Rhubarb Bread Pudding

My husband loves bread pudding so much that he orders it at restaurants. With bread that is starting to go stale, sweet or savory bread pudding is a great solution. Bread pudding is basically an egg and milk custard that wraps around cubes of bread and other ingredients, whether vegetables (leeks and asparagus were an option this week) or fruit (such as seasonal rhubarb). The bread can be present, as in this version, or can be rendered mushy to combine with the milk and eggs and create a batter.  

One of my favorite pairings with rhubarb is orange, zest for sure and juice when it makes sense. To get the most from zest, I crush it with sugar – using a mini-food processor or a mortar and pestle – which releases the aromatic oils in the peel. I also like a little whiff of cinnamon with rhubarb so I added a pinch of that too. Believe it or not, cinnamon complements the mixture and provides an alluring “back flavor.” Although I made this up on the fly, it turned out to be one of the most delicious bread puddings I’ve ever done.  Who knew?  

Rhubarb Bread Pudding

2 stalks rhubarb

½ c white granulated sugar (or raw cane sugar)

Zest of 1 orange (2-3 tsp)

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Dab of butter

4 c cubed stale bread (3/4-inch pieces, without crust)

Optional: ¼ c chopped pecans

3 eggs

1½ c milk (nonfat is fine)

Optional: sugar crystals such as raw cane sugar to sprinkle on top

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Clean the rhubarb and cut it into ½-inch pieces. Whiz the sugar and orange zest in a mini-processor or combine them using a mortar and pestle. Add the cinnamon and stir the mixture into the rhubarb. Set it aside for 5 minutes of so and stir to dissolve the sugar. (Do not let it exude a lot of juice since that will dilute the custard.) Butter a 2-quart ovenproof baking dish and add the rhubarb, the cubed bread, and nuts, if using. Lightly beat the eggs and add the milk. Pour over the bread and fruit mixture, pressing down lightly to make sure the top bread cubes are moistened.  Bake the pudding for 45-50 minutes, or until the custard is set. Halfway through, sprinkle on the sugar crystals, if using. Serve warm.

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Fruit Shandy in a Jar: Rhubarb-Beer Jam with Lemon

Christine Ferber is a genius and Paul Virant is one smart cookie for using her for inspiration. Every season, I mark preserving techniques, ingredients and whole recipes that I’d like to try. One that’s been on my list is Ferber’s “Rhubarb and Apples with Beer.” I’ve made jams with wine before but never with beer and I was wondering what the beer would do to the rhubarb. 

Then along came Paul Virant’s The Preservation Kitchen, and a recipe for “Rhubarb Beer Jam,” which is similar to Ferber’s but uses lemon juice and zest instead of apple. Both lemons and apples are good pectin producers, and I do interchange them.  However, from preserving rhubarb in the past (remember that rhu-barb-ecue sauce that originated as rhubarb ketchup?), I find it reduces to a thick puree anyway.  In this case, using Virant’s recipe and spiking the amount of lemon zest, the marinated rhubarb was like a fruit shandy, a drink that combines beer and lemon. Fully cooked, it has a certain “je ne sais quoi.” Virant uses it as an ingredient in a bar drink that he serves at his restaurant in Chicago.  I can envision it as a condiment to accompany any number of meats or savory dishes.

Virant brings the ingredients to a simmer the night (or days) before he’s ready to make the jam and let’s them cure together in the refrigerator. Ferber macerates the rhubarb and sugar overnight. I did both. Both separate the fruit from the liquid and boil the liquid down before adding in the fruit. (I know rhubarb is a vegetable technically, but it jams up like fruit.) Since I halved Virant’s recipe (except for the lemon), I did not get enough volume of liquid to get the temperature up to 215 degrees as he did (it would have boiled off), but I find the freezer gel test more reliable anyway.

