Rhubarb!

A jam recipe which takes about 15 mins prep time and 45 mins cook time (total 1 hour) to make slightly less than a litre.


I don’t bake a lot as it all seems a bit too much like chemistry. I don’t like faffing around with exact measurements, as there is too little room for experimentation. But I made an exception over Easter weekend because of rhubarb. I have been walking past rhubarb in the various London markets for weeks. I have wanted to buy it and turn it into something new and delicious. I mean, look at it, it’s beautiful!

So, I decided on jam. Partially because the desire to make jam has been hounding me for months. It’s something I have never done and I really like fresh fruit jam, not the kind with gelatine in it, but the kind that’s really runny and drippy, with chunky bits of fruit. The kind that soaks into your toast and is not super sweet. This kind of jam:

To get there I went down to Portobello market and bought Yorkshire rhubarb, and turned it into jam by combining:

• 5 stalks rhubarb, washed and chopped
• one cup - apricots, dates and figs chopped
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp grated orange zest
• 1 cup OJ
• ½ cup water

All the raw ingredients looked so pretty together, the colours were gorgeous:

I brought it to a boil and then kept on a low heat, adding water and cooking it down until the dried fruit was well incorporated.

It is a beautifully tangy jam, and I ate it on toast, muffins, with yoghurt and stirred into porridge.

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