Yesterday my man and I took the in-laws and
the twins to our latest favourite Berlin spot. I REALLY don't want to tell you
about it as it is like a slice of heaven on a summer's day: dappled sunlight,
large leafy trees to lounge under, a quaint little laden nearby selling artisan
bread, pickles and, strangely enough, home knitted hats that look like giant
strawberries. As nobody apart from the odd busload full of botanical
enthusiasts seems to have discovered the place yet, we are treating it as our
private back garden and go there, babies in tow, oh... about twice a week.
Anyway. It became a rhubarb kind of day.
When we arrived, there were babies to be fed, so to the café we went, to grab
the last shady table and a slice of rhubarb streusel pie. Not many do streusel
like the Germans but this one was particularly nice. Crumbly, quite hard bits
of, well, crumble, and a rhubarb slush that wasn't too sweet nor too tart.
My son, with all his six months, had a
little flirt with the lady from the laden. I didn't want him to miss this
opportunity to practise his winning crooked gummy smile, and really, you can't
have too many people drooling over you even at that age, right? So into the
laden we went, to have a mosey round. We came out clutching a bit of straw from
one of the decorations (son) and a wee bottle of rhubarb cordial (me). I envisioned myself having a few drops in my prosecco one evening very soon.
Then we did the dappled sunlight under the
trees bit, while eating a mountain of packed sandwiches. Once back home and out
and about in the kiez, we came across a woman who grows vegetables on a farm
just outside of Berlin and sells her vegetables in a weekly box type scheme. To
advertise her wares she gave us, of all things, two stalks of rhubarb. It
wasn't much to work with, but after the streusel experience I was keen to make
a crumble. This is the result — the culmination of a very rhubarby day
indeed.
Rhubarb,
apple and ginger crumble
2 stalks of rhubarb, trimmed and chopped
50 g demerara sugar
2 apples, peeled and chopped
2 pieces of stem ginger, chopped
100 g brown sugar (I used a mix of demerara
and palm sugar)
100 g flour
100 g cold butter, diced
50 g oats
Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Place the rhubarb and demerara sugar into a saucepan and add a
splash of water. Bring to the boil and simmer until softened. Put the butter,
brown sugar, flour and oats into a bowl and quickly rub together until you have
a crumbly topping. Put into the fridge until you need it.
Spread the apples in an even layer into an
oven dish. Mix the ginger with the rhubarb and spoon it sort of evenly over the
apples. Top with the crumble mixture. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until
browned and bubbling. Serve in bowls with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some
(unwhipped) cream.
Späth-Arboretum der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Späthstraße 80/81, 12437 Berlin, website