Rhubarb-Beer Jam adapted from Paul Virant, The Preservation Kitchen

1½ lb trimmed rhubarb (about 4½ c cut in 1/3-inch dice)

¾ c sugar

1 ½ c wheat beer

2 tbsp lemon juice

4-5 tbsp grated lemon zest

Macerate the rhubarb and sugar for a few hours in a large saucepan. Add the beer, lemon juice and zest and bring to a simmer. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

Prepare canning jars and have the lids available.  Place a saucer in the freezer for testing the gel.

Drain the rhubarb liquid into a wide saucepan, reserving the diced stems. Bring the liquid to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until it nearly reaches the gel point, about 215 degrees on a candy thermometer, or when not very runny when tested on a frozen plate, about 12 minutes. Add the reserved diced rhubarb and bring back to a boil, cooking for approximately 10 minutes more until gelled or reaching 215 degrees.

Put a small pot of water on the stove to boil, turn off heat and place the canning lids in the water. Remove the jars from the hot water and fill them with hot jam, leaving ½ inch headspace. Wipe the rims clean, place the canning lids on top (dry them first) and screw on the rings.

Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes after the water returns to a boil. Turn the heat off, remove the canner lid and let the jars sit for 5 minutes before moving them to a counter to cool undisturbed.

Makes 5-6 four-ounce jars.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet with Ginger

I recalled from last year’s excellent rhubarb sorbet that rhubarb creates a good texture and the addition of a little corn syrup allowed a creamy and non-icy texture.  This year, I decided to incorporate strawberries and spice it up with ginger. I often see candied ginger added to jams and other concoctions, so I “candied” fresh ginger in the simple syrup used to poach the rhubarb. This was piquant and refreshing, great for the last sorbet of spring.

Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet with Ginger

1 c water

1 c sugar

2 tsp finely chopped ginger

1 lb rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 pt strawberries, hulled

2 tbsp clear corn syrup

Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil to make simple syrup. Add the ginger and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the rhubarb and simmer until soft and falling apart, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set the rhubarb aside to cool.

When the rhubarb mixture is completely cool, add the strawberries and corn syrup and puree the mixture in a food processor until smooth. Refrigerate until very cold.

Process in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Makes about a quart or a little more.

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Two Kumquat Jams: Rhubarb and Strawberry

This is the year of the kumquat for me. I haven’t posted the sweet preserved kumquats with spices yet and I finally figured out how to poach kumquats to make candied kumquats that hold their shape (the answer is slowly and not for too long). However, kumquats have been a regular feature around here for months, served in salads, a garnish for vegetables and as a condiment with shrimp.  After what I thought was a very successful Mango and Kumquat Jam a month or so ago, I tried my hand at Strawberry-Kumquat Jam and Rhubarb-Kumquat Jam. With gorgeous but skinny rhubarb stalks from the farmers; market, I set out to make the Orange Rhubarb Jam with Ginger that I made last year. However, there were no oranges in the house, only a lot of kumquats. Kumquats are not citrus fruit contrary to popular opinion, but they have similar characteristics. 

Both of these recipes came from the excellent Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, a hefty and yet charming book published last year. The rhubarb, cut into matchsticks about 1 ½ inches long, required a 24-hour maceration period to get the sugar somewhat dissolved and the juices flowing. With the addition of thinly sliced kumquats (the most time-consuming part of which was digging out the seeds) and some lemon juice (which helps the gel), the jam was ready in no time. I omitted Saunders’ orange flower water, and get the cooking time down. Of course I also halved the recipe and reduced the sugar.

 The strawberry jam had double the amount of kumquats and needed no extra maceration time. Apart from the preparation of the kumquats, this also provided quick gratification. The result was a wonderful combination of the sweet, smooth strawberry base and the piquant bites of kumquat.

Rhubarb Kumquat Jam adapted from Rachel Saunders

1 ¼ lb rhubarb, cleaned, trimmed and cut into 1 ½-inch long matchsticks.

2 c granulated white sugar

4 oz kumquats, seeded and thinly sliced into rounds

¼ c freshly squeezed lemon juice

Macerate the rhubarb in the sugar for 24 hours, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.

