Cooking Rhubarb

In a comment, chubskulit asked how to cook rhubarb, so I thought I’d tell everyone in case there are others who are not sure about this.

Most important - discard the leaves which would make you ill if you ate them. You can see how large the leaves are in my last post, In the Garden. Just scroll down to the photo of the veg patch and see the rhubarb bottom left of the picture.

Cut the stalks into 2 cm chunks, pulling off any stringy bits. Wash them in a colander. Then you can stew them or cook in the microwave for a few minutes with sugar and not more than a couple of tablespoons of water. Or you can put them in a tart or a pie. Rhubarb crumble is my favourite. It’s so quick to make. We had some last night with custard.

For a crumble, put rhubarb and sugar into a 2 pint deep casserole dish with a tablespoon of water. Rub 2 ounces of butter into 4 ounces of flour till it resembles breadcrumbs, add and ounce of sugar and stir. Cover the rhubarb with this and cook in a medium/hot oven for about half an hour.

It's simple but delicious.

A Busy Day

Not much time to write anything today, including this blog. But I don't want to miss my Friday blog slot so I thought I'd just give you a run down on my day.

First was cleaning the house, then finding the Christmas decorations. Fortunately hubby came in for lunch as I was getting really frustrated having emptied out all the store cupboards in vain. I did find some things that had been missing for ages, but no Xmas decs. So we got out the loft ladder and climbed up there. And there they were, in a black sack inside a box.

My efforts are a bit minimal this year. We bought a tiny blue spruce growing in a pot, so we'll be potting it on after the holiday. It's about 2 foot tall, perhaps a little less. So I put it on a coffee table next to a mirror, put the lights around it and then up and over the mirror. it looks quite good. Perhaps I'll take a pic to show you next week.

Once I'd finished those minimal decorations to my satisfaction, I started chopping vegetables for the first of my curries. I made three altogether: Jean's special veggie; a lamb madras; and a chicken and mushroom dopiaza, the last two with shop bought sauces so really easy.

It's all in aid of my supper party tomorrow night. Hubby wanted curries and I don't know exactly what my guests will like so I've made some options, including a beef casserole for someone I know doesn't like anything spicy.

We'll have loads left. Numbers have dwindled a bit. Brian from next door called in earlier to give apologies: his wife is sick and I don't think he'll come without her. Maybe I'll offer him takeaways.

Not that it matters. What's left will freeze and I'll have some cooking free days in the next week or so.

Stourhead and Growing Your Own

I took this picture of Stourhead this time last year.

This last week has been more about cooking than writing. After walking around Stourhead in beautiful sunshine on the Sunday, we stopped off at a little stall outside a house on the way home. They leave bagfuls of cooking apples for sale at £1 a bag, with a box to put your pounds in. We bought 2 bags. That’s quite a lot of apples to peel, core and cook.

We had them first with a delicious stale doughnut pudding, made like a bread and butter pudding with eggs and milk, then on another day with blueberries and custard. I have stewed apple in the fridge and the freezer and there are still four apples left to prepare.

Also, we’ve had a glut of runner beans in our garden. Actually we dithered about planting them this year because we were/are still trying to sell the house. But they went in on the reasoning that sods law says we won’t sell if we don’t plant them, but we might if we do. In any case whoever buys would be welcome to them. Too late now though.

The beans began to form the week before we went on holiday and we had our first feast on the delicious, small young ones. During the 16 days we were away, my neighbour looked after them for me, and I told her to help herself. She said she had picked some. After that they started to come thick and fast. We picked and ate them nearly every day through the rest of August and most of September. Several bagfuls were given away and eventually, last week, I had to blanch and freeze several more bags. I never think they are as nice after freezing, but I just can’t bear to throw them in the compost. I have spent hours stringing and slicing them. The plants are now due to come out but I found enough to go with our roastie meal again yesterday.

There’s nothing like eating your own produce, and we really don’t grow enough different things. Trying to move house has definitely put us off. I remember my dad working in our quite large back garden when I was young. He grew lots of beans and all sorts of other veggies – cabbages, sprouts, potatoes, carrots, onions, beetroot, marrows, etc. It’s becoming fashionable again in the UK to do this. Totnes in Devon was the first town to designate various areas for the community to grow extra produce, and others have followed suit.

We did have some home grown potatoes this August, that we had grown from just one that had gone too soft to cook and started growing tubors in my cupboard. We put it in a tub so it could have gone with us if we’d moved. When we came back from our holiday the leaves had died off so we emptied the tub and found about 3 lbs of good sized spuds that were really yummy when cooked.

I’d love to hear what you grow in your back yards or elsewhere, wherever you are.

On a completely different subject, why not pop over to Rebecca Laffar-Smith’s Writers’ Roundabout to see my guest post which is currently featured there? It gives hints for writers who want to ‘show, not tell’.