rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb

What's the big deal with rhubarb then. Well firstly it's in the shops right now in March, although it's probably forced in hot houses, so I'm not entirely sure if it's seasonal or not.  This humble vegetable, yes you read that right, it's a veg and not a fruit (which I say with an element of surprise because that hadn't occurred to me before), is packed full of goodness.

A few facts about why you need to get cooking with these beautiful long stems of ruby. It's low in fat, low in calories, cholesterol free (my main reason), and high in fibre. Rhubarb also contains as much calcium as a glass of milk, (great for the vegans then)and also has vitamin A and potassium. Unfortunately because it is 'tart'to taste, it's easy to overdo the sugar, so I've tried to hold back on that and using brown sugar with stevia in it to reduce the calories. 

I've tried a few recipes to see how to get some variety but I'm not going to post those here, I just googled up some ideas and what you can see here is a galette and some 'biscuits'. The galette was perfect, so just find yourself a recipe for the pastry and then add the rhubarb. It seems like a good idea, according to most recipes,  to soak the cut rhubarb in some juice and a bit of sugar, although I'm not entirely sure what difference that makes. When you place it on the galette pastry don't include the liquid though. As the stalks are nice and firm, you can cut and arrange in lovely patterns. I sprinkled a bit of sugar and cinnamon on the rhubarb and pressed some flaked almonds onto the pastry crust. 

 The 'biscuits' weren't such a success story, I followed a recipe but something wasn't quite right on my part, they were basically sponge cupcakes without the paper case. All was not lost, I stewed the remaining stalks and then did a chef kinda styling thing with the soft biscuits, piling them up and placing the remaining stalks on top. To keep it healthy, I topped it off with a chocolate soya desert. It occurred to me that these soft biscuits would actually make a good alternative to a trifle type layered desert. 

As a novice I'm still experimenting a lot, and finding inspiration on instagram and vero from those much better than myself.

Here's some cool cooking blogs to check out ;
Figs and Pigs, who also sell kitchenalia www.figsandpigs.com and have so many mouthwatering recipes I don't know where to start.

For a much more sophisticated tart than mine check out https://www.twiggstudios.com/2018/03/rhubarb-lemon-rosemary-tart/ which might just be the next thing I try, the photos on both these blogs are really beautiful too. 

Because I'm cutting down on cholesterol I replace butter with benecol, which may well mean that the pastry isn't anything like it should be, but it tastes fine to me and the mister. 

So that's all I've managed to get up to recently while I'm waiting to relocate to my new base in Suffolk. My old suffolk cottage will be an Air bnb if all goes well so watch out if you want a lovely weekend break near Southwold. 

Love and rhubarb x