Although the kitchen is the last place where I would spend my free time, and recipe books are not my favourite reading, I decided to cover this subject a little on my blog too. This piece is the first; there is no need to look for older ones. 🙂
Drinking your own juice from the freezer in winter seems elementary. In the autumn we have made close to 100 litres of entirely natural apple juice, without sugar and without boiling, and by spring it is all gone. We often do not even dilute it with water but drink it as it is. Surprising as it may be, home made apple juice with absolutely no sugar is quite sweet. If I had not made it myself, I would never believe it while drinking.
Now that the rhubarb plants have grown enormous, the thought came that besides cake and a summer rhubarb drink, rhubarb juice could be made as well. What held me back so far was knowing that rhubarb is a sour thing and that I probably would not want to drink that juice afterwards one way or another. Out of interest I bought natural rhubarb juice from an organic shop and lo and behold, it was wonderful.
A summer rhubarb drink.
A jug of cold water and a handful of chopped rhubarb, with a pinch of peppermint leaves.
Rhubarb juice.
1. I peeled and chopped the rhubarb, filled a 5 litre pan and poured water over it so that the rhubarb was covered.
2. I heated it until it came to the boil and took it off the heat.
3. I added 150 g of sugar and 5 large blackcurrant leaves and stirred.
4. I left the pan to cool while I peeled and chopped the next batches. Standing in its own hot juice this way, the rhubarb fell completely soft without boiling. The sugar dissolved and the blackcurrant leaves gave a pleasant, aromatic taste.
5. Once the juice had cooled enough, I strained it through muslin and poured it into plastic bottles and special vacuum bags (hot juice must not be poured into plastic).
Adding blackcurrant leaves to the juice was my own idea, and I tasted the plain juice and the version with blackcurrant leaves beforehand. The latter was pleasantly more flavourful. I have read online that strawberries or lemon juice or peppermint leaves and the like are added as well.
Rhubarb in the freezer.
You peel and chop the rhubarb and put it in boxes in the freezer. Pleasant in winter for making a cake or a kissel.
Rhubarb cake for a housewife in a hurry
This is not an advertisement 🙂
You take a packet of tray cake mix and another packet of sponge cake mix and mix the batter according to the instructions. You peel and chop a couple of larger rhubarb stalks and stir them into the batter. You add a large handful of washed raisins. You put baking paper on the oven tray and pour the batter onto it.
The tray cake packet gives a baking time of 25 to 30 minutes and the sponge 40 to 50 minutes, both at 180 C. Since I used a large oven tray, with the batter in a fairly thin layer, the time given on the tray cake packet applies.
The cake comes out pleasantly crumbly, the rhubarb and raisins juicy and sweet under the tooth.
