Rhubarb and Cucumber Caprese
After months of calming my mind and palate with familiar comfort dishes - creating a soothing counterpart to the uncertainties in the world - I suddenly feel a growing appetite for kitchen experiments again. Pizza, spaghetti Bolognese, German stews and roasts, and yes, baking sourdough bread, gave me comfort and safety while the world turned upside down and pulled me off my feet. But I recently started to feel curious and hungry again, searching and finding a refreshing caprese salad with pickled rhubarb, orange blossom water, cucumber, mozzarella di bufala and mint.
As I leaved through Marc Diacono's fabulous new book, Sour, which was nominated for a James Beard Award this year, I immediately stopped on page 147 as I spotted a vibrant pink Rhubarb and Radish Salad. Marc uses raw rhubarb that he cuts very thinly and marinates in rose water. That made me think. I always cook, bake or roast rhubarb and wasn't quite sure if I'd fall in love with its distinct taste and texture when raw. The British cookbook author adds blue cheese and dill and this, in combination with the rose water, wraps it up snugly. It's sour, it's bold and somehow harmonic, or in Marc's words: "The rose water sets everything off and encourages the radish and rhubarb to sit a little closer together while retaining their independence."
So I asked myself, would that also work with orange blossom water? And what about quickly pickling the rhubarb first and adding crisp cucumber and a hint of fresh mint? I find blue cheese too strong for cucumber but a creamy mozzarella di bufala or Burrata would work. All of a sudden I had a very unusual caprese salad in front of me that had all the crispness, sourness and excitement that I was hoping for. To be fair, one can only truly appreciate this unorthodox caprese variation if one loves sour and is up for having some fun with an Italian classic. I have a Winter Caprese with Blood Orange, Beet and Mozzarella di Bufala in my 365 book and when I came up with that recipe I understood that a) a good mozzarella di bufala and especially Burrata can deal with strong flavors and b) playing with a traditional recipe is a good way to keep tradition alive.
Rhubarb and Cucumber Caprese
Serves 2
1 slim rhubarb stalk (around 60g / 2 ounces), trimmed and thinly sliced with a mandoline slicer or sharp knife
60ml / 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
60ml / 1/4 cup orange blossom water (or freshly squeezed orange juice)
flaky sea salt
1 small / Persian cucumber (with skin, rinsed), thinly sliced with a mandoline slicer or sharp knife
125g / 4.5 ounces mozzarella di bufala or Burrata
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
crushed or coarsely ground black peppercorns
4-6 fresh (young) mint leaves, very finely sliced
Transfer the rhubarb to a medium, heat-resistant bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt to a boil. Stir in the orange blossom water, keep it on the heat just until it starts boiling then pour over the rhubarb and let sit for about 1 hour. You will use the rhubarb and the pickling liquid for the caprese salad.
Quicker but less satisfying: In a small bowl, mix the rhubarb with 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of orange blossom water, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt and let sit for 10 minutes. The texture will be tougher and not as crisp compared to the properly pickled rhubarb described above.
Spread the cucumber and 1/3 of the pickled rhubarb on a large plate, adding more rhubarb once you tasted it, and arrange the mozzarella in the middle. In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons of the pickling liquid and 2 tablespoons of orange juice then drizzle over the salad. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with a little salt, pepper and mint (mind that the mint is very powerful!). Taste and add more of the pickling liquid if you prefer more of a sour note. Enjoy the salad immediately.
Rhubarb Corn Galette with Saffron & we won the James Beard Award!
Last Tuesday we won the James Beard Award. I flew to New York thinking that I had no chance of winning - Ina Garten was nominated in the same category as me: General Cooking. I was sure that this was not going to happen.
And now I’m sitting here at JFK airport, writing these words while waiting for my flight back to Berlin. Trying to think clearly, but I can’t. I wish there were words to describe how I feel, or at least give you a vague idea of what this means to me - but I can’t. It’s almost impossible to talk about a feeling that still shakes me up every time the memories come back and makes my heart fall as if I’m jumping of a cliff. It’s not just in my mind. I feel physically overwhelmed. Just like I did when I went on stage to fall around our host Andrew Zimmern’s neck, to kiss and squeeze him, and to receive the James Beard Foundation medal from his hands (watch my speech here).
