CookingwithMavis: Confit of Goose ( “ Confit d’oie”

As per the Larousse Gastronomique :

“Bleed the goose, pluck and singe it, and leave until quite cold before cutting. Slit open the back completely, clean out the bird, and remove the liver….”

Some of you might already realize that the notion of ‘Cooking with Mavis’ is my alter ego…my fantasy of the 1950’s housewife…but, truly, I am not she….and perhaps one day you, my reader, might well discover her true identity.

All the emails that I write to friends Abroad, of day-to-day life, frustrations and joys, and other events too, invariably revert to a substantial description of food; sometimes food eaten, but usually food prepared, for whatever occasion…that’s my life!..fixated by cooking, eating and feeding friends and partner (“My M”).

Sohhhh?……whatever the topic, it will somehow, always revert to food!

Being an Estate Agent, every Saturday noon, brings an unwanted routine, comprising the erecting of ‘showhouse boards’ onto specific street poles, in order to give “The Public ” directions to my Sunday afternoon open-houses – hopefully for someone to buy one!

This is a strenuous task, having to jump in-and-out of my car, erecting sometimes as many as 18 boards around poles….depending on the number of showhouses that weekend. Fastening them as tight as can be with their cords of ‘bra’-elastic, and hoping that some brattish kid wont come along and turn them, pointing in the opposite direction….

Midwinter rainy weather is the pits too, as the homeless people or pedestrian vagrants, invariably choose to ‘acquire’ one of my boards, as a temporary cover from the rain.

“And why?”, you ask, “why Saturdays?, always from 12noon”...well, that’s because the Cape Town municipality by-law states such: …..that we will be heavily fined per showboard erected an endth of a second before 12noon on Saturdays!

Of course this breaks-up our weekend Saturday leisure time, having always to be around to do this irksome task….it prevents going on daytrips out of town…or …whatever!

TODAY:-

And there I was, having already done my showboards on Ayres Street in ‘Rosebank Village’, and had just arrived at my usual pole on the ‘feeder’ road alongside the busy, wide double boulevard, being Liesbeek Parkway .

I had just jumped out of the car, reached into my trunk to haul out a showboard, when I noticed “Gourmet Retha ” moseying about on the patch of grass near the Alma Rd corner..well, eyesight not that keen, even I realized that she couldn’t be ‘touting-for-business’…so, on second glance, there I saw dear Retha with a ½ loaf white bread tucked between bosom and arm, throwing fresh breadcrumbs near a distressed Egyptian (Mother)goose with eight of the tiniest new goslings in tow.

Gourmet Retha is the most amazing cook…’tuisgebak…boerekos’(truly homely generous farmfood recipes at their best). She is the food behind her successful “ALMA CAFÉ” around that corner, in Rosebank Village…the Café that does jazzy music evenings (thanks to musician-husband Richard)..and she, serving-up a mouthwatering, too cheap, real “bord kos” (generous plate of food)…

So getting back to those geese………turns out that Gourmet Retha is desperately trying to coax Mothergoose to turn around, come back, and waddle in the opposite direction, as Retha , from previous years of experience, realized that they were headed ACROSS busy Liesbeek Parkway boulevard, towards the large canal, and wanted them to rather go to the part of the Liesbeek canal on THIS side!, in order to swim under Liesbeek Blvd, to reach the OTHER side!......and for each step that Retha cared to take, so Mothergoose ran 10 strides further away from her, 8 goslings in tow, squawking…and squeaking.

Even I could see that this was a tenuous situation…stressed Retha , stressed Mommagoose, 8 stressed goslings, and ‘moi’ !

So there we were ,Gourmet Retha and ‘Cooking-with-Mavis’ chasing after unstoppable Egyptian geese along the grass verge of the feeder road in Rosebank!…….SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE! A BETTER DECISION HAD TO BE MADE!

I changed tactic…I gave her (Mommagoose) a wide berth, and came at her from the other direction..heading toward breathless Retha (she still clutching and scattering uneaten fresh breadcrumbs)…but Mommagoose was having none of this!.....she made a bee-line for that bloomin’ boulevard!

Quick thinking needed….in the on-coming distance, we see a dozen-or-more vehicles stopped at the red traffic light, about to head in our direction….

Stop-the-traffic…stop-the-traffic…yes, no choice, but to stop-the-traffic!!!

So, there we were, herding geese across busy Liesbeek Parkway – my arm outstretched, with hand-up: ‘traffic-police-style’, assertively stopping the traffic !

Of course, as in every clutch, there have to be a couple of ‘stragglers’:

Dividing the busy boulevard in the middle, is a traffic island with what must’ve seemed to be insurmountably high, ‘concrete boulders’ – ( really just a high step onto the narrow middle verge ), and 6 tenacious tiny goslings used all their might to get, over such…to run the hair-raising gauntlet of on-coming traffic from the OTHER direction..in order to cross the boulevard , to follow their Mommagoose to the canal…

Picture the scene:

….…Us, frantic, me with sturdy one arm constantly ‘traffic-police-positioned’ up in the air…while Retha was now herding onto the other side..and me chasing after the 2 weaklings that just couldn’t surmount the insurmountable concrete middle curb ..hell !.....they could run so darn fast in the middle concrete gutter!

And the ‘driving public’ showed their charitable spirit:…..

In the far lane a gianormous shiny Merc sped past (the hell with us and our geese!), whilst a gentle man in a ‘Bakkie’ slowly came past me, and stopped at an angle, -front tyre against the gully of the concrete island gutter, to block the path of those wayward weaklings, but one bloody gosling shot under the chassis..into the middle of the busy come-to-a-standstill boulevard…holding back perhaps 20 cars?...

I ambushed his suicidal path, whilst 2 kids jumped out of a waiting car, and we closed in on both..Retha grabbing one, and oh shit! …I had no choice, but to be brave, and dive for the other!...and before I knew it, there I was, clutching the runt-of-the-clutch, his head buried in my clasped palms , his feet flailing in the air!

And what-do-you-know?...those many stationary cars behind Retha-and-Me , stood still, as we dodged on-coming ‘otherside‘ traffic, to get to the verge of that bloomin’ canal..each with a runty gosling in hand…

They all watched as we bent down and lowered, as-well-we-could them, to flounder almost 2 meters down to the concrete slab, alongside the flowing waters of the Liesbeek River, only to survive the fall, and be reunited with Mommagoose ! - and as we rose to our feet, and began to walk back across the boulevard, applause came from those behind the wheel of that cream Mini Cooper GTI…. and only then did the traffic start to move-on!