The Funky Kitchen

I was a very lucky girl recently, and received a gift of fresh goose breasts from one of Mr’s friends from work. I have been jealous of people like Beth of Rhubarb and Venison for having hunters in their households and new and exciting cuts of meat to work with in their kitchens. Mr has plans for taking up hunting, but has not come to that point yet. Marc gave me a chance to have a taste of things to come when Mr starts up. Frankly, I’m excited. Thank you to Marc, for graciously sharing his goose; and to Joe, for showing me the recipe.

I had never worked with or partaken of goose before, and for those of you who may not have had it yet either, a goose breast is much like a duck breast. Duck and goose are both water fowl so the breast meat is dark and there is a layer of fat between it and the skin. I hear that goose fat makes for fabulous roasted potatoes, which I hope I have the opportunity to make in the future. Working with the breast, I made these:

Cajun Stuffed Goose

(recipe adapted from Duck Poppers)

1/3 Cup olive oil

1/3 Cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 goose breasts

4 ounces cream cheese

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 a small onion, cut into thin half moons

1/2 a jalapeño, sliced thin

4 slices of bacon, cut into halves

Directions

Make the marinade for the goose by combining the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder and black pepper. Put the goose breasts into the marinade and set aside. In a bowl, combine the cream cheese with the second set of seasonings (paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt and pepper), mixing to distribute the seasonings through the cream cheese. Remove the goose breasts from the marinade and pound to ~1/4 inch thickness, and cut each pounded breast into four equal pieces. Working one piece at a time, lay the breast flat and place a spoonful of the Cajun cream cheese and a few half moons of onion and a slice of jalapeno. Roll the goose breast around the filling and secure by wrapping the whole thing with a half slice of bacon. Bake in a 375° oven for around 25 minutes. The goose’s juices should run clear and the bacon should crisp.

This dish is quite rich, so one or two of the stuffed pieces of goose should suffice per person. I must say that my first time tasting goose was quite pleasant. The goose itself is quite similar to chicken in texture, but much gamier in flavor. Though we didn’t have any in the house, I imagine it would have done quite well with a rich red wine. The spices from the Cajun cream cheese go together with the goose quite nicely, and crispy exterior from the bacon adds good texture as well. If you haven’t tried goose before, maybe you should give it a whirl.

Mr says: these rich and creamy meat poppers would make a good party snack, and that the addition of bacon to the goose was a wise one, because bacon makes everything a little better.

This time last year: Baked Brie with Cranberry and Orange

Mister makes appearances more often than I thought he would, here at The Funky Kitchen. His hands show up in photos, volunteering to pour things for me in action shots, or taking pictures for me while I cook. Mostly he plays a part in the stories being told, or by giving his very important mister reviews, which give you all an additional opinion on the recipes I’ve been making.

He’s a pretty special guy, my Mister. He’s more culinarily inclined on the eating side of things rather than the cooking side, but he’ll rarely miss the chance to get his hands dirty and help out with whatever it is that’s going on in the kitchen on a particular day. He’s the man who brings a portable spice wheel to the field with him when he goes out on exercises, to help make the IMPs more palatable and exciting. It really helped when they were up in the Arctic and made a moose stew. One person had a spice wheel, and it was my Mister!

I’m talking about him today because on the 15th of the month, just about two weeks ago, we celebrated our relationship turning three! Three years! On one hand it feels like three years is a really long time, but on the other hand it feels like he’s been my best friend since, well, forever. We postponed the anniversary because the 15th happened to be a day sandwiched between two exams. When we finally got around to days where we had time to celebrate us a little bit, I baked for him something that combined some of his most favorite flavors: cinnamon, brown sugar, and bacon.

Now he’s gone on an exercise, which has given me time to write about it. I’m missing him to death already, but he’s only going to be gone for a week and a bit. It’s so terrible when leaves, but there is little else in the world that feels as good as when he comes back home. I can’t wait until you come home Mister!

Cinnamon Bacon Buns

(recipe adapted from Whipped)

1 Cup of milk, warmed

1/4 Cup warm water

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 Cup butter

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 Cup sugar

6 Cups flour

3 tsp yeast

15 slices of bacon

1/2 Cup butter

1 Cup brown sugar

5 Tbsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

• Combine the milk, water, vanilla, butter, eggs, salt, sugar, flour and yeast.
• If using a mixer, mix with a dough hook for 10 minutes. If kneading by hand, combine the above ingredients in a bowl, mix them together until they form a ball, and then knead for about 10 minutes.
• Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let it stand for an additional 10 minutes.
• Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Try to keep it relatively rectangular, but shape really doesn’t matter that much.
• On a small cowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, forming a paste. Spread this paste evenly over the rolled out dough, leaving the last 1/2 inch of one of the longer sides bare so that you can pinch the roll shut.
• Cook the bacon in a pan until some of the fat is rendered, but the bacon is not overly crisp. You want the bacon to remain pliable. Cut each rasher into half longitudinally.
• Roll the dough up into a roll, trying to keep it tightly coiled.
• Cut the long roll into 1 1/2 inch slices, the individual cinnamon buns.
• Unroll each bun by a couple of inches, so that you can thread in one of the longitudinally cut bacon slices and then roll it back up.
• Place the cinnamon bacon buns into a baking tray or pie plate with a little bit of space between them.
• Allow the buns to rise for 30-40 minutes.
• Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes, until the cinnamon brown sugar filling is oozing and melted and the bun dough is golden brown.

Serve warm to a happy mister (or other intended). Mister says these were: awesomely bacony, and a combination of many things he loves.

Give them a try, they are almost sinfully good.

My mom’s side of the family is Ukrainian, and so I grew up on a lot of pierogi and kielbasa. Being the good little half-Ukrainian I am, I have absorbed into my repertoire a good number of dishes that are either Ukrainian in origin, or are Ukrainian-ized dishes made by my Baba.

If the recipe in question is a savory preparation, it is almost guaranteed to begin with the phrase, “First, fry an onion.” I’m not sure if the strong love of onion is Ukrainian or something that just pertains to my Baba, but the connection is very strong in my mind. Ukrainian food, at least for my family, almost always includes an onion.

Looking back, I feel a little sorry for childhood me because it took me a very long time to come to appreciate the flavor of onion. That doesn’t jive well with a family who is onion-happy.  Let’s just say it was common for me to sit at the table for quite a while contemplating taking that dreaded first bite.  I didn’t know what I was missing though.

This soup probably has very little Ukrainian basis, if at all, I don’t truly know it’s origins. All I know is that we’ve been eating it for years. Due to it’s reminiscent of pierogi flavors and the ubiquitous instruction to fry an onion, I’ve always credited it to my Baba.

Potato and Bacon Soup

(origins unknown, maybe from my Baba’s kitchen)

8 slices of bacon, cut into lardons

1 large onion

1/3 C white wine

8 or 9 small russet potatoes, diced

1 tsp thyme

5 C milk

salt and pepper to taste (be prepared to use more salt than you expect to, it is a lot of potato)

• Fry your lardons until crispy and the fat has been rendered. Remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon.
• Fry your onion!
• Deglaze with the white wine.
• Add the diced potatoes to the pot, giving them a minute to warm through.
• Pour in the milk and bring to a boil, then reduce heat.
• Add in thyme, salt and pepper. Check a few times to see that the soup is properly seasoned.
• Boil until the potatoes have gone soft. By boiling them in the milk, they lend starch to thicken the soup.
• Add the crispy bacon back to the pot, stirring until it is evenly distributed.
• Serve!

Just for fun, here’s the fact of the day: fry an onion in Ukrainian is смажити цибулю.