Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Making a fool

I have been hunting and gathering, spying what is happening in the garden and two things that are on today's menu are rhubarb and broad beans.
Above is the the rhubarb. The leaves get cut off and put on the compost heap.
(If you are a natural dyer of yarn, a mordant can be made by boiling up the leaves, They can provide oxalic acid but you need to do that outdoors as it a great irritant.) However, I am happy to compost the leaves at the moment.
The stalks left are about 12 oz. Cut these up into small chunks, add orange juice and sugar.
Boil up until you have a fruit compote, fold in whipped cream and eggwhite and voila, tonight's fool.
Ingredients
350g/12oz rhubarb
55g/2oz caster sugar
1 orange, juice only
water
150ml/¼ pint cream, whipped
1 egg white, beaten until peaked


Method
1. Place the rhubarb, sugar, orange juice and enough water to cover the rhubarb in a medium saucepan. Boil rapidly until rhubarb is soft.
2. In a bowl, fold the egg white into the whipped cream.
3. When the rhubarb is soft, fold it in to the egg white and cream mixture. Reserve a little rhubarb for decoration.
4. Spoon the resulting fool into a tall dessert glass. Top with the reserved rhubarb and serve.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rhubarb is one of my favourite things to eat and I'm fortunate that a man sells it for £1 a bunch on a hedge at the bottom of my road!! I found your blog last week and have avidly read through your entire backworks. Fantastic and inspirational stuff. I look forward to reading more.