Roi des Oies: Holiday Dinner Pary

The Saturday between Christmas and New Years, Jean and I hosted a holiday supper with some friends. We were in charge of the bird and we wanted to try something different, so inspired by a traditional English holiday meal we made a goose. It was our first time trying goose let alone making it; we first set off to make a beer braised goose but settled with a citrus, all-spice, and honey goose recipe from English chef Gordon Ramsay.

In search of our holiday meal I called around to find the best price for goose, if you want something fresh contact a specialty butcher in advance but as the story goes with many things you will get a better price if you buy it frozen from a big box store.  

Time to dress the bird! We first massage in a rub of lemon and orange zest, all-spice, salt, and pepper. Inside the cavity we juiced the lemons and oranges that we zested and left them there for the cooking. I forgot to mention that we switched the limes for oranges because we didn't have any limes on hand, it also seemed more Christmasy to include some oranges.

 

For some extra goosey goodness we cooked our beets, carrots, and potatoes under the goose.  This imparted a lot of the citrus and all-spice flavors on to them, not to mention the loads of fat that melted off the bird. 

Here we are, our finished product! For the sides, our friends brought a sausage and chestnut stuffing along with a cauliflower casserole, which were both delicious! For dessert we had a slice of the best pumpkin cheese cake ever! Though, sadly, our friend who made this wonderful cheese cake could not make it.

Our beer selection for our meal had to stand up to the flavorful and hardy dishes we were about to enjoy. Jean brought up from his cellar two IPAs, one was the Draconic Transylvanian Pale Ale from Kruhnen  and the second was Foublonne from Le Trefle Noir. The citrus we added to the goose made an IPA the obvious pairing. 

Update: I was getting around to writing some uberquick beer reviews on two craftbeers, but was a little too late. Here they are. 

 

Palo Santo Marron by Dogfish Head. This one might be my favourite dark beer of them all. They made it with magic, it is soo good. You would never know that it is 12% abv. because it has a very complex flavour profile that I just cannot rap my mind around. Rating:

Jean: Excellent
Ratebeer: 99 

I shared this one with my friend and he felt as though he tasted something very similar, if not the same, at BrouPub BrouHaHa. If you know of a Quebec microbrew that is similar in taste please post it in the comments section, I would love to try it. 

  

Supplication by Russian River. It is official, Pinot Noir barrels are my favourite barrels for barrel aging. They add such a wonderful flavour, and they are not so strong on the alcohol as are the spirits based barrels. Supplication is one of the best sour beers I have tried. I was lucky enough to know someone staying in San Francisco, for work, and so I asked them to grab me some Russian River. And they brought this beauty back for me and my god is it good. Rating:

Jean: Excellent
Ratebeer: 100

I have not yet tried any of the H(8) by Brasseur Illimites, if they taste half as good they will be awesome.

What beers did you enjoy with your holiday meal? Did you take out anything special to share with your loved ones, maybe try to convert some family members to the craft beer world. I hope you all enjoyed your Holiday dinner, but hold on it's not over just yet!

Cheers!

- Adri & Jean