Rhubarb Rhubarb

The other night on the way home from work, my husband called and asked me to stop at our local Fruit and Veg shop to pick up some last minute beans to go with dinner. On my way to the pay for my beans I spotted in season beautifully crimson Rhubarb and figured I would try and make something with it.    Once I got home, gave the beans to my husband I went on a mission to deicide what to do with it.  There are millions of recipes for Rhubarb and Apple Pies or Rhubarb crumbles, but we didn’t feel like making a dessert with it.   

To my surprise we found a Jam recipe on a website that we visit frequently www.taste.com.au Our family love jam and I tried cooking in the past without much success, I always end up with a toffee like disaster. 

But we gave it a go and we couldn’t believe how easy it was to prepare and make and so delicious.   

500g of trimmed rhubarb, washed, coarsely chopped. 

500g caster sugar

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla essence

We combined all ingredients in a bowl, covered it and left it in the fridge overnight. 

The next morning we popped it into a saucepan on a medium high heat, brought it to the boil and stirred it for 20 – 30 minutes until it was thick and jelly like.  We used a tip on the website to know when it was ready. 

“ To test if the jam is ready, place 1 teaspoon of the jam on a chilled saucer and place in the freezer for 1-2 minutes or until cooled to room temperature. Lightly push the jam with your finger. If the surface wrinkles, it's ready”

We got a whole medium jar of jam.  We made a batch of Stephanie Alexander’s basic scones and went to the park for morning tea to enjoy it. 

The 1st Time.

Apart from having monthly subscriptions to Australian Good Food magazine Australian Good Taste to assist us with our meal planning I also have a small but expanding cookbook collection.   I often receive them as gifts and love to sit down on the couch to read them and gather inspiration and think ahead to what I would love to cook.   

Last Christmas my in-laws gave me a copy of the ‘Barefoot Contessa’ back to basics by American Ina Garten.  I must admit that I have been scared to cook from it.  Ina uses some produce and products that I not that familiar with and uses imperial measurements.   But I loved how she uses good quality ingredients and cooks beautiful simple food.

So I set myself a challenge every month I am going to cook a recipe from one of my cookbooks that I have never cooked before.  And you never know I could discover our new family favorite dish in the process.

The other night we cooked Parkers Stew from Ina’s lovely book.  We varied it slightly as we didn’t have a bottle of Cab Sav and I really really dislike green peas, so no peas for us.   We marinated a kilo of Chuck Steak with a whole 750ml bottle of Merlo with 3 Bay leaves from the garden and 3 cloves of garlic overnight.

Next day strained liquid, picked out the garlic and reserved it and the liquid it to cook with later on.  We got out a large casserole pot borrowed 200g of Bacon (removed from pot) and than the beef that had been lightly coated with a flour/salt and pepper mix.

We set the browned meat aside and threw in 2 diced onions and chopped the reserved garlic and 3 carrots and 6 baby chat potatoes and stir it all around a bit. 

The best bit was to add 2 cups of the reserved liquid, about 2 cups of beef stock, your browned beef and bacon, a small bunch of fresh rosemary, 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce and ½ a cup of Sun dried tomatoes (drained, sliced and added to the vegetables) and give it a stir and pop it in the oven on 160 - 180 degree's for 2 hours.   

Two hours later we had a beautiful smelling, meat falling apart stew to eat.    This recipe make a ton, so we more had than enough to eat the next day (we thought it actually tasted better) or you could even freeze the rest for another meal later down the track. 

All in all not a bad recipe for these cold winter months. 

Breakfast

For years I would never eat breakfast, I would have a latte and a cigarette on the run.  However, being older and wiser and (hurrah) now a non-smoker it is something I now eat regularly.   This is mainly due to homemade muesli that my husband makes every week.  It probably costs a little more than buying a supermarket brand, but it’s not full of sultanas and the wonderful thing is that we can vary it weekly if we like.  

Here is the base recipe but you can change it every week depending what you have the pantry or what dried fruits, nuts or seeds are on special.

Our home made toasted muesli

Ingredients

1/3 Vegetable oil (we use Ricebran Oil)

¾ Cup of Honey (We use Aldi’s organic honey)

750g bag of Rolled Oats

2 hand fulls seeds (Pepitas, sunflower seeds or unsalted pumpkin seeds)

250g of mixed dried fruit

(We love a mix that includes figs, paw paw and dates.  But use what ever you want.  My mum puts dried Mango in hers).

1 Handful of Nuts (Raw and Unsalted)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Mix oil and honey together and then add, oats, seeds and nuts together in a bowl to make sure everything is coated in oil and honey mixture.  

Spread the mixture evenly in a baking dish and bake in the oven for 30 minutes until it is lightly browned; occasionally mix with a fork to ensure the mix bakes evenly.

Once toasted, leave to cool.   Then add dried fruit, place it in an airtight container and shake to mix.