As a dutiful wife I try to look after my dear husband. Last week he was finishing up his job after almost three years so I thought I’d spoil him with a lovely dinner, tailor made for all his loves. A main course of roast pork belly with hassleback potatoes followed by, a never made and slightly made up, rhubarb and custard jelly.

Patiently I waited for him to return. Making sure no-one ate anything till he came through the door. I waited. And I waited. I got hungry and so my family and I ate the dinner without him. The fecker didn’t come back till 3am. We would have been fierce hungry had we waited.

(for the record he did say he was going out for a drink after work to say goodbye to some people but had me quite entirely under the impression it was going to be just one)

Nonetheless it was delicious. The rhubarb bit was so rhubarby.

Nothing too complicated either which is always nice and I dare say it would make a welcome break from all the chocolate on the Easter menu.

Actually. One last thing. I must give credit where credit is due. Husband has, so very diligently, been moving the 19.68 tons of limestone up our unnecessarily steep garden. Thank you x

Rhubarb jelly;

One packet of raspberry jelly like Chivers – it’s to give some sweetness and the colour

Rhubarb                       3 large stalks

Caster sugar                 80g

Orange juice                 enough to make the end liquid up to 580ml so about 100ml

Panna cotta;

Cream                           240ml

Caster sugar                1.5 tablespoons

Vanilla essence           2 teaspoons

Powdered gelatine    1 scant teaspoon

Before you begin find your loveliest glass bowl, big enough for just less than a litre of jelly.

Chop the rhubarb stalks into 3cm pieces and throw them into a large saucepan along with the 80g of caster sugar. Put a lid on the pan and place it on a medium heat to slowly stew down, it’ll take about 15mins.

You can make yourself busy by snipping the plaque of jelly into little pieces into a measuring jug.

The rhubarb is ready when all the pieces are well and truly smushy and when they get to that stage remove the pan from the heat.

Place a sieve over the jelly in the jug and pour the stewed rhubarb, still hot, in a little at a time.

Use the back of a spoon to gently encourage the rhubarby liquid through the sieve into the jug below. You can throw away the stringy remainder.

The heat from the rhubarb should melt the jelly. Give the mix a few minutes and a good stir to make sure all the jelly pieces have all melted but if they haven’t pop the jug in the microwave for twenty seconds or so and stir some more.

My rhubarb made up almost 500ml so I needed just under 100ml of orange juice to top it up. Mix it altogether and then poor into your lovely bowl.

Place the bowl in the fridge and let the jelly set for at least two hours or until it is wobbly not liquid.

This’d be a wonderful dessert all by itself but if you want to go the whole hog and impress the Easter Bunny continue on with the panna cotta but make sure you’ve left the rhubarb jelly enough time to set in the fridge before making the panna cotta.

So.

Heat the cream, sugar and vanilla in a little saucepan till just before it boils.

Remove it from the heat and prepare your gelatine.

Scatter the gelatine over about 3 tablespoons of water in a little bowl.

Put it in the microwave for about 30seconds or until all the gelatine crystals have dissolved.

Empty it into the warm cream and stir well.

Let it cool down before pouring it onto the rhubarb jelly, then put the whole bowl of yum into the fridge.

It’ll take another hour or so to set depending on how wide your bowl is.

Happy Easter.