Cold Goose Breast with Spiced Ponzu Sauce
By: Adam Berkelmans
Ponzu is a Japanese sauce used for marinating, dipping, or adding some zip to certain dishes. It’s a soy-based sauce spiked with Japanese citrus (like yuzu, lemon, grapefruit, or kabosu) and evened out with mirin (a sweetened rice vinegar product) and dashi (an umami-rich stock made with dried seaweed and bonito flakes). It comes across as a light and loose soy sauce with a well-balanced flavor profile that provides salty, umami, sour, and sweet notes in even measure.
It can be found in any Asian grocery store, and I’ve been seeing it more and more in the international sections of Western grocery stores in the past few years. If you end up purchasing a bottle of it for this recipe, try using the remainder to add to salad dressings, drizzle over rice, vegetables, or cooked fish, marinate meat, as a dip for fried foods or sushi rolls, or as a seasoning for tataki, tartare, or carpaccio.
I find the flavor of ponzu goes very well with cold red meats, and chose rare goose breast to highlight the flavor. I added some extra aromatics for an even more tasty dipping sauce and to add some textural variance. Rare meat works best in this preparation, and feel free to swap out the goose breast for any lean red meat.
Serves: 1-2 as part of a meal, or 4-6 as an app
Prep Time: 15 minutes + cooling time
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 goose breast, skin on or off
- Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon lard or oil
- Black pepper
- 1 cup ponzu sauce
- 1 mild red chili, minced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 scallion, minced
Preparation:
Season the whole breast generously with salt. Heat the lard or oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the goose breast and sear on both sides until cooked to rare, about 125°F. Season with pepper and set aside to cool, then wrap in cling film and put into the fridge for at least an hour to overnight.
Alternatively, you can grill the goose breast over high heat until cooked to rare.
Slice the cold goose breast thinly and arrange on a serving dish.
Mix together the ponzu, chili, garlic, and scallions in a small bowl. Dip the goose slices into the sauce and eat. Enjoy!
Get Cooking:
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Adam Berkelmans, also known as The Intrepid Eater, is a passionate ambassador for real and wild food and a proponent of nose to tail eating. He spends his time between Ottawa and a cozy lake house north of Kingston, Ontario. When not cooking, he can be found hunting, fishing, foraging, gardening, reading, traveling, and discovering new ways to find and eat food.
