Wright Side Of Life with Karen Wright: Making the most of our wonderful Wakefield rhubarb..

When I was on the Great British Bake Off, I made a rhubarb traybake and Noel Fielding was mystified when I told him that I lived near the Rhubarb Triangle: “You live in a triangle?” he said.

The forced rhubarb is a wondrous thing, bright pink and quite sweet. Our Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb was given Protected Designation of Origin status too... it is a fantastic thing.

Normally Wakefield would be hosting the Rhubarb Festival this weekend, and I was booked to give cooking demonstrations in the marquee. It would have been my third appearance and I was so looking forward to it. Never mind, next year will be here before we know it.

The first rhubarb dish out of my oven this year was a quick, cheat dessert. When I say cheat, I just mean I used bought puff pastry and packet custard instead of making it all from scratch.

This is what I did: Cut a sheet of pre-rolled puff pastry in to rectangles and score a line with a knife about an inch in from the edge all the way around. This will create a big puffy frame around the filling. Place on a greased baking sheet.

Set your oven to 200c, and while it heats up gently soften some sliced up rhubarb in a frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of sugar, I used brown. If you have an orange, a few tablespoons of juice or water in the pan too. Just partially cook it.

Take some custard from a packet and place a good dollop in the central part of each pastry rectangle. Place a few pieces of rhubarb on the top of the custard. Brush the exposed pastry frame with beaten egg and then bake for about 20 minutes until it is risen and golden. It tastes fab either hot or cold.

After such a cold start to the year I feel that Spring is in the air and a sense of optimism is all around. The vaccine roll out is going brilliantly and I am eagerly awaiting my turn.

My thoughts keep straying towards our caravan and we just can’t wait until we can hitch up and away again. Next week is members' week for the Caravan and Motorhome Club and I have already filmed some videos for them, so much to look forward to in that area. Fingers crossed for lockdown lifting news!

That’s all for this week, so as they say in the theatre, Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb!

www.karenwrightbakes.co.uk