So here we are, my 100th post! Not quite 100 recipes as I think one post was a round up! I didn’t really think I would get this far to be honest, I didn’t think I had nearly 100 recipes in me! So I think a little celebration is in order. A celebration in the form of a rhubarb crumble. I want to celebrate this milestone with a little tribute to my grandmother, it’s because of her really that I love to cook. She has given me so many amazing food memories, from eating and cooking fish straight from the sea to thrifty kitchen tips and how to cook for surprise visitors 😉 Some of my favourite childhood memories though are of her kitchen garden. This vegetable patch was small yet yielded amazing results every year, well that’s how I always saw it.
I was lucky to have spent a lot of my time as a child with my grandmother, and looking back now most of the happiest memories revolve around her kitchen table and food. She would entertain my sister and I by getting us to make little butter curls or by getting us to help with the baking of rhubarb tarts. It’s at that table that I sat as a very young child having lunch with my uncles and aunt when they came home for lunch, the same table was turned upside down so my sister and I could play with my uncle’s discarded toy cars and action men 🙂
It was her vegetable patch though that was most fascinating for me as a young child, and it came to life around this time of year. There was an abundance of herbs, spring onions, butterhead lettuce and of course the rhubarb. Straight from the soil to the kitchen table, salads were made with lettuce and spring onions. It’s in her kitchen I learned how to make coleslaw and the best egg salad that I still make today. But it’s the smell of rhubarb freshly chopped that bring backs so many memories of summer in her garden, skipping rope with my sister and playing with my grandparent’s labrador, Saber. It was her rhubarb tart, her stewed rhubarb and custard that I looked forward to the most. Today my grandmother is my biggest supporter along with my husband and daughter. Our phone conversations now revolve mostly about what we are planning to cook or cooking methods. She hasn’t seen any of my recipes online and she probably won’t see this post either but she has seen some of my recipes in print and that makes me very happy.
Now, back to this rhubarb crumble, if you’ve read some of my other posts you’ll know that baking isn’t really my thing, I can do the basics and I can do them well and I’m very content with that. This rhubarb and ginger crumble is basic but it is also delicious, I’m not breaking any new ground here I know that. I think we forget sometimes that not everything needs to be outstanding and different and new and I really don’t want to forget about the basic stuff, like crumbles and tarts (the Irish kind of course). At heart I’m all about simple recipes, they are the back bone to my cooking, to make the ingredients shine is always the goal for me and I hope you find that in my recipes. X
Ingredients
- FOR THE FILLING
- 500 g Rhubarb , roughly chopped
- A small piece of stem ginger (10g), chopped
- 2 tsp of ginger syrup
- Juice of half a medium lemon
- A little lemon zest (1/4 of a lemon)
- 1/2 a tsp of vanilla extract
- 2 tbs soft dark brown sugar
- FOR THE TOPPING
- 100 g plain flour
- 100 g oats
- 125 g cold butter , cut into cubes + a liitle more for greasing
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 60 g castor sugar
- TO SERVE
- Ice cream
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C ( I have an electric, fan assisted oven, please adjust according to the oven you use)
- Add the rhubarb, ginger, syrup, lemon zest and lemon juice along with the sugar to a bowl and mix everything together, making sure the rhubarb is completely covered in the juice.
- Grease an oven proof dish with a little butter.
- To make the oat topping, sift the flour and cinnamon into a mixing bowl, add the oats and castor sugar and butter and start rubbing the mixture together with your fingers until you have a thick crumbly texture.
- Add the rhubarb mixture to the greased dish, top with the oat crumble mixture and bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the topping is crispy and browned.
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream of cream.
Michelle, this is a beautiful post! I can so connect to your story, I have exactly the same memories of my grandmother, gardening and baking with her. She has taught me so much and I miss her dearly. Congratulations on your 100th post! x
Thank you so much Hana, we’re so lucky to have these memories x
Michelle, this is a lovely tribute to your Grandmother. My Irish mom is not much of a cook and definitely not a baker, but her mom was a great baker. I only saw Granny O’ every few years (when she’d visit us in the US) but I remember her bread pudding and rice pudding so well. One thing my mom did actually make was stewed rhubarb with custard (Birds). This crumble looks so good!
Thanks so much Eileen x My mum used to make rice pudding for us and is definitely not a baker either, maybe it skips a generation?! We always had Bird’s custard though, especially with stewed rhubarb and sometimes with stewed apple, I loved it 😉
Congratulations on your 100th
Irreally enjoy reading your posts, especially when I away from home ( like now). I can imagine you in your kitchen just a few roads from our house.
We have been enjoying basic stewed rhubarb on our breakfast cereal.
Thanks so much Jean, I really appreciate that and I know you have been with me from the start too! Thank you! I hope you’re enjoying your trip. Stewed rhubarb is also very good on porridge 😉