When I say we won and not I won, you need to understand that this book, Eat In My Kitchen, would not exist without a bunch of people who gave me all the help, love, support, and inspiration I needed whenever I thought I wouldn’t manage. These people believed in me before I believed in myself, they were the ones who convinced me to trust and follow my instincts:
My editor Holly La Due who guided me through the past two years since we first spoke about a cookbook - and she held my hand in these endless painful seconds before my name was announced at the awards ceremony by legendary Andrew Zimmern; my mother who passed her love for food and wine on to me, the seed out of which Eat In My Kitchen grows every day; everybody at Prestel Publishing and our external experts Lauren Salkeld, Jan Derevjanik, and Ron Longe, who gave everything to make this book look as it looks and stand where it stands. And my family and friends all over the world, your belief in me makes me grow every day. Thank you for trusting me, and for waiting for me patiently.
When your work is recognized and awarded by one of the most critical juries in the food world, a jury who’s not interested in numbers or celebrity status, but in the quality of recipes, it can easily feel intimidating. But that rainy night at New York's Chelsea Piers was not intimidating at all, it was magical. I was in a room together with so many talented people who all love what I love so much - food - and I experienced the warmest welcome to this family (a word that winner Dori Greenspan used). There's a lot of respect, a humble appreciation of the work of the others. Ronni Lundy, Dori Greenspan, Andrew Zimern, Pierre Koffmann, Naomi Duguid, Judith Jones, Keith Pandolfi, Francis Lam and many more (here's the full list of winners), we were awarded for our work, and everybody who came to this event came to celebrate us, but also a passion that we share and that connects us, no matter what part of the world we come from. I want to thank the James Beard Foundation and all the inspiring people who I met that night, a night that I'll never forget in my whole life.
Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to cook or bake anything to share with you when I came back, I made a galette (twice actually because it’s so good) just a few days before I left. It’s a spring treat and it's quite a spectacular one. A crunchy short crust base made of corn flour and spelt flour (you can also use wheat), topped with sour rhubarb and the most fragrant saffron sugar. Cookbook author Yossy Arefi introduced me to this golden spice sugar and inspired me to use it for various sweet pies. Last summer I wrote about her berry galette and I will never forget how the addition of saffron to fruit and buttery crust hit me. It's a true celebration cake.
And now I want to thank you for always pushing me to try out new things in my kitchen, to keep cooking, baking, and writing about what we all love so much: Food!
Photos of the James Beard Award Ceremony by Kent Miller Studios, c/o the James Beard Foundation.
Rhubarb Corn Galette with Saffron Sugar
Update: This recipe is also in my 2nd book, 365: A Year of Everyday Cooking & Baking, Prestel Publishing, 2019
Mind that it's best to prepare the dough for the galette the day before you bake it to give it enough time to chill in the fridge.
Makes one 23cm / 9" galette.
For the pastry
very fine corn flour / corn meal (not corn starch) 90g / 1/2 cup
plain flour (or white spelt flour) 90g / 2/3 cup
granulated sugar 1 tablespoon
fine sea salt 1/4 teaspoon
unsalted butter, cold, 125g / 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon
water, cold, 2 tablespoons
cider vinegar 1 teaspoon
For the galette
granulated sugar 75g / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon for the topping
vanilla bean, scraped, 1/2
saffron threads about 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon
plain flour (or white spelt flour) 1 tablespoon
fine sea salt 1/8 teaspoon
trimmed rhubarb 280g / 10 ounces
freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tablespoon
organic egg, beaten, 1
For the pastry, in the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment, combine the corn flour, flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and use a knife to cut it into the flour until there are just small pieces left. Quickly rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until combined. Add the water and vinegar and, using the hooks of the stand mixer, mix until combined. Form the dough into a thick disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge overnight (or for a few hours) until hard, or freeze for about 20-30 minutes.
On a table or countertop, place the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and use a rolling pin to roll it out into a 30cm / 12" circle. Pull off the top layer of plastic wrap and replace with a piece of parchment paper. Flip the pastry circle over, transfer to a wooden board, and pull off the remaining layer of plastic wrap. Store the pastry (on top of the wooden board) in the fridge while preparing the topping.
Using a mortar and pestle, grind the sugar, vanilla seeds, and saffron until the saffron is fine and the mixture is well combined. Stir in the flour and salt and set aside.
Cut the rhubarb into 10cm / 4" long pieces and quarter each piece lengthwise. In a large baking dish, using your hands, toss the rhubarb, saffron-sugar, and lemon juice.
Take the pastry out of the fridge and arrange the rhubarb, overlapping, in a circle on top of the dough, leave a 5cm / 2" rim all the way around the fruit (see 10th picture). Sprinkle with any remaining saffron-sugar. Fold the edges of the pastry over the ends of the rhubarb, press to seal the folds. Chill the galette in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is firm.
Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F (conventional setting). Place a baking sheet in the middle of the oven while preheating.
