A Crisp for an Autumn Day

My mom made a yummy apple crisp. Such an easy recipe that, well, I never saw her use an actual recipe. After all those years of "crisping" she pretty much had it memorized. Until she was struck by Alzheimer's disease. The first clue for me came when she could no longer make a crisp from memory. We were in the kitchen together. She just smiled and shrugged. The memory was gone.

Of course, there was a time she needed a recipe because she was a new cook just learning her way in the kitchen. As a young bride, my mom wrote out recipes (and clipped them from magazines) that she wanted to make again. 

I recently discovered this recipe for apple crisp in her handwriting dated 1961. She was 21 years old (and six weeks pregnant with me ~ I wonder if she knew?). This recipe was among a box of cookbooks belonging to my aunt and grandmother that recently came into my possession. Did my mom copy out this recipe for them?

Or, now for me? Although this recipe is for apple crisp, it's just as good with rhubarb, as shown here. Rhubarb is more tart than apples ~ I thought about adding extra sugar, but decided against it. It's plenty sweet when served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Rhubarb Crisp
4~5 cups chopped rhubarb (1/4 inch thick)
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
cinnamon for sprinkling

1. Spread rhubarb in baking dish

2. Mix butter, brown sugar and flour. Rub the mixture together with your fingers to ensure the butter is evenly distributed. Spread over the rhubarb

3. Lightly sprinkle the top with cinnamon

4. Bake at 370F for @ 30 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft and the topping is crisped.

Astute readers will notice that mom's hand-written recipe says to heat the oven to 350F. This is not hot enough for a crisp imho. Sugar caramelizes to a brown colour and rich flavour between 356~370F. Below that, sugar remains light and unflavourful; above that it becomes dark and bitter. Given my mom's delicious crisps as I remember them, I'm pretty sure she knew that :)

Rhubarb to the Rescue

This time of year, I struggle to suppress my natural instinct to go out into the wilds (read: back alleys) of Saskatoon and forage for rhubarb. The devil on my left shoulder says Go ahead, back alleys are fair game. The angel on my right shoulder say, Nooooo, that's somebody's pie. Then I think of my friend Eva, who had an altercation with a back-alley

Got berries? Make clafoutis!

It's a French brunch-y thing conveniently suited to the berries of a prairie summer. It's tradition in France to leave the pits in the cherries, so you decide...

2 tbsp butter
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
1 tbsp flour
2 cup mixed berries such as cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, low bush cranberries, saskatoons. You can also add some thinly sliced rhubarb.

Heat the oven to 350F. Put butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet or a pie plate. Place in oven until butter is melted but not brown.

Meanwhile, in a blender mix eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla and salt. With the blades running, add 1 cup flour and blend well.

Toss fruit with remaining 1 tbsp flour.

Remove the skillet or pie plate from the oven. Pour in the batter and scatter the fruit on top. Return to the oven. Bake about 20-25 minutes, until the centre of the custard is set.

Serve warm with a dusting of icing sugar or cool with a drizzle of syrup.

A Berry Healthy Winter's Day

Long before there were Florida oranges and an apple-a-day, berries were keeping us happy and healthy through the long winter months. Fact is, berries are better for you than just about any other fruit.

Berries were vital to the well-being of the indigenous population, who made a kind of fruit leather by pounding berries and drying them in the sun. This was eaten raw or reconstituted in hot water or soup. They made pemmican by mixing berries with bison meat and suet, a power food that kept for months without refrigeration. They sold it by the sack-full to European explorers and fur traders, making it the first processed food industry on the Canadian plains.

The early settlers were wild for berries at a time when any other fresh fruit was hard to find. Back then, wild berries grew much more abundantly than they do today. Early memoirs relate tales of picking parties heading out for wild strawberries, raspberries, chokecherries, gooseberries, saskatoons and blueberries by the bucketful.

John Diefenbaker, Canada's thirteenth Prime Minister, remembers his parents picking like crazy in berry season, listing a typical haul at 30 quarts of strawberries, 50 quarts of saskatoons and 100 quarts of raspberries. A quart is the size of a large pickle jar.

