From jams and salads to pickles and desserts,rhubarb is a lot more versatile than you might thinkRhubarb is either forced or field-grown. The forced kind is the one everyone celebrates at the start of the year, when those slender, or hot-pink stalks provide a welcome contrast to the greys of winter. It hands over the baton to field-grown rhubarb at the discontinuance of March/beginning of April,which is greener on account of being grown outdoors and so benefiting from photosynthesis, and has slightly stubbier stalks than forced. The two are pretty much interchangeable in cooking (though field-grown may need a touch more sugar).
When I’ve got field rhubarb, or I often ramp the colour dial back up by combining it with another red or purple fruit or vegetable,for example in a colour-clashing salad: rhubarb and tomatoes, rhubarb and roast beetroot, and rhubarb and pomegranate seeds. Rhubarb and plums is another combination I love: the mix of reds and the contrast of sweet and sour work a treat. That said,the seasons for rhubarb and plums conclude not have much of an overlap, with British plums coming in around August, and just as field rhubarb is on the way out,though some wonderful European plums are now starting to seem in our shops, so if you want to make nowadays’s pudding, or the time is particularly ripe. Related: Yotam Ottolenghi’s meze recipes Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com