Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb (recipes!)

Rhubarb growing in Jackie Sauter's garden -- it's huge! Photo: Jackie Sauter

Rhubarb growing in Jackie Sauter’s garden — it’s huge! Photo: Jackie Sauter

Happy weekend! So last week I started thinking about rhubarb. Why? Because it’s suddenly everywhere (Jackie’s garden, for example — see the pic)! And I started thinking about the great recipes people around here have for pretty much every seasonal fruit and vegetable. So I did a little checking around, and a little asking around, and I came up with some great ones!

First, drinks! NCPR Facebook friend Jane Sandwick Williams sent around this link, to some delicious rhubarb cocktail recipes, including the Strawberry Rhubarb Margarita and (ooh…) the Vodka Rhubarb Pie Cocktail. Drink up! Recipes here.

And Barbara Rexilius (RhuBarbara), in response to a callout for cold drinks from Todd a couple summers ago, sent this recipe:

Rhubarb-Ginger Punch

Heat the following ingredients, just enough to dissolve and blend.
8 oz. Adirondack Rhubarb Traditions’ Rhubarb Concentrate
1 –1 1/4 cups sweetener(may use sugar, maple syrup or honey)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
4 cups water

The above mix can be put in jars and frozen and taken out when ever you want a summer drink.

When ready for a good drink mix with two liters of Ginger Ale. Serve over crushed ice. It makes a refreshing, thirst quenching drink.

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Oh man. Now to the more substantial stuff: From a long-ago callout for signature North Country dishes, this very basic recipe for Rhubarb Pie from Diane Romlein:

Rhubarb Pie

Chop rhubarb from the garden early in the spring when the stalks are a foot or so high. Freeze 1″ pieces by just popping in the freezer.

Make tender, flaky pie crust

Remove 4 cups frozen rhubarb from freezer. Stir in 1 1/4c. sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 c. flour and a little cinnamon. Mound in crust. Add butter to the top.

Place top crust on, with pretty pattern cut in to let out steam.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or till bubbly and golden.

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Here’s Todd Moe’s award-winning recipe for Rhubarb-Strawberry-Rosemary Pie

And Todd’s recipe for a mouth-watering Rhubarb Coffeecake

Minnie’s Rhubarb Coffeecake

½ cup shortening, or butter
1 ½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 cups diced rhubarb

Cream shortening, sugar and egg. Add dry ingredients with milk. Add rhubarb. Spread into a 9 x 13 greased pan.

Topping: ½ cup sugar, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp cinnamon. Sprinkle over batter and bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes.

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Well, those sound fantastic, and I bet yours are too! Post your cant-miss rhubarb recipes in our comments section, or email them to me at [email protected]. Coming next week, asparagus! It’s not here long, but you better eat it when it is!

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3 Comments on “Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb (recipes!)”

  1. Dale Hobson says:

    I was born with a “sour tooth” and my favorite way to consume rhubarb is freshly stolen from a neighbor’s patch. (They shouldn’t grow stuff on the opposite side of the garage from their kitchen window.) Snap it off above the ground, snap off the leaves, peel back the stringy skin, chomp and pucker. I realize this may not be for everyone. I also used to buy those (then) $.19 cent plastic lemons full of lemon juice and squirt it into my mouth while delivering papers.

  2. Renee says:

    Here’s my family’s favorite. My kids gobble it up. It’s a great way to use up the two things we always find we have a lot of in Spring; rhubarb and eggs!

    Rhubarb Custard Bars

    1 1/4 C flour
    1/2 C sugar
    1/2 C butter, softened

    Mix all up in a 9×13 pan and pat it into the bottom. Bake for 10 minutes at 350*

    While that’s baking mix up the following:

    1 C sugar
    1/4 t salt
    3 T flour
    6 eggs
    1 t vanilla
    5 C rhubarb, chopped

    Pour this over the pre-baked crust, bake 40-45 minutes.

  3. Laurena Will says:

    Thank you Renee – made this today and we loved it! been making rhubarb crisp and pie but this is an easy and wonderfully tasty change and with all those eggs – must count as a protein! thanks again.

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