Brush the pastry with the egg wash and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of sugar. Take the hot baking sheet out of the oven and pull the galette with the parchment paper onto the baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let the galette cool for about 10 minutes before cutting. Serve warm or cold.
Nominee - Winner:
16 Recipes for your Easter Brunch Table
Hunting Easter eggs in the woods was one of my childhood's spring highlights. The sweet smell of blossoms and sunlight in the air, the trees' leaves presenting their most fragile green, and - in a lucky year - I could even replace boots and jacket for shirt and jeans while searching for golden wrapped chocolate eggs and bunnies. I always loved the sprouting energy that comes with the change of season, when winter's shades of grey and brown give way to vibrant colours. Easter is a changing point in the year, there's the promise of summer in the air.
Is there a better way to celebrate this day than gathering your loved ones around the table and treating them to a luscious brunch? Here's some inspiration (click the titles for the recipes) - and there will be two new Easter recipes coming up this Sunday and next Wednesday!
Happy Easter!
Tsoureki – Greek Easter Bread with Aniseed and Orange Blossom Water
The juiciest Rhubarb Chocolate Cake
The amount of recipes I've been creating by request in the past few months could almost fill another book. My mind had to come up with all sorts of sandwiches, roasts, seafood dishes, salads, and cakes, which to be honest, is one of the most satisfying things I do amongst all the fields that I've worked in since I started my blog. I love to write and take food photos, but there's something very calming and, at the same time, very exciting about creating recipes. Re-thinking culinary traditions, playing with old and new combinations and various ingredients in my head until a whole dish finally comes to the table is my true passion. It's one of the few things that never pressures me, it comes out so easily that I wouldn't dare to call it work.
Working on so many new creations at the same time has one side effect: I have to remind myself to keep it simple - my personal kitchen mantra. I tend to go further and further, adding more and more ingredients, and forgetting that kitchen magic often lies in the little details. A small change can add a completely new quality to a dish, like to my chocolate cake - or the darkest Gâteau au Chocolat. It's a good cake, with chocolaty depth and a moist texture. As in all of my baked treats, I prefer chocolate over cocoa powder, taste and texture is what I'm after when I want to satisfy my chocolate cravings. Back to my cake, there was no need to improve on this formula, it's just right, but I've been wanting to bake a rhubarb cake for days so I just combined the two. I added so much rhubarb to my dark loaf cake that it ended up being the juiciest and fruitiest chocolate cake I ever baked - with a slightly sweet-sour note.
A short note: I let the loaf cool for just a few minutes before I cut it - I was too impatient - but I recommend letting it cool completely, otherwise it's a little too fudgy. So be patient, let it cool, and enjoy! For my Gâteau au Chocolat, I used very dark chocolate (99%), however, for this rhubarb chocolate cake I would go for a lighter one, 55% was my chocolate of choice.
Rhubarb Chocolate Cake
Serves 6
trimmed rhubarb 450g / 1 pound
dark chocolate (about 55%) 150g / 5 ounces
butter 150g / 2/3 cup
organic eggs 4
a pinch of salt
plain flour 130g / 1 cup
ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon
ground cardamom 1/2 teaspoon
granulated sugar 180g / 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons
For the top of the cake, cut 5 thin long pieces of rhubarb, about 25cm / 10" long. Cut the remaining rhubarb into 2cm / 3/4" long pieces.
Set the oven to 180°C / 360°F (preferably convection setting) and butter a 11 x 25cm / 4 1/2 x 10" loaf pan.
In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter over low heat, whisk well, and let cool for a few minutes.
Whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff.
Combine the flour, cinnamon, and cardamom.
Mix the egg yolks and sugar until light yellow and thick, then whisk in the chocolate-butter mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture and mix until well combined, then gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Fold in the shorter rhubarb pieces and scrape the batter into the buttered pan. Arrange the long rhubarb pieces on top of the cake and bake for about 75 minutes (slightly longer if using a conventional oven) or until the cake is golden brown and firm on top. If the top of the cake gets too dark, cover it loosely with aluminium foil. Check with a skewer, it should come out almost clean. Let the cake cool completely for a couple hours before you take it out of the pan.
Rhubarb Tartlets with Cinnamon Oat Crumble
The combination of rhubarb and cinnamon crumble is so perfect that I dare to call it one of my favourite baked sweets. It's sweet, fruity-sour, and buttery, what more could I ask for? I could add oats, which I've never done before for some reason, so I gave it a try and the result was extremely pleasing. The first bite through the crunchy aromatic crust and soft fruit gave me the feeling that home-baked sweets are simply the best.
