Rhubarb and Orange Slump

Funny word that – Slump…it makes me feel kind of sleepy..   Apparently ‘Slump’ is a New England word, and that’s where this comes from. I found this little gem of a recipe on the BBC good food page.

For ‘Cobbler’ – see NOTES

Whatever you call it, this useful recipe is wide awake, and makes a great change from the usual Rhubarb Crumble. Not that there’s anything wrong with a decent Crumble – it is one of the greats after all, but sometimes it’s nice to shake it all up a bit..

I think you’ll like this one.

EQUIPMENT:

• Weighing scales
• large oven-proof container (I use an oval Pyrex bowl, but a gratin dish would do well too)
• Bowl for the dry ingredients
• Food processor if you have one. Or a medium-sized bowl if you haven’t/can’t be bothered digging it out!

INGREDIENTS:

• 900g rhubarb, washed and cut into similar-sized pieces.
• Sugar to sweeten the rhubarb (I find that this varies, depending on the rhubarb, and your personal taste) but about 50g

• finely grated zest of two oranges (I used blood oranges because that’s what I had)
• the juice from one of the oranges
• 200g Self Raising Flour
• 140g golden caster sugar
• 80g butter
• 150mls milk or Buttermilk  (I prefer the buttermilk) Use less for Cobbler – see NOTES

 

 

METHOD:

• Heat the oven to 160 fan
• Then prepare the Rhubarb – wash it, cut it into even-sized pieces and put it into your serving dish.

• Add the sugar and orange juice, cover with foil and put it into the oven for about 20 minutes, until it’s softened but is retaining its shape – use the tip of a knife to check.
• While that’s going on, put the flour, sugar, butter and orange zest into a food processor and blitz until it reaches the bread-crumb stage. Or rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips, then add the sugar and zest.
• Remove the rhubarb from the oven, and raise the heat to 180 fan.
• Add the buttermilk to the Flour mixture, and mix in with a  knife until it becomes a rather sticky-looking dough.

• Drop dollops of the dough onto the rhubarb in an artistic manner.. Actually, it doesn’t matter how you do it, because the topping will all join together anyway, but I like to throw in an artistic instruction now and then..
• Put it straight into the oven and cook for about 25 minutes until it’s risen and browned.

• Serve with cream, custard or ice-cream.

NOTES:

• You can prepare the separate parts of this recipe long before you need it. Cook the rhubarb, then keep it in the fridge until you need it (I reheated it for about 15 minutes just to make sure it would be heated through when I put the topping on).
• Make up the flour/sugar/butter/zest mixture ahead of time, and keep it in the fridge too. It’s important that you don’t add the milk/buttermilk until just before you’re going to cook it.
• This reheats really well in the microwave – I gave a portion about 40 seconds on high, and it was great the next day.
• Basically, this recipe gives you a crunchy-topped soft sponge on top of the rhubarb, or virtually any soft fruit – try apples, plums, or even berries in season. The sponge is beautifully light, but because it has butter in it, it’s fairly robust too.
• COBBLER: I made this recently – just for a change – using a slightly drier scone mixture  – so just use less of the Buttermilk. Pat it out. Then using 2inch scone cutters, cut out the scones and pop them on top of the stewed Rhubarb. Bake for about 20 minutes at 180 Fan.