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Picking rhubarb stalks fresh from the ground takes me back to childhood when we'd rifle through large, completely untended plants that had taken root in front of old farm barns and behind gates, finding the rosiest stalks, and snapping them off as close to the bottom as possible before running back to the farmhouse where we'd dip them into a little bowl of sugar, to counter-balance the astonishingly tart raw fruit. It's manageable but the sugar is almost necessary to lessen the feeling of your tongue and teeth being rinsed dry!
Rhubarb is a fruit (well, actually, a vegetable) that benefits from being cooked.......with a generous amount of sugar. We use it in all manner of pudding recipes, like crumble, tarts and cheesecakes, as well as jams, syrups, and sparkling drinks; but it's also frequently paired with savoury dishes, working well with oily fish like salmon, mackerel and kippers, and rich meats like lamb and pork.
Let's start with the classic combo we all know and love: rhubarb and custard. The combination of soft, stewed rhubarb cooked down with a touch of sugar to round off that tartness, served with rich, creamy custard, is the stuff of sweet dreams. It's traditionally served warm but can be served cold and set like a trifle.
Gloriously crimson, rhubarb is the earliest 'fruit' of the year.
First comes forced rhubarb, where the warmth of purpose-built forcing sheds tricks rhubarb plants into thinking it's springtime, which forces them to break their dormancy and start growing out of their natural growing season. The result is a tender stem with a sweet, delicate flavour, a superbly pretty pink stalk and golden yellow leaves- a sight for sore eyes amidst a bleak British winter!
Forced rhubarb produced within Yorkshire's 'Rhubarb Triangle' is world-renowned and highly sought after by top chefs who want only the very best for their restaurants; so spectacular is Yorkshire's forced rhubarb, that it was given Protected Designation of Origin status in 2010.
Just a couple of months later the first buds of garden rhubarb poke their way through the ground, their bright green leaves furled from slumber. As the plant grows, the leaves open out and the stems ascend to the heavens, shooting up at an astonishing rate.
