Rhubarb Tart

Every year at this time, I feel a sense of renewed jubilation and excitement about cooking using fresh and local ingredients.
Traipsing through the market this past weekend there were lots of great items that I saw for the first time of the year. Orange tomatoes, mixed greens, and eggs.
(By the way, these were awesome eggs! I put an egg on everything this weekend. I even made mayo from scratch for my market burgers on Saturday! Also, someone obviously has WAY too much free time on their hands…ahem, me)

But, what we’re going to talk about today is a tart. A rhubarb tart to be exact. I wanted to take advantage of those gorgeous ruby stalks growing in the backyard, so I decided a tart was in order. Plus, the weather was crummy, so a little baking didn’t seem completely out of the question. I did a bit of research online, and couldn’t really find a fun tart recipe with rhubarb. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted it to look and taste like, so I decided to wing it. That of course left me open to the possibility of complete failure, but hey, I live on the edge.
So, went out and cut some rhubarb, much to the chagrin of at least one spider who seemed quite content with his rhubarby home, and came up with this. It isn’t really anything crazy, quite simple actually and it really lets the tart flavour of the rhubarb shine!

Wash your rhubarb and cut into ½ inch pieces. Place into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring it to a boil and let the rhubarb simmer. When the rhubarb is falling apart, add a cup of sugar. Let it cook for about 10 minutes or until it is syrupy and thick. Set aside, and let cool.
Prepare a tart or pie shell. I made a short crust pastry using Brule Creek flour.  I had to tweak my regular recipe a bit to accommodate the different texture of the flour, but it all worked out and the taste was divine!
Next, mix 2 tablespoons of corn starch with ½ cup of water and pour into the slightly cooled rhubarb mixture. Stir and pour into the prepared shell. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes (or about that, keep on eye on it!)
Remove from the oven and let cool.
For the topping, put ½ cup of heavy cream into the mixer. Add a teaspoon of maple syrup. Whip until thick. It might sound weird, but I put basil in the whipped cream as well, and it was great. So do a little basil chiffonade, and toss it in!
Serve the tart with a wee dollop of cream.  That is what I had for breakfast today; it’s ok there is fruit in it so that is allowed.
What is your favourite way to eat rhubarb?

Originally Published 5/28/2012 on TBNewswatch, by yours truly 

RhubarB-B-Q

Rhubarb. Perfect in pies, scrumptious with sugar, and great on the grill! Yes, you read that correctly, on the grill.  Making barbecue sauce is an excellent way to get to get more out of your rhubarb. It is incredibly tasty, very easy, and sometimes you just want to try something different! If you are not the proud owner of a rhubarb shrub, all hope is not lost. You can pick up a bunch at the Farmers Market.

Rhubarb-b-Que Sauce.

-3 cups of rhubarb- sliced
-1 cup of water
-½ cup onion, diced
-1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
-2/3  cup of brown sugar
-1T vinegar (white, cider, balsamic- whatever you have around)
-½ cup of tomato paste or Ketchup
-1T Cayenne Pepper
-Oil
-S and P to taste

Put the water and the rhubarb in a saucepan over low heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the rhubarb is getting soft. Remove from heat.
Heat up 1T oil in a skillet and cook your onions for about 3 minutes, toss in the garlic and cook for a minute or 2 more-  Add to the Rhubarb mixture. Put it into a blender, food processor, or use and immersion blender to process until smooth. Place back into the saucepan over low heat. Add the brown sugar, vinegar, tomato paste, cayenne, and S and P to taste.  Let it simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. If it gets too thick for your liking, you can add some water, broth, wine, beer or whatever you happen to be drinking at that time, until it is to the desired consistency.  If you accidentally add too much, just let it simmer for longer.
Will keep in the fridge for up to a week.  Use as you could any barbecue sauce, and it makes a great dipping sauce for anything- Chicken, pork, fingers….mmmmm.

What did I put it on? I know you are anxious to know, I put it on Brisket!

Brisket on the Grill 

Brisket can be an amazing cut of meat if you have the time and patience to do it right. Most recipes will call for a 8-10 lb brisket, cooked on a smoker, or on a charcoal grill; unfortunately I own neither of the above. What I do have is a gas grill, and yes, you can cook an absolutely wonderful and amazing brisket on a gas grill.
I picked up an Angus Beef brisket from Tarrymore Farms at the Farmers Market. They are at the Market every week, at the stall just inside the door. In addition to wonderfully fresh and delicious eggs, they have a freezer full of Beef, pork, and if you are lucky, lamb.

