Rhubarb And Yoghurt Cake

I love making a good cake and school holidays has been the perfect time for me to do some baking with the kids. They love helping to measure out the ingredients and mix it all together, but the best part is licking the spoon! I used to love doing that as a kid too. Like mother, like daughter!

The other day I picked up a big bunch of rhubarb from the clearance table at the fruit shop. I went in for two things, but came out with cauliflower, a bag of yellow capsicums, purple carrots and rhubarb. You can't take me anywhere!

Last time I cooked with rhubarb it was in a Jamie Oliver recipe with pork. See that recipe here. It was absolutely delicious, but I knew that I wanted to make something sweet with it this time. I was going to make a lovely tart with ricotta and lemon rind, but thought that a good old-fashioned cake might go down better with the mums and kids coming over for a play date this morning.

The yoghurt makes the cake lovely and moist and gives it a slight tartness. If you wanted a slightly sweeter version, use vanilla yoghurt instead of natural, or one of the gourmet flavoured yoghurts with a flavour that you think will match the rhubarb well. The brown sugar also gives a beautiful richness and molasses-y flavour to the cake. If you don't have vanilla sugar to sprinkle over the top, just use extra brown sugar or even just caster sugar.

I'm guessing that the cake was a hit with everyone this morning, given how quickly it was demolished!

I hope you enjoy baking this cake too.

Rhubarb And Yoghurt Cake

60g butter, at room temperature

1 tsp finely grated lemon rind

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup SR flour

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup natural yoghurt

A bunch of rhubarb, ends trimmed and cut into 2cm pieces (I had 10 sticks)

1 Tbs vanilla sugar

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.

Grease and line a 23cm round tin.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using hand beaters, cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each one. Add the vanilla with the last egg.

Fold in the sifted flours and yoghurt. The mixture will be quite thick.

Stir in the chopped rhubarb to combine.

Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and spread to flatten the top.

Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the top.

Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea or coffee :-)

Pork And Rhubarb (and a nice Chardonnay!)

I've loved getting back into the swing of cooking some more interesting meals this week and I was excited to pick up a big bunch of rhubarb at the fruit shop a few days ago.

Initially I thought that I'd make an apple and rhubarb crumble, a strudel or some other sweet treat with it, but then thought I'd try something different. In the back of my mind I was sure that I'd seen a recipe for a pork and rhubarb dish and so went hunting. After a massive sort through my collection of cook books, I found the recipe in one of the original Jamie Oliver books, Happy Days with the Naked Chef.

I have had this cook book for years (it was published in 2001) so it's only taken a little while to get around to making it! I love the tartness of rhubarb, but have generally only had it in desserts, so I was intrigued to see how it would taste in a savoury dish.

Combined with the sweet pork fillet, salty proscuitto and the fragrant sage, it was a wonderful combination. The tart acidity in the rhubarb really complemented the other flavours well. I served the pork with duck fat roast potatoes and lemon peas and it all went really nicely together.

If you couldn't get pork fillet, the same flavours would work with chops or even a roast with lots of crispy crackling. If you did use a roast, you wouldn't drape the prosciutto over the top, because that would stop the crackling from forming. Just bake it on a separate tray until crispy and then serve alongside the meat.

The whole lot was washed down with a lovely bottle of Chardonnay. The perfect meal to have with the inlaws, welcoming them home from an 8 week holiday overseas.

Jamie Oliver's Superb Marinated Pork Fillet Roasted on Rhubarb

A large handful of sage

2 cloves of garlic, peeled

Olive oil

2 pork fillets (about 300g each)

Salt and pepper to taste

8 slices of prosciutto

A bunch of rhubarb, trimmed and washed

Trim the pork fillets of any sinew and cut each into two pieces, so that you have four equal fillets.

Use a mortar and pestle to smash up half the sage and garlic into a paste.

Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil and mix to combine. Season to taste.

Rub the flavoured oil over the pork fillets and allow to marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Cut the rhubarb into finger sized pieces and place in a glass baking tray. You don't want to use aluminium as it reacts with the acid in the rhubarb.

Put the pork fillets side by side on top of the rhubarb and then place 2 slices of prosciutto over each fillet. 

Drizzle with any remaining marinade and a touch more oil and then sprinkle with the rest of the sage leaves.

Wet a piece of greaseproof paper, scrunch it up and tuck it over the meat in the pan.

Cook in the oven for 15 minutes, then remove the paper and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the pork is cooked and the proscuitto crispy.

Remove from the oven and rest for a few minutes.

Serve each person some rhubarb and a prosciutto covered pork fillet. Spoon any remaining juices over the top.

Serve with roasted or mashed potatoes, or any other veg you like.

Enjoy!

And To Drink....

This 2006  Nepenthe Ithaca Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills is a wonderful drop that we picked up while visiting my parents in Adelaide a few years ago. 

Even though it was eight years old, there were still plenty of stone fruit and citrus flavours, with a beautiful buttery mouthfeel and gorgeous complexity.  The oakiness wasn't overpowering and the nuttiness was lovely.

The citrus flavours complemented the sweetness in the pork and the saltiness in the prosciutto. I thought that the rhubarb might be a bit too acidic, but because it was roasted, it had begun to caramelise and so a beautiful stickiness had started to emerge. The crispy duck fat potatoes combined to that beautiful mouthfeel.

My Chardonnay palate certainly is evolving. I'm glad that we decided to buy a case of this wine, because I still have a few bottles left of this to enjoy!