Rhubarb Recipes - help!

earlnabby wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Sharing because I find this funny: A couple of years back, my next door neighbor asked if he could use my veggie garden area, which I was not planting. Of course, I said "sure". What he didn't say was that he planned to plant, um, ample? amounts of rhubarb, a perennial (comes back every year, very robustly in its case). He planned to make rhubarb wine, but would let me cut what I want, too.

Now, my neighbor, who's a dear man but a little bit of a fibbertigibbet, has decided not to make rhubarb wine (as far as I know, never did make any). He will maybe plant some other things out there (still fine), but called to let me know I should cut whatever rhubarb I want, up to and including all of it. This is enough rhubarb for at least 20 normal (non-rhubarb-obsessed) families, I think. I don't even like the stuff all that much, I mean, it's OK, but I'm not going to cut it by the bushel, and freeze/can it.

This is like a 30-foot row of rhubarb.

I dislike rhubarb but this showed up in my FB feed. Thought of your right away.

80 Rhubarb Recipes to Make This Spring (and Summer!) https://tasteofhome.com/collection/rhubarb-recipes-for-spring/?trkid=soc-toh-facebook

AnnPT77 wrote: »

earlnabby wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Sharing because I find this funny: A couple of years back, my next door neighbor asked if he could use my veggie garden area, which I was not planting. Of course, I said "sure". What he didn't say was that he planned to plant, um, ample? amounts of rhubarb, a perennial (comes back every year, very robustly in its case). He planned to make rhubarb wine, but would let me cut what I want, too.

Now, my neighbor, who's a dear man but a little bit of a fibbertigibbet, has decided not to make rhubarb wine (as far as I know, never did make any). He will maybe plant some other things out there (still fine), but called to let me know I should cut whatever rhubarb I want, up to and including all of it. This is enough rhubarb for at least 20 normal (non-rhubarb-obsessed) families, I think. I don't even like the stuff all that much, I mean, it's OK, but I'm not going to cut it by the bushel, and freeze/can it.

This is like a 30-foot row of rhubarb.

I dislike rhubarb but this showed up in my FB feed. Thought of your right away.

80 Rhubarb Recipes to Make This Spring (and Summer!) https://tasteofhome.com/collection/rhubarb-recipes-for-spring/?trkid=soc-toh-facebook

OK, so, strictly speaking, this is off topic here, I know. Forgive me?

I didn't (yet) go out for the puff pastry and mascarpone, but I did decide that it could be a good idea to make rhubarb upside-down cake. I didn't use the recipe (I don't have cake mix, which it calls for, either, but I do have cake ingredients, and a "whatever fruit" upside down cake recipe I've used before).

So, I made whole wheat/maple rhubarb upside-down cake, and ate it with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of brown sugar and cinnamon. Definitely edible, though not very photogenic.

I've also got some rhubarb-ginger sauce cooling, that I made the the excess rhubarb I cut. May add something orange flavored (Grand Marnier, maybe?).

Thanks again for the inpiration!



Handsful of the recently-up fresh oregano was pretty tasty on my home-made whole wheat crust veggie/cheese pizza, too. A little bit of home garden cooking tonight!

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Follow up rhubarb note, since I suspect many others are harvesting. The rhubarb sauce with ginger root** (minced, and quite a lot of it), honey (not tooooo much), and - after cooking - a splash of Cointreau . . . that was really, really good. Definitely worth doing again.

I don't do recipes, so I can't specify exactly, but I think it was around a cup and half of 2" rhubarb chunks, maybe 2-3T honey, an inch or so chunk of ginger root, and a splash (tablespoon, maybe?) of Cointreau.

** There are other good methods, but I like keeping chunks of peeled ginger root steeping in sherry in my refrigerator (just middling drinking sherry, not cooking sherry). They keep indefinitely, and as the ginger level drops, the ginger-y sherry is pretty nice in cooking, too.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I still say I don't mostly do recipes, but I'm going to share the (very old, much used, much-bespotted) recipe I used for the upside-down cake, because (1) I love the author's attitude, and (2) it's about the most shelter-in-place-friendly kind of recipe I can imagine. It might even help some who are afraid to alter recipes kind of relax a little, by providing a bit of a roadmap.

From the book:

COFFEECAKE

I've been making this cake for 10 years. I've been making it with every conceivable lack, substitution, and variation, and in a chancy oven; I've made it with oil, lard, butter, and no shortening; with sugar, molasses, honey, and no sweetening; with no egg, 1 egg, 3 eggs; with the egg whites beaten and no rising powder; with milk, yogurt, buttermilk, sour milk, sour cream, dried milk, whey, and no milk at all. I've also made it with white flour, whole-wheat flour, half whole wheat and half anything from rye to soyflour. I've used it as the basis for upside down cake, banana bread, raisin cake, muffins, coffeecake; flavored with cinnamon, almond, coriander, nutmeg, berries, apple juice, oranges, lemons, coonut. It stands. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix:
1/3 cup oil, or 1/4 lb softenened butter or shortening
1/2 cup sugar, molasses, honey, or a mixture
Add:
1 to 3 eggs, whole or separated and whites beaten until stiff
3/4 cup milk, buttermilk, sour milk; or water or whey with 1/2 cup dried milk added
Beat, then stir together and fold into liquid ingredients until just mixed:
1.5 cups whole wheat flour, or half whole wheat and half any other flour
2 teaspoons baking powder, which may be omitted if egg whites were beaten **
1/2 teaspoon salt
Flavor with:
1 teaspoon almond extract, vanilla extract, grated lemon rind, or 1/4 cup orange, lemon or apple juice.