The past few days were a little rough and rocky and I often wished I had two Meikes to sort out all the tasks and problems piled up on my desk. Late night work led to sleep deprivation and a paranoid me, worrying that I wouldn't manage to finish everything in time. I call myself quite disciplined, I can work hard, but luckily, I also know when to pull the brake. It was a bright and sunny afternoon and I started to feel like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel - although not all problems were solved yet - but I decided to close my laptop. Trying not to think too much, I grabbed my bag and jumped on my bike. Cycling through springy Berlin and enjoying the bumpy ride over cobbled roads put a smile on my face as I saw nature's leaves and blossoms taking over the city again. I stopped at a café for a creamy cappuccino that felt like the best coffee I had in a while, and leafed through a cheesy magazine. Life can be perfect and sometimes it's so easy to get there, all you have to do is forget about your duties for a little while and follow whatever your mood calls for.
Rhubarb Tartlets with Cinnamon Oat Crumbles
Makes 10 tartlets
For the filling
trimmed rhubarb, cut into 5cm / 2" pieces, 600g / 1 1/3 pounds
granulated sugar, 100g / 1/2 cup
For the pastry
plain flour 260g / 2 cups
granulated sugar 80g / 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon
a pinch of salt
unsalted butter, cold, 160g / 2/3 cup
organic egg yolks 2
For the oat crumble
rolled oats 100g / 3 1/2 ounces / 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon
plain flour 65g / 1/2 cup
granulated sugar 90g / 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons
ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon
unsalted butter, melted, 80g / 1/3 cup
Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F (preferably convection setting).
For the filling, add the rhubarb and sugar to a large baking dish and toss to combine. Bake for about 25 minutes or until soft but still in shape. Set the rhubarb aside and let it cool completely.
For the pastry, in a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until combined. Add the egg yolks and continue mixing with the dough hooks of an electric mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film, and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Butter 10 (10cm / 4") tartlet pans and dust with flour. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.Divide the dough into 10 equal parts. Roll out the 10 pieces of dough between cling film into 12 cm / 4 1/2" circles. Line the tartlet pans with the pastry, push the dough into the pans, and prick with a fork. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until golden, bush the dough down with a fork if it bubbles up. Take the tartlet pans out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. Using a metal skewer, loosen the pastry shell gently along the rim and turn the tartlets out onto the lined baking sheet.
Turn the oven down to 180°C / 350°F.
For the crumble, combine the oats, flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Stir in the melted butter and mix until combined and crumbly.
Divide the rhubarb among the tartlet shells, sprinkle with the oat crumble, and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Cinnamony Rhubarb Meringue Pie
This has been my rhubarb week. I bought too many of the flavor-packed stalks for my rhubarb and leek gratin on Monday - their colorful beauty was just too tempting and I ended up grabbing (and buying) as much as I could fit in my hands. So the green and red pile of rhubarb on my marble counter top called for a compote, or even better, a pie!
I felt inspired by lemon meringue pie: an elegant pie made of a crumbly short crust, yet instead of lemon, topped with the fruitiest, cinnamony rhubarb curd you can imagine and finished off with a cloud of sweet meringue. I love lemon pie but learned that rhubarb lifts it onto another level, at least for my taste. It's such a fruity, sour, and slightly sweet and buttery composition.
A short note: The curd in the cool pie will be a bit more set than you see in the pictures, I cut it too early - tempted by my impatient appetite!
You can also find this recipe in my book 365: recipe no. 98!
Rhubarb Meringue Pie
For a 23cm / 9" pie (in a shallow pie dish) you need
For the pastry
plain flour 160g / 1 1/4 cups / 5 1/2oz
granulated sugar 1 tablespoon
salt 1/4 teaspoon
butter 90g / 3/4 stick / 3 1/4oz
water (cold) 3 tablespoons
Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter quickly into the flour until combined. Add the water and continue mixing with the hooks of an electric mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Set the oven to 200°C / 400°F (top/ bottom heat).
Roll out the dough between cling film and line your pie dish with the flat pastry. Prick it with a fork and blind-bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden. Let it cool completely.
For the rhubarb curd
First you make a rhubarb compote which you then turn into a curd.
rhubarb, cut into 0.5 cm / 1/4" slices, 680g / 1 1/2 pounds
granulated sugar 150g / 3/4 cup / 5 1/4oz for the compote, plus 2 tablespoons for the curd
ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon
water 75ml / 1/3 cup for the curd, plus 1 tablespoon for the compote
butter 1 tablespoon
cornstarch 60g / 1/2 cup
pinch of salt
organic egg yolks, beaten, 3
For the compote, heat the rhubarb, 150g (3/4 cups) of sugar, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of water in a large pot on medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat to medium-high and cook for 10 minutes (open, without a lid). Take off the heat and stir in the butter.
