They say it was a brave man who ate the first oyster, but consider the woman who cooked the first rhubarb. Eeeurrrrgh — the sourness would have been frightful. It still is, but tempered by the sweetness of sugar or honey, rhubarb gives us one of the most tantalising tastes of the ancient world. It was valued as a medicinal plant in classical Greece and Rome, and was eaten in China more than 2,000 years ago.

Modern cookery is more a matter of concentrating the flavour of various raw ingredients, but rhubarb returns us to a form of cooking that makes edible what is not. The best way to cook it is simply to douse the chopped stalks with sugar and orange juice and bake at 180C/Gas mark 4 for up to 30 minutes until tender. This keeps the vibrancy of the colour, rather than losing it to the muddy pink of simmered rhubarb. If you’re in a rush, however, just cook the chopped rhubarb in a covered pan with the sugar and orange juice for five minutes until soft.

Then it is ready for everything from morning porridge to a late-night treat with vanilla ice-cream. Serve rhubarb with baked ricotta for a weekend brunch, or with a creamy rosewater-scented rice pudding for dessert. Fold it into cakes and puddings, or team with luscious sheep’s milk yoghurt and wild honey. You can turn it into a savoury chutney with apples, onions and sultanas, or simply season cooked rhubarb with sea salt, pepper and mustard to serve with roast pork, venison or sausages.

The lipstick-pink forced rhubarb that appears early in the year from the “rhubarb triangle” formed by Wakefield, Rothwell and Morley, just south of Leeds, is one of the treasures of the British food calendar, and is followed by the sturdier maincrop rhubarb. Look for crisp, upright stalks, with a good vibrant colour, and cook them immediately in celebration of the imminent arrival of spring.

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Ingredients
Feeds 4. Takes 30 mins.

Here is an ideal rhubarb recipe, giving you a clear distinction between the still shapely stalks and the sparkling clear juices. Early season rhubarb is tender, requires little preparation and fast cooking. The later maincrop plants may need a quick peel of any tough skin, and a little more cooking time.

750g rhubarb stalks
4tbsp soft brown or caster sugar
3tbsp orange juice

Heat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Wash the stalks well, trim the ends and discard any leaves, which contain toxic amounts of oxalic acid and should not be eaten.

Chop the stalks into 3cm lengths, and chop any particularly thick pieces in half lengthwise. Arrange in a baking tray, sprinkle with the sugar and pour over the orange juice. Bake for 20 minutes until soft, or longer for mature rhubarb.

If you want to keep the rhubarb’s shape, carefully transfer it to a serving platter, then pour the cooking juices on top before serving. Otherwise, jumble the rhubarb together with the syrup, and serve.

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