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Snow in Winter. This is a celebration of the darkest, coldest days of winter. It celebrates humble ingredients — kale, radishes, barley, snow geese — and happens to be one of the best, most original dishes I’ve made in years. It’s become my favorite snow goose recipe.
I am not just being overly proud here. Lord knows I beat myself up a lot when it comes to cooking, but sometimes everything just clicks. This was one of those times.
My inspiration is obviously Nordic, and while this dish has no clear analog in any of their books, I am pretty sure Magnus Nilsson, Rene Redzepi, Gunnar Karl Gislasonย or Christian Puglisiย would be happy eating this plate of food… or at least I hope so.
I started thinking about this recipeย while driving home from a goose hunt with my friend RJ Waldon. I’d managed to bring down a nice specklebelly goose and two Ross’ geese, which are smallish snow geese.
Snow geese in general get a bad reputation, largely undeserved. Yes, they have weird gray-blue skin, but they taste wonderfully beefy. This dish hinges on turning that gray-blue skin into an asset.
Everything on this plate is basically black or gray, making the medium-rare snow goose breast jump out on the plate. I dusted some dried, ground black trumpet mushrooms on the goose skin to make it even darker, and used the same ground mushrooms, combined with barley flour, to make spaetzle dumplings that look like stones in a stream.
I could have stopped there. But I didn’t.
I also happened to have some fresh black trumpet mushrooms I’d picked with my friend Jeff. They’d go in there, too.
What else would be good that’s dark? Black kale, whose color is that of the darkest depths of a forest. The kale added just enough green to play well with the goose breast.
That left black radishes. If you’ve never eaten them, they are, well… bitter and unpleasant raw. They have a thick skin where all that bitterness resides. But roast them like a turnip and they transform into a surprising combination of sweet and only slightly bitter that makes you wonder where they’d been all your life. My new favorite root vegetable.
Bringing it all together is some dark beer vinegar I’d made, plus some black garlic that went into the sauce. Black garlic is fermented so long the cloves get soft, sweet and addictingly funky.
Finally, I needed to find a grated cheese that would not melt on the spot like parmesan would. The answer was Greek myzithra cheese, which adds richness yetย not melt into goo on the plate. Instant, edible snow.
Snow in winter, folks. It ain’t the easiest recipe I’ve ever designed, but it’s one of the best.ย I dare you to make it.
Snow in Winter
Ingredients
SPATZLE
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups dark rye or barley flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons dried, ground black trumpet mushrooms
- 2 eggs
- cup About 1/2 whole milk or half-and-half
ROOT VEGETABLES
- 6 to 8 black radishes, cut into wedges
- Melted duck fat, butter or lard to coat
- Salt
GOOSE
- 2 tablespoons to 3 duck fat
- 4 snow goose breasts skin on
- Salt and black pepper
- tablespoon About 1 dried ground black trumpet mushrooms
- 1 pound fresh black trumpet mushrooms
- 1 onion, minced
- 8 to 12 leaves of black kale chopped, lacinato or "dinosaur"
- 3 cloves black garlic
- 3 cups mushroom, goose, duck or beef stock
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
- Beer or malt vinegar, to taste
- Greek myzithra cheese, for garnish
Instructions
- Start by making the spaetzle, which can be made up to a day ahead. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl; it should look like really thick pancake batter, not a dough. Set a large pot of salted water to a boil. By the time the water boils, the batter will be ready. I use a spaetzle maker to make my spaetzle, but you could use a colander with large holes, too. Get a bowl of ice water ready, and a cookie sheet with a little cooking oil in it.
- Load up the spaetzle maker with the batter and use the hopper to make the dumplings. Let them boil for 1 minute after they rise to the surface. Move the dumplings to the ice water and let them cool off for a minute or three, then move them to the cookie sheet. Toss them with the oil so they don't all clump together. Set aside.
- While you are waiting for the spaetzle water to boil, heat the oven to 375ยฐToss the radish wedges in the melted duck fat and salt well. Put them uncovered in an ovenproof pan and roast until they are soft and caramelized on the edges, about 45 minutes. Remove and set aside.
