Fruit and Vegetables in April

April heralds the blossom of spring. With the daffodils in full bloom, buds bursting on the trees and the days growing longer, it makes for an exciting month of change with longings for the outdoors, alfresco meals and the first braai or barbecue of the year.

Where vegetables are concerned, nothing much changes from the supply situation of March: Broccoli, including the purple sprouting variety, carrots, leeks, new potatoes and sweet potatoes are regularly available. Cauliflower may be available and English spinach will become available as the month progresses. Another vegetable that appears now is Asparagus, but not the local variety, which is only available in May. Imported varieties of asparagus may be available from as far afield as Peru, but the one to look out for is the superior quality Spanish asparagus, which are invariable available from early April. Good courgettes and chicory are also available now, both great components of salads. Another salad vegetable not to be forgotten this month is delicious watercress, which can also be used in cooked dishes.

A dark green leaf with a distinctive peppery, pungent flavour, watercress is an incredibly versatile and healthy vegetable, which can be included in recipes instead of spinach. Look for dark, green leaves and avoid any that are wilting or yellowing. Often eaten raw in salads, watercress can also be cooked. It takes very little cooking and is often used in soups and sauces, in cheese or egg dishes, or served with fish, such as salmon, or as a filler in pies and tarts.

Fruit supplies in April are dominated by imports. Oranges are past their best, although still available, but other citrus fruits are good, for instance you may be able to use grapefruit in place of oranges for some recipes. Lemons and Limes are also still available.

The main UK fruit of the month, although not truly a fruit, but considered as such, is the first of the outdoor rhubarb, which makes a great accompaniment with apple in crumbles and sweet pastries.

Rhubarb and Apple Chutney

Rhubarb teams with apples, onions and spices

to become a tangy chutney that is wonderful

with roast pork, game and venison sausages.

It’s not the prettiest chutney,

because the long cooking turns the rhubarb brown,

but it tastes really good!

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Ingredients:
750g rhubarb stalks
500g cooking apples, peeled and cored
2 onions, finely sliced
250ml malt or white wine vinegar
250ml white wine
300g demerara sugar
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
30ml black mustard seeds
5ml ground allspice
5ml ground ginger
100g sultanas
15ml salt

Method:
Wash and trim the rhubarb, discarding any leaves, and chop into inch pieces. Chop the apples into 1/2 inch dice. Place the rhubarb, apples and onions in a heavy-based pan with the vinegar and wine, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes until the onions are tender.

Add the sugar, chilli, mustard seeds, allspice, ginger, sultanas and salt, and continue to simmer, stirring from time to time, for 45 minutes to one hour, until it is good and thick.

Remove from the heat for ten minutes, then spoon the chutney into hot, dry, sterilised jars and seal. Keep in a cool, dry place for two weeks to a month before opening. The longer the chutney is kept, the better it becomes!

Honey and Rhubarb Cake

This cake is something to write home about!

It is so buttery, tender and moist with the tart flavour

of rhubarb permeating through it.

It's best eaten fresh baked, still warm from the oven,

with a hot cup of coffee,

or even as a pudding, spiced up with a sweet ginger

flavoured custard or whipped cream.

It also keeps well, staying moist;

however it will firm up over a day or two,

but it never lasts that long in our house.

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Ingredients:
280g self-raising flour
5ml baking powder
2ml salt
110g caster sugar
110g demerara sugar,
plus a little for sprinkling on top of the cake
110g butter, melted
2 eggs
300ml rhubarb and honey compote (see previous recipe)
5ml vanilla extract

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Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C

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Line the base of a 9inch round cake tin with baking paper and butter the sides

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Mix the flour with the baking powder, salt and sugars. Make a well in the centre and add the butter, eggs, rhubarb and vanilla. Beat all together well and pour into the tin. Smooth the top lightly and sprinkle about 30ml demerara sugar evenly over the top.

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Bake for about 45 minutes until firm to the touch. Test by pricking with a skewer - if it comes out clean the cake is done. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.

Rhubarb and Honey Compote

The end of February in the UK is an in between time for fruit.

Autumnal apples and pears are getting past their prime,

and fragrant, soft summer berries are only available frozen or tinned.

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Thankfully, rhubarb is a delicious home-grown 'fruit' available at this time of year.

