Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) grows well in cold wet winters and is a native of Siberia, so this years English winter suited it down to the ground. "Forced" rhubarb is grown in the dark, and Dad uses several upturned dustbins to both keep out the light and encourage warmer temperatures, thereby increasing growth. At one time 90% of the world's winter forced rhubarb was grown in sheds in a small area of West Yorkshire known as the "rhubarb triangle" and in February 2010 Yorkshire forced rhubarb was awarded PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status by the European Commission. But luckily for me it grows well in Northamptonshire too, and it's one of my favourite ingredients. It's actually a vegetable, rather than a fruit, as the edible part doesn't contain seeds, but in 1947 the USA decided that it was classed as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties (something to do with reducing import tariffs).
Dad's pride and joy - well, some of it.
Today, I've made rhubarb sorbet and rhubarb crumble muffins. Looking back, I've made a lot more rhubarb recipes than I thought I had...
The simplest thing to do with rhubarb is to stew it gently with some sugar and have it on some muesli or granola with yogurt. Sometimes you get a bit too much juice with this method, so I strain it and use the juice as a sort of cordial mixed with sparkling water to make a refreshing drink. It can also be roasted in the oven, and makes a lovely crumble, either on its own or mixed with other fruit.
Rhubarb goes especially well with ginger. One of the first rhubarb recipes I ever made as a child was stewed rhubarb layered in a wine glass with raspberry yogurt and crushed ginger biscuits. Adding ground ginger or grated root ginger is a nice way to enhance the flavour, or you can use stem ginger in syrup, such as in a Jamie Oliver recipe I once made out of a booklet sold in aid of Comic Relief in 2011 - sticky rhubarb and ginger cake:
The cake is made with ground and stem ginger, and the rhubarb is poached with stem ginger syrup and arranged on top of the cake before cooking. More rhubarb syrup is spooned over the top of the cake when it comes out of the oven.
Rhubarb & custard cupcakes (see above) are one of my all time favourite cupcake recipes, they're a bit fiddly to make but worth it! There is finely chopped rhubarb in the cake mixture, the cakes are hollowed out after cooking and custard spooned into the centre, then topped with pink and white swirled buttercream flavoured with rhubarb syrup and decorated with an oven baked rhubarb stick.
The sorbet was a recipe I found in the Meat Free Monday cookbook, and couldn't have been simpler, just cook the diced rhubarb with water, sugar and lemon juice, freeze and whisk to break up several times during the freezing process. It didn't say to puree it, but as an experiment I pureed some and didn't puree the rest. It's still freezing at the time of writing, but it looks as if they will both be nice, the non-pureed one will just have more texture to it.
The crumble muffins were a BBC Good Food recipe, they looked a bit rustic, but straight out of the oven in a bowl with a bit of cream while still warm they were delicious, they're still cooling but I think will firm up as they do.
Other recipes with rhubarb that I've made over the last few years include a puff pastry tart, with a layer of sweetened cream cheese underneath the rhubarb; rubarb, macadamia & white chocolate cake; and rhubarb toasted marshmallow puddings. The latter involve a base of cooked egg and breadcrumbs with lemon zest, then a layer of baked rhubarb and finished with meringue. I've used rhubarb puree set with gelatine as a topping on a vanilla cheesecake too. Recipes often suggest adding grenadine liqueur to it to make it pinker, but Dad's is pink enough without it.
Dad and I were talking to the man at the garden centre about rhubarb, recipes and my blog on Friday, he later found us at the till and asked me for the blog address so he could tell his customers about it. :-)
In other news, some friends are running the London Marathon as I write this - and I've promised to make macaroons for them to enjoy afterwards, they've asked for coffee shells with a chocolate filling so I've designated them "marathon mocharoons".
My son has a birthday in the next few days, so I have been requested to create a super Mario cake, next job is to deisgn that...
Thank you for reading, more soon, here is a picture of my alter ego.... a different kind of Roobarb! I have this picture on my kitchen wall :-)
Caroline x
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