Summery, zingy and a bit quirky. This fruity salad would work nicely with the richness of the Cauliflower sheep’s cheese with fried mustard crumbs . This is the type of dish that benefits from a few hours of infusing. Pink peppercorns are actually not a true pepper but rather a dried berry from a shrub. If you have trouble finding them, just give a grind of black pepper and tell everybody yours are the extra-ripened kind. The pickled rhubarb will keep for a week in your fridge. You can keep the pickling liquor and use it to pickle something else, cucumbers for example.
Next time, try using strawberries instead of raspberries.
SERVES 4
100ml white wine vinegar
80g granulated sugar
1cm piece of root ginger, sliced
1 tsp sea salt
6 black peppercorns
250g rhubarb
1 tsp pink peppercorns
100g raspberries
extra virgin olive oil
First, make the pickling liquor. Pour 50ml of water into a saucepan and add the vinegar, sugar, ginger, salt and black peppercorns. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat off and allow to cool a little before transferring to a separate bowl and allowing to cool completely.
Discard any leaves from the rhubarb, wash the sticks, then slice across into 1cm pieces.
When the pickling liquor has cooled, strain to remove the bits and pieces. Add the rhubarb and pink peppercorns. Ideally leave this for a few hours to help it to pickle but, if you don’t have the luxury of time, make it 30 minutes.
To serve, use a slotted spoon to remove the rhubarb and a few peppercorns to a serving dish, sprinkle on the raspberries and gently fold them into the rhubarb, then finally add a glug of olive oil.
