Rhubarb rhubarb

No, I'm not talking utter rubbish - I am talking rhubarb. I love this vegetable that masquerades as a fruit - a splash of pink lusciousness in the bleak early months.

Today I made rhubarb crunch for pudding, to follow on from roast gammon, potato gratin, vichy carrots and spring greens with garlic. The recipe came from 'Gori in the kitchen', and it was lovely.

There was a slight aesthetic issue where the syrup rose, amoeba-like, up the sides of the dish, but I suspect that this was because I forgot to grease the dish.

This is something that I will make again - the tartness of the rhubarb works very well with the sweetness of the crust - and with a drizzle of cream it was lovely.

Another of my favourite things to make with rhubarb is rhubarb custard cake - originally posted on rec.food.recipes by Barb Schaller many years ago, and somewhat anglicised by me seeing as we can't get the boxed cake mixture needed.

Cake:
150 g / 6 oz butter, softened.
150 g / 6 oz caster sugar
3 large eggs
150 g / 6 oz self raising flour
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt


Topping:
450 g / 1 lb rhubarb, sliced
225 g / 8 oz caster sugar
600ml / 1 pint whipping cream.

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Grease a pan - roughly 9 * 12 inches.

Make the cake: cream the butter and sugar together, then gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla. Gently mix in the flour and salt, then spread into the greased pan.

Scatter the sliced rhubarb over the cake, then sprinkle with the caster sugar. Finally, pour the entire pint of cream over the surface.

Cook for between 45 and 60 minutes, until the top springs back when pushed gently with your finger. The custardy nature of this means that the traditional toothpick test won't work.

Allow to cool for half an hour or so, eat with more cream, and call your cardiologist. This serves 8 people, and any leftovers are very good straight out of the fridge for breakfast (not that I'd ever contemplate doing anything like that ... honest).