Category : Recipes

Savory Rhubarb

Green rhubarb lends itself nicely to some savory rhubarb recipes.  I decided to try my hand at Rhubarb Ginger Relish and Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce.  Oh yes, I kid you not!

Rhubarb Ginger Relish

A compilation of various recipes I found, again on a quest to find something with as little sugar as possible.  But, hey, it’s rhubarb – some sugar required!

Ingredients:

2 cups diced rhubarb

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp allspice

1 tsp salt

Preparation:

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients.

Bring to boil and continue to boil gently until mixture becomes thick, about 20-30 minutes.

Taste and adjust seasoning according to your preference.

Place in hot, sterilized jars.  (see previous post)

Heat process your jars if saving for more than 3 months in the refrigerator. (see previous post)

 

Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce

Who would have thought!  This one came from the Washington Post and I almost followed it exactly!

Ingredients:

2 tsp canola oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cups rhubarb

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp water, plus more as needed to thin the sauce to your preferred consistency

2 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tbsp honey

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 tsp salt

Fresh ground black pepper, or cayenne pepper

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Preparation:

Heat oil in a saucepan.

Cook onion in saucepan until soft and translucent -do not brown.

Add the rhubarb, brown sugar and water.  Bring to boil and cook until rhubarb is soft, about 6 to 7 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let the mixture sit in the saucepan for 15 minutes.

Add mustard, vinegar, honey, ketchup, salt and pepper to taste, stirring to combine.

Transfer to a blender and puree, or use an immersion blender in the saucepan to puree until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

To serve, warm the sauce. For a thinner sauce, add water, apple juice, if desired, or the cooking juices from whatever main ingredient the sauce is being served with.

Enjoy!

 

Rhubarb

Let the picking begin!

This week we had our first rhubarb harvests.  Check out the tally on the side to see how much we’ve collected and where we’re donating it.

Thanks to all our fruit owners for giving us access to their rhubarb and thanks to the volunteers who are picking and sharing it.

Now, to enjoy that rhubarb here are some great recipes submitted by our volunteers and fans in 2010!

The following are some recipes that were submitted to our blog in 2010.  Just click on the link to get the full recipe.

Rustic Rhubarb Tart

Honey Oat Whole Wheat Muffins

Classic Stewed Rhubarb

Rhubarb Parfait

Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Rhubarb Slush Beverage

Rhubarb Crisp

Rhubarb Oatmeal Bars

Microwave Apple Crisp for One

It’s 1:30pm and after writing several articles on tasty, delicious Manitoba fruit, I’ve got a huge craving for apple crisp. I’m home alone, and I just can’t wait until everyone comes home tonight.

 

It’s time to whip up a nice little serving of Apple Crisp for One.

Microwave Apple Crisp for One
Ingredients
1 apple
1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp homemade granola or rolled oats
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter – melted


Preparation
Core, peel and thinly slice apple.
Place apple slices in a small microwave safe dish.

In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.
Pour melted butter over dry ingredients.
Mix.
Pour crumbly mixture on top of apples.
Microwave on high power for 2 minutes or until apples are tender.
Top with a small scoop of ice cream.
Enjoy!

Of course, using the microwave can’t reproduce the crispy, golden crumbs that you get when you bake a crisp in the oven, but this recipe is a nice, quick alternative.

Apple Curry Soup

You know you have too many apples when you start making apple soup!

 

I was a little skeptical about this simple apple soup recipe.  Apples and onions – really?

Really, it’s great!  Simple and elegant, this soup makes an impressive first course to any special dinner.

Apple Curry Soup
Apple Curry Soup

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, sliced thinly
4 cups vegetable stock
3 Manitoba Goodland apples, cored, peeled, & chopped
1 tsp. curry powder (or to taste)

3 sprigs of curry plant leaves (optional)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup light cream
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Sauté onion in 1tbsp of butter until soft.

Add soup stock, apples, curry powder, curry leaves and lemon juice.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and let simmer for 10 to 20 minutes until apples are soft but not mushy.
Strain mixture through a sieve or a food mill.
Compost the remaining pulp.

In another large saucepan, melt remaining butter.
Mix in flour and cook 1 to 2 minutes.
Whisk in the strained soup.
Heat through.
Adjust seasoning.

Heat cream in the microwave.*
Add cream to soup.
Garnish with sprig of curry plant.
Serve.

Makes 4 servings.

*Heating cream will help prevent it from curdling when being added to a hot liquid.
Sauté onions.
Add apples, stock and seasoning.

 

Strain mixture through food mill.

Dried Apple Rings

We finally made those oven dried apple rings that we mentioned several weeks ago. They’re fabulous!  The adults love them as much as the kids do.  They make a perfect snack for back to school.

These apple rings still have a little moisture to them.  If you are going to store them for a long time, you might want to dry them out even more by keeping them in the oven a little longer.  Storing them has not been an issue in our house since they’re all gone within a couple of days.

In an effort to be somewhat energy efficient, I throw in a fresh batch whenever the oven is already on after baking something else.