For the curd, whisk 75ml (1/3 cup) water, the cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of sugar and salt and add to the hot rhubarb. Bring to the boil and cook for 3 minutes on medium-high heat, stir once in a while. Take 1 tablespoon of this mixture and whisk into the beaten egg yolks, pour the egg-compote mixture back into the pot with the rhubarb. Bring to the boil, stir constantly and cook for half a minute. Take the pot off the heat, pour the curd into a bowl and let it cool completely. You could place the bowl on cooling pads to speed up the process.
For the meringue
egg whites 3
granulated sugar 80g / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon
a pinch of salt
Beat the egg whites with the salt, adding the sugar gradually while beating, until the white is stiff.
The pie
Set the oven to 200°C / 400°F (top/ bottom heat).
Pour the cool rhubarb curd on top of the pastry and finish it off with the stiff egg whites, you can form little peaks with a knife to create an uneven surface. Bake for 7 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crisp. Let it sit for about 30 minutes before cutting for the curd to set. The pie still tastes great the next day (after keeping it in the fridge) but it won't look as pretty.
Rhubarb and Leek Gratin with Rosemary
For weeks I have been thinking about combining leek and rhubarb in a gratin, the sourness of the fruity stalk and the onion's distinct spiciness seemed like a special match. Weeks and many other recipes have past, but I finally found the time to sit down and think about the right composition to make this duo work.
At first, I started off with a pinch of cardamom, this spice adds a nice warming touch, but something was still missing. I took a quick look at my herb garden in front of my bedroom window, that's the place where I keep all my little pots at the moment. The plants spread a mesmerizing smell in the afternoon sun and filled the air with the nicest aroma of rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, marjoram, tarragon, chervil and lovage. I started to pick some thyme leaves but realised it would be too strong for my gratin, rosemary and its woody taste was the missing link in my composition, it made it complete!
Rhubarb and Leek Gratin with Rosemary
For 2 as a snack or 4 as a side dish you need
leek, cut in half lengthwise and cut into 6cm / 2 1/2" pieces, 250g / 1/2 pound
rhubarb, cut in half lengthwise and cut into 6cm / 2 1/2" pieces, 250g / 1/2 pound
olive oil
a pinch of ground cardamom
flaky sea salt
black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar
granulated sugar
fresh rosemary needles, chopped, for the topping
Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (top / bottom heat) and oil the bottom of a baking dish.
Arrange the leek and rhubarb in circles in the baking dish and coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cardamom and a little sugar. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden and soft. Sprinkle with fresh rosemary and season to taste.
Rhubarb Cardamom Clafoutis
In the past few weeks, my kitchen (and sometimes even the living room and balcony) has looked like a farmer's market. I use every corner, kitchen counter, shelf and cupboard to store piles of fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes, squash and beans sit next to colourful cabbages, lettuce, the whole range of citrus fruits and more pots of herbs than I've ever had in my kitchen before. Plums, strawberries, pears and apples share space with all sorts of roots and greens. Since I started working on my first cookbook, my kitchen became a beautiful mess, completely stuffed and almost bursting. My fridge is always so full that I have problems fitting in the butter tin and milk after breakfast.
If there are no book recipes on my schedule, I only need to look around me and I can pick all the fruit and veg I could possibly ask for. There's everything at hand, whatever my taste desires. Be it spring, summer, autumn or winter, the four seasons are present in my kitchen through all the produce, which also means that there is always something that needs to be used as I don't want to waste anything. I ended up with too many eggs, too much milk and too much rhubarb, this called for a clafoutis! I refined the golden French pan dish with cardamom, you could also add cinnamon but cardamom is my favourite baking spice at the moment. The result was very fluffy, I was impressed how much it rose this time! You never really know what this dessert is going to do when you take it out of the oven. The pleasure didn't last very long, a clafoutis can gracefully rise like a soufflé and then deflate within seconds. But it tasted fantastic, warm and fragrant, slightly sweet and sour, just right for a late Sunday breakfast with your mama - Happy Mother's Day to all the great mamas in the world!
You can find the recipe for my apricot clafoutis here!
