Rhubarb...rhubarb...rhubarb...rhubarb...

Let me be come clean about this from the outset. I LoVe Rhubarb!
It fascinates me.
How can something that is technically a vegetable, despite what an American judge decided in 1947, manage to have poisonous leaves and such yummy stems? It even looks fascinating...

As far as I can see - the only down side to rhubarb is that, try as I might, I just can't get the stuff to grow in my garden.  :(  I am entirely dependent on the generosity of family, friends and neighbours for my fix.  Thankfully I have very generous family, friends and neighbours...

Not to mention a decent collection of recipe books with some very interesting recipes including rhubarb...

First up for this years Rhubarb crop: Jamie Oliver's Sticky Rhubarb and Ginger cake.  

I got this recipe from the 2011 Comic Relief cookbook (I've no idea if it has been reprinted anywhere else) and it has to be said that this is a monster cake and is super easy to make...

Chop 250g of rhubarb into shortish lengths and put in a pan with 3 tablespoons of water and 3 tablespoons of stem ginger syrup, bring to the boil and slowly simmer for about 5 mins so the rhubarb is soft but still in pieces...

Melt together (in another pan!) 200g butter, 150g dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoon golden syrup.  Once melted and stirred together sit them to one side to cool a little....

Whisk 2 eggs into 150ml of milk and add to the melted ingredients..slowly stir the whole lot together...

Remember that stem ginger syrup from the first step?  well its time to pick out 3 - 4 balls of stem ginger (depending on how much you like ginger) and chop them into smaller pieces, before stirring them into 300g of self raising flour...

 

Slowly combine the melted ingredients into the dry and then pour into your prepared cake tin.  Or if you are a busy working mother, cheat, and use a silicon cake mould that needs very little greasing.  Then fish the pieces of rhubarb out of the ginger syrup liquid and gently float them on top of the cake mixture, keeping the warm syrup safe to one side...

Pop in the oven for about 1 hour 20 mins. 180'c / 350'f / gas 4.  Top tip is to keep an eye on it from about 45 mins on - if the top looks like its catching then pop some foil over the top for the last 15 -25 mins.

When the cake passes granny's knitting needle test (stab it in the middle and if the needle comes out clean its done) then its done.  Take it out and whilst it is still warm spoon over that left over ginger syrup mix and let it soak in whilst the cake cools in its tin.

Eat it warm with custard ..or let it cool and try with a dollop of crème fraiche.

The choice is yours.....

Recipe number 2 for this years batch of rhubarb is Orange and Rhubarb Jam from my grandmothers old preserving book...

This is traditional, no frills jam making at its finest.  Chop 1.5 kg of rhubarb add the rind and juice from two oranges, and stir it into 1kg of sugar and heat through.  It's lovely watching the sugar melt to syrup and inhaling warm citrussy smells...

 

The usual advice for jam is to cook the fruit slowly and then when the sugar has melted boil rapidly for 10ish minutes until the setting point is reached.  So that's what I did.... finally ladling the jam into warmed jars and feeling very satisfied and proud with myself ...

A cake and jam in one morning - hoorah!

But what disaster is this?

That's not jam!  - its syrup!!!!

Back track to recipe book - darn it! the recipe says to use high pectin sugar. 

The small print reminds the careful reader that rhubarb isn't very high in pectin - mainly because at its heart it is a vegetable rather than a fruit so it isn't very good at setting unless you use either sugar that has pectin added to it or another fruit that has lots of pectin (apples / citrus fruits usually).

So its a quick trip to a local super market to buy some pectin....

Reboil the jam, splosh in some pectin and wash the jars before re-bottling the jam and saving the day.

Phew! my domestic goddess status is just about intact.

Think I'll have a rest before trying recipe number 3.

I need to ensure I have fully learned the lesson of near disastrous rhubarb and orange jam and thankfully I have secured a secret weapon in the fight against sloppy rhubarb jam...

Yes, that really is 2 ruby grapefruit that are going to be zested and juiced before being added to the rhubarb and sugar. Because lets face it. That rhubarb and orange jam is a distinctly unappetising grungy green colour isnt it?  Go on, scroll back up and take a closer look...

I think I may have discovered downside number two for rhubarb and why it gets such bad press.  All that yummy looking ruby redness in the stems gets cooked out leaving behind khaki green.....er......sludge.  Once again revealing it really is a vegetable!

Surely the zesty red juices of ruby grapefruit will solve both the setting and the colouring problem?

 

For the record. This is 1kg of both sugar and rhubarb, along with zest, juice and skins from 2 ruby grapefruit, all stired together and ignored (a.k.a. covered with a tea towel) for an hour to allow the sugar to draw all the pectin out of the grapefruit skins...

 

 

What a difference an hour makes!

Time to cook! Bring the whole lot to the boil fairly slowly and once it starts to boil fish out the grapefruit skins squeezing as much of the liquid out as you can.  This can be tricky when you are trying to stir, fish and photograph all at the same time...

 

But eventually you will achieve a simmering pot of jam and a separate bowl of grapefruit skins...

 

and finally.... if not ruby red...at least pinkish jam.  Believe me this is a zesty-tingle-your-taste-buds kind of a jam, guaranteed to wake you up when spread on toast in the morning.

I think its high time this much maligned vegetable was given the chance of a comeback. There must be some other fans out there...feel free to share your favourite rhubarb recipes in the comments below.