Last week my parents descended upon my new home in London, bombarding me with approximately one metric tonne of rhubarb from their garden. I’d only asked for enough to make my tried-and-true rhubarb coffee cake, but my parents - no doubt imagining their favorite son wasting away, mongrel-like, two provinces removed from their loving care - decided instead to clear cut the entire National Rhubarb Forest Preserve for my benefit.
Thus, I’m looking for recipes. Recipes for rhubarb jam, rhubarb chutney, rhubarb curry, rhubarb jambalaya, stir-fried rhubarb, rhubarb-infused porkchops - you name it. The more obscure, the better - I could write my first novel on the back of the strawberry-rhubarb pie recipes I’ve accumulated.
Rhubarb ketchup may sound weird, but it’s actually very tasty. Here is an easy recipe:
1 pound rhubarb stalks, diced
1/4 cup cheap red wine
1 ounce red wine vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Zest of 1 small orange, peeled in wide strips
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
In a saucepan, combine rhubarb with wine, vinegar, sugar, and orange zest and bring to a boil.
Remove the pan from heat and let set for 30 minutes. Cover and simmer over low heat, stirring often, until the rhubarb is tender (approx. 5 minutes). Discard the orange zest.
Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree. Season with salt and cayenne. Keep chilled in refrigerator.
Sift together the sugar and flour. Place about one quarter of it in the bottom of an unbaked pie crust. Place the rhubarb on top of this, and sift ofver it the remainder of the flour and sugar. Dot with the butter, place a top crust over all and seal. Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit(175 degrees Celsius) for about 50 minutes, or until a rich golden brown.
A good rhubarb pie, sweetened correctly, will change your mind after the first bite. And I am sure it is not the first yucky looking thing you have tried, and later developed a taste for!
Wish I had some rhubarb…but the Nevada Desert Rhubarb Farm went belly up 300 droughts ago.
My Grandma made great canned rhubarb pickles. Unfortnately by the time anybody got around to asking her exactly how she did it she was pretty senile. Her answer was always, “Well, you cut some Rhubarb, then you pickle it”.