For Upside-Down Cake:
Grease the pan well with butter or oil, and sprinkle with flour before lining it with:
A layer of overlapping sliced fruit, such as apples, berries, peaches, pineapple, and 1/2 cup of nuts, if you like.
You may sprinkle over the fruit, if tart:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour

Pour on the batter, and bake for about 30 minutes****. If the temperature is lower, it will be denser, but still good.

My footnotes:
** Baking soda would work, if the liquid is buttermilk, sour milk, or yogurt.
**** I baked the rhubarb version for 45 minutes. It'll matter what pan you use; I used an 8 inch square pan. Just test with a toothpick (until it comes out clean) or note visually when it appears done, if you're used to baking.

This is from "Mrs. Restino's Country Kitchen: The Complete Wood Stove Cookbook" (circa 1976). As an older recipe from a hippie-dippy source, it may be less sweet than many contemporary folks prefer. If you like things quite sweet, just increase the sweetener (I'd avoid doubling a liquid sweetener, especially while using the juice for flavoring and a juicy fruit - that's a lot of liquid).

Obviously, this is not going to make the perfect bakery-style cake, and different combinations of ingredients will produce different results. But it's very flexible, and pretty much any variation will be tasty.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I still say I don't mostly do recipes, but I'm going to share the (very old, much used, much-bespotted) recipe I used for the upside-down cake, because (1) I love the author's attitude, and (2) it's about the most shelter-in-place-friendly kind of recipe I can imagine. It might even help some who are afraid to alter recipes kind of relax a little, by providing a bit of a roadmap.

From the book:

COFFEECAKE

I've been making this cake for 10 years. I've been making it with every conceivable lack, substitution, and variation, and in a chancy oven; I've made it with oil, lard, butter, and no shortening; with sugar, molasses, honey, and no sweetening; with no egg, 1 egg, 3 eggs; with the egg whites beaten and no rising powder; with milk, yogurt, buttermilk, sour milk, sour cream, dried milk, whey, and no milk at all. I've also made it with white flour, whole-wheat flour, half whole wheat and half anything from rye to soyflour. I've used it as the basis for upside down cake, banana bread, raisin cake, muffins, coffeecake; flavored with cinnamon, almond, coriander, nutmeg, berries, apple juice, oranges, lemons, coonut. It stands. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix:
1/3 cup oil, or 1/4 lb softenened butter or shortening
1/2 cup sugar, molasses, honey, or a mixture
Add:
1 to 3 eggs, whole or separated and whites beaten until stiff
3/4 cup milk, buttermilk, sour milk; or water or whey with 1/2 cup dried milk added
Beat, then stir together and fold into liquid ingredients until just mixed:
1.5 cups whole wheat flour, or half whole wheat and half any other flour
2 teaspoons baking powder, which may be omitted if egg whites were beaten **
1/2 teaspoon salt
Flavor with:
1 teaspoon almond extract, vanilla extract, grated lemon rind, or 1/4 cup orange, lemon or apple juice.

For Upside-Down Cake:
Grease the pan well with butter or oil, and sprinkle with flour before lining it with:
A layer of overlapping sliced fruit, such as apples, berries, peaches, pineapple, and 1/2 cup of nuts, if you like.
You may sprinkle over the fruit, if tart:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour

Pour on the batter, and bake for about 30 minutes****. If the temperature is lower, it will be denser, but still good.

My footnotes:
** Baking soda would work, if the liquid is buttermilk, sour milk, or yogurt.
**** I baked the rhubarb version for 45 minutes. It'll matter what pan you use; I used an 8 inch square pan. Just test with a toothpick (until it comes out clean) or note visually when it appears done, if you're used to baking.

This is from "Mrs. Restino's Country Kitchen: The Complete Wood Stove Cookbook" (circa 1976). As an older recipe from a hippie-dippy source, it may be less sweet than many contemporary folks prefer. If you like things quite sweet, just increase the sweetener (I'd avoid doubling a liquid sweetener, especially while using the juice for flavoring and a juicy fruit - that's a lot of liquid).

Obviously, this is not going to make the perfect bakery-style cake, and different combinations of ingredients will produce different results. But it's very flexible, and pretty much any variation will be tasty.

Thanks @AnnPT77 ! My mother grows rhubarb. I shared the 80 recipes link, and the only one that caught her eye was the upside down cake.

What size pan is it?

I used an 8" square pan (it's buried in that typical Ann-esque mega-text somewhere, I believe).

Mrs. Restino, I'm pretty sure, would say to use the size you want, and just watch for the cake to be done sooner if a bigger pan so not as deep, later if a smaller but taller one. She does mention using the same recipe for quick bread (implies loaf pan, yes?) and muffins (which usually bake pretty quickly, IME, small though deep - I have another "coffeecake" recipe I routinely use to make muffins, and they take around 22 minutes as muffins but more like 45-50 as an 8" square).

The upside-down cake in the "Taste of Home" link from earlnabby uses a boxed cake mix, which would suit a lot of people better. (I didn't link earlnabby because she said she doesn't care for rhubarb ).

My personal limitation, but I just don't grok baking mixes. If I use mixes, and want to be impulsive (as I do! ), I need a whole line of them on the shelf: Yellow/white cake, chocolate cake, brownies, muffins, cookies, pancakes, etc. But if I have flour, milk, eggs, sugar or equivalent, baking powder/soda, oil of some kind, I can make whatever I feel like, with like 2 minutes more effort. Recently, it amused the heck out of me when I saw a Facebook post saying "Did you know you can make pancakes out of muffin mix?!?". 🤔🙄. Also, for my taste, most of the mixes are waaaay too sweet, especially with fruit (they overwhelm its flavor with sweetness).