By the time I came along, it was hard to find a wild raspberry or strawberry but, fortunately, domesticated varieties had been planted on the farm. We had a large berry patch and, from an early age, I loved to pick. I loved being outside on a hot summer day with the buzz of insects and the scent of dry grass. I loved the rhythm of picking, like a meditative exercise that occupies the body but frees the mind.

Best of all, I love eating those berries in the depths of winter. Toast with raspberry jelly. Cranberry scones with strawberry preserve. Blueberry smoothies. Chokecherry syrup on pancakes. And, of course, saskatoon berry pie.

Now there's a new berry on my pick list: the tart prairie cherry developed by fruit breeders at the University of Saskatchewan. It's perfect for cherry pie or a fruit compote on roast pork.

One year, my husband and I did an experiment in local eating, choosing not to buy imported fruit from the grocery store and relying on prairie fruit alone. We ate berries in one form or another almost every day. In the spring, he made a surprising observation: neither of us had suffered a cold all winter long. All things being equal, was our local berry diet responsible for our good health?

I like to think so. Berries are high in vitamin C, rich in antioxidants and full of flavonoids (the dark red, purple and blue colours) to boost the immune system and fight disease. Berries are as good as fruit gets.

This recipe is a great way to show them off. Clafoutis (cla-foo-tee) is a French dessert traditionally made with cherries (often unpitted, as the pits are said to add extra flavour) but I like to make a prairie version with a mix of berries I picked myself. It's perfect for brunch any time of year.

Prairie Berry Clafoutis
Use fresh or frozen berries (or a mix of both). In season, you can also add some sliced young rhubarb to the berry blend.

2 tbsp butter
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
1 tbsp flour
2 cup mixed berries such as cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, low bush cranberries, saskatoons

Heat the oven to 350F. Put butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet or a pie plate. Place in oven until butter is melted but not brown.

Meanwhile, in a blender mix eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla and salt. With the blades running, add 1 cup flour and blend well.

Toss fruit with remaining 1 tbsp flour.

Remove the skillet or pie plate from the oven. Pour in the batter and scatter the fruit on top. Return to the oven. Bake about 20-25 minutes, until the centre of the custard is set.

Serve warm with a dusting of icing sugar or cool with a drizzle of syrup.

(This article first appeared in Grainews.)

Rhubarb Pudding

In 1893, Hans and Kristiane Lien immigrated from Norway to North Dakota. In 1903, they moved again - north to Canada in what would, two years later, become the province of Saskatchewan. They brought everything with them, including a root of "pie plant" from their garden. Rhubarb!

Here is Kristiane's recipe for rhubarb pudding in the original Norwegian: 

Bland godt 1 kop mel og 1/4 kop brunt sucker.
Rub ind 1/2 kop smor.
Put rhubarb ind i en smurt dish.
Og dros med en kop huidt sukken some har 1/4 teaspoon kanel.
Nu press over rhubarb deigen og bak i en. Passe varme.

Rhubarb Pudding
1 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
4 cups thinly sliced rhubarb
1 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix flour and brown sugar. Rub in butter until blended. Put rhubarb in a buttered baking dish. Mix white sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over rhubarb. Press flour mixture over top and bake at 325F for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Thanks to Kristiane's granddaughter Irene Hagel for providing this recipe from the past.

Prairie Kitchens - Rhubarb Pudding

How did rhubarb get to Saskatchewan? Originally, rhubarb root was used as medicine. The stalks weren't eaten!

However, once sugar became less expensive in the 1800s, someone discovered that the stalks – when sufficiently sweetened – made a fine pie, pudding and jam. Apparently, this transpired in England. A taste for sweet rhubarb desserts spread to Scandinavia and northern Europe.

The first pilgrims brought rhubarb to North America, where it was known as the pie plant. Eventually, settlers from eastern Canada and the United States brought rhubarb here, where it was welcomed as one of the first "fruits" of spring.

In 1902, Hans and Kristiane Lien packed everything they owned into a rail car (including cattle chickens and a team of horses) and moved from North Dakota to a homestead near Weldon, east of Prince Albert.They had originally immigrated from Norway in 1893, worked hard but couldn't afford land in the United States. A free homestead in Canada was the answer to their dreams.

