Today I made : Roast duck with sage stuffing and gravy. Duck is darker and fattier than chicken. It renders a lot of fat but relatively little juice. This makes it good for roasting vegetables but hard to make gravy.

Ballymaloe buy their ducks from  Nora Aherne. They cost between €19 and €22, while supermarket ducks are around €10. In the afternoon demo Rory made duck soup and duck noodle salad using leftovers. Buy good ingredients, use them all and you will get your money’s worth.

I also made tomato and pomegranate tabouleh.  My teacher warned me it had to POP in her mouth. Thankfully it did. It popped in mine too. This salad is vibrant and fresh and I will make it again.

I learned : Peas develop starch after picking so should be eaten as fresh as possible. Rory prefers frozen Captain Birds Eye to fresh peas for this reason! They freeze them 90 minutes after picking.

Food of the day : Sourdough crab toast with lemon aioli.

Line of the day : From Rory. ‘Every time you burn yourself you learn a little something.’

Órfhlaith