We’ve also discovered that sprinkling a little cinnamon on top before they go in the oven, is a great addition.

 

Here’s a photo gallery of how we made them.
Wash, peel, core and slice apples.

 

Soak in lemon water for 5 minutes.

 

Drain and pat dry.
Place on rack on top of cookie sheet.
Put in oven for 3-4 hours. 

 

Take out when dry – chewy but not crispy.

 

Apple Cake Recipes

My friend Kathryn sent me this link to two dozen apple cake recipes.

http://tipnut.com/make-apple-cake/

Now, which one to make first?

Drying Apples

Chris, another great FruitShare volunteer found a recipe for dried apple rings.

If you try this recipe, please let us know how it works.

Dried apples
Ingredients
4 medium tart apples
2 tbls. lemon juice
2 cups water


Preparation
Pre heat oven to 300 Combine water and lemon juice in a large bowl
Core apples and slice into 1/4 inch rings
Place apple rings in water, juice mixture and make sure to cover apple completely for 5 minutes. This will keep apples from discoloring.
Drain well and pat dry
Lightly spray 2 wire racks with cooking spray
Arrange rings on racks in single layer making sure not to touch
Set each rack on a baking sheet
put into oven one sheet on top oven rack and the other on the bottom rack.
Bake for 15 minutes
Reverse sheets in the oven.( Place the top sheet on the bottom rack and the top sheet on the bottom
Bake for 15 more minutes
Shut oven off and let rings dry in the oven without opening the door, about 3 hours.

Maple Apple Crisp Recipe


From Aleta, one of our great Fruit Share Volunteers.

I made a big pot of applesauce and Maple Apple Crisp.  Here’s the recipe I adapted from one I found in my collection.


Maple Apple Crisp
Ingredients
6 cups apples – peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup butter, softened


Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Place apples in an 8×8 inch baking pan, or a 2 litre pottery flat bottomed dish.
Toss apples with syrup.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, oats, sugar, and salt.
Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.
Sprinkle mixture evenly over apples.
Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until topping is golden brown.
Serve warm or at room temperature.


Serves 4-6

Apple Butter Recipe

From apple sauce

to apple butter.

After making tons of apple sauce, apple juice and apple deserts, I thought it was time to try something new – Apple Butter.  I found an easy, fool proof crock pot recipe for Apple Butter.

Turns out I am a fool and messed up this great recipe.  My first mistake was using cider vinegar instead of apple cider (oops!).  After the first 15 hours the acidity wasn’t fully cooked off.  At that point I hadn’t realize my cider/vinegar mix-up yet, so I figured it just need a little more time.  My second mistake was leaving the mixture to cook for an extra night (oops!).  The next morning the apple butter was no longer acidic but it was too burnt to eat.  What a waste.
Later that week, after finally realizing what I had done, I decided to try it one more time with another batch of homemade applesauce.  This time it worked – even after I reduced the amount of honey and omitted the cloves!

We use our apple butter on toast, pancakes and waffles.  It’s a thick, fruity alternative to syrup.

Apple Sauce and Apple Juice

Peeling and coring apples, whether they’re crabapples or the larger applecrabs, is tedious and time consuming.   Luckily, making apple sauce and apple juice don’t require those steps.

Basic Apple Sauce Recipe
Start with this basic recipe.  After you have the basic sauce, you can add whatever flavours (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, honey, etc.) that you prefer.  You can also use it in other recipes or freeze it for future use.
Ingredients
Apples
Water

This recipe works for whatever quantity of apples you have.

Preparation
Wash apples and remove any leaves.
Quarter apples.
Place 1 inch of water in a large pot.
Add apples to the pot. Cover.
Bring to boil.
Turn heat to low and let apples simmer until they are soft and mushy (30 – 60 minutes).
Stir every 10 minutes and add more water if mixture is too thick or dry (consistency will vary depending on type of apple).
Take off heat.
Separate cores, peels, and stems from the sauce with a food mill or by squishing the mix through a strainer.
Enjoy your applesauce!

Basic Apple Juice Recipe
The juice from this recipe is cooked and ends up thick and opaque.  We like to dillute it with sparkling water or club soda for a refreshing drink on a hot summer day.  The kids prefer mixing it with Sprite for added sweetness.  



Ingredients

Apples
Water

This recipe works for whatever quantity of apples you have.

Preparation (similar to apple sauce recipe above)
Wash apples and remove any leaves.
Quarter apples.
Place 1 inch of water in a large pot.
Add apples to the pot. Cover.
Bring to boil.
Turn heat to low and let apples simmer until they are soft and mushy (30 – 60 minutes).
Stir every 10 minutes and add more water if mixture is too thick or dry (consistency will vary depending on type of apple).
Take off heat.
Separate all the pulp from the juice by placing the whole mixture into a cheesecloth or super fine strainer like the one pictured (Lee Valle fruit strainer).  
Allow to drip for 4 hours.  
Enjoy your juice!
This juice can also be used for making apple jelly.