Got crabs?

Well, we've certainly packed it all in today! Darrin was back today, after spending some time up at the other cookery school, helping judge the South West Chef of the Year 2010 competition. Darrin warned us in the morning that Day 9 was a busy day, but I didn't think it would be this busy! Corned beef, rabbit rillette, take apart a crab, crab risotto, chutney, hot smoked salmon, gravalax, mackerel filleting, chickpea and bacon salad, pasta making and duck confit tortellini. I thought I'd show you all a photo of a mahoosive block of butter that was being chopped up, ready to use in the future. I think that we probably go through it in a few days.

So, this morning, Darrin showed us how make corned beef and got the rabbit legs off to their confit fate. We made some fresh pasta, by hand, to make tortellini with a duck confit filling, which we had prepared over the last few days. We even used a proper pasta machine as well, rolling it out to an ultimate thinness. Although, the machine fought back when I was turning the dial and caught my hand, making a cut. The evil contraption! We took the meat out of the crab, which is rather fiddly and time consuming. No wonder white crab meat is expensive! Contrary to popular belief, crabs' dead mans' fingers don't actually kill you, they would just give you a stomach upset if you ate them. Not that you'd want to anyway.

Then Darrin showed us an alternative recipe for lunch. We were meant to poach a fillet of salmon to go with our lunch of crab risotto, but instead, due to popular demand, Darrin showed us how to hot smoke the salmon. It didn't half smoke out the kitchen with the oak chippings! But it was worth it, as we tucked into it for a delicious lunch of hot smoked salmon and crab risotto with petit pois, saffron and herbs. And lots of parmesan cheese. Mmm. Quite rich but oh so tasty! Did you know that (oh yes, another juicy fact for you!) a truly good risotto should level out in a bowl when shaken and shouldn't be so stodgy that it just stays put. My new partner Rachel and I made a risotto that the Italians would be proud of. The salmon tasted very good too. And so easy to do. I'd make it all again fo sho!

After lunch, we filleted some unlucky mackerel which wasn't too bad, apart from getting the darn pin bones out. You have to literally cut them out, rather than tweezing them out, like other fish as the bones just snap off back into the flesh. Then we finished off the tortellini, filling each pasta parcel with a mixture of softened onions, shredded duck leg confit and two types of balsamic vinegar. We were shown how to make an apple, pear and date chutney for use next week. We then began eating our feast for the evening. They had sprung a three course supper on us, starting with the pasta. The sauce was a combination of butter, sage and hazelnuts, but I left my nuts out as I can't stand the taste of them. They ruin so many lovely chocolates. Yuck!!

Duck leg confit tortellini with a sage butter (no hazelnuts!)

The pasta was a-mazing!! Such a rich tasting filling with fresh pasta- it was worth spending a long time making the fiddly little shapes. Then it was back into the kitchen to pan fry the mackerel fillets and make a chickpea, bacon and salad onion salad with a mustard vinaigrette that Darrin made for us all.

The main was matched with a lovely white wine from Spain. On Thursdays every week, our meals are matched with specially chosen wine. We had the matched wine last Friday, so I guess something went wrong with the planning?! Anyway, then Darrin brought us all out a piece of treacle tart. I had high expectations of this tart. Darrin said it would either be our favourite pudding so far or a close second. And boy, was he right! It was fantastic. But not as fantastic as the lemon tart. It's very close, but lemon tart is still my number one, followed by the treacle tart and then the creme brulee. I'd like a trio of all of those right now please!

When Darrin said that with treacle tart, 'the more clotted cream, the better', I thought he was joking, but it came out with about half cream to tart! Not that I'm complaining. The tart was served with a muscat wine which was alright but extremely strong, similar to port. Too much for me! But I can see why the wine went with the pudding. Tomorrow will mean that we're half way through the course! Boohoo :( I don't want it to end. But maybe a break from the rich food and huge calorie consumption might do me some good!