Thursday, July 4, 2013

rhubarb

I have 3 mature rhubarb plants.  I harvested 4 pounds of trimmed stalks from one yesterday.  Today I cooked 2 recipees, each using 2 lbs.

The first one is Orangette's roasted rhubarb with white wine and vanilla.
 http://orangette.blogspot.com/2010/03/lot-of-rhubarb.html
 She calls for 30 minutes of cooking but mine needed 45 to soften.  It is delicious. 

Recipe copied below:

Roasted Rhubarb
Inspired by Canal House Cooking, Volume 3

For the wine here, I used our house white at Delancey: Château de Pellehaut Harmonie de Gascogne, a blend of Ugni Blanc, Colombard, Gros Manseng, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s bright and crisp and citrusy.

2 lb. rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 3-inch lengths
½ cup sugar
½ cup crisp white wine
1 vanilla bean, split

Set a rack in the lower third of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put the rhubarb in a Dutch oven or other deep oven-safe pot. Add the sugar, wine, and vanilla bean, and stir to mix. Bake (uncovered) for about 30 minutes, or until very tender, giving the pot a gentle stir about midway through to ensure that the rhubarb cooks evenly.

Note: I like to eat this cold, though I imagine you could also serve it warm.

The second thing was my attempt at making a simple syrup.  I used the pressure cooker set on high pressure and cooked it for 30 minutes followed by a natural cool down period.   I strained it through a fine metal sieve with no pressure.   It yielded 3.5 cups syrup and about 1.5 cups of pulp.  Both are very good. 

Ingredients:
2 lb rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1.5 cups water

I think next batch I will try zero water and cook it without pressure first  to get the juice of the rhubarb out before using the pressure.  My pressure cooker instructions call for at least .5 cup of liquid to create the steam needed for making the pressure. 

I probably still have 6 to 8 pounds of rhubarb on the other 2 mature plants.  I think I like the roasted rhubarb best so far but it is really braised not roasted at the low temp of 350 and with wine.   I may try some roasted dry at a higher temperature.