Christian Haller Online

Are you ready? Berry season will soon be upon us that means, among other things, pie season. Of course, berry season varies geographically.  If berries are not quite readily available in your area, try rhubarb, which probably is.

Few people have done little more than admire this oddity as you cruise by.  Like many of our plants, rhubarb had roots in Asia. Rhubarb stalks as used in cooking are not fruit at all (I’ll explain fruit in another post), but broken down with heat, and the tartness balanced with sugar, the result compliments many fruits and also works well on its own. Like many plants, the leaves are poisonous for defensive purposes so trash them (it’s not like plants have legs to run from danger or claws to fight back.  Many plants, including many that you eat, have natural poisons and really ought to be cooked to make them safe, but that is for another day).  What you and I want are the beautiful pink stalks.

You may be wondering why someone came up with all these strange names for pie-like desserts.  I have no idea, but despite the silly names, they remain popular because they are considerably easier to prepare than pie and take far less time as well. Perfect for those who “don’t bake.”

While the ingredients vary slightly, these desserts share a few features and in particular, the fruit is interchangeable depending on what’s in season. You might consider them for breakfast too.

If it matters, here is a breakdown:

• Betty - A pudding-like dessert that is made with sweetened fruit and topped with buttered breadcrumbs. Apple Brown Betty is the most common variation.
• Buckle - A single-layer cake made with fruit, usually blueberries. Generally, the fruit is mixed into the batter.
• Clafouti - Typically made with cherries, this dessert comes from the French countryside. The fruit is covered with a light batter before baking.
• Cobbler -A deep-dish fruit dessert topped with a biscuit dough that when baked resembles cobblestones.
• Crisp - Sweetened fruit topped with a loose crumb topping. Toppings ingredients include flour, oatmeal, breadcrumbs, crumbled cookies or graham crackers.
• Crumble - The British version of a crisp.
• Duff - Popular in England and Scotland, this steamed dessert is a mixture of dried fruit, spices, flour and eggs. Sometimes called a roly poly.
• Fool - An English dessert. The fruit is broken down via stewing or steaming and then folded into whipped cream.
• Grunt - A dumpling-like pudding is made by stewing fruit and covering it with rolled biscuit dough. In Massachusetts, it was called a grunt; in Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island, it was known as a slump. Go figure.
• Pandowdy - A deep-dish dessert usually made with fruit, butter, spices and molasses or brown sugar and topped with a piecrust or biscuit crust.

 Ingredients:

•  1 ½ pounds rhubarb, trimmed of ends and cut in three pieces
• 1 pint blueberries
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
• 1 cup sugar plus t Tablespoons sugar
• 1 pinch table salt
• 2 cups heavy cream 

Procedure:

1. Soak rhubarb in 1 gallon cold water for 20 minutes. Dry and cut across the grain into ½ inch thick pieces.
2. Bring orange juice, ginger, ¾ cup sugar, and salt to boil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add rhubarb and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 2minutes.
3. Gently stir in the blueberries and continue to simmer, stirring only 2 or 3 times until rhubarb begins to break down and is tender, 6 to 8 minutes.
4. Transfer rhubarb and blueberries to nonreactive bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Then cover with plastic and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour.
5. Beat cream and remaining sugar in bowl of standing mixer on low speed until small bubbles form, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium; continue beating about 1 more minute. Increase speed to high; continue beating until cream is thick and nearly doubled in volume and forms soft peaks, about 30 seconds.
6. To assemble fool, spoon about ¼ cup rhubarb and blueberries into an 8 ounce glass, and then spoon in a layer of about ¼ cup whipped cream. Repeat, ending with dollop of cream. Serve warm or cold.