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hubarb isn’t an “in” food ingredient. It can’t be, because it has never been “out”. For the past two centuries it has had a
place in the canon of the very best British foods. We’ve loved it since the mid-Victorian era – we were putting it in fools, pies, crumbles and tarts while it was being pooh-poohed by the French, mais oui.
That head start explains why we are better at cooking it than anybody else. We’ve learned to marry rhubarb with strawberries, ginger, lemon, orange, star anise and honey. In Yorkshire, rhubarb forced in sheds has had a Protected Designation of Origin since 2010, centred on what is imaginatively known as the Rhubarb Triangle. This rhurbarb hits the market in January, and the season contin- ues until April, when the earliest outdoor crop comes on-stream and it can no longer com- mand a premium. At the Devonshire Arms in Bolton Abbey,
North Yorkshire, chef Adam Smith cooks rhu- barb crumble for the hotel’s brasserie, but he takes the fruit to another level when creating a dessert for its Burlington restaurant. Here, he has solved the old problem of cooking stems so they don’t collapse at the least hint of overcooking.
Cost The price of forced rhubarb fluctuates between £4 and £5 per kilo. Most restaurants in York- shire buy it direct from the grower. The Devonshire Arms offers a £65 à la carte
menu and a £75 tasting menu. Both include a pre-dessert and a dessert. The rhubarb dessert is one seventh of an à la carte meal, yielding 74% gross profit – about £3 per portion.
Planning
The recipe is more about small preparation details brought together on the plate. The poached rhubarb liquor can be prepared ahead in batches and can be scaled up to meet demand. It is the basis of both the cannelloni sheets and the gel. The former have to be prepared daily, but the gel will keep if kept in squeezy bottles.
Rhubarb crisps can be prepared ahead of service and left in the dehydrator. The parfait for the cannelloni can be prepared in batches for two to three days’ service. The white chocolate custard can also be
made in larger batches when required. Champagne-poached rhubarb is cooked in a water bath, but the chunks of fruit are fin- ished to order by coating them in the glazed syrup.
Both the white chocolate wafers and the cookies used as the garnish are part of basic preparation.
Poached rhubarb juice
This is the base for both the cannelloni and the gel. Peel 8-10 rhubarb stems (the stringy out- side) and weigh 500g of the peelings (1).Put the peelings in a pan with 100g caster sugar and 150g fructose. Sweat them on the side of the stove (2).
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2 20 March 2015 | The Caterer | 43
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM VARNEY
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