Rhubarb
by Ellen Rocco on May 3rd, 2010
I wanted to call this blog “Rhubarb.” That’s it, just Rhubarb. Tart, stalky, a little edgy, a vegetable passing as a fruit. I got shot down by my colleagues. Okay, but right now, it’s peak rhubarb season. You’ll find lots of rhubarb recipes in the food book we published 18 months ago, Stories, Food, Life, still, there are always more uses for rhubarb (poultice, anti-inflammatory, diuretic…just kidding). I’d like to encourage you to share your favorite rhubarb recipes in the comment section below. By way of inspiration, the following clip of Garrison Keillor and Meryl Streep from the “A Prairie Home Companion Movie.”
Tags: A Prairie Home Companion movie, Garrison Keillor, Meryl Streep, rhubarb
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In North America we tend to think of rhubarb as a fruit only and there are so many lovely recipes for pies, crisps, cobblers, etc. (I think my mother-in-law’s rhubarb custard pie is the best — see the NCPR food book.) But rhubarb isn’t just for desserts. That tartness is perfect with fatty meats like pork and duck. Here’s a recipe, somewhat like my grandmother’s, from The Cookbook of the Jews of Greece, that I found at the Jewish Museum in Athens last summer — Peshe en saltsa (Fish in Rhubarb Sauce) — it’s from the island of Rhodes:
2# swordfish steaks or salmon
1# rhubarb
3 cups water
2# tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup red wine
2 TBS olive oil
1 TBS honey
Juice of 2 lemons
salt and pepper
Chop rhubarb into 1 inch pieces, cook with the water over low heat until tender. Simmer tomatoes with olive oil in a frying pan until reduced to a sauce. Add wine, honey, and maybe a but more olive oil and salt and pepper. Add to the rhubarb and mix well. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes until reduced to a rich sauce. (Hmm…might be a nice sauce for pasta or chicken legs or even with just a nice crusty bread?)
Or proceed with the recipe:
Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan, brown fish on both sides, then pour rhubarb sauce over the fish, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Carefully remove the fish to a serving platter, pour the sauce over the fish, and then the juice of 2 lemons. Traditionally served cold or lukewarm. Serves 4 to 6.
Rhubarb may not be a diuretic (see Ellen’s comments), but many years ago, some sort of extract of rhubarb was listed in the USP as a laxative. Much better to use it as a dessert, chutney, marmalade, etc., in my opinion.
“Rhubarb” would have been a good name, in the sense that, at least in baseball, it was a term for a big argument…I think maybe coined by Red Barber when he was broadcasting Dodgers games many years ago.