When I started going to the market, I would never pick up any of the local meat products. Primarily because they were frozen. I didn’t want to buy my meat frozen, why would I do that when I could just go to the grocery store and get something that was already ready to go. But this meat is not “processed” in a giant factory hundreds of miles away. This meat didn’t have to take a road trip to get here, over who knows how many days.  This local beef is processed here in town and immediately frozen. In a strange way, it is the freshest that you can get. If it is thawed correctly, it is quite wonderful. So, after I got over my snobbish attitude about buying “Frozen Food,” I completely fell in love with the variety of foods that were available to me and my family. I was very excited to finally try cooking brisket on my own, because I had eaten it before and absolutely adored it (Hello, Famous Daves!) But, all of the recipes called for a smoker, and since I don’t have one, I was discouraged, but fear not, we can totally make this happen!

One of the first challenges is that most recipes call for a giant brisket. 8-10 lbs is too big, even for me. So, I picked up one that was somewhere between 3 and 4 pounds. Some people like to do a rub on the brisket before it is cooked, even the night before. Salt, pepper, brown sugar, cayenne, garlic powder. Whatever your heart desires!

You will also need hickory chips. This is something that you should purchase at the store, and not gather from the forest floor. Soak the woodchips for a half hour to an hour- drain and put in a metal dish on the bbq, along with a small handful of un-soaked chips.

Heat your BBQ to 220 degrees F .

Prepare your brisket by laying it, fat side up, on a foil lined cookie sheet or foil pan.  Place the brisket on the grill, on the side opposite from the heat and let it cook. After 3 hours you can start putting your Rhubarb-B-Que sauce on, repeating once an hour.  Continue to cook until it has been on the grill for a total of 6-8 hours, and has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  When it is done, take it off of the grill, and cover with foil, and allow the meat to rest for 15-20 minutes before you slice it. I know you are anxious to eat, but this is a crucial part of the cooking process. You have already waited 8 hours, can you really not wait 20 more?
Once your 20 minutes is up, remove the foil and slice the brisket. It should be moist in the centre, with a dark “bark” on the outside of the meat.
This is a great dish to try on the weekend, especially a long weekend!
What a coincidence!

Enjoy the recipe, and your long weekend!
  

Originally Posted 6/30/2011 on tbnewswatch.com

Pie!

So we have a massive rhubarb shrub in the yard. Seriously, this thing gets to be 8 feet tall in the summer. Right now it is a perfect height, with tender ruby colored stalks. Cousin Erika brought over a big basket of monster strawberries on my birthday, she had picked them only an hour before at Belluz Farm. If you have ever had a freshly piked strawberry, you will know how delicious they are. They come in all shapes and sizes, some are round, oval, pointy but none bigger than a half dollar. Take a bite and your fingers and mouth are stained bright berry red, by the sweetest and most delicious fruit the season has to offer...and that is the secret.. they are in season! These aren't the supermarket freaks, with all of the taste bred out of them so they would ship better, and who knows where these flavorless fruits originated anyways. The difference between fresh, local and seasonal vs year round grocery store fruit is like night and day.

I never even really liked strawberries. It's because I never had a real one before.

So with all of these delicious fruit what is a girl to do? The strawberries cant sit on a shelf for a week, you have about a day until they start to get soft. So I figured that the perfect solution would be a pie of course!

The problem is that I am a terrible pie maker. They are generally about as good as my cakes, which up until last week i hadn't succeeded in. But, I figured that since I managed to make that red velvet, I would give this another shot as well.




The main problem when it comes to pie is, of course, the crust. Im awful at it. Usually ill go grab one of those Pillsbury refrigerated shells, and were on our way! But since this pie was on a whim, I didn't have one on hand. But I followed a basic recipe, and had success!



The crust is the hard part, but not the fun part! the fun part is the pie filling!



I mixed 1 cup rhubarb, 3 cups berries, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup corn starch, and a pinch of cinnamon.... well a few pinches.

After i poured it into the pie shell I put a few pats of butter on top, put on the top crust, did and egg wash, and voila! It was an ugly pie, but thats not really the point.




It was delicious!