Rhubarb Every Which Way

An Ever-Growing Dedication 2024

Oh January with your cold and dark ways… just when you think it will never end you start to notice the snowdrops poking their heads out, the sun rising just that little bit earlier and then, suddenly, a waft of mimosa on the air and POW! Yellow Flowers! and then POW! The fantastic punch of pink from forced rhubarb.

Both colours announcing signs that spring will get here (eventually) and our eyeballs and tastebuds will have a rip roaring time, ways in which as documented in earlier articles you might like to read:

Love Looks An Awful Lot Like Jelly (a piece on rhubarb jelly and custard, my neighbour Alun, and the wisdom of mysterious midnight callers)

An Ode to Magnolia (with lots of pics and notes on culinary usage)

Now, one of the first things to know about forced rhubarb is that it loses its colour when cooking if you’re not careful, so I’m grateful for Ed from Rocket and Squash for spelling it out so clearly in this reel if you want to follow step-by-step. Essentially though, you should chop your ‘barb, add your sweetener (I just pop a lil’ honey in there) and a splash of water, bring the liquid to a bubble, slam a lid on, take it off the heat and ignore it until it cools down before popping it in the fridge. Et voila! Super pink poached rhubarb. See?

Enjoy as is, draining off the liquid for other shenanigans like jelly-making, or smushing the whole thing into a compote. You could also cold infuse jasmine white tea into the poaching liquid or things like cardamom, rose, star anise and drink it with soda. Whatever you fancy, really.

As for the compote, well well well, you can dollop it on just about anything. Breakfast yoghurt, French toast, pancakes, in the bottom of a creme brûlée, folded into some kind of sponge cake or roly poly, on top of brown sugar meringues, or a rhubarbmisu. Evidence of such delight below.

Going back to the subject of rhubarb-related liquids, it makes an awfully fine gin or vodka. Here’s a recipe:

• 800ml Gin - I used Kemsing Gin as it has lovely notes of clementine, bay leaf and juniper

• 400g White Caster Sugar

• 1kg Forced Rhubarb, chopped into 3cm lengths

• Wash and chop rhubarb, discarding shaggy ends.

• Add to a sterilised kilner jar.

• Add your sugar and shake well to cover the rhubarb.

• Leave for 24hrs for the sugar to draw plenty of liquid from the rhubarb.

• Pour gin over the top, and stir well with a wooden spoon.

• Cover tightly and leave for up to four weeks.

When you want to use it, either strain through a fine cloth into another sterilised bottle within which it will keep for up to a year, or simply pour from the jar if you’re planning to get through it quickly.

Then you can whip up magnificent cocktails, like this rhubarb, ginger and pear sour:

• 50ml Rhubarb Gin

• 75ml Owlett Pear & Ginger Juice

• ½ Teaspoon Kentish Honey

• 20ml Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

• 1 x Egg White

• Light Brown Sugar (to serve)

• Rose Petals (to serve)

• Rim the glass with light brown sugar.

• Shake all of the other ingredients vigorously for 35-40 seconds over ice until light and frothy, almost meringue texture.

• Strain into a clean glass and garnish with rose petals.

You could totally add some thinly sliced fresh ginger or a dash of ginger wine for an extra kick, too.

Now, rhubarb isn’t just for sweet things, oh no. There’s the obvious combination with fish: using it with the gin above perhaps to cure trout, or even chopped up finely into a ceviche along with plenty of lemon juice and fresh herbs.

You can quick pickle it (recipe later via Anna Jones reference) and serve it with rich things that need the edge taking off, like a slow cooked mutton curry… see?

Or turn it into a ketchup and use it within a pork meatloaf, filled with grated celeriac and wild garlic, topped with bubbly cheese and breadcrumbs. Riverford has a good recipe for the ketchup, but I took the overall ketchup inspiration from the Goods Shed. Click the image for some kind of guidance from me on how to make the meatloaf.

The same said ingredients are also excellent with beef instead of pork and turned into a burger. Instead of rhubarb ketchup though, I made a quick pink pickle with shallots and melted tons of Kentish blue cheese over the top.

There’s so much to be said for rhubarb (Anna Jones tray bake with roasted rhubarb and feta for example) but I’d like to get to bed. At dinner, I planned Rhubarb 2024 and it’s looking like rhubarb mustard (to make vinaigrette), rhubarb wine if it’s easy enough (maybe the lovely Leyla at A Day Well Spent can help?), and even a really cool looking savoury soup. I suspect it might somehow be nice with sausages in broth because, let’s face it, everything tastes good in broth.

Anyway, I’ll be reporting back. Let me know if you have any rhubarb tricks up your sleeve - I’d love to try them out.

Rhubarb Supplemental

Rhubarb Sour Gummies from Rose Wilde

Rhubarb Jam from Edd Kimber

Rhubarb Gin from Thane Prince

Rhubarb Apple Lattice Tart from Lynn Hill