It makes a great stop-gap providing necessary vitamins and minerals in the diet.

Of course it's not exactly a fruit - technically it's a vegetable,

but it's usually used for puddings and sweet pies or pastries.

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Every year, around this time, he rosy green stems of rhubarb

start to appear in the green-grocers

just begging to be snapped up and cooked

with enough sugar or honey

to sweeten the edge off its natural sourness.

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When buying rhubarb,

look out for firm stiff stems that are not too chunky -

about 2cm wide -

preferably with leaves to enable you to judge the freshness.

Droopy leaves show that the rhubarb is past its sell-by-date.

Don't get any ideas about eating the leaves though

as they contain a high amount of oxalic acid and oxalates,

which makes the leaves highly toxic.

Towards the end of the season

you may find the stems quite tough and stringy;

they need to be peeled to remove the tough strings

on the outside of the stems.

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Something to remember when cooking rhubarb;

you don't really need to add liquid,

unless you are adding flavour -

as in orange juice -

or making a jelly.

Rhubarb will produce copious quantities of its own juices.

When making pastries with rhubarb,

either drain the liquid off before putting in the pie,

or add a protective layer between the fruit and the pastry -

a mixture of butter, sugar and almonds works well -

or add cornflour to the liquid to thicken the juices to a gel,

which wont make the pastry over-soggy.

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This compote is great on its own,

or served with custard, cream or yoghurt.

It also makes a great accompaniment for steamed pudding,

or for the base for a pie or cake.

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Ingredients:
1kg rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1 inch slices
4 strips orange zest
100ml runny honey
85 g caster sugar
juice of 1 large orange

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Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C

Place the rhubarb in a shallow ovenproof dish with the orange zest and drizzle the honey over it. Sprinkle with sugar and pour over the orange juice. Cover with foil and bake for 25-35 minutes, stirring now and then, until the rhubarb is tender, but not breaking up.

Serve hot, warm or cold or use for puddings, pies or cakes.

Rhubarb and White Wine Jelly

Most people think of jelly as something to serve children for dessert,

but it can be made quite sophisticated for an adult dessert.

Fruit and wine always bring pleasure,

and this dessert,

even if it appears simple,

makes a great surprise to complete a special meal.

Ingredients:

1Kg rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

370ml caster sugar, plus more, if needed

Zest and juice of 1 orange,

500ml water

8 leaves gelatine (or 2 envelopes granulated gelatine)

About 175-200ml dry white wine

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Directions:

Preheat the oven to 190C.

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Put the rhubarb into a large rectangular ovenproof dish (12 x 8 inch pie plate works well). Sprinkle over the sugar, add the orange juice and zest, and 2 cups of water. Cover with lid or foil. Bake for 1 hour. Take out of the oven and let cool with the lid removed.

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Strain the liquid carefully into a large measuring cup. This yields about 3 cups rhubarb juice.

Put the pulp aside for use elsewhere - you can freeze it for use in a crumble pie, or trifle or serve separately with custard as a desert.

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For granulated gelatine: soften it in 60ml of the wine for about 5 minutes. Heat the mixture in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until the gelatine has dissolved (about 1 minute), and add to the rhubarb juice. Pour the remaining white wine into the juice to bring it up to 950ml.

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For leaf gelatine: add the wine as is to the juice to the required measurement. Soak gelatine leaves in a dish of cold water until softened. Put 2 ladles of rhubarb and wine syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Squeeze out the gelatine leaves and whisk into the syrup. When they've dissolved, pour the contents of the pan back into the measuring cup. If you want to make sure everything is well blended, you can pour from the cup to the pan and back into the cup again.

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Taste; you may want some more sugar.

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Lightly oil a 4-cup jelly mould by dabbing a paper towel in some suitably flavourless oil and then rubbing it over the interior of the mould. Pour into the jelly mould. Place in the refrigerator to chill and set for about 6 hours or overnight.

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Serve with whipped cream, custard or vanilla ice cream.

Ginger Orange and Rhubarb Crumble

A crumble is a dish of British origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of butter, flour, and sugar. The crumble is baked in an oven until the topping is crisp. It is often served with custard, cream or ice cream as a hearty, warm dessert after a meal.

