Forced Rhubarb

It was a welcome splash of colour at this time of year, seeing bright bunches of rhubarb for sale on the fruit stall at Cambridge's Sunday market this week. Yorkshire is famous for this delicacy: it takes centre stage at Wakefield's food festival which is being held this year on Friday the 7th and Saturday the 8th of March. Sadly we missed the National Rhubarb Pie Day which was this year apparently on the 28th of January. It's listed along with other international rhubarb festivals here.

Most of last Sunday's rhubarb is now steeping in vodka and sugar and will undergo a gradual transformation into some delicious rhubarb 'schnaps'. The plan is to keep this until next Christmas and give it to people as a gift. If we manage to leave it alone for that long it'll be some achievement - as will organising our first Christmas 2008 preparations in early February!

The recipe given to us by a friend - which she said is taken from Nigella Lawson - is:

1 ltr vodka
600g trimmed & chopped rhubarb
300g caster (preferably) or granulated sugar

Put all ingredients into a 1.5 or 2 litre jar. If you're using granulated sugar, give it the occasional stir to dissolve. Close the jar lid and store for 6 weeks - 6 months. Shake every other day in the first month. After this, strain into a jug and pour into bottle(s). It will continue to mature and improve for a few months in the bottle.

Very nice mixed with ginger beer!

Another seasonal treat we've enjoyed is a brace of partridges, braised with January King cabbage according to a lovely simple recipe in Keith Floyd's A Feast of Floyd. This is a great book, packed full of great recipes that's amongst our favourites because of how useful it's been. It's out of print, but seems to turn up regularly, very cheaply on Amazon marketplace or Abebooks.