The wonders of rhubarb! How best to grow it and enjoy its deliciousness...
This week I am back in the kitchen, this time with a basket of home-grown rhubarb!
I thought this week I would dedicate a blog post to glorious rhubarb - from growing it, to picking it and cooking with it!
First up I am going to talk you through my rhubarb and show you exactly how I pick it.
The rhubarb I have growing in one of my raised beds is well established. It's been in the bed now for a few years, so I'm planning this winter to use a rhubarb forcer for the first time and have some really delicious, forced rhubarb.
If you've got a young rhubarb plant, you want to wait about two or three years before you force it because you really want the plant to be well-established.
Picking Rhubarb
The best way to pick rhubarb is to first get right in amongst the leaves and have a good look at what you've got. Then you just want to snap the best-looking spears by pushing it down slightly and giving a little twist. You don't want to use a knife when you're picking your rhubarb. Just push down, and give a twist and pull until it comes away.
Be selective over which ones you pick off, leave new shoots and discard older looking ones as you go to give those new shoots room to flourish.
In my kitchen garden, I've planted two new rhubarb plants. The idea is that when I force the other already established one which I've had for a while, these will be settling in ready for the next few years.
Forcing Rhubarb
If you want to have really delicious, bright pink and tender rhubarb, pop a terracotta cloche or something like that over the top of it to block out the light. It also helps to create an atmosphere of warmth and darkness, which is why you get those really deep, beautiful vibrant pinks that we see from forced rhubarb. Do it from December through to early spring.
I also grow my rhubarb with a column of chicken wire around it, to not only protect it but keep it upright. This also enables the huge leaves to create a kind of natural canopy, acting similarly to the cloche method explained above.
If you're picking your rhubarb to eat, give it a good wash and remove all of the leaves, plus any stringy pieces.
It's really important to be aware that the rhubarb leaves are poisonous. I think this is one of the main reasons why people are put off cooking, eating and enjoying rhubarb is because these big leaves are poisonous. Just please be aware of that and never cook with them.
This week I'm going to show you how to make one of my absolute favourites at this time of year, Rhubarb Frangipani Galette. You can make so many beautiful dishes with rhubarb - I also use mine to create Rhubarb & Vanilla Jam, as well as to flavour my Rhubarb and Ginger Gin, both of which go down a storm! Scroll down a little further to see my recipe for gin too, as a little bonus!
Rhubarb Frangipani Galette
Ingredients:
Rhubarb filling:
750g roughly chopped and washed rhubarb
Juice and zest of one orange or some Tropicana
1tbsp of brown sugar
3 star anise
Handful cloves
1 tsp mixed spice
Pastry:
250g plain flour
150g cold diced butter
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 pinch sea salt
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp cold water
Frangipani:
80g ground almonds
80g softened unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch sea salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
To serve:
Clotted cream or creme fraiche
Method:
Place all of the ingredients for the rhubarb filling into a roasting tin, and pop into the middle of the baking oven of your AGA (160 degrees in an electric oven) for 20 mins.
Whilst that's cooking, prepare your pastry.
Pulse the cold cubed butter and flour in the mixer until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. This can be done by hand too, just make sure you don't overwork it.
Add the caster sugar, salt, egg yolk, and cold water.
Pulse or mix again until all combined - this should take roughly 10 seconds.
Tip the pastry mix into a big bowl. Using your hands, carefully and gently bring the pastry together to form a ball. Again, don’t overwork it.
Wrap it in cling film and pop until the fridge to chill for at least 30 mins-1 hour.
After 20 minutes, remove your rhubarb from the oven and leave it to one side to cool.
Place all ingredients for the frangipani into a mixing bowl and give it a good mix by hand or whizz in the food processor to combine into a paste.
Remove your pastry from the fridge, sandwich between two pieces of greaseproof paper and roll into a circle.
Peel back the top layer of the greaseproof paper and place the whole thing into the dish you’re going to cook the galette inside. Pop it back into the fridge to re-firm for 30 minutes.
Once re-firmed, spread the frangipani mixture into the centre of the pastry, leaving 5/6cm from the edge.
Using tongs so you don’t pick up too much juice, the star anise or the cloves, pick out your rhubarb pieces and place it over the frangipani.
Lift up the edges of the pastry and fold them inwards over the edge of the filling to create a heightened crust and contain everything inside.
Pop into the middle of the baking oven of your AGA or at 160 degrees inside an electric oven for 30-35 minutes. Check at 20 minutes and add AGA's plain cold sheet if the top starts looking too brown.
Serve with clotted cream or creme fraiche!
Rhubarb & Ginger Gin
Ingredients:
500g chopped rhubarb
2-inch piece of ginger
70g granulated sugar
Method:
Place the sugar, rhubarb and ginger in a large jar and leave for 48 hours shaking occasionally.
After 48 hours, add 500ml of gin to the jar and leave for 4 weeks.
Strain and bottle!
I hope you love these recipes as much as I do, please do let me know if you try them out!
In the next couple of weeks, I'll be filming a new Q&A for you all, so do leave me any questions that you'd like for me to answer over on social or email them to charlie@askcharlie.how!
Love, Charlie x