Strawberries and Rhubarb
4:27 PMStrawberries and rhubarb just go together. We've been eating a lot of pan"cakes" here lately. I've made blueberry syrup and a molasses syrup to go with our cakes. The rhubarb seems to be the only thing growing like gangbusters right now so it seemed obvious to me that I need to try a rhubarb syrup as well. Then strawberries were on sale at the store. I scoured google to find a recipe that I thought was the best (I'm not sure how I was to decide on the best recipe...) and ended up combining a couple of different recipes to come up with my concoction.
Rhubarb Syrup-
10-12 stalks rhubarb chopped into pieces
2- 1/2 pounds strawberries quartered
2 C sugar (or to taste)
2 C water
2 T lemon juice
Mix the whole mess into a saucepan. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. I stirred mine occasionally until the rhubarb started to become soft and smooshy. Line a mesh sieve with cheesecloth over a large mixing bowl and gently pour the mixture out of the saucepan. Let the mixture drip through into the bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon to get most of the liquid out. Pour the strawberry and rhubarb mixture into a mixing bowl and pour the liquid into a container and set aside.
With the left over strawberry and rhubarb fruit I made a pie. Why throw away all of that goodness?
It was pretty sweet from cooking in the sugar and water so I didn't add any sugar. In fact I didn't add any spices either. I made a pie crust from my favorite pie crust recipe. I have been making pie crust since I learned how as a teenager and still to this day CAN NOT MAKE A ROUND CRUST!!
After a lot of cutting to make the crust work in my pie plate (which I'm pretty good at by now) I poured the strawberry rhubarb mixture into the crust and put a dab of butter in the center.
Then I put the top crust on and made a pretty design on it and sprinkled a bit of sugar on top. I popped it in a 375 degree oven for about 50 minutes or so. After 45 minutes I took the little metal crust protector off and let the edges brown up a bit. All times are approximate, I just guessed. Dee-lish served warm with some vanilla ice cream.
Now for the syrup. Put the saved liquid into a saucepan and simmer to desired thickness. I didn't want mine too thick. Besides a lovely topping for cakes, I wanted to be able to mix the tasty red liquid with vodka tonics. I ended up with 4 half pints and this one little 4 ounce jar of beautiful sweet, red goodness.
3 comments
Yummy. Yes please!!
ReplyDeleteDeliciousness in a blog :) I'm a little hungry now....
ReplyDeleteI'd say that crust turned out pretty darn well! I haven't really seen a lot of rhubarb in my area, I wonder why. It was such a great idea to condense the left overs down into a syrup, you can enjoy rhubarb even when it is out of season!
ReplyDeleteI love your comments. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.