Rhubarb Triangle brings inspiration from all corners

It is a very busy time of year for farmers, which includes my family - particularly if you mention the word ‘sheep’. This column has provided some distraction from the daily events of the farm, and I have been in my element, researching and trying out so many rhubarb recipes.

My husband and I are going to be really healthy, considering how much of this ‘superfood’ we have consumed trying and testing new recipes for you to enjoy.

My trip to the Rhubarb Triangle at Wakefield (see next week’s Farmers Guardian) was both educational and enjoyable, and was a personal ambition of mine I have now fulfilled.

Since my visit, I have baked and cooked many recipes and came to the conclusion that, although you can use rhubarb in savoury dishes, I really do prefer it in sweet recipes.

The following is the result of my compilation and the best recipes I have found using this wondrous ingredient.

New partnerships

Obviously there are many good old-fashioned classics such as crumble, cobbler and the traditional pie, so I have decided not to include these and instead opted for new ideas.

Rhubarb marries so well with ginger and almonds. Try adding stewed rhubarb to a trifle and use ginger cake as the base. Or perhaps opt for ginger biscuits at the bottom of a vanilla cheesecake and top with the rhubarb conserve recipe I have listed.

I am sure you will come up with many combinations of your own and, after all, that is where all new recipes come from.

Before my next column, Easter will have been and gone, and hopefully we shall be in the middle of spring.

I will be visiting Valencia to see ‘Las Fallas’, one of the biggest festivals in Spain. It involves hundreds of floats, which are set alight on the last evening of the Festival, along with thousands of fireworks.

I am looking forward to the ‘paella’ competitions and sampling many of the dishes local to the region.

Creative ideas

To get me in the mood for Easter, I was inspired by a recent visit to Lakeland (www.lakeland.co.uk), where they have some fabulous kitchen ideas, including chicken cupcake holders and moulds for making chocolate eggs.

But the best in my opinion are Easter-themed transfers, which you wrap round an egg and then boil the egg. The transfer then sticks to the egg and is perfect. My daughter absolutely loved them, and they are so much easier than boiling them in onion skins or vegetable dye and still having to decorate them.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and that we can all enjoy a mild and pleasant spring ahead.

Have your say

Please do not complete the following form field for security reasons.

Name

E-mail

Comment

Post as

Anonymously

Display name