Rhubarb cinnamon polenta cake

I am a huge fan of rhubarb and have been searching everywhere for a plant to root in my garden. (Okay, so I really haven't looked EVERYWHERE, but I have asked at both local farmers markets and no luck. What more can honestly be expected of me?)

Last weekend, my moaning and whining about my rhubarb-free existence finally paid off and I was lucky enough to received some free rhubarb. I couldn't wait to dig in (pardon the pun), so I immediately turned to my new Nigel Slater book, Tender Vol. II, for his take on the sour stuff. The Brits seem to love rhubarb almost as much as I do, and use it in both savoury and sweet dishes. Of course, theirs sprouts up in February, which would be a welcome sight in any garden.

Anyway, this recipe uses cornmeal, or polenta, which gives the cake a crunchy texture that's rather nice.

I used the wrong sized tin for this, so it came out more tart like than cakey, but it's still good. It keeps well several days after baking, and manages to retain its tenderness too.

Get chopping!

Chop up 500g of rhubarb and place in a baking dish. Sprinkle with some sugar and a splash of water.

While that's baking, you get started on the crust, which comes together quite easily in a food processor. Press into a pan that's actually 20cm and you'll have better results than I did.


When the rhubarb's done cooking, you let it drain and cool for a bit in a colander, then spread it out over the crust.

And top it off with the leftover third of the crust and a sprinkling of turbinado sugar.

The end result looks like this. Slighty more cobbler looking than cake, but again, this would likely be rectified in a smaller pan. Though a bit flat-ish, the cake was remarkably moist.

Serve it with the reserved juices, which thicken once refrigerated. I'll definitely be making this one again, and so should you.

Rhubarb cinnamon polenta cake

From Nigel Slater's Tender Vol. II

Ingredients

For the filling:

500g rhubarb
50g golden caster sugar
4 tbsp water

For the crust:
125g coarse polenta *Nigel explicitly states that you're not to use the fine, sand-like cornmeal, but a coarser variety. I've never seem more than one grind for sale in Canada, so I used some pretty fine stuff and it wasn't a problem.
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of ground cinnamon
150g golden caster sugar
grated zest of a small orange
150g butter
1 large egg
2-4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp light muscovado sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

1. Cut each rhubarb stem into two or three pieces and put them in a baking dish
2. Scatter over the sugar and water, and bake for 30-40 minutes until the rhubarb is soft but still retains its shape
3. Put the polenta, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and caster sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Add the grated zest and the butter, cut into smallish pieces, then blitz for a few seconds till you have something that resembles breadcrumbs
4. Beat egg and milk in a small bowl and add to the crumb mixture. Blitz until just combined
5. Press about two-thirds of the mixture into the cake tin, pushing it a couple of centimeters up the sides with a floured spoon
6. Place the rhubarb on top, leaving a small rim around the edge uncovered and cover with the remaining batter
7. Scatter over the light muscovado sugar
8. Bake on the hot baking sheet for 45 minutes
9. Leave to cool before removing from tin and serve with the juice left over from the rhubarb

Rhubarb ginger crisp

Hey, remember last time when I wrote about how much I like asparagus? Well guess what else I like? Rhubarb! Yep. It's true. And now that I have my own yard, I can actually grown some to enjoy for next year.

But for this year, I had to rely on a rhubarb delivery from Lakefield. It was soon going to expire in my fridge, so I thought I should use it up. I decided to try Jamie Oliver's recipe for a rhubarb ginger crumble, since it's a combination I already like. The results were good, but frankly I've made a better crisp on my own, just throwing some crystalized ginger and a vanilla bean in with the fruit before covering with topping.

But this post isn't about my creation, it's about Jamie's. So here we go...

Start off by measuring the chopped rhubarb. You need two pounds and you can see I was just short of it, but then I went back and stole as much good stuff from the ends I had discarded to top up the bowl.

Next, you cook the fruit down with some brown sugar. This is an interesting step, I guess designed to get rid of some of the moisture in the rhubarb. It worked, but I don't really mind soupy crisps anyway.

Then you add the topping and pop it in the oven.

Here's what it looks like with a couple of helpings removed. Tasty, but not overly gingery, which is too bad.

Rhubarb and sticky stem ginger crumble

Recipe from Jamie at Home

•1kg rhubarb, trimmed and sliced into large chunks
• 200g soft brown sugar
zest and juice of 1 orange
• 100g plain flour
• 100g cold butter
• 100g oats
• 2 pieces of stem ginger, chopped

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Put the rhubarb and half the sugar into a pan. Add the orange juice and zest, put a lid on top, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes. Remove the lid and simmer for around 5 more minutes, until the rhubarb has softened slightly. Spoon into an ovenproof baking dish or individual dishes and spread out evenly across the bottom.

To make your crumble topping, use your fingers to lightly rub together the flour and butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the oats, the rest of the sugar and the stem ginger. (If you like, you can make the crumble topping in a food processor. Just whack in the flour, butter, sugar and stem ginger and whiz up. Add the oats for the last 10 seconds.) Sprinkle the crumbs over the rhubarb and bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the rhubarb is bubbling up and the crumble is golden.