You Will Need
- 1 bunch red rhubarb (6 fat stalks)
- 1 tablespoon minced lemongrass or 2-3 stalks, trimmed and split
- 1/2 cup frozen raspberries (optional)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or 1 pod, split)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- Chelsea Jam Setting sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Slice rhubarb into even 1cm pieces. Place in a glass baking dish with the raspberries (optional) and lemongrass stalks (if using minced lemongrass, don’t add it just yet).
- In a small pot, combine water, sugar, vanilla and minced lemongrass. Bring to the boil, simmer for a couple of minutes, then strain through a sieve and pour over rhubarb in dish. Cover with foil and pop in the oven for half an hour. (Don’t overcook it or you’ll end up with rhubarb mush. Which defeats the purpose of rest of this recipe.) BraveTart’s Stella Parks says to cook it till ‘al dente’, so keep checking it every few minutes after the 30 minute mark.
- When the rhubarb is just tender, use a slotted spoon to carefully spoon it out of the poaching liquid and into 2 x 500ml jars; it should half fill each jar.
- Then measure the juice that’s left, strain and pour into a small pot and add an equal quantity of Chelsea’s Jam Setting sugar.
- Bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes, then take off the heat and set aside for 10 minutes or so, until it starts to form a bit of a skin. (The reason you do this is because if you pour it straight into the jars, all the fruit floats to the top.) Fill the jars to the top and seal.
Thanks to lyndahallinan.com for this delicious recipe
