The reason I put this picture up is because today was another one of those days where my body & brain were not in the same room & i spent most of the day going around circles & then forgot to take pictures of my food.

There was a a wedding in Ballymaloe House on Saturday followed by a party in the Grainstore on Sunday evening & on the menu for the party was Spit Roasted Pig. Wildside Catering were roasting the pig and they asked if Ill like to come & learn the ways of the wildside!! I happily agreed. First we scored the pig to aid jointing it, make it easy to get bite sized pieces of crackling, help the fat drip out & make it look good(pig art!). Next we rubbed it in butter & chopped wild garlic & rosemary. Then inserted the pole (the poor pig) and roasted it for nearly 7 hours - turning all the time. It was yummy!

Anyway back to today, first of all I was late for salad duty so by the time Id finished that I was later than I would have liked for cooking & then couldnt get my head together to get stuff done.

I started by making some potato stuffing for my roast duck. While pondering whether I had browned my onions rather than sweated them, I placed my paper lid that I was using to cover the onions on to the naked flame of the hob & set it on fire - i stood there looking at my onions while my teacher grabbed it and threw it into the sink. Im some eejit!

Moving on, I prepared the duck, stuffed it & roasted it.

Next I started to make Brioche. The whole thing is done in a mixer to get the best possible result. First you sponge the yeast with water & sugar, then mix in flour & salt to a firm dough. Then a tiny amount of butter has to be added every so often, you have to wait for the butter to be absorbed fully before adding another bit. The butter should be soft to ease this process but the kitchen was baltic this morning so it was hard & cold and took an hour & a half to add all the butter. This has to sit overnight so Ill be baking it tomorrow.

In between adding butter to the brioche, I prepared some Jerusalem Artichokes, tossed them in oil & roasted them in the oven with some rosemary. Unfortunately while I was carving the duck I forgot about the artichokes & burnt them. How annoying, grrr!