I love rhubarb season. I really do. The sad fact is, I no longer have a traditional garden because I don’t have a backyard anymore. I’m totally into balcony container gardening now. Hey, something is better than nothing I say!
I had a rhubarb plant at my old place. I love it so much that I probably could have planted my entire backyard with rhubarb, but that’s probably not really all that great for resale, unless you’re selling to a rhubarb super fan. Shame.
Recently a co-worker of mine, that loves to garden and cook, brought in a bag of fresh-cut rhubarb from her garden. I walked into the lounge and found it sitting on the table with a bright yellow sticky note that read “Help Yourself”…I certainly will 🙂 That bag of rhubarb came home with me, its like winning the rhubarb lottery. Score!
What would I transform this rhubarb into. The possibilities are drool worthy. Rhubarb pie. Rhubarb cake. Rhubarb muffins. Rhubarb crumble. Rhubarb compote. Oh my gosh, I can’t pick only one!
I went with this easy rhubarb compote, because it’s super easy and boy does it go well with vanilla ice-cream. And a lot of other things too.
I do something I like to call “Kitchen Sink Specials”. It’s just something I’ve coined for myself because people often ask me what I’m eating and what’s in it. If it’s not something from a specific recipe and it’s just something I’ve whipped up from what little was still in my kitchen, I call that my “Kitchen Sink Special”
So, when I’m asked, “what are you eating?” the answer is often “my kitchen sink special.” Which generally gets me lot of questions about what is in it. My standard answer is, “whatever is left in my fridge and cupboard that I think I can toss together and make something edible.” Hey, sometimes that’s really hard to do when the pickings are slim. I think I’m getting pretty good at it, since most of the time it tastes good and people always tell me “your food smells so good.”
Thank You, I try 🙂
Now, what makes kitchen sink cooking kinda different, is that I don’t really have exact measurements for items. I can tell you put so much of this in and so much of that, which would be a great starting place, but I’m always adjusting and adding things if I don’t like where I’m at taste wise. And since I consider my kitchen sink cooking to be off-the-cuff in style, I think that for now it’s ok to not nail every measurement down exactly. They are all very much experiments in motion, there’s nothing really final about them, they’re ever-changing based on the quality of ingredients that go into them.
Rhubarb can vary in the amount of tartness it has, therefore I adjust the amount of sugar while its cooking. Taste. If it’s just the way I like it, then I leave it alone, but I usually end up adding more sugar so I get it where I think it needs to be. The rhubarb I used in this recipe was pretty tart and needed added sugar. I love the sweet/tart taste you get from rhubarb, it probably explains my love or sour candies as well!
- bunch of fresh rhubarb
- equal parts sugar and water
- cinnamon
- couple whole cloves
- fresh grated nutmeg
- lemon peel
- Roughly chop the rhubarb stalks into 1-2 inch pieces. Place in saucepan with equal parts sugar and water. Add Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and lemon peel.
- Bring to a boil over medium high heat, cover and reduce heat to low and leave to cook for 10-12 minutes.
- Taste to check if the amount of sugar is balanced, add additional sugar if needed. Add extra spices if you like as well.
- Uncover and leave to cook down until its reached the thickness that you desire.
- Cool.
- Remove whole cloves and lemon peel.
- Serve and enjoy!
After I take the rhubarb off the stove, I usually pour it into one of my glass jars to leave to cool. I usually cant wait to have some, its awesome on top of vanilla ice-cream.
I decided to add some to my crepecakes batter and to top my crepecakes with. What is a crepecake you ask. Well, it’s what I call something that is a cross between a crepe and a pancake. It’s thinner than a pancake, but thicker than a crepe. It’s kinda like a middle ground between the two. I was aiming for pancakes, but I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand that I actually needed, but I went for it anyway, cause that’s how I roll.
What would I do with them, they weren’t standard pancakes and they sure weren’t standard crepes either. Uhm, I’ll call it a crepecake! I ate 3 of them so I know they were edible 🙂 They also reminded me that I’ve not made crepes in ages and that is just not right. My mom is from France and let’s just say I love me a good crepe, savory or sweet, but I’m a sucker for a good sweet crepe. Those are totally going on my to-do list. My tummy just rumbled! Mmmmmm, crepes!
It was a great treat to start the day off. My tummy is smiling, I can feel it 🙂
