Roast Christmas Goose

_{With Sausage, Fennel, and Currant Stuffing
           Wild Mushroom Port Gravy}

1. Toast the bread cubes in the oven until dry, transfer into a large bowl, and let cool. In a large heavy skillet cook the sausage stirring and breaking up any lumps, until ti is no longer pink. Transfer it with a slotted spoon to the bowl, and pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat remaining in the skillet. To the skillet add 2 TB oil, in ti cook the garlic, onions, fennel, sage and thyme, add salt and pepper to taste stirring until the vegetables are soft, and transfer the mixture to a bowl. In the skillet cook the mushrooms with salt and pepper to taste in the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil until almost all the liquid they give off evaporated, transfer them to a bowl and stir in the chestnuts, the currants, the parsley and salt and pepper to taste. This stuffing can be made a day in advance and kept covered and chilled do not stuff the goose in advance
2. Rinse the goose, pat it dry and season it inside and out with salt and fresh ground pepper. Pack the neck cavity loosely with some of the stuffing, fold the neck skin under the body, and fasten it with a skewer. Pack the body cavity loosely with some of the remaining stuffing and dress the goose. Transfer the remaining stuffing to a buttered 2 qt. baking dish and reserve it. covered and chilled. Put the goose, breast side up, on a rack in a roasting pan, scatter the carrot, the celery , the onion and the chopped giblets on the bottom of the pan, and roast in the middle of a preheated 425F oven for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325F, pour 1 cup boiling water carefully over the goose ( be careful the juices will splatter) and roast the goose, basting it with the pan juices and skimming off the fat for 2 to 2/12 hours more, or until the juices run clear when the fleshy part of a thigh is pricked with a skewer and a meat thermometer inserted in the fleshy part of a thigh registers 175 F. During the last 30 minutes of roasting let the porcini soak in 1 cup of the remaining broth, heated. Transfer the goose to a heated platter, remove the skewer and the trussing strings, and keep the goose warm, covered loosely with foil.
3. Strain the porcini liquid through a fine sieve lined with a double thickness of rinsed and squeezed cheesecloth and reserve it. Rinse the porcini, drain them well, and chop them fine. Remove the vegetables and the giblets from the roasting pan with a slotted spoon and discard them. Pour off the fat from the pan juices and reserve it. Add the wine and the Port to the pan, deglaze the pan over moderately high heat, scraping up the brown bits clinging to the bottom and sides, and bring the mixture until is it is reduced by half. In a saucepan combine 1/4 cup of the reserved fat and the flour and cook the roux over moderately low heat, whisking for 3 minutes or so. Add the remaining 2 cups stock, the wine mixture and the reserved porcini liquid in a stream whisking, bring the mixture to a boil, whisking and simmer the gravy until it is thickened.  Stir the porcini into the gravy with salt and pepper to taste, simmer the gravy for 2 minutes, and transfer it to a heated sauceboat.
4. Spoon the sautéed potatoes and celery root around the roast goose and garnish the platter with fresh parsley sprigs