Friday, 3 June 2011

Rhubarb Day.

Last Saturday I went down to the Trader Joe's in Bellingham mainly for, I'll admit, cheap and surprisingly decent wine. On the way home, I was chatting to the poor victim I'd convinced to come along with me (my long-suffering father) about the tasty-looking strawberry-rhubarb recipes I'd come across in the May-June issue of Elle à Table. Taken by the tantalizing creations I was describing to him, he suggested we swing by my grandfather's house to relieve him of some of the abundant rhubarb he happens to grow. It didn't hurt either that we'd just bought some hefty cartons of luscious organic strawberries at TJ's...

That evening, thanks to Dad and Elle à Table, we feasted on this lovely strawberry-rhubarb crumble





Crumble Fraises-Rhubarb
from Elle à Table.
Serves 6 + is dead easy.

250g strawberries
6 stalks of rhubarb
1 tbsp crème fraîche
20g of sugar (approx. 2 tbsp)
knob of butter

for the crumble:
100g flour (approx. 3/4 C + 2 tbsp)
100g butter (approx. 1/2 C + 2 tbsp)
80 g sugar (1/3 C + 2 tbsp)
80 g almond meal or dessicated coconut (1/3 C + 2 tbsp)

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a casserole dish with the knob of butter. Put the flour, butter, the sugar, and the almond meal (or coconut) in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until you have a coarse meal.

Wash the strawberries until cold water, remove the stems and cut them in halves or quarters. Peel and chop the rhubarb into small pieces. Put the fruit in your casserole dish. Sprinkle with the sugar and add the crème fraîche. Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the fruit and cook for approximately 30 minutes or until the top turns a nice golden-brown colour. Serve warm (and ideally with ice cream!)

Note: Feel free to flavour the crumble with cinnamon, ginger, or any other spices that tickle your fancy.

I substituted the butter for Earth Balance baking sticks and the crème fraîche for soy creamer, and cane sugar and sucanat for the regular sugar and it worked like a charm :)




Later that evening, having a decent amount of both the strawberries and the rhubarb left, I decided to make Elle's strawberry-rhubarb jam

300g strawberries (washed, stems removed, and cut in half)
300g rhubarb (peeled and cut into smaller pieces)
300g sugar (approx 1.5 C)
the juice of 1 lime
0.5 C water

Place all ingredients into a large stainless steel pot.


Bring to a boil


Boil for 15 minutes, stirring frequently (almost constantly - otherwise it will stick to your pot which is not cool).


Once all the fruit has dissolved and your jam is a nice thick consistency, let it cool completely before putting it into sterilized jars.




Note: The magazine had 2 tbsp of dried roses as part of the recipe but that a) didn't appeal to me, and b) I am just too lazy to go find dried roses to put into jam. But, heck, if you're interested go ahead and give it a try... and make sure to let me know how it works out! (Remember to remove the roses before jarring your jam as they are just meant as flavouring).

While this jam is super tasty with just the right amount of tang, I found that (like most jams I come across) the sugariness overpowered the fruit flavour a bit too much for my liking. While I'll probably reduce the amount of sugar next time, this jam is like jarred summer as far as I'm concerned + I'm excited for lazy summer mornings with toast and tea and... oh yes, strawberry-rhubarb jam.

  One last sweet thing for you today:


A.

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