RHUBARB is often forgotten in the corner of the garden, yet has a great nutritional value – it’s a very good source of vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, and manganese.
So it’s good for heart health, nerves, the fight against colorectal cancer and many other ailments, it’s believed.
There are two ways of cooking the stalks of this tart fruit (the leaves must always be discarded). You can either cut it up and chuck it into the cobbler as it is – but it will cook without form and end up pulpy. Roasting it, as described, is the best way because the cut stalks keep their form when cooked either as a crumble or this way, in a cobbler.
Either way though, you can cook it on its own, or add apple or blackberries – or whatever other fruit you like.
Ingredients
600g rhubarb, cut into 4cm pieces
150g brown sugar
½ lemon, juiced
- tbsp cornflour
Cobbler
150g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
75g brown sugar
Pinch of salt
50g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
50g crème fraiche
Cold water
Method
Heat the oven to 200C. Put the cut rhubarb into a 20cm x 30cm baking dish after rolling it in the brown sugar combined with the cornflour, then sprinkling it with lemon juice and toss. Cover with tinfoil and roast for 15 minutes until the rhubarb is soft.
Meanwhile, put the flour, sugar and butter into a food processor with a pinch of salt. Pulse until the butter has mixed into the flour, then add the crème fraîche and pulse again.
If you don’t have a food processor, use your hands the same way you’d make scones, rubbing the butter until it’s well combined into the flour.
Add 1-2 tbsp of cold water to the mixture, pulsing until a dough forms. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured worksurface to a rough 20cm x 30cm rectangle, then use a glass or cup to cut circles from the dough, which is about a 1 to 1.5cm thick, re-rolling and cutting the offcuts to minimise waste.
Remove the foil from the baking dish and dot the cobble circles all over the dish, overlapping some, and leaving a few gaps at the sides for the syrup to bubble up.
Sprinkle with sugar (demerara is nice if you have it) and return to the oven for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Spoon into bowls and serve with whipped cream and or ice-cream.