- When the radishes have about 15 minutes to go -- or you can just wait until they are done -- heat the duck fat for the goose in a large saute pan. Sear the goose breasts according to these directions, then let them rest on a cutting board, skin side up. Sprinkle the ground black trumpet mushrooms on the skin the moment you set them on the cutting board.
- Add the minced onion and black trumpet mushrooms to the pan and turn the heat to high. Toss to coat with the duck fat (add more if you need tand sprinkle everything with salt. Let this cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms give up their water, about 6 to 8 minutes. Let them sizzle until the onions get a little browned at the edges.
- The radishes should be done by now. Set the resting goose breasts in the still-warm oven. Don't turn it on.
- Add the black garlic to the pan and squish it so it combines with the onion and mushrooms. Add the chopped kale and saute until it wilts. Pour in the stock and boil it down furiously until it thickens into a sauce. Add the spaetzle and rosemary to the pan, toss to combine and turn off the heat. Add the beer or malt vinegar to taste.
- To serve, give everyone some of the contents of the pan, then some of the radishes. Slice the goose breast into three pieces and give everyone one full breast. Garnish with some of the myzithra cheese for "snow."
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Looks amazing! Can you make this with wild duck breast instead?
Vanessa: Absolutely. Use larger ducks like mallards or pintails.
Going to try this with duck. I donโt have goose. Also I have fermented radishes that I made this harvest wondering if that would work.
Hi Hank from Australia!! Been a long time follower of the website. I hunt fallow deer and pigs in Oz my two favourite dishes to impress people are your venison steak diane and veno with cumberland game sauce, but have also tried many recipes from here. I was at a local markets this morning and found someone selling black garlic…I knew straight away there was a recipe that I saw that had black garlic that I wanted to cook and although I couldnt remember where from I would of bet my house it was your website, and sure enough this is the recipe….getting to the point…I dont have geese, would this work alright with venison, say backstrap or tenderloin? Also, I think I’ll be hard pressed to get the black radish and black mushroom, I will try, but what would be the best substitutions you think?
James: Absolutely! Use backstrap. Black radishes are pretty common in fancy markets, so you might find them. As for mushrooms, roast whatever you can find and it will darken them. If you want, marinate them in soy sauce a bit before roasting.
Mr Shaw , That is just stunning !
This looks amazing. Will endeavor to make when my brother visits next time.
Beer vinegar… I’m reading Gislasson’s “North” at the moment myself and have been extremely interested in making some of this concoction (that and trying hay-smoked oil and mayonaise!) What style of beer did you use for the vinegar, Hank?
Sean: I like porter or brown ales.
Hank,
For added ‘blackness’, remember that there is Tinta de Calamar (squid’s ink) and Linguine Nero di Seppia.
A bit of a deja vue, black radishes caught my eye last night in the produce section of my fav Armenian market. I didn’t get any b/c I didn’t know what to do with them.
Maybe I’ll tackle part of your complicated recipe here and see what those radishes are like.
Hank
this does look very Nordic inspired very interesting dish. Just curious have you ever attempted anything from Faviken? I rarely cook anything from cookbooks I buy these days I just read them for inspiration but I don’t know if I have the chops to even try to cook something from this one? But you have the advantage of being skilled forage I bet you could find at least similar ingredients to make something close to what Magnus has?
Looks great! I know you’re not a big fan of keeping skin on Canada geese, but if this turned out well for a snow could it also work for a honker? Snows are a little scarce in my neck of the woods, but there’s no shortage of Canadas, and I’d really like to try this!
Ben: Sure, go for it. Just try not to use an old goose if you can. When you shoot one, look at the feathers on its shoulders, stretching out to the wing; the covert feathers. If they are rounded paler at the tips, it’s a young-of-the-year bird. Use that one if possible.
Is black (lacinato or โdinosaurโ) kale what someone in Italy (or London) might know as cavolo nero?
Ward Horack
London
Ward: Yep, that’s the stuff.
Darn it. Now I have to make that black garlic. I was looking at a recipe for it the other day.
Sounds and looks fantastic! I would love to make it, but might have trouble rounding up all the ingredients.
What a delicious and healthy meal for a winter day. Thank you for sharing. Your photos are beautiful and add to the effect of making me hungry early in the morning… ๐