Here in northern Ontario where I live, rhubarb is the first harvest from the garden that we look forward to. In anticipation of a meal of homemade pasta and grilled eggplant that’s planned for tonight (thanks to Michael who is willing to share his expertise in Italian cooking gained in the kitchens of his mother and grandmother) I picked some rhubarb from the garden for a very Canadian dessert. Here’s the result, adapted from a Peach Kuchen recipe from the More With Less cookbook (fyi – I doubled it):
Red Lake Rhubarb Kuchen
Combine in bowl:
1 1/3 cup sifted flour (I used a combination of unbleached white and whole wheat flour)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 T sugar
Then, cut in 1/3 butter (I used half butter and half light olive oil) and then pat mixture over bottom and sides of a 9″ pie pan or skillet.
Arrange in pastry:
2 cups fresh diced rhubarb
Then sprinkle rhubarb with:
1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon (I used honey)
Bake 15 minutes.
Combine:
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sour cream, sour milk, yogurt, or combination
Pour over rhubarb and bake 30 minutes longer.
Okay, now it’s confession time – as I was typing up this recipe, I realized that I had baked the crust without the rhubarb (I have no excuse, I guess I wasn’t as wide awake as I thought)! Since I realized this, I’ve had a small taste of it, and the rhubarb is slightly under baked but still tasty. I also decreased the amount of honey by a bit, so it is a little tart. It will still be dessert for tonight, but with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side to balance the tartness. And next time, the rhubarb definitely will be baked for the right length of time.