The simplest rhubarb crumble

I bought these rhubarb with the intention of using them in a savoury dish. I've seen two recipes from Jamie Oliver that looked interesting, one involving duck and another pork. Come to think of it, I've tried the pork recipe before with less than perfect results. The idea of the tart flavour of rhubarb coupled with something savoury is intriguing, I'll admit, like bitter oranges or sour cherries with duck, but the truth is I was not inspired enough to cook these dishes in the first few days, and rather than let the stalks get any limper, I settled on making the old standby; rhubarb crumble.

 

The stalks were young and the rudest blushing pink, sugar being their best friend in this state. Sugar to coax out the natural sweetness that develops naturally as they mature and to provide a nice caramelized crunch to the topping.

 

Nearly every adult I knew with a garden grew rhubarb when I was a child. It must either be incredibly easy to grow, able to withstand harsh conditions or near neglect or very desirable to eat. I would assume that it's probably the former, starting to poke it's green shoots out of the ground in even the coldest of days and even snow. The mighty crumble or pie topped with ice cream, cream or custard is the way to eat it in the UK, but, as I mentioned earlier, it is becoming more diverse with chefs using it as a vegetable to pickle or cook with meats. Here are two recipes you could try.

My recipe was created from memory and was the first thing we ever cooked in domestic science in school. In those days we had to take all our ingredients into school in a woven basket and return home with the dish we had made. I can't see many kids these days feeling happy about carrying a basket on their arm, like some old fashioned gal, more likely they have a i phone app to simulate the actual cooking.

I have seen many different recipes for this humble dish using fancy extras such as orange juice, cinnamon, brown sugar and oats. As delicious as I imagine these extra special versions to be, mine is the simplest of the simplest using only 4 ingredients, sweetened with sugar but allowing the natural tartness to shine through.

Recipe : Rhubarb crumble

1 cup rhubarb stalks, chopped into pieces

1/4 cup sugar

Topping

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp margarine or butter

1 tbsp extra sugar

Preheat the oven to 375oF.

Lay the chopped rhubarb in a dish and sprinkle over the sugar.

To make the topping, mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl and then add the butter or margarine.

Use your fingers to rub the fat into the flour and sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle this over the rhubarb.

Use the last tbsp sugar to sprinkle over everything and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.