Rhubarb Rumble Recipe

With all the rhubarb crisp and cobbler, crumble and sponge searching I performed for Andrew’s birthday pudding I finally reached the stage where even the word “rhubarb” was beginning to look like a misspelling.

Eventually I settled on a recipe and then, in honour of my dear mother, I faffed about with it a bit though I promise I did not add anything weird like coconut. Or curry powder.

The result was not so much a triumph as it was a good, honest pudding suitable for an entry in a Comfort Food Wiki, or as a carbo-loading dish for an extreme runner on the eve of an Ultramarathon.

Without further ado, internet, I’d like to introduce you to Rhubarb Rumble…

 

INGREDIENTS

· 3 cups of chopped rhubarb or make up with other fruit (I had minimal rhubarb [sister, that plant needs fertiliser] but when combined with the minimal peaches and minimal apples I also nearly didn’t have, I discovered I’d completed 3 cups of fruit … and it was good).

· ¾ cup of brown sugar

· 4tbsp of melted butter (a silly measurement, so I’d just melt a lump then use a tablespoon to measure it out)

· 2 eggs lightly beaten

· ½ cup of milk

· 1 ½ cups of flour

· 2 tsp baking powder

· 1 tsp vanilla essence

· 1 cup of caster sugar

· Extra butter for greasing dish

METHOD:
1. Chop up your fruit into bite-sized chunks and place in a bowl with the brown sugar. Mix it around and leave it for a bit so that the juices run a little and you get a syrup thing going on. This might not be vital at all but it is what I did and I guess I left it about an hour by the time I ran up and down the road looking for someone who could help out with caster sugar.

2. In a large enough bowl (I can’t see into your kitchen so I can’t be any more precise than that) combine 3 tbsp of butter, the eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, vanilla essence and caster sugar (just use plain white sugar if your neighbours don’t have caster sugar) and keep mixing until you get a smooth batter. To be honest, I had to add a bit more milk at this stage but just see how you go.

3. Grease a baking dish – I used a 2lt Pyrex dish – with some butter, or your favourite grease.

4. Add the fruit mix and spread it around sensibly.

5. Spoon the batter over the top of the fruit then drizzle over a bit of the remaining melted butter – if you have some. I don’t think the extra melted butter is that important, but I had some left so that’s what I did. Bake in a 350/180 oven for about 40 minutes.

6. Serve warm with cream, or ice-cream or custard or what-have-you.

 

 Spread fruit around dish in a sensible manner.

 

Make a general mess of the kitchen bench and hope
that Edmonds love it so much they offer to
sponsor your blog.

 

Allow special rat catching dog to lick the bowls.