Rhubarb recipes

Here's a slightly sad story - I planted some Champagne rhubarb about five years ago - it didn't thrive and I thought I'd lost it, but it survived, and I have nurtured it ever since. This is the first year that I felt confident enough in the plant's robustness to pick any - I looked for a special recipe, and found a roasted rhubarb and orange flan using puff pastry. Well, I tried it last night and it wasn't a great recipe - I had to cook it for double the time on the recipe but the base was still uncooked and soggy. The family was very polite, but what I wonder is - have you got a tried and tested rhubarb recipe for the next time I can pick the Champagne rhubarb?

Absolutely, Dandelion - rhubarb and strawberry crumble. It's utterly delicious and rhubarb goes brilliantly with strawberries. Bit busy right now, but will post the recipe a little later.

Not having seen your recipe for the flan, it's hard to comment. However, rhubarb holds a large amount of juice, so unless you either pre-cook it and tip away some of the juice, or put something with it to soak it up, I would think pastry doesn't stand a chance. The crumble recipe uses ground rice or similar in with the fruit to thicken the juices.

Ooh, that sounds good FB.
The recipe I used told you to marinade the chopped up rhubarb in orange juice and sugar, then drain and put the fruit onto a sheet of puff pastry with a sprinkle of sugar. The juice made the fruit even wetter, despite being drained, so that was the cause of the problem. I have a kind of blind faith that recipes I find on the internet must work, or why would people post them? Not true in this case!!

AMERICAN RHUBARB CRUMBLE – serves 6-8

Topping:
4oz flour
2oz brown sugar
4tsp granulated sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2oz softened salted butter
2oz walnuts

Filling:
1.5 – 2lb rhubarb
5 oz sugar
3 tbs flour or ground rice
1/2lb strawberries

1. Preheat oven to Gas 5 and toast the walnuts for 4-6 mins until they smell nutty, then cool and chop coarsely.
2. Mix flour, sugar and cinnamon and rub in the fat, then add the walnuts
3. Cut rhubarb into ½” pieces and halve the strawberries
4. Sprinkle with sugar and flour or ground rice, and toss so well covered – leave to stand to draw the juice.
5. Put the fruit into a 9” pie dish and cover with the topping
6. Bake Gas 5 for 40 minutes or until the juice bubbles up around the edges.

My comments:
I would make that amount of topping for 3-4 servings.
I never bother to toast the nuts – I reckon they get toasted in the cooking anyway
I always use ground rice as the thickener as it gives a nice texture
I would prepare the filling first so that it can draw juice whilst preparing the rest.

That sounds really, really lovely. Will put ground rice on the shopping list (I could make ground rice pudding as well - haven't eaten that for years!)

My rhubarb has been languishing like yours Dandelion for 15 years - I get a small amount off it but have been meaning to plant some in a different spot to see if it is any better.
I remember making a rhubarb & custard trifle a couple of years ago which was rather nice - I'll see if I can find the recipe. There's always rhubarb fool as well.

Why not try dividing it when it's dormant, Ploshkin. Plant one piece somewhere else, and plant the other in the existing site but with a nice fresh lot of compost.

I've got the same problem with my rhubarb!

Comes from my husbands grangmother's garden. At her place she doesn't know what to do with it and at my place it doesn't grow.. So i get my rhubarb from her garden

I Made a rhubarb spice cake the other day, it was delicious!

freebird wrote:Why not try dividing it when it's dormant, Ploshkin. Plant one piece somewhere else, and plant the other in the existing site but with a nice fresh lot of compost.

That worked for me with my other rhubarb plant - it had been growing at the bottom of the garden, quite near to our giant conifer, where the soil must have been too dry. I dug it up and replanted a chunk of root in a completely different part of the garden, and after a couple of wet years it is really flourishing. It's a Timperley Early, so we get rhubarb...early, but it's very acidic. I wanted to try a Champagne Rhubarb because the flavour is meant to be lovely

Walnuts, strawberries and ground rice bought, so I'm ready to do the crumble tomorrow. Oh, and DD2 wants the recipe too!

Well I was going to photograph the crumble, but we all got a bit enthusiastic, and you really wouldn't have wanted to look at a picture of the bowl after we had all attacked it! The strawberries and walnuts were an inspired addition!

Sounds like it was a success then, Dandelion. I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

We finished the leftovers tonight with cornish ice cream. Big thumbs up from the family!

Well, I decided to blow my entire rhubarb crop (1 lb & at least I can get something to reach 'pencil thickness') on this recipe. It is definitely one for my permanent recipe book.

I came across this recipe and tried it our last weekend. It went down well with the family (it went down well with a good dollop of ice cream too!) It's a bit of a wierd recipe to make because it seems wrong, and you get a warm thin batter in the food processor. But it was fine when it came out (though I still had a problem with the rhubarb being a little less than soft. Next time I make it I might part cook it and cool it before I add it to the mixture)



Food Processor Rhubarb Cake

• 5 oz butter , softened, plus extra for greasing
• 10oz self-raising flour
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 4 oz dark muscovado sugar
• 8oz golden syrup
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 eggs , beaten
• 10oz rhubarb , cut into short lengths
• icing sugar , for dusting


1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and put the kettle on. Butter and line a deep 20cm square cake tin. Sift the flour and spices into a bowl. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in the food processor, then beat in the golden syrup. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 200ml boiling water, then gradually pour through the spout of the processor. Pulse in the flour, then add the eggs, mixing briefly. Remove the bowl from the processor, then gently stir in the rhubarb.
2. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 50-60 mins, until the cake feels firm to the touch and springs back when pressed. Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar.
3. Eat in three days. Microwave a slice and eat as dessert with cream.