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Posted by: CeciliaC	Tuesday, November 15, 2005
It's that time of year – when most of southern Sweden get their hands on a nice fatty goose and serve up the traditional St Martin dinner, sort of a harvest celebration, I suppose. I know this because I grew up in that part of Sweden. In fact, my aunt is pretty much the queen of the goose. In preparation for my goose dinner for nine on Sunday I called her – not only had she cooked four geese the previous day, she reared, slaughtered and plucked them herself. Got some good tips on cooking the thing. Of course my biggest problem was actually getting my hands on a bird - they are all reared for Christmas around here. A few very friendly farmers did their best, calling around, but I eventually had to settle for a frozen specimen from last year, kindly provided at a very good price by Greystone Farm Shop in Stainton. And it was good too! To cook a goose the Swedish way, you boil the liver, heart, kidneys and whatever else you find inside it with some onion, pepper corns and parsley to make a stock. You the rub the bird inside and out with lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Stuff it with prunes and apple, and in the oven it goes, with a deep tray containing the stock sitting underneath it to make the base for the gravy. I added some white wine and a splash of brandy into the stock - it never hurts. Anyone who has ever cooked a goose, knows it is just brimming over with fat, most of which ends up in the stock. In fact, there was more fat than fluid. You have to get rid of most of the fat, otherwise the gravy will just split and be completely disgusting. I ended up using coffee filters in the end to purify the stock. It tasted lovely though, and it was worth all the work. To turn it into a gravy I just added cream and thickened it a bit. Oh, and a bit of honey, but that's definitely an optional extra. The goose is served with boiled potatoes, red cabbage cooked with apples, onions, sugar and vinegar, Bramley apples cooked with sugar and, of course, the gravy. The starter was imported from Sweden - it is called black soup, and contains a little bit of goose or pig's blood, and loads of spices (cloves etc) and liquor (red wine, maderia, cognac etc). It may sound less than appetising, but it is absolutely unique and really, really tasty. Seven of us around the table actually ate the soup - a few more than I had anticipated, I confess. By the way, all the guests were Swedish friends of mine who live over here, and then there was my Scouse husband (who loved the soup) and me. The pudding was apple pie with custard – again – the traditional fare. Click here to view some pictures of this first annual Swedish Goose dinner in Grasmere!

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