A Bitten Word Recipe
CSA season has kicked off and we're loving it.
We're four weeks into the season of our CSA and the produce has been amazing. The sugar snap peas are like candy, the arugula is some of the spiciest we've ever had. Garlic scapes came this week and we even got a bunch of kohlrabi in the most recent share (not quite sure what we're going to do with all that kohlrabi....).
Rhubarb has turned up in our share as well, and we've also been seeing it in abundance at the farmers market. Plus, we've been buying strawberries and eating them like our lives depended on it, so we were itching to make a strawberry-rhubarb something.
This summer's May and June food magazines are full of strawberry and rhubarb ideas. We especially like the idea of this Grilled Rhubarb Brown Betty from Food Network Magazine and this classic Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble from Bon Appétit looks great.
Though we love those ideas, we wanted a simple summer dessert for a Wednesday night. So we turned our rhubarb and strawberries into a compote.
The farmers from our CSA are always willing to give ideas and suggestions, or answer questions about anything in the share. They'll tell you, for instance, that fresh rhubarb doesn't need to be peeled. And we even got our inspiration for this compote from one of the farmers who said it's her favorite way to eat rhubarb.
So easy to execute, this recipe will produce a wonderfully sweet summer compote that's a knock-out over ice cream or even by itself. It can be made very last minute, as long as you give it time to cool before eating it, or several days in advance of when you want to serve it. It's not fancy, but it's delicious.
If you want to experiment, try finishing the compote with a small amount of balsamic vinegar for an added kick.
Related Posts:
Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
With inspiration from farmer Carrie at our CSA
The amounts listed in this recipe are really inconsequential. Regardless of the amount of rhubarb and strawberries you have, the method is easily adapted.
- 1 1/2 cups rhubarb, sliced into half-inch pieces
- 1 cup strawberries, capped and halved (if using larger strawberries, you can quarter them)
- 1/4 cup sugar
Place rhubarb in a saucepan. Sprinkle with sugar. Cook over medium heat until rhubarb begins to soften and fall apart (20 minutes). In the last 5 minutes of cooking, toss in the strawberries.
Remove from heat and let cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Serve over quality vanilla ice cream or grab a fork and dig right in.