However, the move didn't go smoothly. The South Saskatchewan River was so high they could not cross it and so they spent a couple weeks living in a tent, tending their livestock and four little children, before reaching their farm.

Did they bring the "pie plant" with them? They certainly had a taste for rhubarb. This recipe for rhubarb pudding, written in Norwegian, was found among the keepsakes of Hans and Kristian's son and sent to me by their granddaughter, Irene Hagel of Choiceland.

 

Rhubarb Pudding
1 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
4 cups thinly sliced rhubarb
1 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix flour and brown sugar. Rub in butter until blended. Put rhubarb in a buttered baking dish. Mix white sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over rhubarb. Press flour mixture over top and bake at 325F for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Here's the original recipe as recorded in Kristiane's mix of Norwegian and English:

Bland godt 1 kop mel og 1/4 kop brunt sucker.
Rub ind 1/2 kop smor.
Put rhubarb ind i en smurt dish.
Og dros med en kop huidt sukken some har 1/4 teaspoon kanel.
Nu press over rhubarb deigen og bak i en.
Passe varme.

(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.)

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

 Breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Don't waste rhubarb!

Easier said than done! My rhubarb is suddenly soooo prolific. I canned four jars a rhubarb in honey-water for my winter enjoyment. But for quick eating, here's my favourite recipe for rhubarb muffins. I've had this recipe so long, I don't recall where it originated. I make it several times every summer.

Rhubarb Muffins
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cup chopped rhubarb
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
Topping: 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp melted butter, 1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in the rhubarb. In a mixing bowl, blend sugar and oil. Mix in egg, buttermilk and vanilla until well blended.

Pour the contents of the mixing bowl into the flour-rhubarb mixture. Blend with a wooden spoon as briefly as possible, just until the flour is incorporated. Spoon the batter into a 12-muffin tin (oiled or lined with paper cups).

Mix the topping ingredients together. Sprinkle evenly on top of each muffin. Bake at 350F for 20-25 min.

RHUBARB MATRIMONIAL CAKE

This summer, I have good intentions of trying rhubarb in savoury dishes, but I still seem to be stuck on desserts, like this one. It's a matrimonal date cake without the dates -- rhubarb instead. The recipe is from "Mrs. Marr's Rhubarb Recipes," the cookbook of the historic Marr Residence in Saskatoon. Rhubarb is apropos for a pioneer house since it was one of the easiest, quickest, most versatile vegetables in the prairie garden. Be sure to check out the annual Rhubarb Festival at the Marr Residence on the August long weekend.

Nat's Rhubarb Dessert
8 cups rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup tapioca (I used flour)
pinch salt

Crumb mixture:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (I used 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (I used 1 cup only)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup butter, melted

Mix the first four ingredients and let set for 1 hour. Mix remaining ingredients together until crumbly. Place half the crumbs in 9"x13" pan. Cover with rhubarb. Top with remaining crumbs. Bake at 350F for about 40 min., until the crumb is lightly browned.

Newspaper Column - RHUBARB CHUTNEY

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 25 May 2009

You know it’s a late spring when, by the end of May, there’s not enough rhubarb for a pie. This would have caused consternation for many rural families in the early days of farming, when rhubarb represented the end of winter and the first fresh food from the garden. It was the first “fruit” of the season at a time when grocery stores didn’t carry abundant produce from around the world. Rhubarb was so popular for pies that it earned the nickname the Pie Plant.
Of course, rhubarb is not really a fruit. It’s from the same plant family is sorrel and buckwheat, but its distinctive tart flavour lends itself to pies, cobblers, jams, beverages, chutneys and stews.

It’s high in fibre and a source of vitamin C and potassium, a natural laxative, thought to lower cholesterol and control weight gain, according to modern research. The marvellous thing about rhubarb is that it’s a perennial vegetable that loves a cold winter and comes up the next spring with no assistance whatsoever. No wonder it was found on just about every Saskatchewan farm and many city lots, too.

However, for most of its history, rhubarb was not considered a food. In China, where it originates, the rhubarb root was used for medicinal purposes, a practice which brought it to Europe. The ancient Romans coined the word rhubarb from Rha, their name for the Volga River, and barb, short for barbarian. In other words, it came from the barbarians up north. It wasn’t until the 1800s in England, when sugar because inexpensive and plentiful, that the love affair with rhubarb pie began.

