Rhubarb Candied Ginger Sorbet

Strongly tart, palate cleansing, and refreshing!  Small tastes.  I served single scoops in paper cupcake wrappers with spoons at work and got many rave reviews.

• 6 cups fresh rhubarb, large dice
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1.5 cups water
• (2 strawberries and/or 1 TBSP organic raspberry jam) Optional
• 1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP (= 6 TBSP) small diced candied ginger.
• 3 TBSP vodka

Simmer first 3 ingredients until most rhubarb dissolved.  If color is not pinkish enough,  add 2 large cut strawberries and/or a tablespoon of organic raspberry jam and simmer until soft or dissolved.
Blend with immersion blender until smooth.

Stir in vodka and candied ginger.  Most will melt, but some small pieced will still be there.  A little bit of rhubarb may there too, which is also fine.

Pour into a bowl with a pour spout. Chill at least 4 hours until cold.

In thoroughly chilled bowl (15 hours in freezer) of ice cream maker, stir on speed 1 for about 10-12 minutes or until it starts slipping.  Pour into two 3-cup containers with lids (or smaller sizes), and chill for at least an hour.

Rhubarb Crisp from NY Times

I liked this recipe because it called for only 1/4 cup of sugar to 6 cups of rhubarb. Most other rhubarb crisp recipes have way too much sugar. The crisp topping adds more than enough sweetness.

Of course, I had to make modifications to Rhubarb Crisp - NY Times. I didn't use any lemon juice or zest in the rhubarb and less butter in the topping. The recipe called for pecans in the topping-I used ginger agave cashews because that is what I had in the freezer. The recipe called for 1.5 inch pieces of rhubarb. Mine were much smaller-maybe 1/2 inch. I also added some fresh ginger to the rhubarb, because I am on a ginger kick lately. Slightly less topping (less sugar) would be fine. My version:

6 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 or 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup fresh ginger, cut finely (optional)

5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup brown sugar (as little as 1/2 cup would probably be sweet enough if you like very tart)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste
Pinch salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup pecans or other nut. Perhaps it was the ginger agave cashews that made this so good.

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8- or 9-inch square baking or gratin dish with a little butter. Toss rhubarb with white sugar, orange or lemon juice and zest, and spread in baking dish.
2. Put the 6 tablespoons butter in a food processor along with brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt, and pulse for about 20 or 30 seconds, until it looks like small peas and just begins to clump together. Add oats and pecans and pulse just a few times to combine.
3. Crumble the topping over rhubarb and bake until golden and beginning to brown, 45 to 50 minutes.

Rhubarb is Ready! Rhubarb Bars and Pickled Rhubarb

All of the rhubarb plants sprouted flowers that had to be cut off (twice, already). It seems like it only took 2 weeks from the first leaves poking out of the soil to ready to harvest.  

I need to make something for a work celebration next week, so I made a smaller test batch of Rhubarb Bars with a shortbread crust.  I prefer more tart, so less sugar than most recipes, like Brooke's recipe. I don't have a 7 x 11 pan so I used a large pie pan instead.  The combination of the tart topping with the sweet buttery crust is delicious.
 

I also made Pickled Rhubarb, as that also sounded oddly compelling. We'll see if anyone likes it.

The idea is to serve as part of a cheese platter, so I made one jar with diced rhubarb  where the pickled rhubarb is featured as part of a white asparagus salad).

The rhubarb for the other jar was sliced in 4 inch thin sticks, so you can eat them like pickles.  My version was based on this recipe from Pickle Girl who made huge batches for her wedding, or this one from Mother Jones, but with different spices and proportioned down to 1 cup of cider vinegar, 3/4 c sugar, 1.5 inch sliced ginger, a couple of Start Anise, a little dried red pepper flakes.  I cut enough rhubarb stalks to fill a 1/2 pint jar of with thin sticks of rhubarb and another 1/2 pint jar of diced rhubarb. Then pour pickling liquid to top and refrigerate after it cools.