A Surplus Of Rhubarb

What to make when you find yourself with too much rhubarb 🥧

Large Rhubarb, Pistachio & Cardamom Tart

Rhubarb has always felt special to me, firstly, it’s hot pink which can only be a good thing, secondly its intriguing similarity to celery has always drawn my interest, how can two things that look so similar taste so different? And lastly, it’s blow your socks off sour, as a lover of anything tangy it has my name written all over it. After seeing every single person on the internet (at least that’s how it seems to me) use forced rhubarb I decided it was my time, however actually getting hold of the stuff turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. Luckily I have friends in the food industry and I managed to rope one of them into ordering me some forced Yorkshire rhubarb from her supplier. The problem is I could only get a whole box, or nothing… and that is how I ended up with 6kg of rhubarb to use up. I invite you to come join me on my journey to use it all up.

Rhubarb Jam

My first port of call was, of course, to make a big batch of rhubarb jam, once jammified, the shelf life is much better, giving me a bit more time to figure out what the hell I’m going to do with it all. I believe the wonderful Nicola Lamb has a rhubarb newsletter coming out this week if you really want to dive into sugar percentages and different ways to prepare rhubarb but I stuck with my standard jam ratio of 40-50% sugar. Because I wanted this jam to be nice and tart I stuck with 40% and added a touch of citric acid, you can always use lemon juice instead. The addition of pectin here is optional but I like to use it for a firmer set, I find the small sachets of pectin to be more reliable than the liquid form but that’s a whole other topic for another day. For now let’s get on with the jam!

Ingredients

1kg rhubarb

400g caster sugar

A few empty vanilla pods or 1tsp vanilla paste

3g or 1/2tsp citric acid

5g pectin mixed with 10g sugar

Method

1. Chop the rhubarb into approximately 1cm pieces, throw away the leaves (they’re poisonous) but keep the manky end bits, we’ll deal with these later!

2. Combine the rhubarb with the sugar and some vanilla (I use old, empty pods for this rather than cracking into a fresh one!). Leave this mixture for at least 3 hours to macerate.

3. Once all of the sugar has dissolved put onto a medium/high heat and bring to the boil.

4. When the jam is boiling, shower in the pectin/sugar mixture whilst whisking, this will help stop any lumps of pectin forming.

5. Reduce the heat to low and cook for at least an hour, stirring intermittently.

6. When all of the rhubarb has broken down and the jam has thickened, remove from the heat, fish out any bits of vanilla and decant into sterilised jars.

I used this jam in some rhubarb tarts (see below), but also on my porridge, on some rice pudding, and in this a vertical roll cake - recipe here, I just switched up the flavours by changing the jam to rhubarb, the puree to raspberry and omitting the earl grey.

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Rhubarb, Pistachio & Cardamom Tarts

Onto our next rhubarby bake, these lovely, pistachio, rhubarb & cardamom tarts. Sometimes I envision a finished tart or cake and I can picture it exactly, I then make it only for it to turn out to be absolutely awful, however this was one of the rare occasions that the final product was exactly how I imagined and I’m so happy with it! Before you get going, this is much easier as a two day process, a few of the elements require chilling and I recommend chilling overnight, it can be done over one day, just allow plenty of time.

This will work in any tin you choose, I tend to find that smaller tarts don’t need blind baking which saves a considerable amount of faff however if you only have a large tart case use that instead, you’ll just need to blind bake the pastry case before adding the filling. This pastry will make more than you need (I didn’t want to start messing about with tiny amounts of egg) so just use what you need and throw the rest in the freezer for your next bake.

Ingredients -Makes 1 x. 20cm tart or 15 x individual tarts, I used these tins.

1/2 of a batch of sweet pastry

Pistachio Cream

5 cardamom pods

100g double cream

50g roasted pistachios

50g white chocolate

100g double cream

Pinch of sea salt

A teeny tiny bit of green food colouring (optional)

Cardamom & Pistachio Frangipane

150g roasted pistachios

20g plain flour

2tsp ground cardamom

Pinch of salt

150g room temperature butter

150g caster sugar

150g egg (about 3 medium eggs)

Rhubarb Jam

200g as above

Roasted Rhubarb

4 sticks rhubarb (about 400g)

About 200g caster sugar (see recipe)

Method - Pistachio Cream

1. Start by making the the pistachio cream, bring the first 100g of cream to the boil, add the cardamom and leave to infuse for an hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan and then roast the pistachios for 15 minutes until fragrant and golden brown (you can roast the pistachios for the frangipane at the same time).

3. Remove the cardamom pods from the cream, re-weigh to account for any weight lost (we need 100g) and bring to the boil.

4. Add the white chocolate and salt to the blender with the pistachios, pour over the freshly boiled cream, leave to sit for a few minutes and then blitz.

5. If you want, add a tiny bit of food colouring at this point.

6. Add the final 100g of double cream.

7. Chill overnight or for at least 3 hours with clingfilm touching the top.

Method - Pistachio Frangipane

1. The pistachio & cardamom frangipane, this can be done the day before, or the day of, either is fine!

2. Blitz the roasted pistachios with the flour and cardamom, this will help keep the pistachios powdery rather than turning into pistachio paste.

3. Cream the butter and sugar until starting to lighten.

4. Add the eggs a little at a time, mixing between each addition, the mixture will probably split a little once all of the eggs are in, this isn’t a problem.

5. Add the ground pistachios, flour and salt and mix until fully combined.

6. Set aside until ready to use.

7. Once all of the elements are chilled, roll out the pastry and line the tarts.

8. Chill for half an hour and preheat the oven to 160°C fan.

   • If you’re doing a large tart, blind bake for 20-25 minutes before continuing

9. Fill the tarts with a spoonful of rhubarb jam followed by frangipane, they should be about 3/4 full to avoid any spillage.

10. Bake for 30-40 minutes depending on the size of your tins.

Method - Roasted Rhubarb

1. While the tarts are baking prepare the roasted rhubarb, cut on an angle or leave long if you’re making a large tart.

2. Weigh the total amount of rhubarb and add 40% sugar and a tablespoon of water.

3. Roast the rhubarb in the same oven as the tarts for 15-25 minutes depending on the thickness of the rhubarb, we want it to be cooked but still hold it’s shape.

Method - Finishing

1. For the pistachio cream, decant it into a bowl and whisk it by hand until it thickens and becomes piping consistency. Be careful not to over-whip or it will become grainy.

2. Pipe the pistachio cream onto the tarts and finish with the roasted rhubarb (save any liquid leftover from roasting!), enjoy!

Mini rhubarb tarts

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Rhubarb Margaritas

Finally let’s get onto possibly my favourite part, using all of the end bits of rhubarb to make some delicious rhubarb syrup, this is great with loads of stuff, I like it in a Prosecco, with fizzy water and a squeeze of lime or or course in a rhubarb margarita.

Rhubarb Syrup

Rhubarb (this can just be the rubbish end bits)

Sugar

• Roast the rhubarb with 50% sugar at 200°C for 20 minutes.

• Strain off the syrup

Rhubarb Margarita Ingredients

120ml tequila

60ml cointreau

60ml lime juice

90ml rhubarb syrup

5g fresh ginger

Ice

1. Grate the ginger and combine with all of the liquids.

2. Give everything a good shake with plenty of ice.

3. Garnish with a piece of roasted rhubarb.

4. Enjoy, if you’ve got to the end of this post you’ve definitely earned it!