It's curtains for Bugs Bunny

More butchering of an innocent animal today...but all in the name of learning and tasting! First job of the day was to prepare the pudding of raspberry mousse in a chocolate 'cage', whatever that means! We put together the cage which was in fact, rather simple, spreading melted chocolate onto a long strip of acetate evenly, bending that strip round and holding in place with paperclips. Then into the fridge to set, so when the acetate is taken away, it should leave a hollow chocolate tear drop. Then it was onto a vat of mousse for everyone to have a portion. It was a lovely baby pink and I think, resembled like a pink blancmange. Raspberry puree and lemon juice and zest went into a mix off egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, gelatine and double cream. It was then piped into the chocolate cages to set in the fridge.

Then, James (teacher James, not the chef) was in charge of looking after the crabs. There were six female crabs (you can tell by looking at their larger flaps on their underneath for carrying their eggs- males have smaller flaps). We were using females as...another fact, coming right up...female, or 'hen' crabs give a sweeter meat, even though males, or 'cock' crabs yield more meat. They were alive at the beginning of the day, but certainly not by the end! Don't worry, they won't have died in vain.

Phil then showed us how to butcher a rabbit. Luckily, they had been skinned and beheaded, so no gory bits to deal with. They were still a little frozen, even after being defrosted for two days, so after I had attacked it with my boning knife, I felt like I'd been handling snowballs! A relatively simple task, I'm getting used to getting bits and bobs off animals. The carcass and front legs were used to make a white rabbit stock to use sometime in the future, the back legs were poked a bit so a marinade could penetrate it, to be used for another time in the future and the loins were kept for a rabbit rillet. To make sometime in the future. I haven't really tried rabbit before- I might have when I was younger, but I can't remember it so it will be interesting to see what it's like. Next was lunch prep.

Sweet potato, ginger and coconut soup with wilted spinach.

Now, I'm not usually a fan of coconut but I thought I'd try it nonetheless. There was only a little bit of coconut milk in it and it added to the soup, giving it a creamy flavour and an Oriental twist. I didn't put toasted coconut flakes on my soup though, as I don't like them, so this is Jess' soup. I thought I'd put this photo up, as it looked better than my flakeless soup. It was really tasty and is now my second favourite soup, behind the pea and ham soup. An unexpected hit!

Then, after lunch, it was back into the kitchen, to prepare supper. We made a cabbage parcel, consisting of a cabbage leaf wrapped round a filling of shallots, garlic, toasted pine nuts, chopped apricots and shredded cabbage, which we then steamed. The venison was prepared by wrapping it in a piece of parma ham (pigs which are fed on the whey from the milk from Parma region cows) and left to firm up in the fridge. You can see from the photo how the venison had taken on the colour of the red wine marinade, so it was purple on the outside. Amazing!

We whipped together a fresh fig puff pastry tart to go with the venison, re-heated the dauphinoise potatoes and made a reduced chocolate jus. Chocolate goes well with venison- we just whisked a tiny bit of plain chocolate into the jus to bring out the flavour of the rest of the ingredients. You can also add a little chocolate to chilli con carne. Totally tasty. The venison was pan fried to colour and sear and then finished off in the oven. With perfect timing and still hot by the time we sat down to eat it, we all tucked into our creations.

Venison wrapped in parma ham with dauphinoise potatoes, fig tart, cabbage parcel and chocolate jus.

I think that this is my favourite main course so far. They've all been delicious, but this is definitely my favourite. Wonderfully rich and deep sauce, with a fruity fig and puffy pastry tart. Mmmm. I had a small glass of red wine, to go with the gamey flavours of the dish. I don't normally drink red wine, but it went nicely and it was really good! A good red wine is worth the downside of the dreaded 'red wine mouth'.

Finally, we piped a chocolate tear drop onto a plate for pudding, to be filled with a zingy raspberry puree, with a hint of grand marnier. I decided to be inventive and pipe a heart instead of a teardrop. It was quite tricky pulling the acetate off the chocolate without breaking the delicate cage and destroying all the hard work at the last minute. I love chocolate work. There are so many things you can do with it. I plan to experiment in the near future. And then eat the results.

Raspberry mousse in a dark chocolate cage with raspberry puree and fresh raspberries.

The mouse was good, but it was a little too lemony and not raspberry-y enough for me. I'd like to have a bit more of a raspberry punch in the flavour. I shall experiment with this too. An epic quest in search for the perfect raspberry mousse. And chocolate decorations. Phil also mentioned a bit about the mystery box assessment that we will have sometime soon. We will be split in half as a group. We will each have to make a bread, started, main and pudding for someone else to eat, out of a selection of mystery ingredients and we'll be scored on taste and presentation. Kind of like Masterchef. Sounds brilliant! If a little scary. I need to get my thinking cap on...