Cooking recipes

Urvashi Roe, The Botanical Baker, set a challenge for us foodie bloggers to come up with a Summer Cocktail.  I was inspired in my cocktail making by two particular blogs:  Chocolate Log Blog  where Choclette made a Rhubararella with homemade rhubarb shnapps and The Paupered Chefs Homemade Rhubarb Syrup and Rhubarb Daisy 



I thought about making the schnapps, but somehow it was the Homemade Rhubarb Syrup that appealed to me.  The recipe is just sooooo easy: two cups sugar, two cups water, 6 or 7 stalks of rhubarb, washed trimmed and finely sliced.  Check out the method, also extremely easy, at The Paupered Chef.   I sterilised a jar and have been storing the glorious pink stuff in the fridge waiting for the weekend to come around again.

Rhubarb and Ginger Zinger

250ml Rhubarb Syrup
1 small orange
bottle of Crabbies Alcoholic Ginger Beer or a bottle of non-alcoholic ginger beer

 
1 slim stick of rhubarb
1 strawberry
some mint
cocktail stick or skewer

1. Cut the orange in half, squeeze one half and put the juice in the bottom of a tall glass. Cut a slice from the other half of the orange and make a cut into it so it will sit on the glass.
2. Take the stalk of rhubarb, split the top downwards with a knife several times until it starts to splay out, put it cut side down into a glass of iced water (this will help it to bend)
3. Pour 250ml Rhubarb Syrup into the glass
4. Top up with Crabbies AGB or, for a non-alcoholic cocktail, ordinary ginger beer.
5. Remove the rhubarb stick from the water, dry with kitchen paper and place with the flower upwards into the glass.
6.Thread the strawberry and mint onto the cocktail stick or skewer (I used a bbq skewer and cut it to size) and lay across the top of the glass
7. Add the slice of orange and enjoy.

The rhubarb can be used to mix the ingredients before drinking, but its fun to leave the layers of different ingredients showing when you serve.



Cocktails always make me think of the 1920s, so I thought I would share this photo I found when I was visiting my mum recently.  I would be about 19 and was part of a float for the local festival parade.  My mother was always roping me into these things and the costume was really fun to wear.  CHEERS!

Its rhubarb glut season here in Scotland, but although I now only have one rhubarb plant instead of three I still find it hard to use up all the rhubarb and the heavy rain we have had has just made it grow even more!

I may have featured this book before, it was one of the first cookbooks that really fired my imagination.  I borrowed it from the library when I was 15 years old and carried it off to Belgium on holiday as my holiday reading.  I then bought a copy and some of the first recipes I made were the rhubarb jams.  This is the second copy of this book Ive owned as the first one fell to bits.

Rhubarb jam is really easy to make and the preserved ginger adds a fabulous kick.  We dont eat a lot of jam now and this quantity will make about 4 standard jars.  The book was first published in 1974 and Im afraid the quantities are in imperial meaures (pounds and ounces) but Ive found a nifty conversion chart here if you want to use metric measurements.

Note:  you need to start this recipe the night before you want to make the jam

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam

2 1/2 lb prepared rhubarb
2 1/2 lb sugar
1 oz bruised root ginger (give it a good bash with a rolling pin!)
4oz preserved ginger (thats the kind in syrup)

Wash and trim the rhubarb and cut into 2in sticks.  Weigh the fruit.  Put alternate layers of fruit and sugar in a bowl, cover and leave to stand overnight.


In the morning most of the sugar will have dissolved and the juices will have come out of the rhubarb.


Turn into a pan, add the root ginger tied in a piece of muslin and bring slowly to the boil. Fast boil for 15 minutes.  Remove the ginger and add the preserved ginger, boil for a further 5 minutes.  By this time the rhubarb should be clear.  Test for set. Pot and cover in the usual way.

If you have never made jam before, read this excellent article, published in the Guardian Lifestyle, by Darina Allen which should answer any questions you have.  But really, its not that difficult, you dont need sugar thermometers or liquid pectin, my mother and grandmother never used them. A cold saucer in the fridge, a teaspoonful of jam, let it cool, then push with your finger and if there is a skin then it is set, if not boil for another 5 minutes and try again.