Rhubarb secrets and recipe, please!

[Rocio]

Hi! About two years ago, a dear friend made me try a rhubarb pie for the first time in my life (I´m from Venezuela), and I really liked it. Now I want to make one for my husband, but I´m clueless as to how to pick rhubarb at the grocery store, cook it and make the pie. Could someone give me some tips or info where to find how to cook it?
Thank you very much!
Rocio

[patlaw]

Choose firm, crisp stalks, avoid ones with wilted leaves, good deep red color. Pink indicates a hothouse plant which is less flavorful. My husband usually combines rhubarb with another fruit -- strawberry, cherry, most recently pineapple which was surprisingly good. I'll ask him for his basic recipe this evening, but both Carole Walter's Great Pies and Tarts and Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible have good recipes.

[patlaw]

Just got my Epicurious e-mail newsletter which has a wonderful-sounding recipe for Rhubarb Lattice Pie with Cardamom and Orange. Check it out:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/re...231903?mbid=RF

[Rocio]

Thank you so very much!!! I´ll follow your tips and try this recipe!!!
Rocio

[MarkV]

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB CRISP

For the filling:

1 lb roughly chopped rhubarb. (Buy a little more than a pound so after you trim the ends you are left with a full pound).
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup water
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 lb strawberries, stem end cut and then quartered.

Mix all of the above ingredients except the strawberries, and simmer in a saucepan until it thickens, about 10-15 minutes. While the filling is cooking, make the topping:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup instant oatmeal
5 oz. brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of salt
5 oz cold butter, diced

Mix all the ingredients, except the butter, in an electric mixer. Then add the butter one piece at a time and continue to mix until a coarse meal is attained. Allow the filling to cool and then mix in the strawberries. Pour the filling into a nine-inch cake pan, top it with the crust and bake it for 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Serve it with your favorite ice cream.

[kuchencake]

I am crazy about rhubarb! In Germany I found that they commonly paired it with mango. I have made rhubarb mango chutney, rhubarb mango preserves, rhubarb mango pie. I have also used cardamon, dried plumbs, orange/lemon zest, pineapple, ginger, and cinnamon to compliment it.(not all at the same time!) You can make some great savory sauces with rhubarb to go with pork or chicken. Saute some onions and garlic in butter, add some rhubarb, cider vinegar, sugar, fresh ginger, salt and pepper. simmer until tender then puree smooth.
Or just eat the rhubarb fresh, peeled with a sprinkle of salt
For pie just peel and cut to bite size pieces. Flour and sugar,seasonings toss together and put in a crust. Top with crust or meringue. When I make a meringue pie I add the yolks to the pie mixture. It makes a more creamy filling.

[OzarkRose]

The best "secret" is to buy it in season which varies greatly on what climate you're in. It's considered a cool weather plant. You can peel each stalk then chop and toss in some sugar to coat and freeze.
Remember to NEVER eat the leaves; they're toxic.

[KeeperOfTheGood]

Hey oh

Oo this is a fun plant. Yes, the leaves are high in oxalic acid. While nice and zingy, it takes a long time for your body to eliminate it. There is a clover plant I eat that is also high in this and th servings are very smal and limited to once a week.

As to the plant stalks, they are eadable all year. However, as the season warms up, the taste of this plant changes, and there are many people that don't like it late season. The way I explain it is thus, early season can be eaten as is, late season NEEDS to be well sugared. Now, also with sugaring it, if you dice up the stems, and sugar them, and let them sit for a few hours, they will liquify into a nice syrup which is very nice on vanilla ice cream.

Also, it is rather easy to grow. My grandmother, and my father, and myself, we all grow ours in the gardens scrub corners. Against telephone poles, beside the composter etc.