Rhubarb Cordial
As we come to the end of the rhubarb season for this year, I wanted to share a fun recipe for preserving your rhubarb for future use. This recipe makes a strong cordial, packed full of rhubarby gingeriness! To be enjoyed as a sweet and refreshing addition to sparkling water during the summer months, or even set as a jelly for trifle. With just a subtle hint of cardamom, it can also be spiced further and enjoyed as a hot rhubarb tea. And for those of you as silly as I am, from setting it as a jelly, we can take it a step further into a fluid gel as a sweet addition to the most savoury of dishes. Or use it as a sweet medium to freeze garden flowers in and make the most fancy and flavoursome ice cubes for drinks or cocktails.
This recipe makes around 750-850ml of cordial, which can be mixed at a dilution of 1 part cordial to 10 parts water. This can be altered to taste, but I find that much more than that is strong and rather sweet! Once made, it can be stored in a fridge for 1-2 months or frozen for much longer. It’s a lovely way to enjoy the flavour of rhubarb for a long time after it has finished growing for the year. (And you end up with enough rhubarb pulp leftover to make a delicious crumble! Click here to find our wonderfully buttery crumble topping recipe).
If you’d like your cordial to look vibrant and red like ours then you’ll need to make sure you use a light sugar. For this recipe I used raw cane, but it will also work with darker sugars such as Demerara, which won’t look as visually pleasing but will add a more unrefined, molasses flavour.
Rhubarb Cordial Recipe
360g Sugar
360ml Water
3 Cardamom pods, cracked
25g Ginger root, thinly sliced
500g Rhubarb, roughly chopped
Step 1.
Pop your sugar and water together in a saucepan and leave it on the hob to start boiling whilst you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
Step 2.
Thinly slice the ginger root but don’t bother to remove the skin. Crack the cardamom pods with the handle of your knife and add both to the syrup solution in the saucepan.
Remove the leaves and any dirt from the rhubarb and chop them into 1-2inch /2-5cm pieces. Add them to the saucepan too and give it a stir to make sure the sugar is dissolving properly.
Step 3.
Leave on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the rhubarb has turned to mush. Once this happens, turn off the hob but leave the pan in place whilst you sterilize a glass bottle and muslin cloth.
Step 4.
A lot of people line their sieves with the muslin cloth before pouring the liquid through it, but what you should do is drape the cloth over the jug you’re going to pour into, then hold it in place by pressing the sieve down into it. This way, the sieve catches any large pieces which would quickly block up the fine stitch of the muslin cloth.
Pour your rhubarb cordial into the sieve and push it around with a spoon to squeeze any trapped moisture from the pulp. When you’re done, carefully pour the cleared cordial into a sterilized bottle and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.