Rhubarb Crumble is a great early-year British pudding. Quick and easy to make, this foolproof recipe makes use of a fantastic vegetable when there is very little fruit to be had. As a result, though the topping is much the same as it always is, the filling is ever so slightly bitter – a marginally different beast from the crumbles of summer and autumn.
Running from January all the way through to the end of April the Yorkshire forced rhubarb season is one of the best things about food in the first few months of the year. More delicate and slightly sweeter than the main crop, forced rhubarb is the perfect candidate for my rhubarb and ginger jam recipe.
Since it’s coming to the end of the rhubarb season, I thought it best to give you lot a couple of recipes which include this fabulous vegetable. However, I’ve not always considered it fabulous; in my younger days it was looked upon, by me, as a most contemptible ingredient. To be fair, it is easy to see why, since rhubarb does have an inherently bitter component to its flavour; which is why it’s always cooked with sugar. Luckily, as I’ve grown older my tastes have come to love the tang which accompanies fresh, seasonal rhubarb. The less said about forced rhubarb, the better.