Dr. John Bury of Saskatoon grew up in England where rhubarb pie was a family favourite. His youth also coincided with a time when rhubarb was still used for medicinal purposes. His father was the “analyst” or, in modern terms, the toxicologist at the London Hospital, where Bury took his medical training in the 1940s and 50s.

He still has his father’s copy of the hospital’s Pharmacopoeia, published in 1934, a book full of medicinal recipes with Latin names such as Mistura Gentianae cum Rheo, a mixture of gentian, rhubarb, ginger, sodium bicarbonate and peppermint water—a sedative prescribed for “nervous problems”—and Mistura Aperiens pro Infantibus, a laxative for children containing a tincture of rhubarb.

According to the Pharmacopoeia, the hospital pharmacy stocked rhubarb as a pill, powder and tincture (in solution with alcohol). Today, health food stores continue to stock rhubarb pills as a dietary supplement.

I prefer my rhubarb in pies, not pills, and my favourite recipes are not from a Pharmacopoeia but from a cookbook, Rhubarb: More than Just Pies, by Sandi Vitt and Michael Hickman, published by the University of Alberta Press. It’s full of rhubarb advice such as, when picking rhubarb, always pull out the stocks rather than cut them, and give the plant a good watering once a week or so.

I intend to make a pie as soon as there is enough rhubarb to fill the pastry, but I also want to branch out this year and try rhubarb in unconventional ways such as their recipes for rhubarb curry, rhubarb soup and this rhubarb chutney which I made a few days ago, halving the recipe because, well, that’s all the rhubarb I could muster. Click here for more rhubarb recipes.

Rhubarb Chutney
4 cups rhubarb
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1/4 cup black currents (I used raisins)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups white-wine vinegar

Cut the rhubarb into 1/4-inch (6 mm) pieces. Seed and remove veins from jalapeno; chop jalapeno and garlic finely. Place all ingredients in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until rhubarb breaks down and mixture is the texture of jam, about 45 min. Keeps for several months in a glass jar in the refrigerator.

CBC Radio Calling - Rhubarb

I was on the radio today with Garth Materie, host of Blue Sky, talking about rhubarb. Apparently, a lot of people in Saskatchewan like to talk about rhubarb. The phones lit up.

In preparation for the program, I learned a few things about rhubarb. Rha was at one time the name of the Volga River region, and Barb is short for 'barbarian,' as the Romans called anyone who wasn't one of them. Well before Roman times, rhubarb came from China and points east. Back then, it was used primarily as a medicinal. We didn't start eating rhubarb until the arrival of inexpensive sugar, in the early 1800s. Many of the callers to today's program sent in their favourite rhubarb recipes, which you'll find on the Blue Sky website.

Here are some other rhubarb recipes on this blog:

Rhubarb and Berry Galette

Rhubarb and Lingonberry Bread Pudding

Bumbleberry Pie

Rhubarb Muffins

Newspaper Column - RHUBARB AND BERRY GALETTE

Published in the Star Phoenix, 20 April 2009.

The buzz word these days seems to be “frugal” and the kitchen is a good place to start. In Italy, they have a phrase to describe good, old-fashioned frugal cuisine — cucina povera (coo-chee’-na poe-ver’-a). It means food of the poor.

However, cucina povera is in no way inferior fare. It relies on the best, freshest, local ingredients, prepared with the care and flare of an imaginative cook. It’s a good concept to contemplate as we head into another growing season in Saskatchewan. Very soon, we’ll have an abundance of fresh local ingredients, from the tender rhubarb of spring to fall’s plump golden squash.

I first heard about cucina povera from Jennifer Willems, the innovative chef at the New Ground Café in Birch Hills, near Prince Albert. Jennifer’s blackboard menu changes every day (and sometimes more than once a day) depending on the local ingredients that arrive at her kitchen door. Her dedication to local flavours earned an invitation to Terra Madre in Italy, a symposium dedicated to preserving sustainable agriculture and the flavours of regional food around the world. She discovered cucina povera in small family-run restaurants in Italian towns.

“Simplicity is the rule. The tiniest kitchens could turn out the most amazing food with just five ingredients,” she says. “The things that I’m committed to were just natural there.”

