In this recipe, rare guests in our kitchens find each other: goose, a favourite in northern Europe, and fenugreek, one of the most popular spices in Asia. Goose meat is high in protein and low in fat, it tones up and helps with removing toxins from the body, fenugreek is an unusual pair for it, but it fits your favourite concept of “healthy food”. And to tell the truth this is just a very light and tasty dish 
In this recipe, rare guests in our kitchens find each other: goose, a favourite in northern Europe, and fenugreek, one of the most popular spices in Asia. Goose meat is high in protein and low in fat, it tones up and helps with removing toxins from the body, fenugreek is an unusual pair for it, but it fits your favourite concept of “healthy food”. And to tell the truth this is just a very light and tasty dish - Prep time: 20 minutes + 3 hours’ marinating
- Cook time: 15 minutes
- Serves: 4
- Difficulty: medium
- Course: main dish
- Cookware: knife, frying pan
- Cuisine: European
Ingredients
- 4 goose fillets, each about 300 g
- 100 ml olive oil
- 8 sprigs of thyme
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tsp sea salt
For masala:
- 2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 4 tsp tarragon
- 1 bunch of coriander, finely chopped
Cooking method
Step 1
Make the masala. Heat up the frying pan, add the fenugreek seeds and fry on hight heat, stirring constantly. After 2 minutes add olive oil and mix. Then add the paprika and tarragon. Constantly stirring, fry the spices for about 1 minute. Transfer the mixture into a mortar, allow to cool slightly, add coriander. Pound all the spices in a pestle and mortar
Step 2
Make rhombic incisions on the goose fillet skin. Then make an incision in the centre of the fillet longwise, so that you get a “pocket” for the filling. Stuff the fillet with masala. Season the meat with salt and pepper, pour over with olive oil, add thyme sprigs. Leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 3-5 hours.
Step 3
Transfer the fillets, skin down, into a cold frying pan, so that the fat melts slowly from under the skin and doesn’t burn, and fry for 10 minutes on medium heat. Turn over, and fry for a further 5 minutes. Place the goose fillets on a kitchen paper before serving to remove excess fat.
My tips and tricks:
Do not stand over a frying pan full of goose fat and think about how to wash it 
Strain the fat into a container and refrigerate. It is very handy to cook with goose fat – it does not burn at high temperatures; it has a very pleasant aroma and delicate structure. You can bake potatoes with it or, for example, make quiche batter, fry chicken liver or make confit goose legs again.
Fenugreek is a very popular spice in Asia, but unfortunately it rarely appears in European cuisines. Unroasted fenugreek seeds have a rather sharp bitter aftertaste, but a little bit of time spent in a frying pan reveals their taste and aroma. And if you mix it with other spices, then fenugreek will add a very unusual taste of sweetness with a slight astringency and “completeness” to the usual spice mixture.