Currabinny Cooks: A sharp but sweet rhubarb and rye cake
Serve it warm with some crème fraîche, cream or vanilla icecream.
There is nothing else quite like rhubarb. I feel like its particular flavour has never been sufficiently described — so unique and singular that it is. Rhubarb is sour but in a completely different way from citrus fruits. So often when I eat rhubarb I try to mull over its flavour, seeking out things to compare it with from my memory. The truth is that rhubarb is just rhubarb and shouldn’t be compared to anything else.
The coming of Spring brings with it rhubarb as one its earliest crops. The forced rhubarb season properly starts in early March but there will be rhubarb in the grocers and markets from around now until high Summer where it disappears due to being sensitive to the heat.
Rhubarb has the appearance of deep crimson celery (although it is unrelated). The plant is grown for its fleshy leaf stalks which are the only edible part of the plant. At this time of year, rhubarb is generally harvested by candlelight in forcing sheds whereby all the light is blocked out, producing very tender, sweeter stalks. It is said that the colour of the rhubarb has no bearing on its edibility but I still would recommend choosing the most crimson, crisp stalks. Thinner stalks will be slightly sweeter than thicker ones.
Eating rhubarb in the way we do today is a surprisingly recent thing. Before the 18th century it was primarily medicinal. It is probably due to the increasing abundance of refined sugar that common practices of eating stewed, sweetened rhubarb gained popularity.
I would never be brave enough to eat rhubarb on its own, unsweetened. It does need a bit of sugar or syrup to make it pleasant to eat. Due to its tartness, rhubarb also benefits being paired with rich fatty things such as butter or caramel.
Rhubarb is most commonly stewed with sugar into a sort of compote but it can also be poached, roasted, pickled or fermented. It can, in fact, be eaten raw, despite rumours of uncooked rhubarb being poisonous. The recipes we have included here are some of our favourites, being simple, uncomplicated and making the most of rhubarb's unique flavour.
This is one of the purest and simplest ways of enjoying rhubarb — cooking it down into a thick compôte which you can then eat on its own, with cream, yoghurt, on porridge, with icecream or even mix into a cake. There are many different combinations of ingredients you can add to your compôte but the simple combination of rhubarb, sugar and a splash of something liquid is common to all. In our version, we add a little fat (salted butter) and a splash of alcohol (in this case we used Aperol but you could also use Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Campari or even white wine).
- 400g rhubarb, cut into small pieces
- Zest of one large orange
- 2 tablespoons of Aperol
- 50g butter
- 150g caster sugar
Place all the ingredients in a shallow pan over a medium-high heat. Cook down, stirring occasionally until the rhubarb has all broken down. This might take around 15 minutes. The rhubarb will initially release a lot of liquid, which you will want to evaporate slowly. Turn down the heat after 15 minutes and simmer gently until you get a thick jam-like compôte.
The combination of nutty rye with the bright tartness of rhubarb is the perfect contrast between rich, fatty and sweet with sharp acidity. This recipe uses the compôte from the first recipe. You can use all of the amount from the recipe, although if it is too liquid, use less, or cook it down further.
- 200g cream flour
- 200g rye flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- A good pinch of salt
- 100g caster sugar
- 50g soft brown sugar
- 150g butter
- 2 large eggs
- Juice from ½ orange
- 200ml of milk
- The compôte from the previous recipe
Preheat the oven to 200°C In a large bowl or using a mixer, cream the butter and both types of sugar until smooth. In a separate larger bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix the eggs into the butter and sugar one at a time, beating until well combined. Add the 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter, sugar and egg mixture, folding it in until well combined. Next, mix together the milk and orange juice and slowly beat into the mixture. Next fold in the rest of the flour mixture.
Butter a 9-inch springform cake tin and pour the batter in. Spoon the compôte on top of the batter and then swirl it into the batter in a sort of marbled way.
Bake in the preheated oven for around 45 to 50 minutes. The cake should be golden brown on top.
Let the cake cool on a wire rack and then turn it out onto a serving plate. You can serve it warm with some crème fraîche, cream or vanilla icecream.
This is another incredibly simple and delicious way of preparing rhubarb which has the added benefit of keeping the beautiful shape and look of the rhubarb stalks intact. They should be roasted slowly for around 30 minutes until very soft.
- 300g of rhubarb, cut into spears
- 1 thumb of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 vanilla bean split
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Place the rhubarb and ginger in a medium baking dish. Scatter the sugar over it and scrape the vanilla bean seeds into the dish. Leave the dish on the countertop for around 30 minutes to let the rhubarb release some of its juices.
Mix the ingredients around the dish a little so everything is coated in sugar and rhubarb juice.
Place in the oven for around 30 minutes until the rhubarb spears are soft but not yet falling apart. Let cool slightly and serve with good vanilla icecream.