Prepare the jars and water bath canner (if you’re canning this). Place a saucer in the freezer for testing the getl.

Place the macerated rhubarb, kumquat and lemon juice in a large wide pan and slowly bring the mixture to a boil. Boil vigorously for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally in the beginning and constantly at the end to avoid sticking. Test the gel and when done, ladle the jams into the warm prepared jars.

Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes after the water comes to a boil. Remove the lid, turn off the heat and let sit for five minutes. Remove the jars to a counter to sit undisturbed until cool.

Makes three 8-ounce jars or six 4-oz jars.

Strawberry Kumquat Jam adapted from Rachel Saunders

1 ¼- 1 ½ lbs strawberries (heaping quart)

2 c granulated white sugar

12 oz kumquats, seeded and thinly sliced into rounds

2 tbsp lemon juice

Place all of the ingredients into a large wide pan and slowly bring the mixture to a boil. Boil vigorously for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally in the beginning and constantly at the end to avoid sticking. Test the gel and when done, ladle the jam into the warm prepared jars.

Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes after the water comes to a boil. Remove the lid, turn off the heat and let sit for five minutes. Remove the jars to a counter to sit undisturbed until cool.

Makes three 8-ounce jars or six 4-oz jars.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Saucy and silky in texture, slightly tangy, aromatic and deep red, this strawberry rhubarb jam pleases our food-related senses. I tend to prefer strawberries combined with something else: last year red currants and also rhubarb; the year before, Balsamic vinegar and black pepper.  This recipe is similar in technique to last year’s Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam with Cardamom, except that I diminished the sugar and changed how I prepared the berries and ‘barb.  Last year, I simply macerated the ingredients with sugar for 3 hours to draw out the juices before cooking the jam.

 

This year, I followed a technique from Jeanne Lesem’s Preserving Today, an early 1990s publication that I found a year ago this month at a second hand store in Cambridge after a certain graduation party. I always enjoy any publication that claims it has preserved the past and updated the technique. Some are just period pieces and others really have something to offer.

 

After macerating the fruit (I know, rhubarb is a vegetable that we treat like fruit) for 6 hours, you transfer it to a shallow pan and boil it rapidly for 4 minutes. Poured into a glass bowl, the mixture is left to sit overnight, which Lesem claims plumps up the fruit. She was right. The next day, the juice is drained from the fruit and boiled for a few minutes. Then the fruit is added and boiled some more. The result was a terrific consistency, which probably would not have occurred by boiling alone.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam technique adapted from Jeanne Lesem

1 qt strawberries (heaping quart)

½ lb rhubarb (2-3 stalks)

1 ¾ c sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Clean and hull the strawberries. Clean and dice the rhubarb into ½-inch pieces. Layer both with sugar a glass bowl, adding the lemon juice along the way. Cover and let sit for 6 hours.

Pour the ingredients into a shallow braising pan and bring to a boil, cooking it rapidly for 4 minutes. Remove to a heatproof glass bowl and let cool. When cooled, cover the bowl and let the mixture sit overnight.

Prepare the canning jars and set a saucer in the freezer for testing the jam.

Drain the juice from the berries and rhubarb, reserving the fruit, and bring it to a boil in a shallow pan. Boil for 4 minutes, add the reserved fruit, and boil for another 2-3 minutes or until a small drop placed on the frozen saucer tests for gel. Ladle the jam into the prepared jars and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes after the water returns to a boil. Turn off the heat, remove the canner lid and let sit for 5 minutes before removing to the counter to cool, undisturbed.

Makes 3 half-pints (8 oz jars) and extra for tasting.

