Sitting in my mum’s lounge last weekend, minding my own business and enjoying a cuppa, the following conversation ensues between myself and Andy (step daddy):
Andy: “Al.. are you staying long today?”
Me “Not sure really, got a few things to get on with later”
Andy “oh ok..” **rubs belly**
Me “How come?”
Andy “Well I thought that whilst you were here you could make me a pie..” **Me and Mum look up in surprise!** “Well, I didn’t mean just for me, you could make 2, one for me and one for you to take home… we have lots of rhubarb for you!”
Following the peels of laughter from me and my mum, I decided that no, I wouldn’t bake on demand, but I did take a huge bag of rhubarb home and so, following my shout out on facebook and twitter last week for rhubarb recipes, the epic rhubarb cooking phase has begun…
Rhubarb & Ginger Crumble
This is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. This is quite tart, I personally like my rhubarb with a zing, obviously, you can leave the lemon out or add more sugar to taste.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg rhubarb, trimmed and peeled, cut into chunks
- 200g demerara sugar
- 100g porridge oats
- 125g flour sifted
- 100g butter
- Zest and juice of a lemon
- 2 tbsp water
- Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped.
- Preheat oven to 180degrees/ gas mark 4
- Put the rhubarb, 1/2 sugar, water and lemon juice & zest into a large pan with a lid and heat on medium/high heat until boiling.
- Turn heat down and let it simmer for about 5 mins until the rhubarb has softened. There will be a nice pinkish liquid at the bottom, it’s surprising how much liquid comes out!
- Next, make the crumble – put the flour and butter into a bowl and mix together with fingers until the texture is like breadcrumbs.
- Add the porridge oats, remaining sugar and the chopped up ginger and mix it all together.
- Pour the rhubarb into a pie dish and spread the crumble topping evenly on top.
- Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes until the crumble is golden and the fruit is bubbling out the sides.
- Serve with custard or a blob of creme fraiche!
The finished thing!
2 versions, a small crumble for one for me (and an excuse to use my love heart Le Creuset dish and a family sized crumble for ahem. Andy…
