The forced rhubarb that you can still get at the moment is good for crumbles and sponges, because it is tender enough not to require pre-cooking. As you can see, it gives off quite a bit of liquid - but not too much.
The recipe is based on one in a kitchen favourite of mine (and of many others), Margaret Costa's Four Seasons Cookery Book.
450g rhubarb, washed and cut into pieces
55g soft brown sugar
55g butter
55g caster sugar
Rind of 1 orange
1 egg, beaten
85g plain flour
Place the rhubarb in an oven dish, and scatter the sugar on top.
Cream the butter with the caster sugar until soft and pale. Stir in the egg and the flour. (I used gluten-free flour, which gets particularly thick and sticky: I added the best part of a further egg.)
Spread the sponge mixture over the rhubarb. Bake at gas mark 5/190C for about 40 minutes, until the sponge has risen and browned.
The recipe is based on one in a kitchen favourite of mine (and of many others), Margaret Costa's Four Seasons Cookery Book.
450g rhubarb, washed and cut into pieces
55g soft brown sugar
55g butter
55g caster sugar
Rind of 1 orange
1 egg, beaten
85g plain flour
Place the rhubarb in an oven dish, and scatter the sugar on top.
Cream the butter with the caster sugar until soft and pale. Stir in the egg and the flour. (I used gluten-free flour, which gets particularly thick and sticky: I added the best part of a further egg.)
Spread the sponge mixture over the rhubarb. Bake at gas mark 5/190C for about 40 minutes, until the sponge has risen and browned.
8 comments:
My mouth watered just looking at your rhubarb dish.
The Melbourne climate favoured the growing of rhubarb and it was ubiquitous in suburban back gardens hence we grew up on it.
In the last two years it has featured several times on menus in France, in a savoury capacity where it was cooked and contained by cooking in a ring and served with beef or duck - magnificent. Prior to this I had only experienced it in a sweeter form - pie, crumble, cake or simply with custard.
My mouth watered just looking at your rhubarb dish.
The Melbourne climate favoured the growing of rhubarb and it was ubiquitous in suburban back gardens hence we grew up on it.
In the last two years it has featured several times on menus in France, in a savoury capacity where it was cooked and contained by cooking in a ring and served with beef or duck - magnificent. Prior to this I had only experienced it in a sweeter form - pie, crumble, cake or simply with custard.
It's a curious thing: a vegetable we use mostly as a fruit. The opposite of a tomato, you might say. But I can imagine that it would go particularly well with duck, cutting through the fatty richness of the meat.
Made this at the weekend and it went down very well. The kids had seconds. Thanks for posting.
Delia's website has a recipe for duck with rhubarb and ginger confit which I can recommend.
Good! It's always a relief - as well as pleasing, of course - to hear that a recipe has worked for someone else.
I've actually gone one further and just bought a second-hand copy of Margaret Costa's book. So if you recommend any other favourites from it....
I know you respect Margaret Costa's work from past posts and I see Pablopatito has recently purchased her book. I recollect that Margaret Costa was one of the joint editors of the Time Life series of cookbooks featuring cuisines of different countries as Richard Olney was the editor of the next series on particular themes, e.g. vegetables, beef etc.
Yes, you're right. Her book has lots of admirers - Delia Smith, Nigel Slater, Simon Hopkinson among them. My only criticism of it concerns her suggestion that you pour quiche filling on to uncooked pastry (without baking it blind first). The pastry tastes raw and soggy.
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