Rhubarb is coming back into season and we’re loving reintroducing this wonderful fruit to our cooking!
Early-forced rhubarb, grown under pails or in hothouses, is available for harvesting from March.
Did you know…?
- It has been cultivated for more than 2,000 years and was imported to Europe from China as a medicinal plant. Its name comes from the Greek rha barbaron or barbarian root.
- It was once so valuable that one of the goals Marco Polo had in traveling to China was to discover where the plant came from (Tangut, now in northern China).
- In the early 15th century, Ruy González de Clavijo, the Castillian ambassador to the court of Timur, said: “The best of all merchandise coming to Samarkand was from China: especially silks, satins, musk, rubies, diamonds, pearls, and rhubarb.”
- In the 18th century, as sugar became more widely available to sweeten the tart stalks, it began to be used as a source of food in Britain. By the 19th century, it was being grown for its stalks alone.
- It thrives in colder temperatures and plants can live for up to 60 years.
- The Rhubarb Triangle is a nine-square-mile area in West Yorkshire, between Morley, Wakefield, and Rothwell, famed for producing early-forced rhubarb.
What to look out for when buying forced rhubarb
Look out for tender and bright pink or pale pink stalks that are thin and sweet rather than thick and tart. This comes from a good quality forced harvest. Stalks should also be firm and upright.
What can you make with it?
It’s is ideal for traditional desserts like crumbles, tarts, syllabubs, and fools. It’s also fantastic for jams. Add a little stem ginger to elevate the taste and make your dishes zing!
Try some rhubarb and custard scones for a spring afternoon tea, or a delicious rhubarb and elderflower cake when the hedgerows turn white in a month or two. Rhubarb and custard French toast is also a delicious brunch dish for a weekend treat.
It can also be used in savoury recipes as a chutney for meat or in a kebab sauce. Make the kebab sauce with mint, sugar, ginger, cider vinegar, onion, and rhubarb, and serve with lamb kebab and yoghurt.
Make rhubarb gin by steeping it in your favourite gin. Use this in spring and summer cocktails like a gin and elderflower cordial cooler.
Take a look at some of the dishes we make with seasonal ingredients like this in our sample menus.
