rhubarb

Rhubarb vodka … please be careful …

Rhubarb flavoured vodka

Does anybody actually like vodka? I’m not sure they do … it’s just searing alcohol to me, and before the whole of Eastern Europe rises as one and mercilessly hunts me down, I’ve found a way to make it a bit more palatable. To transform it into something worth drinking, rather than merely enduring, if [...]

Food & drink

Rhubarb, ginger and chilli pickle

Rhubarb, ginger and chilli pickle

This time of year always brings the first glut of the season – rhubarb. One day, there’s none, but the next, there are vast parasols shading slender stems rocketing skywards, growing thicker and darker day by day. Rhubarb is the most hardy and forgiving of vegetables, and it is a vegetable and not a fruit, [...]

Food & drink

Rhubarb relish, ready for winter (already)

Rhubarb relish, ready for winter (already) post image

Around this time of year, rhubarb tends to get tired and worn out. The stalks, those that haven’t been plundered already, are green and thick, with big umbrella-like leaves.  Everything starts to look a bit Jurassic, overgrown and gnarled. The slender pink and red elegance of the early stalks has long faded, and the taste [...]

Food & drink

Big crumb rhubarb cake

Big crumb rhubarb cake

Main crop rhubarb is everywhere right now, it’s huge umbrella leaves weighing down thick, green and red stalks. In a month or so, the stalks will taste bitter and old, so now is the time to pick it and use it. This cake is a superb way to do just that. It’s excellent with coffee. [...]

Food & drink