Rhubarb Cardamom Clafoutis
For a 23cm /9″ heavy, ovenproof pan or baking dish you need
rhubarb, cut into 3cm / 1 1/4" pieces, 300g / 10 1/2oz
ground cardamom
plain flour 80g / 3 ounces
granulated sugar 4 tablespoons plus 2 tablespoons for the rhubarb
a pinch of salt
butter, melted, 30g / 1 ounce plus 2 tablespoons for the rhubarb
large eggs 4
milk 200ml / 7 ounces
freshly squeezed orange juice 3 tablespoons
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom in a heavy pan, add the rhubarb and cook for about 3 minutes or until it softens but still holds its shape, stir once in a while. Set the pan aside.
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (top / bottom heat) and generously butter a 23cm /9″ heavy, ovenproof pan or baking dish.
Combine the flour, 4 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt. Whisk 1 teaspoon of cardamom into the warm melted butter and mix with the eggs, milk and orange juice then pour into the dry mixture and mix with an electric mixer until well combined.
Spread the rhubarb in the buttered pan and pour the batter on top. Bake for about 50 minutes or until the clafoutis is golden and set. Sprinkle the warm clafoutis with sugar and ground cardamom to taste and enjoy immediately.
An Upside Down Cake with Rhubarb, Cinnamon and Strawberries
An upside down cake is the easiest and most convenient way to put juicy fruits into a quick cake. They just sit on the bottom, soften slowly in their juices and spread their aroma into the dough baking on top. The pastry can grow spongy with a thin crisp layer and the fruits turn into a thick compote. Juiciness where juiciness belongs! Technically the cake should be flipped upside down when it's done, I just skipped this part. I liked the rustic look of its golden top, like a pie that you scoop out of the pan with a spoon, and to be honest, the bottom doesn't look as pretty!
In the past few weeks I've been using lots of rhubarb in my recipes, I love its fresh, sour taste but its season is quickly coming to an end. No reason to be sad as I'm slowly changing over to what nature offers next, like strawberries! Much sweeter, yet no less versatile in the kitchen. My upside down cake combines the qualities of both fruits, sweet and and sour with a pinch of cinnamon. Not to forget the pastry, it is so good that the cake only lasted a few hours! While I was taking the photos my kitchen was filled with the sweet smell of cinnamon, fruit and fresh pastry, I could barely stop myself from taking the first bite!
Rhubarb and Strawberry Upside Down Cake
For an oval baking dish (around 25cm / 10") you need
plain flour 210g / 7.5 ounces
granulated sugar 150g / 5.5 ounces plus 6 tablespoons for the fruit
baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons
a pinch of salt
butter, melted, 60g / 2 ounces
organic eggs 2
milk 100ml / 3.5 ounces
a pinch of fresh vanilla
rhubarb, sliced thickly, 650g / 1.5 pounds
strawberries, cut in half, 200g / 7 ounces
ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon
Set the oven to 190°C / 375°F.
Spread the fruits in a baking dish and sprinkle with 6 tablespoons of sugar mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, mix the butter, eggs, milk and vanilla with a mixer and fold into the dry mixture, stir with a wooden spoon until you have a lumpy dough. Don't over mix! With a big spoon dollop the dough on top of the fruits and spread gently until roughly covered. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean.
Rabbit wrapped in Sage and Bacon roast on Rhubarb
Sweet and sour rhubarb, salty bacon and aromatic sage wrap my juicy pieces of rabbit in a delicious composition of spring flavours. You could use pork fillet in this recipe as well but I like rabbit meat, it's tenderness and unique taste. We often eat it when we're in Malta where rabbit is so popular that it became the national dish. Be it as a Mediterranean stew with olives, tomatoes and wine, often cooked together with pork for a stronger aroma, or in a pie, I've enjoyed some of the best rabbit meals on this island!
Rabbit meat isn't very challenging to cook as long as it's kept moist and not overcooked. The little packages of sage and bacon in my recipe infuse the meat with their flavours but also keep it juicy. The steaming rhubarb roasting under the meat has the same effect. Its juices add a fruity taste to the meat and make sure that it doesn't dry out while it's cooking.
Rabbit wrapped in Sage and Bacon roast on Rhubarb
For 4 people you need
rabbit, without bones, 500g / 1 pound for 8 portions (I bought rabbit back and legs, the fillets from the back were the easiest to prepare)
rhubarb, cut into 5cm / 2" pieces, 500g / 1 pound
granulated sugar 3 tablespoons
garlic, thinly sliced, 3 cloves
fresh sage 16 leaves
bacon 8 slices
white wine 75ml / 2.5 ounces
olive oil 2 tablespoons
salt and pepper
Set the oven to 210°C / 410°F. My oven has a Rotitherm roasting setting which works perfectly for this recipe.
Cover the bottom of a baking dish with the rhubarb mixed with sugar. Season with salt and pepper.
