Rhubarb-A Vegetable with Attitide

7 May 2010, by gj

As a child my memories of Rhubarb are very vague, just that my Dad used to bring it into the house and by the time he cut off all the beautiful leaves there didn’t seem to be much left. At that age one taste was enough for me to know I didn’t like it. It was years later in the restaurant business, where I did the majority of the baking, that I discovered the delight of this weird looking perennial vegetable.
This is my husband’s favorite pie. Strawberry-Rhubarb pie is more commonly made, and that is good, too; but the strawberries have a tendency to dominate the flavor.
I remember waiting on a table with a nice couple many years ago in our restaurant; the wife was thrilled to find Rhubarb Pie on the menu -without the berries. Her husband had never tasted it like that; he didn’t care for the pies with the berries. He said he would try her’s first, and decide if he wanted a piece or not. I brought out her slice and went back into the kitchen for one for him. Sure enough when I returned to the table, he ordered a piece. “I thought so!” I said, and serve the second slice. “I felt the same way when I first tasted it.”
This recipe had been lost now for many years, it isn’t even in our long ago published cookbook. I found it recently by accident, on a recipe card in a cookbook rarely use, with another recipe on the side that was showing. It was so faded that if it weren’t for the fact that it had the original plus a ‘For 7 Pies’ ingredient list I might never have been able to decipher it. (I was actually looking for my Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam recipe. I need to get more organized!)
So even if you didn’t like Rhubarb as a kid, this is worth tasting…now that your Taste Buds have grown up

Set your oven to 350 decrees Fahrenheit
Mix together and set aside:
1 ¼ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 eggs
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla

If you grow your own Rhubarb: Cut the rhubarb and remove those pretty leaves.
And even if you buy it: Wash the stalks well.
Cut the stalks into 1” chunks and place in the bottom of a prepared unbaked pie shell. For a 9” pie this is about 5 cups or so of Rhubarb.
Add the mixture from above. Bake for aprox. 35-45 minutes or until the crust starts to turn brown (after many years of baking I don’t time anything, I go by smell and appearance, but this is an experienced guess-estimate).
Serve warm. Nice with a little whipped cream or ice cream, but stands well on its own.

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Categories: rhubarb, you grew it - you eat it

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