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Happy Mother’s Day: Coconut Sorbet with Rhubarb Sauce and Strawberries

To say that your life is not your own when you’re a mom is an understatement, but that’s the way my professional work is as well. Unpredictable.  So you can either become a grump or learn to enjoy improvisation.  At home, I love looking in my pantry or refrigerator to see what combinations suit the occasion and the diverse palates of my guests. It helps to have a few tricks up your sleeve for unexpected visitors on any day. And at any time

Preparing a last minute meal late on a Sunday night after a gorgeous day in a garden full of Angelique tulips was a pleasure. Especially after a great Saturday at the farmer’s market where there was an abundance of asparagus, green garlic, leeks and ramps, spinach, and rhubarb. For Mother’s Day dessert, I made an expedited coconut sorbet with rhubarb sauce and strawberries on top. In retrospect I could have folded the rhubarb into the sorbet. Next time. I could also have made little ginger cookies to go along with this. Another day. This quick dessert was just perfect to cap off an enjoyable evening with my family. I’m a happy mom.

Coconut Sorbet

1 14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk, preferably organic

1 can’s measure of water

1/3 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Whisk the coconut milk, add the water, sugar and vanilla, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Chill thoroughly  (use the freezer to expedite the chilling process). Process in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Makes 1 quart.

Rhubarb Sauce

4-5 thin or 2 thick stalks of rhubarb

¼-1/3 c sugar

2-3 tbsp water (less with very young rhubarb, more with older, larger rhubarb)

Clean the rhubarb, peeling the stalk if it is fibrous. Cut into ½-inch pieces. Place in pan with the water and sugar.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer the rhubarb, uncovered, until it is tender and nearly dissolved.  Taste and adjust the sugar level if it is too tart.

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Young Summer: Rhubarb and Strawberry Spritzers

Pam Corbin’s wonderful book called Preserves, part of the River Cottage handbook series (just published in an American version called The River Cottage Preserves Handbook), contains a recipe for ‘beena, made from various fruits throughout the season. It’s basically a fruit syrup to which you can add brandy to make a cordial… or in my case…seltzer to make a spritzer.  If you have an abundance of fruit, you can make enough to can. Tigress of Tigress Can Jam made beautiful Rhubeena in Weck jars for the May canning and blogging event. At that point in the season, I was being pretty stingy about the rhubarb, but as more became available after I was satiated with making rhubarb sauce, jam, ketchup, “rhu-barbecue sauce,” and chutney, I made “rhubeena” and then rhubarb butter from the pulp. As it turns out, rhubarb can have a long season! The ‘beena is typically used with fruit that’s past the point of jam-making, so waiting was a good thing.

Since making the syrup is akin to the start of a jelly, I also used strawberry syrup in my spritzers since I had started a jelly-making experiment and didn’t finish it. Both the rhubarb and the strawberry version were very sweet, so cutting them not only with seltzer but also with lime turned out to be a refreshing drink on a hot day at the beginning of summer.

I used the method that Corbin calls for but reduced the amount of sugar in the rhubarb by a lot! She used about about 11/3 cup sugar for every 2 cups of juice and I used 2/3 cup. And we still found it pretty sweet. The strawberry version was closer to her proportions (3:4) since it was originally intended to become jelly, also too sweet for the purpose.

Basically, you cook a pound of rhubarb (4 cups cut up) or strawberries (about a quart) in 3 tbsp of water per pound of fruit and cook gently until the juices are flowing, mashing the fruit as it cooks to release the juice. This can take 10 minutes or less for strawberries or longer for rhubarb. I cooked the rhubarb for about 30 minutes and kept it covered to preserve the juice instead of evaporating it. The mixture was then placed gently into a jelly bag and left to drip overnight. The next day, sugar in the proportions mentioned above was added and the mixture gently heated to dissolve it. That’s it.

This can be kept in the refrigerator or canned using a water bath method. Ours disappeared in a matter of hours.

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Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam with Cardamom

When I was reading about cooking with currants in Edible Portland, I spotted a recipe for strawberry-rhubarb jam with cardamom, submitted by Janie Hibler. While I didn’t follow the recipe, I took the suggestion about adding cardamom to this classic fruit combination and it was great. I was lucky to have scooped up both rhubarb and strawberries — the last of the season – at the farmers’ market so I was in business. I made only a very small batch but this would be a recipe to repeat for gift giving. The cardamom imparts a spicy, almost smoky taste, which will be good for the year-end holidays.

