Rhubarb Fool

[ChrisGreaves]

Ross and another grandson Cameron arrive just as I am wondering what to do with the latest bucket of rhubarb. Fourteen pounds, and that is after I had dug up four plants from the side of the house and replanted them in a 4’ plot in the raised bed. After they had emptied the truck bed of crab tubs of grass clippings, there was room for a bucket of rhubarb stalks, so that took care of half today's harvest.

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What to do with rhubarb?

Well if you’re busy reading books, the best thing to do is to bottle it and get around to using it when you can. I still have jars from 2022, he reported acerbically. So I did some research, starting with a search for “rhubarb recipes” and after wading through 37,838,8452,865 results ⁽²⁾ came to the conclusion that all recipes start with “chop the stalks into one-inch lengths and boil for ten minutes” ⁽¹⁾

It seems to me that if I have to boil the stuff anyway I may as well cut my losses and go on bottling against the day when I might use some rhubarb to make rhubarb fool, rhubarb crisp, rhubarb crumble, rhubarb pie, rhubarb jam, rhubarb relish, rhubarb chutney, …

Question: Does anyone know of a recipe for rhubarb that does NOT involve boiling the stuff in the first place? I would consider any recipe that says “blanch the pieces before freezing” to be a cop-out.
Thanks, Chris
⁽¹⁾ Except in Newfoundland where the rhubarb recipes start with “Make sure you have enough molasses and then”
⁽²⁾ Just one of which is titled "64 of grandma's favorite rhubarb recipes"

[HansV]

Delia Smith writes "I never, ever simmer or boil rhubarb".

Ingredients / Rhubarb

[ChrisGreaves]

Delia Smith writes "I never, ever simmer or boil rhubarb".

"ah!", and also "hah!".
"I never, ever simmer or boil rhubarb because it tends to mash up, ... " this makes sense if you want to preserve the chunkiness of the stalk. For me, I never see what I eat because I just shovel it up and across whatever book I am reading, so Della's recommendation to oven-bake (in small batches, it seems) is good if ever I come across a recipe where I want to eat the rhubarb stalks as chunks.

Even so, Della's recipes are still rendering down the stalks by high heat (350 F) which, to my mind , is equivalent - no HIGHER - than boiling.

Had I replaced "boiling" with "heating to at or above boiling-point", we could have ruled out Della.

I can't think why I would eat raw rhubarb. It seems to me that rhubarb is always eaten cooked at 212F or higher.
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

You can eat raw rhubarb, but it's rather acidic. It works well together with sweet fruit, or even in a salad.

[ChrisGreaves]

You can eat raw rhubarb, but it's rather acidic. It works well together with sweet fruit, or even in a salad.

You ruined my day, Hans.
I came back from my dandelion-leaf salad lunch and post-salad book-read-and-snooze and found this response from you.
Now I will have to wait until next March 29th to try this idea out. ("2024 first rhubarb buds appear")
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

You can eat raw rhubarb, but it's rather acidic. It works well together with sweet fruit, or even in a salad.

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And I suppose if one has a tad of the pulp left over and the strained juice from bottling 2.5 jars of pulp, one could use that juice as a salad dressing, right? Perhaps with added sugar, oil, sugar, raisins, sugar, spices and sugar.
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

Sure - it's worth a try!

[ChrisGreaves]

Sure - it's worth a try!

Sure is!
I tossed in some sugar that was sitting in the bottom of the jar (which is why I top-up my sugar jar each day!) and it makes a good sauce drizzled over my salads.
Hooray.
Another chapter in the book of "How to get rid of ..."
Cheers, Chris