Hungarian sour cherry soup
When I was in Israel last summer my friend made her Hungarian grandmother’s cold fruit soup. It was definitely quite different than any soup I’ve ever made. The soup was refreshing, with a nice balance of sweet and sour, but with some heft from the yogurt and eggs. I wanted to make it this summer and so I emailed her and asked her for the recipe. Read the rest of this entry »
Roasted rhubarb with vanilla and white wine
I’m always looking for new recipe for rhubarb, and I came across this recipe for roasted rhubarb on the blog Orangette. Actually, I’m not sure why she calls it roasted because the rhubarb is cooked in white wine and seems to stew more than roast. Whatever you call it, the recipe is dead simple. You just slice the rhubarb into long pieces, add the white wine, some sugar and a vanilla bean, and bake for about 30 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
Rhubarb compote
We had a friend staying with us a while back who was raving about a very simple rhubarb dessert: stew the rhubarb with a little sugar and water until it falls apart. To serve, add to a small bowl and pour cold cream around it. I liked the flavor combination of the sour rhubarb and sweet cream, but the texture was quite odd. The rhubarb was kind of stringy and a little gelatinous. Derek, ever couth, dubbed it “rhubarb snot.” After that, I had trouble finishing the rest of my dish.
In Peter Berley’s cookbook Fresh Food Fast there is a recipe for rhubarb compote with maple syrup and crystallized ginger. He says to simmer the rhubarb for 5 to 7 minutes until the rhubarb is tender, but not falling apart. Since he says the rhubarb shouldn’t fall apart, I figured it was safe. Derek tried to stop me, arguing that the texture was going to be just like the previous attempt, but I wanted to give it a try. After five minutes, however, my rhubarb had again reached the “snot” stage. What am I doing wrong?
Berley’s recipe calls for chunks of crystallized ginger. The recipe doesn’t say so explicitly, but I thought the chunks were supposed to dissolve into the compote. In 5 minutes, however, they had only softened. The toothsome chunks seemed odd in the soft rhubarb stew. Berley says to serve the compote with creme fraiche or sour cream. I served mine with creme fraiche, and thought it was tasty, better even than the cream. I’m not sure I could tast the maple syrup though, and unless I bit into a ginger cube I didn’t really taste the ginger.
Rating: D (Unless I figure out the snot thing)
Warm Apple Compote
My friend Shakti gave me this recipe. She said it’s “really, really good.”
3 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
1 cup apple juice
2 Tbs maple syrup or sucanat
1 tsp minced orange zest
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt
In a large non reactive saucepan, combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the liquid reduces to a light syrup, about 15 min.. Serve warm. Store in airtight container in fridge up to 4 days.
Makes 2 cups.
My notes:
This is kind of like a spicy, soupy applesauce. Of course, I didn’t peel the apples since I love the peels. I’m not sure it needed the maple syrup–apples and apple juice are sweet enough I think. I thought the ginger in this recipe overpowered the other flavors a bit, although maybe I mismeasured. I think if I make it again I may just use 1-1.5 tsp. of minced ginger. I didn’t have an orange so I threw in some dried orange peel. I also used cider instead of regular apple juice. I enjoyed this with some plain yogurt, but in the end I’m not sure I liked it all that much more than my simple peel-delicious applesauce with cinnamon.
Rating: B
Pear and Parmesan Drizzled in Honey
Jack Bishop in his Italian Vegetarian cookbook suggests a dessert in which pears are cored and sliced thinly, topped with ribbons of parmesan cheese (ribbon the cheese using a vegetable peeler) and drizzled with warm honey. Maybe my pear wasn’t ripe enough, but honestly, this recipe didn’t do much for me.
Rating: C
Roasted Pineapple
I came across a recipe in Gourmet for roasted pineapple, and it sounded delicious. It said to butter the pan and then the pineapple, but I just used a little oil spray. The pineapple was intensely sweet and soft. I could not stop eating the stuff, even hot right out of the oven. It’s good by itself but I bet I could come up with a way to use it in a recipe…. Hmmm…. Read the rest of this entry »
The captious vegetarian 