Experiment 4 - Rhubarb Crumble
Someone i work with had an allotment, and he brought a LOT of rhubarb in to work. Like, A LOT a lot. And i ended up with 90% of it.
My first thought was “Yay! More Rhubarb and Vanilla Vodka!” - i made a batch of this for my birthday, and i’m not sure why i am yaying. It was delicious, but deadly. The rhubarb tang and vanilla aftertaste completely masks the vodka kick… which led to a lot of drunk. Must remember to enjoy responsibly.
My second thought was that i’d just been brought a new cookery book for my birthday (http://www.coxcookiesandcake.com/) and it had a set of YUMMY looking Rhubarb cupcakes. So watch this space for those.
And thirdly? Oooh, Rhubarb crumble!
Again, i’m battling something my boyfriend doesnt like. He turned his nose up when i brought it home (before remembering and requesting more of the delicious vodka) and complained when i said i was making a crumble. “Blergh, too stringy - you can make it but i don’t want any” - Fair enough, more for me!
I went about making the crumble in a completely unprecise way. I googled a few recepies, and took the bits i liked the sound of. I basically cleaned and chopped the rhubarb into smallish pieces, enough to half fill the dish i wanted to use, and then scattered on a load of golden caster sugar and 4 table spoons of water and chucked it in the oven for 20 mins. When reading about stewing, most said 10 mins… but i wanted it as squishy as possible so my fella would try it.
Whilst that was cooking away, i made the crumble topping with an unspecified amount of plain flour, unsalted butter and golden caster sugar. Just went with what felt rightish.
When the 20 mins was up, i mixed about 1/2 a teaspoon of powdered ginger in with the rhubarb, covered with the crumble and stuck it back in the oven for 40 mins and then served it up with lazy pre-made ambrosia custard.
Admittedly, my crumble should have been a bit better. Being lazy and not bothering to properly measure means i probably put a bit too much flour in. Oh well.
But… taste sucess! Completely delicious, and my boyfriend ate a heaped bowl and actually enjoyed it - not the rhubarb experience he remembered.
Hurrah!
[video]
[video]
[video]
So, I’ve decided to revert to the original reason I joined tumblr… a food blog.
I’m an Id eater. I see something that looks delicious, and it’s in my shopping basket and/or mouth. I love rich foods. I love red meat. I find it really hard not to top everything with cheese. I have a serious salt tooth, tempered by a serious sweet tooth. I love being the person who provides the food
So as you can see… I really needed to adjust my eating habits.
My mum hates cooking. It’s purely a negative reinforcement situation. Trying to make meals for 4 kids and a set-in-his-ways husband had some drawbacks, mainly of the “lets make this quick and easy” type. Not that I was unhealthy – luckily, I’ve always been obsessed with salad, particularly cucumber. As a kid I would eat grilled chicken breast and cucumber as every meal if allowed. As a teen I started eating more junk… I pretty much lived on carbs. Pizza and Pasta, with lashings of cheese.
When I went to university, I started to get interested in cooking. It boggled my mind that kids who grew up with freshly cooked meals at home every night were now living on burgers and chips. Pancake day rolled around, and I had to give everyone in my first year flat lessons in how to make them from scratch. When I moved out of halls and in with my boyfriend, I started cooking a lot more. Mostly cheese laden goods. Lasagnes, Hot pots… I think I could have turned into a cheese and onion hotpot.
Now, that’s all well and good, but I used to be a crazy sports activity nut. I did athletics, Netball, rounders, ballet, contempory dance, taekwondo – and swam what seemed like every other day. I was so skinny in school I got asked twice by the school nurse if I was anorexic – at least one of those times sending my best friend into hysterics of “Have you SEEN how much she eats?!”. I was burning a lot of calories, what can I say? By the end of my A levels I had rounded out to a size 10. At the end of University I was a size 14. After 5 more years of limited activity, I’m sitting on a rounded 16. And I really need to reassess it all – I’m not too fussed about weight loss, I’m 5’9’ and anything less than a size 12 and I do look anorexic. But mainly, it’s for my attitude. I want to feel less sluggish, more go get ‘em. But I don’t want to punish my taste buds in the process!
So… I’m trying to make my diet a little more sensible. And that means, I need to get a little more adventurous. I need to lower my diary intake, lower my red meat intake and move my butt more!
So I’ve joined a gym, and I’m going to document my cooking adventures.
I hope you enjoy!