The Season of Wine and Other Joys
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When days begin to shorten and the temperatures decrease slowly, summer is changing on autumn. Early autumn usually remains to pleasant weather and is called Indian summer. It is a kind of farewell to summer, when we are saying goodbye to last hot summer days and nights.
Make your home a pleasant place for your family and close friends and feel the atmosphere of autumn through these recipes. Enjoy the roast goose with not so traditional pumpkin-and-potato pancakes, delicious chestnut cream and grape cider.
How to prepare the perfect crunchy roast goose
- 1 goose
- milk
- water
- salt
Wash, dry thoroughly and cover the goose with salt from the outside and from the inside. The amount of salt used is twice a handful. Place the goose with its breast (chest) down onto the roasting pan and let stay through the night. Pour some water under the goose, about 3 dcl will be perfect, right before baking. Bake the goose in an electric oven at 200°C, in hot air oven at 180°C and in a gas oven at the 4th stage, for an hour per each kilo and keep pouring gravy over it. As we laid the goose breast down, in the middle of the roasting, turn the goose breast up and continue pouring over with the gravy. After roasting, allow about 15 minutes to rest, cut into pieces and serve with pancakes and stewed cabbage.
The typical potato pancakes could be make not in so traditional way – add hokkaido to potatoes and make hakkaido-and-potato pancakes.
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Hokkaido-and-potato pancakes
- 300 g baked pumpkin hokkaido
- 100 g boiled potato
- 250 g flour
- 1 egg
- 100 g lard
- salt
Clean the hokkaido pumpkin and cut it into small pieces. Put it into the oven and bake for over 30 minutes on 180°C. The pumpkin must be soft. After baking rid of the skin, add flour, one egg, boiled potatoes and salt and make stiffer dough from these ingredients. On a floured board sheeter the dough and make small pancakes from it. Then roast the pancakes on a frying pan on both sides.
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Chestnut cream
The menu would never be complete without a sweet treat at the end. And what should describe the fall better than the smell of chestnuts?
- 500 ml milk
- 70 g crystal sugar
- 3 cs vanilla sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 vanilla pudding
- 250 g chestnut puree
- 70 g dark chocolate
- 250 g mascarpone
- 250 g soft quark
The preparation of this cream is quite simple and not so time consuming. Add 1 egg yolk, vanilla pudding powder and sugar to milk, mix it and cook. Than add dark chocolate and stir until chocolate is melted. Add mascarpone, quark and chestnut puree, whip together and cool the mass in water bath. Pour the cream into the glasses or bowls and let it cool enough. Than decorate the whipped cream with fruits and biscuits.
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The grape cider or the grape juice
Except for pumpkin and chestnut there is another traditional symbol of autumn and it is the grape berry. The best known product from grapes is the wine, but its precursor is the grape cider or the grape juice. To prepare the grape juice is not so complicated – because it is pure juice from grapes that has not undergone the fermentation process yet, it would be also appreciated by children and drivers.
Wash the grape berries and put it into the pot. Selecting the grapes depends on the taste and ability of individuals. Cover the pot with a lid and boil gently, stir occasionally. Addition of water is not necessary, because the berries release enough of juice. When the berries are crumbled, withdraw the pot from the heat and separate the skins and pips. Return the pot back on the stove. Add the juice of one lemon or lime and gradually, spoon after spoon, add sugar and stir occasionally. When the juice is sweet enough, bring it to the boil. Let it cool, pour into bottles or directly serve. If you add more sugar, grape can became syrup, which can be diluted with water when served. Remember that grape juice and syrup should be consumed as soon as possible, because it contains no preservatives. Prefer always preparing fresh one.
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