I absolutely love rhubarb in so many ways. And since today is the longest day, I take my chance and make some last-minute rhubarb foodies and drinks. What? Last-minute?
Yes! What only few people know is that after the longest day the sap stream changes direction. The leaves contain a high level of oxidic acid (that’s why you should never ever eat the rhubarb leaves) which will be transferred into the stalks. A little explanation; oxidic acid causes you to not being able to bind enough calcium. By adding chalk (calciumcarbonate) to your recipe including rhubarb, you can take care of the problem. Or you could just prevent eating too much rhubarb after the longest day, which will also help the plant to preserve enough reserve to survive until the next harvesting season. Be aware, I’m not stating you shouldn’t eat rhubarb after today at all!
All right, having said this, here are some awesome and delicious recipes 🙂
Rhubarb crumble
Heat the oven at 180 °C. Clean a couple of rhubarb stalks and cut them in one cm long pieces. Also cut some strawberries in quarters. Mix those ingredients and fill the bottom of a medium/large oven dish. Scatter some sugar and vanilla seeds on top of the mixture (just as much as you like). In a bowl, mix 75 gr sugar, 75 gr oatmeal, 75 gr almond flour and 60 gr butter. Once mixed, spread evenly over the rhubarb and strawberries. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes (until the crumble is golden brown). Bon appetit!
PS: you can also divide the ingredients over several smaller dishes or mugs, also this is really good with some vanilla icecream!
Rhubarb syrup
Clean and cut approximately 910 gr (2 lbs) of rhubarb and put the pieces in a medium cooking pot. Fill the pot with water so that all of rhubarb is just under water. Cook for 20 minutes and skim any foam that rises to the top (keep doing this all the way to the end). Strain the rhubarb liquid through a fine mesh strainer into another pot. Add 350 gr sugar and put the pot on high heat until the liquid boils. Let boil for about 5 minutes. The syrup is now thickened and perfect for mixing into beverages or with water for lemonade. You can also let the syrup boil a bit longer for other uses. Let it cool down and then poor it into a bottle for keeping it cool in the fridge. It’ll last for several weeks, at least, if you don’t empty the bottle before 🙂
-Nerissa
happyduckling 