Braised duck or goose
With a sly smile, like some mischievous 6-foot-7 Santa Claus, Austrian chef Bernhard Mairinger says he has just dropped off a strudel for L.A.’s best-known Austrian, Wolfgang Puck. Giving a gift of strudel is one of the holiday traditions he still clings to, even though it’s hard to imagine two places more different than Austria and Southern California.
After closing his modern Austrian bistro, BierBeisl, late last year with plans to relocate to the Westside, the barely 30-year-old chef has been free of his grueling day-to-day cooking schedule for the first time in years. Last Christmas, the hiatus allowed Mairinger to go back home for the holidays.
He loves the holidays, he says, and then he proceeds to list the things he enjoys most about celebrating at his village of Nussdorf am Attersee in upper Austria. Population: 1,000.
First of all, there’s snow. And starting the first week of December, little stands are set up outdoors to serve glühwein (warm, spiced wine) and roasted chestnuts. Usually, he says, you go with friends after church and meet at the glühwein stand. “It’s so good standing around in the snow drinking hot wine, which is spiced with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and apple. And roasted chestnuts? That’s my favorite way to eat them, just out of the shell.”
By mid-December, the outdoor Christmas markets, where you can buy hand-carved wooden animals and nativity figures, are going up. The biggest one in the region is in Salzburg. You drink more glühwein and also eat bauernkrapfen, warm pan-fried doughnuts dusted with powdered sugar or stuffed with jam. They’re made with a light brioche dough and don’t have a hole. “I could die for those. They’re amazing.”
In Austria, Christmas Eve is the big day, and the tradition is to have a lunch of bratwurst with boiled potatoes and onions. They’re not the usual pork-and-veal bratwurst; they’re special ones that are leaner than usual, made only with veal. It’s meant to be a light lunch, because the big holiday feast is that night, when everyone either eats out or eats at home with family.
For Christmas Eve, Mairinger likes to roast a duck or goose with braised red cabbage and the bread dumplings that function like an extra stuffing to soak up all that rich, redolent gravy. As a first course, he usually serves some kind of soup, especially pumpkin soup garnished with roasted pumpkin seeds and a special iridescent pumpkin seed oil. The best oils come from Styria in southern Austria, he says. “It takes 300 kilos of pumpkin seeds to make one liter of oil.”
In Austria, Christmas almost always involves snow. Here in Southern California, where Mairinger has lived for six years, he likes to have the same menu, even though it doesn’t get that cold.
Because who knows the next time he’ll get a chance to get back home. That long vacation is about to end when his more casual concept and bakery BierBeisl Imbiss opens downtown in the Spring Arcade at the end of February.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Clean the birds: Remove the little bag of neck, kidney and liver pieces (the liver will be used in this recipe, the rest can be saved for another use). Dice the liver and set aside. Place the birds on a rimmed baking sheet fitted with a roasting rack, and make shallow slits into the skin over the breasts of each bird, to allow the flavor to penetrate as the birds cook.
In a medium bowl, combine the brioche with the diced liver, diced bacon and apple. Season with one-fourth teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper. Stir in one-fourth teaspoon ground nutmeg, or to taste, and one-fourth teaspoon ground coriander. Add the orange zest. Remove the leaves from 2 sprigs each of the thyme, rosemary and marjoram, and stir them in with the stuffing (save the stems).
Brush the birds with the melted butter, and season each with 1 teaspoon salt, rubbing the salt over the inside and outside of the birds. Divide the stuffing and place half in each of the birds’ cavities. Tie the birds’ legs closed with butcher’s twine to keep the stuffing from falling out.
In a large, heavy roasting pan, heat the grape seed oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add the shallots, carrots, celery stalk and remaining bacon slices, searing everything until golden brown, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and remaining herbs (and stems), including the bay leaves. Add the wine, scraping any flavoring from the bottom of the pan. Continue cooking until the wine is mostly reduced, then stir in the stock. Add the ducks and cover tightly with a lid or foil.
Place the roasting pan in the oven and cook the birds, 1 hour and 20 minutes for the geese and 1 hour for the ducks. Remove the lid and increase the temperature to 425 degrees. Continue to cook the birds, 45 minutes for the geese and 30 minutes for the ducks, basting every 15 minutes with the liquid in the pan.
Remove the pan from the oven and place the birds back on the rack on the rimmed baking sheet and place on the counter top to rest. Increase the oven temperature to 475 degrees. Cut the butcher’s twine and untie the legs to remove the stuffing.
Strain the pan liquid (discard the vegetables and aromatics) into a clean pot, skimming and removing the fat from the top. Gently simmer until reduced by half. While the sauce is reducing, brush the birds with some of the skimmed fat and place them back in the oven to crisp the skin, approximately 30 minutes, brushing once or twice with fat (the fat should help to keep the skin from scorching, but keep an eye on it, tenting the birds if needed with foil).
Remove the crisped birds to rest a little while before serving. Serve the stuffing garnished with chopped parsley and the sauce served on the side.
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