Nine spring rolls and half duck later...

Gosh, today was busy! We got through a lot; picked crabs, raspberry puree, butchered whole ducks, braised its legs, dill mayonnaise, savoury orange jelly, palette test, spring rolls, seafood cocktails, raspberry sorbet, creme patisserie, duck leg pomme anne, celeriac puree, glazed young carrots, jasmine tea jus, raspberry souffle and raspberry smoothie.

The first job of the morning was to pick the crabs which were meatilicious, packed full of delicious, sweet meat. Once it was all done, we had to meticulously go through the white meat to check for shell. Michelin starred restaurants could lose a star if a customer found shell in their crab dish. Bad news indeed. Then we started to butcher our ducks. Our ducks were free-range peking ducks which were quite lean and had a nice layer of fat under the skin, but not too much. Enough for tastiness, but not enough for greasiness. Perfect. We trimmed off all the excess fat and rendered it down to make an Ashburton Cookery School record of 3 litres of fat which would cost you about £20/30 to buy. All as an extra from buying whole ducks. Bargain! The duck legs were then sealed in a hot pan and had vegetables, chicken stock, star anise and herbs added to it and went into a low oven for 3 to 4 hours to braise and become delicious.

Joe then gave us our daily challenge of a palette test. We had to taste some oriental spring roll filling and re-create it from a range of ingredients, some of which were used and some were there to throw us. My work partner, Mat and I worked together and got cracking. Ours was quite spicy and I don't normally like hot food, but it was very tasty. Joe was tasting everyone's to test for the right flavours for Asian style food (sweet, sour, salty, hot). He came round to us, tasted ours and said it was delicious and didn't need anything else. High five!

By the time we'd finished all that, it was time to prepare lunch. The spring roll filling was rolled up and deep fried and we whipped up a dill mayonnaise by hand. You can do it in a machine but making it by hand makes it much lighter. Good for a few portions, but not for a big dinner party! The prawns that we blanched yesterday were chopped up and we started to layer up the crab and prawn cocktail in cocktail glasses. Cocktail and cocktail, geddit?! Brown and white crab meat, tiger prawns, diced cucumber, sun-blushed tomatoes, dill mayonnaise, caviar and edible flowers were used to make a delicious lunch.

Crab and tiger prawn cocktail, dill mayonnaise and edible flowers with hot oriental crab and bean sprout spring rolls

The cocktail was very good indeed. The dill mayonnaise was particularly tasty. The dill and lemon juice in it made it really fresh and light. I loved the spring rolls and ended up eating all nine of mine. I didn't want them to go to waste after all. They fell into my mouth! I felt completely stuffed afterwards and definitely regretted eating so many when we were preparing supper. Oof! The only off-putting thing about the crab mayonnaise was that even though Mat and I went through the white crab meat three times, we ended up with at least ten bits of shell between us. It was a little disappointing as it made the cocktail more like a chore than a pleasure. The flavours were delicious though. I just needed to go through the crab meat more times. Or get a UV light which shows up all of the shell.

Back in the kitchen for duck cooking and raspberry pureeing. Joe had already showed us how to make the celeriac puree, so we started on the pomme anna. We cut a Maris Piper potato with a tall ring cutter and then sliced it thinly. We used Maris Piper potatoes because they will absorb the flavours around it. If you used a baking potato, it wouldn't absorb any flavour as it's too waxy. We created a kind of potato cake by layering potato slices and shredded, braised duck leg until there were 5 layers and gently cooked it in clarified butter. It was then finished off in the oven. We made a savoury orange jelly, to accompany the duck, using the vegetarian alternative to gelatine, agar agar. The magic of agar agar is that it sets at room temperature and won't melt when on a hot plate. The jelly consistency was more like turkish delight than say a jelly you would have at children's parties.

Roast duck breast with layered braised duck leg Pomme Anna, celeriac puree, glazed young carrots, orange jelly, duck crackling, micro cress and jasmine tea and port jus

The dish was amazing. I think it's even topped the confit salmon of yesterday as my favourite savoury dish so far. The orange jelly was a bizarre concept, but once you get your head round the idea, it was brilliant with the duck. The star anise gave it a lovely spice and the bittersweet orange cut through the rich duck. And then the crispy duck skin. Yum! I enjoyed the duck leg pomme anna. It should be good being cooked in clarified butter! The celeriac puree was heavenly and the jus was lightly perfumed from the jasmine tea but wasn't overpowering. Everything together was fabulous. I'd definitely do it again. And will be very soon!

Joe then showed us how to make the raspberry smoothie and souffle. The trick to a good souffle is to keep calm, don't panic and don't knock the air out of it when you put it into the oven! If you brush the butter upwards in the ramekin, it will help guide the souffle upwards when in the oven. Tip time: once the souffle comes out of the oven, dust a layer of icing sugar on the top and it will form a crust to help prevent it from sinking. Collapsed souffles no more!

Trio of raspberry puddings: raspberry souffle, raspberry sorbet with mint fragments and raspberry smoothie with a vanilla foam

Overall it was an explosion of tangy raspberry, refreshing mint, cool sorbet and hot souffle. Divine indeed. The souffle was lovely, light and sweet and the smoothie was a refreshing relief against the sweetness of the other elements as it was slightly tart and the vanilla foam was delicious. The mint fragments were superb with the ice cool freshness of the tangy, sparkling raspberry sorbet. It's difficult to say which part of the pudding was my favourite, but if I had to choose, I think the sorbet was the best part. Fabulous.

Definitely a lot has happened today. Goodness me! It was the longest day so far as we've been finishing at about 5.30pm each day, but today we didn't finish until 6.10pm. All worth it though. Tomorrow, we're filleting a whole sea bass and making a chocolate parfait with tempura fig. Bring it on!