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Crumbles originated in Britain during World War II. Due to strict rationing the ingredients required to make the bases of pies contained too much of the necessary flour, butter and sugar to make a pastry. So a simple mixture of flour, butter and sugar was used to make the topping, which was crumbled over stewed fruit for a pudding. The dish was also popular due to its simplicity, as it allowed women more time for other household tasks.

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Although forced rhubarb becomes available in February, I make this recipe all year round – hence using a tin of rhubarb. It may be a little lazy, but it saves having to stew the stalks beforehand and makes a quick and easy desert when in a hurry.

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Ingredients:

1 tin of rhubarb, 540g net.

Zest and juice of 1 orange

30ml ginger and orange marmalade

50g sugar - white or light brown

100g butter

200g flour

5ml ground ginger

Pinch of salt

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Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C

Drain the syrup from the rhubarb into a pan and set the flesh aside. To the syrup, add the juice and zest of an orange and 30ml of ginger and orange marmalade. Bring the syrup to the boil, lower the heat and simmer to reduce the liquid to about half when it will begin to thicken up. Return the rhubarb flesh to the pan and mix together with the syrup.

To make the topping, put the sugar, butter, flour, ground ginger and a pinch of salt into a kitchen blender and pulse together until a crumbly mixture is reached.

Butter an 8 inch pie plate and pour the fruit mixture into it. Cover the fruit with the crumbly mixture and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, when it should be beginning to become golden on top. If you like it more golden, leave for about 35-40 minutes.

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Chocolate Rhubarb Sponge Pudding

Ingredients:

Fruit...
600g rhubarb trimmed weight
125g golden caster sugar

Sponge...
200g golden caster sugar
225g butter softened and diced
200g self-raising flour
25g cocoa
10ml baking powder
4 medium eggs
100ml milk
5ml vanilla extract
50g dark chocolate chips

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C
Cut the rhubarb into 2cm lengths and toss with the sugar in a bowl.
Arrange the rhubarb evenly over the base of a 30cm ovenproof dish.
Reserving 30ml sugar, place all the sponge ingredients, except the chocolate chips, in the bowl of a food processor and cream together.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Smooth the sponge mixture on top of the rhubarb, scatter over the reserved sugar and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

This is delicious served hot, but is also good warm or just cool.

Serve with custard poured over.

Rhubarb Panna Cotta

Ingredients:
200g rhubarb trimmed weight
150g caster sugar
2 leaves gelatine
350g creme fraiche
15-30ml grappa or fruit liqueur

Method:
Cut the rhubarb into 2cm lengths and place in a small saucepan with 100g sugar and 50ml water.
Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes.
Drain the rhubarb into a sieve set over a bowl to catch the juice.
In the meantime, cut the gelatine into broad strips, place in a small bowl, cover with cold water and leave to soak for 5 minutes, then drain.
In a pan, bring the creme fraiche to boil with the remaining sugar, then remove from the heat, add the gelatine and stir to dissolve.
Stir in the sieved rhubarb and puree the mixture in a liquidiser.
Divide the mixture between four ramekins.
Place on a plate, cover and leave to cool, then chill in the fridge over night until set.
Add 15-30ml grappa or fruit liqueur to the rhubarb juices, cover and chill.
To serve, run a knife around each panna cotta to loosen it and turn out onto a plate. Drizzle with the flavoured rhubarb juices over and around the panna cotta and serve.

Rhubarb Crumble With Butterscotch Cream

Ingredients:
For the Crumble...
800g rhubarb trimmed weight
200g plain flour plus 30ml
200g light muscovado sugar
100g ground almonds
175g butter, chilled and diced
15ml white sugar

For the Butterscotch Cream...
200g creme fraiche
100g Nestle caramel

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C
Cut the rhubarb into 3cm lengths.
Toss the rhubarb in a bowl with 30ml flour and 100g muscovado sugar.
Arrange over the base of a shallow 30cm capacity ovenproof dish.
Place flour, ground almonds and remaining muscovado sugar in the bowl of a food processor with the butter and blitz until the mixture starts to cling together, taking care to stop before it turns into a dough.
Scatter this mixture over the fruit and top this with the white sugar.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until the top is golden and crisp and juices are bubbling up at the sides.
Remove and leave the crumble to cool for 20-30 minutes.
Blend the creme fraiche with the caramel and serve spooned over the crumble.