go straight to the preparation technique
Very few old fashioned ingredients have survived as popular as rhubarb. Put a rhubarb and apple crumble on your menu and the delight it delivers is out of proportion with the simplicity of the dish. Unsurprisingly if you do a Google search for rhubarb recipes a simple crumble is repeated time and time again.
Rhubarb is actually a vegetable, and more amazing still its country of origin, Russia, Southern Siberia, so it is not surprising that the earliest records of the use of rhubarb date to around 2700BC in the Mongolian region of China. Like celery we eat the leaf stalks, though, unlike celery, the leaves of rhubarb give mild poisoning and should definitely not be eaten. In antiquity it was widely used for medicinal purposes, and records show that medicines made from rhubarb were commonly unpleasant digestive medications. Given this history, it is surprising that so little was recorded about the toxicity of rhubarb leaves. Unwisely the American government encouraged the consumption of rhubarb leaves during the food shortages of World War one. The result was disastrous with many people being quite seriously poisoned.
Rhubarb is best propagated from crowns and does not like extremes of temperature, either hot or cold, which can cause it to remain firmly underground. It is less particular about the types of soil it grows in and lasts from 2 – 4 years, another good reason to keep breaking it up if you are lucky enough to have it in your garden. When purchasing rhubarb, always look for firm crisp, bright red stems without any blackening or discolouration.
The very famous Mrs. Hanna Glasse in her chronicles written in 1747 mentions that Rhubarb fritters can be easily made by dipping lengths into batter and frying them in hot oil, draining well and generously dusting with sugar.
Savoury and sweet recipes for rhubarb will be added in July and August.
Rhubarb is usually sold in 1kg packs or bundles and whilst this might seem a lot it dimishes when cooked.
When purchasing rhubarb, always look for firm crisp, bright red stems without any blackening or discolouration. To prepare the rhubarb, wash well trimming the ends, in particular the leaves and with a sharp knife, pulling away any tough stringy outer part, in much the same way as you remove the tough strings from a stalk of celery.
Lay the washed rhubarb on a clean tea towel and dry it off a bit. Place the rhubarb into a bowl and scatter about 100g caster sugar over the top and then mix through.Let it stand for 15 minutes.
Pre heat oven to 180°C
Cover a lipped baking sheet with a silicon mat and scrape the rhubarb and juices out onto the mat.
Cook for 10-15 minutes..long enough to take the rawness off but leave some texture.
Very tart, rhubarb requires some sweetness to be used as a dessert. It’s companion fruits are strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and apples. Rhubarb is equally as good in tarts, crumbles, Bavarians and ice creams.
After making quince paste and blessed with an excessive amount of quince jelly, we have been cooking our rhubarb for crumble in quince jelly with very delicious results.
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a showgirl dessert try this
This does take some patience at the prep stage, but these tissue thin rhubarb wafers tossed on top of a pav or bavarian are show stoppers. I did try to dry them in the dehydrator but because they are so fragile the were very easily broken when removing them from the dehydrator. Equally no easy on silicon mats, so baking paper is the go.
Prep a 1:1 water and sugar, sugar syrup and chill.
Wash and dry the rhubarb and using a mandolin very finely slice the rhubarb lengthwise and put it into a bowl. Add about 200 l of sugar syrup and wearing food service gloves make sure that the slices are coated with syrup on all sides. Reserving the sugar syrup tip them into a colander and let drain for 30 minutes.
pre heat oven to 100°C
Cover baking sheets with baking paper and again wearing food service gloves lay the slices in a single layer on trays. Cook for about 30 minutes and check to make sure they are not colouring. If the are turn the oven down to 80°C. Cook until they are completely dry about an hour.
Don’t delay in packing them into an airtight container with a couple of 50g silica gel sachets.
be a show-off bask in compliments
In winter show off with a pav filled with strawberry ice cream, topped with roasted rhubarb [and raspberries if you like] whopped dollops of pure cream and at the very last minute scatter rhubarb slices over the top and a little bit of scattered gold leaf.
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