Rhubarb preparations

I've had a few posts that have shown different Swedish (and non-Swedish) preparations of rhubarb. I thought I'd try to consolidate them all to one post.

Here's a simple rhubarb pie or cobbler. Hidden in that post is a link to an old post with just a hint at rhubarb juice. And here's a rhubarb coffee cake.

And, here's a new one: rhubarb compote.

Rhubarb compote practically defines summer desserts for many Swedes. It's quick, easy, sour, sweet and very, very tasty.

You'll need:



1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons corn or potato starch, 2 cups water and about 1 pound of rhubarb

Start by slicing (and peeling if it is stringy) your rhubarb.



Pour the water into a saucepan. Add the sugar and bring to a boil. Add the rhubarb to the boiling simple syrup.



Cook until the rhubarb is tender (about 5-8 minutes).

I strained the pulp from the juice but this really isn't necessary.



If straining, bring the strained syrup back to boil before adding the starch mixed with a little water:





Boil until thickened (about 3 minutes). Let cool and/or chill and serve with any of the following: milk, cream, a little of the pulp (if you've removed it) and sliced almonds or small merianges.



I've used lightly whipped cream, a scoop of rhubarb pulp and a Swedish product known as biskvier (essentially small merianges with almond paste mixed in).

For the recipe index:

Rhubarb compote

1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn or potato starch
2 cups water
1 pound of rhubarb

Start by slicing (and peeling if it is stringy) your rhubarb.

Pour the water into a saucepan. Add the sugar and bring to a boil. Add the rhubarb to the boiling simple syrup and boil until thickened (about 3 minutes). Let cool and/or chill and serve with any of the following: milk, cream, a little of the pulp (if you've removed it) and sliced almonds or small merianges.

my salivary glands just kicked in imagining how sour that is.

Oooooh! Yum. Since I've got a couple pounds of rhubarb sitting around just begging to be recipe'd into something delish, thanks very much for some wonderful ideas. The first pound or two went into an interesting rhubarb conserve which I like, but isn't quite rhubarb-y enough for my taste. I look forward, as always, to trying some (all?) of these recipes!

This is such a beautiful and mouth-watering thread that I thought I'd draw attention to it by adding a recipe that seems to so far be lacking on LTH.
I've been on a rhubarb custard pie kick. The internet is full of recipes, but I settled on this one for my first pie thanks to Martha Bayne's fun article in the Reader about Sofya Hundt, the blogging Azerbaijani Jew turned southwest Wisconsin farmer.

But yesterday I made another one, making one critical change. Prompted by this recipe, I microwaved the rhubarb first. Takes two minutes. Makes a huge difference. Here's what is now my standard recipe:

1 nine inch pie crust, unbaked.

4 cups fresh rhubarb, chopped and microwaved for two minutes (no need to cover, no need to add any water).

3 eggs
3 T milk
1 2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 t. salt
1 t. freshly grated nutmeg.

Mix together eggs and milk. Add all the rest of the ingredients, including the cooked rhubarb, and stir well.
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Check to see if it's still runny in the middle. If it is, add enough five minutes. Cool as long as you can stand it before serving.

I've been using regular pie crusts, with the result that I have about a cup of filling left over. I've just been putting it in a dish and baking it separately with fine results. I suspect it would fill a 9" deep dish crust, but would probably also take another five minutes or so to bake.

I decided to make rhubarb sorbet with the giant stalks I got in my Irv & Shelly's box on Friday. I used this recipe, reduced the sugar by probably 1/3 cup, upped the ginger to my liking and then ended up adding a handful of frozen cherries for a deeper color. I was very pleased with the result, though it was more balanced in terms of rhubarb and berry rather than tart.

I also made sorbet with just rhubarb which was very good, but a warning to non-rhubarb lovers, it was strong. More recently I made rhubarb/ginger pickles which I have used with pork chops and headcheese and they provided a very cool counterpoint. The Pickles were much better than I expected and are much different than any other pickle that I have had.

msmre wrote:More recently I made rhubarb/ginger pickles which I have used with pork chops and headcheese and they provided a very cool counterpoint.

I like this idea. I've made rhubarb chutney before to serve with pork. Did the rhubarb retain any crunch with the hot brine poured over it?

The slices retained structure, but the texture was similar to basically any other pickle. Softer than usual, but still a little bite.

On the plus side, it wasn't stringy as I had expected it to be.

I made this cake over the weekend, but the rhubarb mousse in this recipe is yummy enough to be eaten just on its own.


http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/2008/04/coconut-strawberry-white-chocolate-and.html