Divide the rabbit in 8 portions, season with salt and pepper and wrap each portion in a slice of bacon together with 2 leaves of sage and 3 slices of garlic. Place on top of the rhubarb and pour the wine and olive oil over it.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, pouring some of the juices over it from time to time. For the last 3 minutes sprinkle the bacon with some sugar.
Sweet and spicy Rhubarb Chutney
My love for chutney developed quite late, almost nine years ago while I lived in England for a couple months. One night I found out about the glorious combination of Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese and chutney. I knew about a similar duo, ripe cheese and fig mustard, a great alternative to a sweet dessert, heavenly when the cheese's milkiness unites with the spicy and fruity flavours in your mouth! When my dear friend Audrey, a lady who likes good cheese as much as I do, offered me this North Yorkshire delicacy I was taken after the first bite. My favourite was a young cheese, mildly flavoured with cranberries, a bit crumbly and just perfect together with sweet onion chutney. Sometimes, after we had been out, we used to chat in Audrey's kitchen, get out some jars of pickles, chutneys and a truckle of Wensleydale and we quite often ate more than just a midnight snack!
Not too long after this culinary discovery I started to make my own chutneys. I experimented for a while and came up with a recipe which I now use for all kinds of chutneys, plums, apples, onions or rhubarb. Depending on the fruit's taste I adjust the spices a little bit but the basic recipe remains untouched. Most of the time I mix in red onions and red hot chili peppers for the spiciness, a couple apples to thicken the texture and lots of spices, turmeric, cloves, star anise, fennel seeds, black pepper, garlic and ginger. Rhubarb is at its seasonal peak at the moment, the best time to turn it into a sweet and spicy chutney!
Cheese and chutney isn't the only way to enjoy chutney, you can also use it to flavour aromatic gravies, eat it with slices of warm or cold roast meat or spread it on sandwiches.
Rhubarb Chutney
For 3 medium sized jars you need
rhubarb, sliced 550g / 19 ounces
apple, peeled and roughly chopped, 125g / 4.5 ounces
red onion, medium sized, roughly chopped, 1
cider vinegar 220ml / 7.5 ounces
granulated sugar 150g /5.5 ounces
fresh hot chili pepper, without seeds, finely chopped, 1/2
garlic, chopped, 1 clove
fresh ginger, grated or chopped, 1 heaping teaspoon
For the spice mixture (makes 2 teaspoons, you might only need 1 1/2)
turmeric, ground, 1/8 teaspoon
cinnamon, ground, 1/2 teaspoon
cloves, ground in the mortar, 12
star anise, ground in a mortar, 2 single pieces
fennel seeds, ground in a mortar, 1/2 teaspoon
small dried chili, ground in a mortar, 2
spirit to sterilise the rims of the jars
Sterilise the jars in boiling water for 5 minutes.
In a large pot, bring all the ingredients together with 1 1/2 teaspoons of the spice mixture to the boil. Cook for about an hour on medium temperature until the chutney thickens. You can add more of the spice mixture if you like before you fill the chutney into the jars.
Dip the rim of your jars in spirit and wash out the lids with the alcohol as well. Fill your jars with the chutney and close well immediately.
You can eat the chutney right away but I prefer to let it sit for 3 weeks. You should keep an open jar in the fridge (mine stays fresh for months) and the closed jars in your pantry.
Rhubarb Crumble Cake, truly addictive!
There are two of my recipes, classics, that I can't live without. I constantly adapt and change them according to the seasons and there isn't a month without them. I'm talking about my beloved quiche and my crumble cake, filled with seasonal fruit and topped with the most amazing crumbles, buttery and crunchy! In winter I filled it with apples, now it's time for rhubarb and there will be more to follow. I have no preference, I love all of them!
For this cake, I like to choose fruit with a strong texture, the dough rises around these moist pockets and stays juicy without becoming soggy. I use lots of cinnamon for the crumbles, one of my favourite spices for baking which refines the fruit's flavours perfectly. The rhubarb brings in a bit more sourness than the apples, it fits to the fresh feeling of this season. In the post about my apple crumble I've praised the cake's light and spongy base, the perfect composition of soft, juicy and crunchy and its dessert and teatime qualities. Now it's time to bake rhubarb crumble, but be prepared, this cake is truly addictive!
Rhubarb Crumble Cake
Prepare the dough for the base first, the rhubarb afterwards and the crumbles at the end.
