Pancake Day and Rhubarb Curd

I can remember the day when my mother suggested we have pancakes for dinner. I thought she was crazy and absolutely wonderful. Shrove/Fat/Gras Tuesday/Mardi was never really invested with greater cultural meaning when I was young. For a few years at least, I saw it solely as an example of my mother's occasional, gentle eccentricities. Because growing up in the United Church there was never much talk of giving anything up for Lent. This was not a fat fest before forty days of misery and penance. Deprivation of any sort didn't really seem to be much of a thing at church. As far as I can remember, it was mostly people being nice to each other and sugar bowls just begging to have their cubes stolen during the after-service tea time. Eventually I realised that other people in our church also ate pancakes once a year for dinner and that they too just returned to their normal food the next day. 

Although there is now even less religious significance to this meal than there was when I was growing up, I still like to mark the day. It makes me think of my mom. I like the idea of a dinner that clears out the pantries and makes use of what's on hand. And I still feel like a naughty and spoiled princess who has somehow managed to get away with not eating her vegetables, at least for one day.

Tonight I made pancakes with two fillings. The first one was made of apple, raisins, cinnamon, pine nuts and very dark chocolate bits. It was based on Samantha Clark's pancake tip in The Guardian, but I improvised the chocolate and we ate it with sour cream. Extremely delicious. The second filling was a rhubarb curd, similar to a lemon curd, but a beguiling pale pink, and served with bright stewed rhubarb and more sour cream (we had some sitting in the fridge, we were just being frugal). This was also amazing. And I've wanted to try and make a rhubarb curd for a long time. It was on my list of things to do. It's a dorky list.

Now you can fulfill that ambition too. Bet you didn't even know it was in you.

Ingredients

300 grams rhubarb 

approximately 1 cup of sugar

6 egg yolks

a pinch of salt

half a lemon

100 grams of butter, cut up into chunks

Method

1. Cut the rhubarb into chunks and stew it gently in a bit of water and some sugar. This is to taste. Perhaps about 1/4  cup. Set aside when it's a bright pink pulp and all of the pieces have dissolved.

2. In a heat-proof bowl, whisk your egg yolks, 3/4 cup of sugar and the pinch of salt. Whisk them well. 

3. Set the bowl over a pot of simmer water. Not too hot, or your eggs will scramble and that will be gross. Just simmering. Just warm. Whisk the mixture.

4. Incorporate about a cup of the stewed rhubarb. Squeeze in the juice of the lemon half. A bit of zest is nice too. Keep whisking! Don't stop! You can add more fruit if you want, just taste it and see. But keep whisking! Do it for about 10 minutes. 

5. Once it seems nice and thick, take the curd off the heat and stir in the butter. Butter. Delicious butter.

6. Now use it or chill it. I don't know how long it will last in your fridge, but probably best not to push it. A few days. Eat it on everything. Eat it with any leftover rhubarb pulp you might have. Eat it straight from the bowl. 

Happy Pancake Day! I hope it was a soft and warm one.

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I have been delegated the role of making pancakes on sunday mornings, and have had the following finds,Use of wholmeal self raising flour gives a stronger flavor. Add a bit of olive oil instead of butter for a bit of oomph
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