ROASTED RHUBARB BLOOD ORANGE & GINGER
Rhubarb is one of the few vegetables that is traditionally cooked as a dessert, although it can be an unusual addition to savoury dishes and makes great chutney and ketchup. Rhubarb is one of the first crops to be harvested in Britain and remains in season from February to July. When it comes to eating rhubarb, do remember to only eat the stems, as the leaves are poisonous. Rhubarb is very sharp and requires sweetening. Try eating it raw, sliced finely and dipped in sugar. To cook, I prefer to roast rhubarb so it keeps its shape rather than boiling to a mush.
Roasted Rhubarb, Blood Orange and Ginger
Serves: 4
Dietary: Vegan, Gluten Free
Ingredients:
500g rhubarb, leaves and woody ends removed, chopped into neat 5cm lengths
Juice and segments of 2-3 blood oranges, depending on their size (see below)
2 knobs of crystallised ginger, chopped
5 tbsps caster sugar
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
Lay the rhubarb lengths in a shallow ovenproof dish or roasting tin.
Squeeze over the oranges, add the orange segments, sugar and the crystallised ginger.
Roast for 15 minutes, until tender and retaining its shape (start checking after 10minutes – you don’t want the rhubarb to collapse into mush). Set aside to cool. Check for sweetness.
Tips:
How to segment an orange:
First, take a small sharp knife and carefully slice off the top and bottom of the oranges.
Let one orange stand on its flat bottom and carefully hold it still. Look for where the pith meets the orange flesh and cut down the orange to remove the skin and all of the pith. The more accurate you are the better so you don’t waste orange or end up with too much pith.
Once you have removed one strip of peel, turn the orange and remove another strip of peel and pith. Carry on removing peel until the orange is fully peeled-remove any final bits of pith.
Over a bowl to catch all the juices, hold the orange carefully in your hand and line up your knife to one side of one of the lines, which show you where the segments are. Cut just up to the middle of the orange, not all the way through.
Repeat this all around the orange, holding the “pages” of orange segment back with your thumb as if they are pages of a book as you go round the orange. Be really careful when cutting your final segments.
Video by Rob Wicks of @eatpictures