How to make goose fat fried rice, an indulgent dish that uses up roast goose trimmings and leftovers

I first tasted goose fat fried rice at a small restaurant in North Point, a working-class Hong Kong neighbourhood. I’m sure they created this delicious dish as a way to deal with the trimmings from the goose they serve – the small scraps they cut off before serving the half or quarter goose. When buying roast goose, serve the meat for one meal, and save the leftovers to make goose fat fried rice. Be sure to simmer any leftover goose bones in water, to make a flavourful stock.

Goose Fat Fried Rice

I love the way thrifty cooks use up ingredients that would otherwise be thrown away. In this case, it’s the layer of fat under the skin of the roast goose. If you have more fat and skin than needed for this recipe, cut it up and render out the liquid fat, as instructed in steps four and five. Pour any excess liquid fat into a small container, then refrigerate it (it will harden in the fridge) and use it instead of oil for vegetables or other stir-fried dishes. Excess fried fat and skin can be eaten on its own, like crackling, refrigerated for future dishes (you’ll need to recrisp the pieces by stir-frying) or you can add even more of it to this recipe (within reason).

When you buy roast goose, make sure you get some of the flavourful sauce/drippings (not to be mistaken for the plum sauce often served with goose). This should be given to you as a matter of course, but occasionally you’ll need to ask. If you prefer, make this dish with roast duck.

I use fresh peas, taken from sugar peas (not snow peas, which are flatter). These peas, which the Spanish call guisante lágrima (tear peas, because of their small size) and sell for high prices, are sweet. But the yield is low – 400 grams of snow peas gives only about 60 grams of podded peas. It takes less than half an hour to remove the peas from the pod, but it’s understandable if you prefer to use frozen peas, preferably petits pois. If you do use fresh peas and don’t want to waste the edible pods, simmer them with other vegetable scraps – onion, carrot peel, leek tops, mushroom trimmings – for a light vegan broth.

If you can’t find king mushrooms, substitute button mushrooms.

400 grams snow peas (or 60 grams frozen peas, thawed)
60 grams goose fat, taken from under the skin of a Chinese roast goose
60 grams roast goose skin
100 grams roast goose meat
100 grams king mushrooms
60 grams iceberg lettuce
2 spring onions
400 grams cold cooked rice
50ml roast goose sauce/drippings
½ tsp finely ground white pepper
Fine sea salt, as necessary

1 If using fresh peas, remove them from the pods.