I was gifted two glorious bags of home-grown rhubarb this year, which brought a hugely successful experiment with rhubarb orange jam, and a slightly bland version of rhubarb strawberry jam (I blame the imported strawberries). There was stewed rhubarb too, with and without hefty portions of ginger, but there were still leftovers. What do I do with those?
After careful consideration, and a fair bit of recipe searching and internet reading, I decided on a single jar of quick pickled rhubarb, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen pickled rhubarb anywhere and it sounded … interesting.
My base was a recipe from the Washington Post, but I tweaked things a bit because I didn’t think a single bayleaf was going to provide an adequate amount of oomph. It was scarily easy, and it’s also scarily good – a crisp, sweet-sour pickle that pairs beautifully with a strong, hard cheese. But there’s only one jar. 😦
Pickled rhubarb (adapted, quite freely from the Washington Post)
10 oz rhubarb, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
scant 1/4 cup sugar
about half a dozen black or red peppercorns*
2 inches of root ginger, grated coarsely
1 tbsp kosher salt
Mix rhubarb, peppercorns and ginger in a small, heatproof bowl.
Heat water, vinegar, sugar and salt and simmer for a couple of minutes until the sugar and salt is dissolved.
Pour the hot liquid over rhubarb.
Allow to cool, pack in a large sterilized jar and store in the fridge.
I’m told this will keep in the fridge for a couple of months. It’s rather good. It may not last that long.
*I used red peppercorns bought on an organic pepper farm in Cambodia earlier this year. Maybe that’s the reason the pickle is quite so perfect.
Bread and jam and jam and bread and ginger 
owencolesueianterrence said
Great start to the season!