I live in South Africa where we don’t have markets as you have in France. Even the shop-bought produce is monotonous. Always very seasonal, primarily because I refuse to buy imported produce. Also produce has to travel so far to get here that it breaks my heart to think of the carbon footprint. So your recipe will be stored away until rhubarb is again freshly available.
The allotment rhubarb has been in turbo mode for weeks and people have started hiding already when I approach with my trusty basket full of produce…wait until the courgette and tomato glut starts…then the neighbours start drawing the curtains and pretending not to hear the knock!
I loved to read the GH article about starting a garden from scratch. It looks wonderful.
Why do people mess with pork pies? If you are ever back in Yorkshire I can recommend the original ones from Weatherhead’s butchers in Pateley Bridge, they are delicious, as is their black pudding.
I wish you were my neighbour, Judi! Thank you for the kind words about the Good Housekeeping piece, and for the pork pie recommendation - I am quite often in Yorkshire. And yes, don't mess with perfection.
Reliably on point, never disappoints - I love your writing as I get my weekly fix of The Market Haul. I have decided this week, rather than just obsess over it, is to try and replicate most of it when we do our Farmshop Haul. This, I hope, will force me into having variety and not just relying on same old same old. I teach preserving but by the time I have written the recipe, cooked something, photographed it, written about it on about six platforms we are down to fish fingers and baked beans for dinner! So I am going to Do Better. Still not buying a pork pie though as they are too 'messed about with' these days.
Ha! I feel your pain, Rosie. I once wrote a thing about what food writers really eat and it was mostly about toast. Not all the time, obviously, but when you're on deadline and overwhelmed, toast and crisps loom large. And I do know that feeling of shopping on autopilot too.
And this is why AI recipes are so disappointing - the human brain is very very good at making inspired connections between different recipes we have cooked over time - or eaten in a favourite cafe - or saw a picture of once.....
They are invariably awful, aren't they? Just scraping and repeating errors from random stuff. My friend Rachel McCormack wrote a brilliant piece for Scribehound where she got ChatGPT to write a recipe for a Victoria sponge in the style of various Nobel Prize winners - showed up how ludicrous it is in the most amusing way.
I love all the component parts idea. My fail safe pudding to make for visiting Europeans is Jane Grigson's apricot and crumble, from the tiny Penguin 60s edition "Puddings". Her introduction to it is just wonderful. "An elegant version of the homely crumble. It is always a great success with our French and Italian friends, who ask for an English pudding but whose pioneering spirit would fail if faced with Spotted Dick or Dead Man's Leg." I can see that I'll be adding your crumb cake to my favourites. You've made me realise that I have rhubarb in the garden that needs used - have been too busy with dahlias and seedlings to glance in its direction.
That is wonderful. She was just the very best, wasn't she? And yes, spotted dick might be a step too far. Do get that rhubarb used! It is so precious here are the season is quite short.
B. ‘ a multigrain loaf I had sliced or I would just eat it in massive doorsteps’ : a brilliant solution to a perennial problem, thank you!
C. A timely reminder that I must fling some netting over the (morello) cherries before the blackbirds and pigeons strip the green fruit from the tree. Looking like a very good crop this year for all fruit.
I have just been making my grocery list for tomorrow’s shop and wondered if they’ll have the first cherries here! Hurray for you with your bowl full!
If they are available to me, I’m thinking I may try your almond cake with cherries instead of rhubarb. Then I may need to throw a couple of chocolate chips in there too! Sounds like a winner to me. Thanks for the inspiration!
I live in South Africa where we don’t have markets as you have in France. Even the shop-bought produce is monotonous. Always very seasonal, primarily because I refuse to buy imported produce. Also produce has to travel so far to get here that it breaks my heart to think of the carbon footprint. So your recipe will be stored away until rhubarb is again freshly available.
Another glorious read and what a fabulous recipe.
The cake is superb, I suspect I’ll be making it again very soon.
