Braised Goose Warm Winter Salad

Some of the most delicious cuts of meat are those that require braising. These are normally the hard working muscles like shanks, tails and necks. For many home raised animals or wild fare, braising is also a great technique that produces tender flavoursome meat, a favourite in my home kitchen. Each spring we get a handful of goslings, one of which we always name Ryan.

They’re hungry lawnmowers that feed on the grass over summer, and by the time Autumn arrives, the grass is depleted and the geese are fat. It’s a practical solution to keeping the lawns down that ends up as a culinary treat. We dispatch the birds and enjoy them over winter. We know how the animal was raised, we know what it fed on and we know they had good lives. It’s a system deeply embedded in peasant culture and has kept the provincial folk of countries like France, Portugal, Italy and Spain fed for thousands of years. I sometimes make a salad similar to this with braised wild rabbit or duck.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C in a fan forced oven.

Heat half the olive oil in a large flameproof, casserole dish over medium heat on the stove top and brown the goose on all sides as best you can. Pour the wine over the bird and reduce. Remove from the heat, stuff a few garlic cloves in the goose’s back end and the rest around the dish. Scatter over the rosemary and thyme, pour in 250 ml water, pop on the lid and transfer to the oven. Turn the oven down to 150°C and cook the goose for 3 hours, or until the meat is melty.

Allow the bird to cool, then remove all the meat from the bones, discarding the bones or saving them for stock. (I tend to pop half the meat in our fridge for a future meal and use the other half for this dish – more greens, less meat.)

To prepare the salad, rip the greens roughly with your hands and pop in a salad bowl. Dress the leaves with a 2:1 mixture of olive oil and balsamic. Shred the goose meat, then melt the butter in a frying pan with the remaining olive oil and warm up the meat. Sprinkle over the chilli powder then add the meat to the salad bowl and toss through. Serve with a scattering of almonds, a crumble of cheese and a generous amount of pickled chillies.