Roast goose with apple, onion and sage stuffing

Preheat the oven to 200C.

For the stuffing: Roast the walnuts on a baking tray in the oven until they just begin to colour. While still warm, rub their skins away in a tea towel, then, using a sieve or colander, shake the discarded skins away and leave the nuts to cool. Finely chop the walnuts and set aside. Heat the butter in a frying pan, then saute the apples and sage and, when almost cooked, deglaze the pan with verjuice, add celery leaves and transfer to a bowl. Heat the olive oil in the pan, then saute the onions over low heat until cooked. Add a little nutmeg to taste.

While the onions are still hot, add the breadcrumbs, walnuts and apple and sage mixture, then moisten with a little extra verjuice if needed. Stuff the bird with this mixture and secure the cavity; either sew it up or plug with a whole apple to stop the stuffing escaping. When I use an apple, I find sealing the cavity with a metal skewer sufficient to keep the stuffing from falling out. Reduce the oven temperature to 160C.

For the goose: Coat the stuffed goose with a little extra virgin olive juice and verjuice or lemon juice (this will caramelise the skin as the goose cooks), season well, then place in an oven bag and transfer to a large roasting pan. For a young goose, cook for 45 minutes, then turn the bird over and cook for another 45 minutes or until the legs come away easily from the bone (with an older goose it could take twice as long for this to occur). For an older goose, turn the oven down to 120C after the first 45 minutes and cook for another 2 hours 15 minutes.

When cooked, open the oven bag and increase the temperature to 210C, then return the goose to the oven to brown the breast skin for 10 minutes.

For a casual meal, serve the goose with Apple aioli. An alternative would be a jar of quality cranberry jelly or the cabernet jelly I make at the farm shop.

This recipe is an extract from Maggie Beers book, Maggie's Harvest, Lantern, $125.