For a 26cm /10″ springform pan you need
For the cake
butter 125g / 4.5 ounces
granulated sugar 125g / 4.5 ounces
a pinch of fresh vanilla
organic eggs 3
plain flour 250g / 9 ounces
baking powder 2 teaspoons
a pinch of salt
rhubarb, cut into 4cm / 1.5" pieces, 800g / 28 ounces
For the crumbles
plain flour 200g / 7 ounces (you might need some more if the crumbles are too sticky)
granulated sugar 125g / 4.5 ounces
a pinch of fresh vanilla
ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons
butter, melted, 125g / 4.5 ounces (plus more if the crumbles are too fine)
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F.
For the cake base, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla till fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue mixing for a few minutes. Add the flour mixed with the baking powder and salt and continue mixing until well combined. Scrape the dough into a buttered springform pan and arrange the rhubarb vertically in circles pushing it into the dough.
The crumbles need good preparation as you have to make sure that the mixture is neither too moist nor too dry. Have some extra flour and melted butter close at hand so that you can add some immediately if necessary:
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour the melted butter on top and mix quickly with the hooks of your mixer, stop as soon as it crumbles. If the crumbles are too moist and sticky add a bit more flour (1-2 tablespoons). If they are too fine and don’t form bigger crumbles add more melted butter. Spread quickly on top of the rhubarb. If you have bigger lumps of crumbles you may have to separate and spread them.
Bake in the oven for 55 minutes or until golden. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean, and let it cool.
You can serve the cake with sweet whipped cream or vanilla or cinnamon ice cream.
Rhubarb Meringue Tartlets
My long loved rhubarb crumble cake has been my favourite rhubarb cake so far, but these little meringue tartlets caused a change on my list. I can't say that I prefer them over my buttery cinnamon crumble (I made the apple version a couple months ago, the recipe is here) but they are definitely just as good!
Until I started taking the ingredients out, I wasn't even sure about the recipe. I wanted a crumbly short crust, strong enough to carry the juicy rhubarb compote and not as flaky as the one I make for my Tarte Tatin. I thought I would give it a try but expected that I would have to refine the recipe over the next few weeks before I would be rewarded with a satisfying result. I was wrong! The pastry was exactly what I wanted, buttery, crumbly with a strong structure, neither too fragile nor to compact. When the tartlets had cooled off, I topped them with a tablespoon of my thick rhubarb compote and some fluffy meringue. As I'm not very good at decorating cakes, I tried to keep them simple. Usually I try to avoid piping bags as they make me nervous but here I made an exception, I wanted them pretty! The result was worth it, a bit sweet, a bit sour, buttery but still light, and all of this in a cute little rhubarb meringue tartlet!
Rhubarb Meringue Tartlets
When the tartlets are finished and baked with the meringue, you should serve them within the next 15 minutes as that's when they are at their best (I had one the next day and it was still delicious but a bit softer). If you want to prepare them for guests, you can bake the tartlets and cook the compote beforehand (both should be cold either way). Then you just need to beat the egg whites, assemble the tartlets and bake them for 3 minutes in the oven.
You will need round 10cm / 4" tartlet pans.
For 10 tartlets you need
For the short crust
plain flour 250g / 9 ounces
granulated sugar 80g / 3 ounces
a pinch of salt
a pinch of vanilla
butter, cold, 160g / 5.5 ounces
organic egg yolks 2
Combine the flour with the salt, vanilla and sugar. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and work the butter into the flour until combined (there shouldn’t be any lumps of butter left). Add the egg yolks and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Set your oven to 200°C / 390°F top / bottom heat. Butter the tartlet pans and dust with flour.
Roll out the dough about 3mm thick between cling film and cut out 10 12cm / 5" circles. Line your tartlet pans with the pastry and prick with a fork. Blind-bake in the hot oven for 9 minutes or until golden. Take them out, let them cool for a couple minutes before you flip them over and let the tartlets cool off completely.
For the compote
rhubarb, sliced thinly, 400g / 14 ounces
granulated sugar 3 tablespoons
ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon
water 2 tablespoons
In a sauce pan, heat all the ingredients for the compote on medium temperature, keep the lid closed. Cook for 10 minutes or until the rhubarb has become a thick compote and let it cool completely.
For the meringue
organic egg whites 4
granulated sugar 120g / 4.5 ounces
a pinch of salt
Set the oven to 220°C / 430°F top / bottom heat.
Beat the egg whites with the salt for 10 - 20 seconds until they start to stiffen. Add the sugar gradually and continue beating until stiff and glossy.
Put a tablespoon of the rhubarb compote on top of the tartlet, spread evenly. Fill the meringue mixture in a piping bag and decorate generously. Bake them on a baking sheet for 2-3 minutes until the tops of the meringue become golden. Let them cool for 1 minute, put them on plates with a spatula and serve immediately.