The allotment rhubarb has been in turbo mode for weeks and people have started hiding already when I approach with my trusty basket full of produce…wait until the courgette and tomato glut starts…then the neighbours start drawing the curtains and pretending not to hear the knock!
I loved to read the GH article about starting a garden from scratch. It looks wonderful.
Why do people mess with pork pies? If you are ever back in Yorkshire I can recommend the original ones from Weatherhead’s butchers in Pateley Bridge, they are delicious, as is their black pudding.
I wish you were my neighbour, Judi! Thank you for the kind words about the Good Housekeeping piece, and for the pork pie recommendation - I am quite often in Yorkshire. And yes, don't mess with perfection.
Ekkkk. Debora! Spelling 😳x
Oh honestly, I never worry about things like that. X
Wonderful recipe, again! Thank you
You are so welcome, Mary.
Reliably on point, never disappoints - I love your writing as I get my weekly fix of The Market Haul. I have decided this week, rather than just obsess over it, is to try and replicate most of it when we do our Farmshop Haul. This, I hope, will force me into having variety and not just relying on same old same old. I teach preserving but by the time I have written the recipe, cooked something, photographed it, written about it on about six platforms we are down to fish fingers and baked beans for dinner! So I am going to Do Better. Still not buying a pork pie though as they are too 'messed about with' these days.
Ha! I feel your pain, Rosie. I once wrote a thing about what food writers really eat and it was mostly about toast. Not all the time, obviously, but when you're on deadline and overwhelmed, toast and crisps loom large. And I do know that feeling of shopping on autopilot too.
Super photo of you in your garden our Debra x
Thank you so much, Jane. Very kind.
And this is why AI recipes are so disappointing - the human brain is very very good at making inspired connections between different recipes we have cooked over time - or eaten in a favourite cafe - or saw a picture of once.....
They are invariably awful, aren't they? Just scraping and repeating errors from random stuff. My friend Rachel McCormack wrote a brilliant piece for Scribehound where she got ChatGPT to write a recipe for a Victoria sponge in the style of various Nobel Prize winners - showed up how ludicrous it is in the most amusing way.
Looks delicious
Thank you!
I ate the first cherries in Germany this week and loved them - be a little longer for the uk to catch up sadly
Yes, a while yet. In England I always had cherries for my birthday in July.
I love all the component parts idea. My fail safe pudding to make for visiting Europeans is Jane Grigson's apricot and crumble, from the tiny Penguin 60s edition "Puddings". Her introduction to it is just wonderful. "An elegant version of the homely crumble. It is always a great success with our French and Italian friends, who ask for an English pudding but whose pioneering spirit would fail if faced with Spotted Dick or Dead Man's Leg." I can see that I'll be adding your crumb cake to my favourites. You've made me realise that I have rhubarb in the garden that needs used - have been too busy with dahlias and seedlings to glance in its direction.
That is wonderful. She was just the very best, wasn't she? And yes, spotted dick might be a step too far. Do get that rhubarb used! It is so precious here are the season is quite short.
A. That cake, phwoooargh.
B. ‘ a multigrain loaf I had sliced or I would just eat it in massive doorsteps’ : a brilliant solution to a perennial problem, thank you!
C. A timely reminder that I must fling some netting over the (morello) cherries before the blackbirds and pigeons strip the green fruit from the tree. Looking like a very good crop this year for all fruit.
Yes! Save the cherries! I am so glad it's going to be a good year.
Delicious! The rhubarb is striding all over the flowerbed - this looks like a great recipe to try, thank you!
Wonderful! I do hope you enjoy it.
I have just been making my grocery list for tomorrow’s shop and wondered if they’ll have the first cherries here! Hurray for you with your bowl full!
If they are available to me, I’m thinking I may try your almond cake with cherries instead of rhubarb. Then I may need to throw a couple of chocolate chips in there too! Sounds like a winner to me. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love love love it when people make my recipes their own. Cherries and almonds are so beautiful together, aren't they?
Superb Debora! Parfait en fait !
Judy
Thank you so much, Judy!