I was worried about having to cook this too long so I added a small bag of lemon seeds and the juice of a lemon to the macerating fruit. I don’t know if that helped develop the gel (or if it just came from the sugar or rhubarb) but it set up quickly. I also added crushed cardamom seeds (the little black ones inside the hulls, not the hulls) in cheesecloth, which flavored the liquid. A small amount of purchased ground cardamom could be added instead, but keep it under a half teaspoonful.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam with Cardamom

3 stalks, about ½ lb, rhubarb, trimmed and cut into small slices (2 cups)

1 qt strawberries, hulled and sliced (3 cups)

2 cups sugar

Juice of 1 lemon, seeds reserved and tied in a cheesecloth pouch

6-8 cardamom pods, hulled and seeds crushed and tied in a cheesecloth pouch (or scant ½ tsp ground cardamom)

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and let macerate for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Prepare canning jars and lids. Place fruit and its syrup in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, cooking to the gel point (220 degrees or until a droplet gels when tested on a cold plate). Process in a water bath canner, boiling for 10 minutes. Remove lid and turn off heat, let set for 5 minutes and then remove to sit undisturbed for a day. Makes 3 half pints.

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Spinach Salad with Rhubarb Vinaigrette and Strawberries

This was one of those happy accidents of having a variety of things on the kitchen counter at once, and not something that I set out to do. The spinach from our CSA farm was so small and fresh that it seemed a shame not to make a salad of some of it (though with six heads of lettuce in the fridge and a garden-full of salad greens, why I would use something else for salad is madness). The spinach and the strawberries that I had picked made me recall a very nice salad that a friend took to a potluck. Hers had some kind of creamy poppy seed dressing, which was delicious.

However, I had just made stewed rhubarb for another use, so I thought I would try making a vinaigrette with it. The rhubarb was delicious mixed with olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar. When I make stewed rhubarb, I mascerate it in sugar for a few hours (using about ½ cup of sugar per pound, or about 4 cups, of thinly sliced rhubarb), then cook it for about ten minutes until it collapses. Not adding water but rather using the rhubarb’s own juices produces a good thick consistency.

To assemble the salad, toss well washed spinach leaves (tear in pieces if large) with the vinagrette, add sliced strawberries and top with toasted almonds. Yum.

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Everybody’s Doing it…Rhubarb Crisp

Apple crisp has been a staple of fall and winter desserts in my house since I was a kid. The recipe my mother used probably came from a Better Homes & Garden’s cookbook, and is still how I make it today, though I’ve cut back on the sugar. Butter, flour, oatmeal, brown sugar and cinnamon are the main ingredients, with the occasional addition of nuts. I make it in the summer with stone fruits, like cherries and plums or berries.  When it comes to spring, rhubarb’s the best fresh candidate for the filling, with or without the addition of strawberries. I recently came across a recipe in a gardener’s community handbook, which used pecans, and then Mark Bittman in the New York Times used pecans. In my “mental tastebuds,” if there is such a thing, I couldn’t quite pair pecans with rhubarb but I had a few stray pecans in the pantry, so why not give it a try? It was surprisingly good, as the pecans worked well with the crisped oatmeal.

I vary the amount of topping according to the filling and the size of the pan, so this recipe is just indicative.

Rhubarb Crisp

1 lb rhubarb, cleaned and cut into ¾-inch pieces (about 4 cups

1 long strip of orange rind (no pith), cut into small strips

1 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp – 1/4 c sugar

Handful of strawberries (optional)

Topping

¼ cup soft butter

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

¼ tsp ground cinnamon (or more to taste)

2/3 cup oatmeal flakes

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the fruit mixture and pour into a baking dish.

Combine the topping ingredients and pat them into a crust on top of the fruit.

Bake for about 45 minutes until the top is browned and the fruit is bubbling. Serve warm or at room temperature. Pour a little heavy cream on top, or serve with whipped cream or ice cream or just plain. Serves four.

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