Rhubarb Chutney

The first time I had rhubarb chutney was during Urban Camping Weekend (if you're invited, you know what I'm talking about) at my favourite restaurant in Lunenburg - Magnolia's Grill. This place is so good they don't even need a website, so no hyperlink. Lucky for me, Mummy has a huge rhubarb patch and it's just starting to ripen. Today on my raid visit, four big stalks were ready to be pulled, so Mummy put her back into it and yanked them out. My arms were open wide to receive, and those beauties were earmarked for rhubarb chutney.

Rhubarb is an ancient vegetable, originally valued for its medicinal properties. This makes sense because it is horrible tasting stuff; however, if you add enough sugar and cinnamon to anything it will taste good, and so it is with rhubarb. For more information on its history (+ recipes + the T-shirt), visit the Rhubarb Compendium. From its roots in Asia, brought to Europe by Marco Polo, it arrived in the Americas in the early 1800's. 

"Early records of rhubarb in America identify an unnamed Maine gardener as having obtained seed or root stock from Europe in the period between 1790-1800. He introduced it to growers in Massachusetts where its popularity spread and by 1822 it was sold in produce markets."

Mummy's house is 150+ years, and I think the rhubarb patch came with the place when my grandparents purchased it in the early 1900s. Almost every old farmhouse around that I know of has a resident rhubarb patch. Speak up if you know of any that do not! We'll bring you a transplant. Anyway, my possibly Scottish (or Mi'kmaq or Gypsy) grandmother was a big fan of rhubarb, and I remember her tending the patch and baking the odd rhubarb pie.

I made rhubarb chutney last year from this great recipe at epicurious. Today I was minus a few ingredients so substituted lemon peel (less) for orange peel and chives for green onions. And, as usual, I cut the sugar in half ... because I'm already sweet enough? No, because I like tart.

rhubarb chutney underway

At Magnolia's Grill I had the rhubarb chutney with fishcakes - which was fabulous - but it also goes nicely with Norman's locally raised happy pig pork chops and mesclan greens:

 

can you spot the glass of wine?

On Robbie Burns Day this year I found some of the chutney I had made last summer and ate it with marricans (sp?) which is basically, I think, haggis in sausage form (or some mixture of oatmeal, onions, animal fat, and spices stuffed into what looks like an intestinal tube of some farm animal) - another favourite of my aforementioned grandmother. And probably for that reason alone, they went really well together.

marricans (sp?) with a dab of rhubarb chutney

Granny as a P.Y.T. at 15 years old