What is cucina povera Saskatchewan-style? It could be different things to different people, depending on their cooking traditions and connections to locally-produced foods from lentils to apples to wild rice. For me, it’s a ham bone and lentil stew, or a mushroom and herb frittata, or a pasta sauce of fresh tender vegetables, or a pear tart made with fruit I picked myself.

Learning to cook with Saskatchewan ingredients is an interesting and satisfying exercise. Just ask the seven women with whom I attended a Saskatchewan Bounty cooking class last week in Saskatoon, at the kitchen of Wild Serendipity Foods.

The menu included pork loin rubbed in herbs, served with a wild blueberry sauce, northern whitefish in a lemon-dill sauce, wild rice pilaf with dried berries and a rustic rhubarb & sour cherry tart. I came home with some terrific new recipes for Saskatchewan ingredients and a burning anticipation for the first rhubarb of spring. This picture shows the rustic rhubarb & cherry tart we made in cooking class; this recipe is the version I make at home. Very cucina povera!

Rhubarb & Berry Galette

Use a mix of fresh or frozen berries such as: raspberries, strawberries, saskatoons, blueberries, sour cherries. You can also include apple in the mix.

5 cups of fruit, of which 1 cup is rhubarb, cut in small slices

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
Dash of salt
A bit of butter
Pastry for one-crust pie

Heat oven to 375F. Dice the larger fruit, such as the apple or strawberries. Combine the fruit and rhubarb in a bowl. Sprinkle on the flour, sugar and salt. Gently mix.

Place the pasty into a pie plate. Choose a pie plate that allows the pastry to hang about 1 inch (2.5 cm) over the edge. Scoop in the fruit mixture. Fold the loose edges of the pastry toward the centre, so it forms an open circle around the fruit. Dot the fruit here and there with a little pat of butter.

If you wish, brush the pastry with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375F for about 40 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling bubbly. Allow the pie to cool before slicing.

The first 'fruit' of summer - RHUBARB CRISP

Imagine you’re a Saskatchewan pioneer and you’ve just come through a long winter with very little fruit. The canned apples are all gone and you’re down to the last of the dried saskatoon berries. Now imagine just how happy you are to see the first of the rhubarb. Sure, rhubarb is not technically a fruit, but it sure tastes like it in rhubarb crisp, as my mom makes it.

RHUBARB CRISP
An hour or two before baking, mix together:

4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
A dash of salt (optional)

Place the rhubarb in a baking dish. I use a deep round ceramic dish because I like a thick layer of rhubarb; however, my mom uses a flatter rectangular cake pan. Sprinkle on the topping:

½ cup butter, cold
¾ cup flour
A big pinch of cinnamon
½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup rolled oats (not the quick variety)

Cut the butter into small pieces. Mix with the flour and cinnamon. Using your fingers, quickly squish the butter into the flour until there are no chunks of butter remaining. Stir in the brown sugar and oats. Place the topping loosely on top of the rhubarb. Bake at 325F for about 45 minutes. If the top is not as crisp as you would like, place it under the broiler for a minute or two. Serve on its own or with vanilla ice cream.

Ode to Rhubarb - RHUBARB MUFFIINS

I love any plant in my garden that can survive a Saskatchewan winter and spring back up in... well... spring. Rhubarb fits that bill. Even if you don’t eat it, it just looks great. Some friends were talking recently about green rhubarb. Apparently that was more common before this upstart red variety cornered the rhubarb market. Somehow, I just don’t think it would be as pleasing to eat.

My nieces were recently visiting from the metropolis of LA and I got them hooked on raw rhubarb dipped in sugar. Mmmmmm. One of my favourite ways to eat rhubarb is a Rhubarb Up-side-down Cake (see recipe at 30 May 2005), but these muffins come a close second.

RHUBARB MUFFINS
2.5 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Mix in the rhubarb and coat the pieces in flour. In another bowl, mix the sugar and oil. Whisk in the egg, buttermilk and vanilla. Blend this liquid mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just and until it is incorporated. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin. Sprinkle a bit of topping on each one. Bake at 350F. for 20-25 minutes. (It makes 18 muffins in my muffin tin.)