cover at once.


Store a week before using.



Linda's spiced cabbage this was adapted from one of the Hairy Bikers' recipes (roast herb salmon with braised cabbage and mushroom cheese sauce)



Sucking on the leg bone

The plate of Christmas Joy

Marianne's Fresh Fruit Cocktail and Vanilla Ice Cream

Ending with Carolyn's Christmas Pud Flambé

As she lights the touch paper, I bravely disappear onto the sofa.

Bit of a damp squib!!!! No bang!!!

In the meantime, unbeknown to us, a little romance was taking place:

Ms. Angel perched upon a wine glass, nonchalently watching the goings on.

Little did she know that a strange man robed in scarlet and who had a 1st Dan in Judo was watching her from afar.

And was he a quick mover. Before you could say Santa Claus he had climbed up beside her.

He slowly sidled around to her and started his chat up line " Ello my little angel do you want to feel inside of my sack", boy does he know some corny lines, but the poor naive, unsuspecting maiden (but not for much longer) fell for it hook, line and sinkler.

Before you could blink an eyelid they were off, down the glass and onto the duvet.

Well, you don't need me to tell you what happened next. Santa had his sack well and truely rifled and the angel got some of the plum duff and a few other surprises.

They had to get married and they got a couple of liked minded friends to be maids? of honour????? and best man, they went away on a double honeymoon to Switzerland and while there formed the Christmas 4 person bob team

They are now hoping that 6 person bob teams will be allowed in the next winter Olympics as they are expecting baby sledgers.

Happy Christmas from Mr and Mrs Claus AND THE REST OF US.