Goose dinner

Edvard Persson, actor personifying this region's food traditions.

Preparations for the annual goose fest begun weeks ago with the acquiring of a goose the size of a small aircraft. Since then I've slowly acquired the rest of the ingredients and on Monday I begun the actual cooking process; I made pralines.

The classic dinner begins with a blood soup, heavily seasoned with Christmas spices and alcohol, and the lungs, heart and neck of the bird, cooked with apples and dried fruit. The goose is accompanied by a stuffing with apples and dried fruit, roasted potatoes, cooked red cabbage and a sauce. The whole thing ends with an apple cake and custard sauce.

I have tampered somewhat with this classic dinner but essentially it's what we're having. We'll start the dinner with a rosé cava before sitting down at the table. The gospel says Madeira for the soup but we're having a white mulled wine instead. Works well with the Christmas spices, better in my opinion than a Madeira. This beverage gospel also tells us to drink Bourgogne, Pinot Noir, but we're scrapping that in favour of a Spaniard, El Pedrosal. With the apple cake we're having Nederburg Late Harvest, a South African dessert wine. If anyone still feels like drinking even more alcohol, we're serving Dahlwinnie whisky and Bache-Gabrielsen cognac with the coffee - and dark chocolate pralines with bilberries and sea salt.

Ack, I'll not be able to eat anything more this weekend.