We eat a lot of rhubarb here in Ireland, we always have.
It grows well in our climate and fits in well with our favourite dessert format of tarts or pies and also with that dying (and badly named ) dessert of stewed fruit.
I feel that one of poor rhubarb’s misfortunes is its long tradition of being healthy, especially in the Victorian sense of the word.
The Victorians were of the mind that most of life’s ill could be solved with a good bowel movement.
Rhubarb with its undoubted laxative properties was then wheeled out fairly regularly to ensure regularity.
In our house growing up it was called “Tip and Run” or “Touch and Go”

This has nearly been the kiss of death for it.
Plus, there is nothing all that appealing in a dish of stewed rhubarb.
All that watery and stringy mass of over sweetened acidity convinces us that what is good for us is surely nasty.

I have cooked a lot with rhubarb over the years, cooking it in the microwave without any water keeps both its crunch and concentrates its flavour.
Cooking it with ginger gives it an appealing bite, with orange zest a pleasant orange spiciness.
Most of those I have already done this rhubarb season.
A friend who is lucky enough to have a kitchen garden gave me a present of a large bunch last week end (thanks Grace)

Deciding that I wanted to do something different with it I remembered tackling a Rhubarb Fool from Margaret Costa a long time ago.
Margaret Costa’s Four Seasons Cookbook was published in 1970 and is a cookbook of great quality. I still have my original copy, one of the first cookbooks I ever bought but it was reprinted last year and is fairly freely available.
The sentence with had stuck in my mind from this book in relation to the fool was the following;
“And there’s a secret ingredient: 2 small teaspoons of Pernod.The Aniseed flavour is barely recognizable but everybody notices that the fool is curiously delicious”
Good on you Margaret!
It is curiously delicious indeed.
I didn’t have any Pernod in the house so used some Absinthe bought in Alsace a few years ago, also I added a little more than the two teaspoons she suggested so rather than a “barely recognizable” you get a whacking great wallop of liquorice.
This is delicious but the subtle approach may well be more to your taste.

Here is a rough recipe.

For every pound (500g) of rhubarb(leaves discarded) you will need about 90g (3 oz.) of caster sugar.
Chop this roughly and cook without any water in a covered bowl in a microwave until it is just soft.
Put this into a liquidizer (if you only have a food processor whizz in this but I would sieve it afterwards to get it really smooth)
Taste after liquidizing and then add more sugar if you want and then add the Pernod, as little or as much as you fancy, my taste would be about 4 teaspoons.

To serve the fool you can eat this just as it is in individual cups or glasses or mixed with the same amount of whipped cream or Crème Fraiche.
Traditionally you should have some shortbread biscuits to dip in it .