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A good recipe: Ways with rhubarb

2024-04-09T00:00:00Z

It's rhubarb season! I came home from my parents' last weekend with a large armful of the stuff.

Rhubarb is extremely tart and not very nice on its own unless you drown it in sugar. It's particularly good when paired with very sweet things to balance out the sharp edge of the fruit, hence its classic pairing with custard. I love the pleasingly pink hue of it when it's cooked.

On Sunday night I baked a batch of Delicious magazine's rhubarb and custard blondies and WOW they are delicious indeed. The "custard" is actually brown butter with white chocolate and vanilla extract stirred into it, and I think the base recipe would be a fabulously versatile blondie that you could chuck all sorts of fruits into. The tart rhubarb cuts into the sweetness beautifully.

I flash-froze a couple more batches of sliced rhubarb (blanch by immersing in boiling water for 1 min, then plunge into ice cold water), and I'm going to stew the rest using this lovely Jamie Oliver recipe. Last year I used some of this stewed rhubarb in an eton mess.

Most of the rhubarb recipes I've got are sweet, and there's only so many cakes one can make (though I'm sure my husband would disagree). I'm on the hunt for some more savoury recipes. In the past I've tried this recipe for lamb bulgur pilaf with rhubarb and almonds, which was pretty tasty but I don't buy lamb very often. This fruit is a good counterpart to fatty meats, and I wonder if it'd pair well with fish in the same way that citrus does. Old mate Nige seems to think so, choosing a fattier fish (mackerel).

A good recipe: The best chocolate brownies

2023-11-23T00:00:00Z

I've been making this "Bonfire Brownies" recipe since it was aired on UK children's TV institution Blue Peter in the early 00s, and I maintain it's still the best brownie recipe. Chewy and delicious. I recommend freezing them and eating them straight out of the freezer (I discovered this when my mum used to put them in the freezer to keep them out of the way of temptation, and I'd nick them when she wasn't looking). There's nothing bonfire-specific about it, they're chocolate brownies and I suppose the episode aired around 5th November, but they're fucking great.

Look, I don't have any photos of this, but you've just got to take my word for it.

Makes 12

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter
225g golden caster sugar (or regular caster sugar)
40g cocoa powder
2 eggs
50g self-raising flour
50g chocolate chips
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease and line a 20cm square brownie tin.

In a large bowl beat the eggs, add the sugar and mix together until smooth.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Sift in the cocoa powder and mix. Add this mixture along with the vanilla essence (if using) to the egg and sugar mixture.

Sift the flour into the wet ingredients and mix together until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour into the brownie tin, and put in the oven. Cook for around 20-25 mins, until the top is a darker brown (but watch it doesn't burn!).

Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 mins, then carefully turn out onto a cooling rack. For best results, wait until they're completely cooled to slice.

A good recipe: Smitten Kitchen's apple pie cookies

2023-11-12T00:00:00Z

If I need to impress, or bribe people to like me, I make these cookies. A shortcrust pastry/biscuit dough hybrid case with appley-cinnamony goodness inside, packaged in an adorable pie shape.

The process is a little involved, but they're flaky and delicious (and often gone in an instant). I first made them over a decade ago and it's still one of my go-to recipes.