FLOWER POT KITCHEN: GOOSE FAT

24 Dec 2017

GOOSE FAT

Crispy Crackling Flavoured Goose Fat

How to render your own...

Old fashioned simple methods that produce the cleanest tastiest healthiest lower saturated cooking fats and by roasting the skin along with the goose fat you add that honest extra layer of flavour to your cooking, something commercially produce fats cheats you out of. Really simple to make and one batch should last around six months.

Oven rendering time 40 minutes

Ingredients

(makes approx 800ml)

1 whole goose or fat and skin of a goose

Pre heated oven 200 C

There is plenty of obvious white fat pockets on your goose, but if you want to roast and eat the goose as a whole bird you can still render down a lot of roast goose flavoured fat and enjoy the bird too. To do this prick the goose skin all over, this will allow more of the fat to render out, place the goose on a trivit in a deep roasting pan and place in the pre heated oven for 12 minutes per lb, once cooked leave to rest for 20 minutes, drain off all the fat into a ball mason jar and leave to cool. Enjoy your juicy moist goose and once the fat has cooled place on the screw lid and keep in the fridge.

If you just have the fat and skin from a goose, place in a deep roasting tin and roast in the oven for the 40 minutes, remove and pour off all the rendered down fat as above into a ball mason jar and store in the fridge.

That's it gorgeous crispy crackling flavoured goose fat for cooking perfect roast potatoes.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.