Rhubarb Pie

We had devoured most of the pie by the time I remembered
to snap a photo. It was very, very tasty.

Rhubarb season has started in late May, and Meredith got her hands on some. She was quite excited. What she didn't know was that there wasn't enough rhubarb for the pie she wanted to make, so she winged in and threw in an apple as well. Very creative (and super tasty, of course!).

The one warning Meredith offered is for the prepared pie crusts in those shallow tin pans. They're not as big as they say they are, and there's a big risk of everything bubbling over. The next time she makes this, she's going to buy the flat pie crust and put it in her ceramic pie plate - it's much deeper and will do a better job at containing the mess.

The recipe is loosely based on one of Martha Stewart's rhubarb pie recipes, however, Meredith substituted a few ingredients, did her own thing with the pie crust and left out the plastic kittens thermal glued to the jail cell bars.

Rhubarb Apple Pie

Pie
prepared pie dough
5 cups rhubarb, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 apple, peeled, cored and cubed
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp tapioca starch
pinch salt

Topping
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
6 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces

1. Press the pie crust into a deep, 9-inch pie plate, trimming edges if necessary. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Prepare the crumble topping: in a medium bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, sugar, and salt. Using a spoon (or your hands) MIX in the butter until clumps of mixture form. cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Move oven rack to the lowest level and preheat to 400-degrees. 
4. In a large bowl, toss rhubarb, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Transfer mixture into pie shell and sprinkle with crumble topping.
5. Place pie on a foil-lined baking sheet to catch any overflow.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 375-degrees and bake for 90 minutes, until topping and crust has browned lightly. If the pie starts to brown too quickly, cover pie in a tin foil tent.
7. Let cool before serving. 

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Rhubarb Curry Chicken

This curry gets its flavor from the brown sugar caramelized
on the chicken and the super-tasty rhubarb sauce. 

When rhubarb was ready to harvest, a generous colleague handed me a bag with at least a couple pounds of the red stuff. My first thought was "I can only eat so much pie!" Then I realized that there might be an alternative.

After tweeting about my newly found produce, and lamenting that I could only find dessert recipes, the Food Floozie came through. She had just finished making a chicken curry in a rhubarb sauce, and if I could sit tight, the recipe would be posted by the next morning. What luck!
The Floozie's curry was an interesting one. The sauce was made separately the chicken and it used wine. The chicken was pan fried, and the whole concoction goes into the oven to finish off. It looked great.

After a short conversation about the dish, I discovered that I could use orange juice (which I had) instead of wine (which I didn't have) and I made a few other changes to make it my own.

When I took it out of the oven, it was awesome. The brown sugar had caramelized and the sauce was sweet and spicy. Meredith said that it reminded her of the curries her mom made when she was a kid.

Rhubarb Curry Chicken

• 2 tbsp + 3 tbsp oil
• 1/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp ginger, minced
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 2 tsp mango powder
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-1/4 cups orange juice
• 1/2 pound rhubarb, ends trimmed, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1 kilo chicken thighs, boneless, skinless
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425-degrees.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat and saute onions for 2 minutes, 
3. Add 1/2 tsp salt, cayenne pepper, coriander, cumin, ginger, curry powder and mango powder and saute for an additional minute.
4. Add orange juice and rhubarb, bring to a boil and cover and let simmer for 10 minutes over medium heat. Stir, re-cover and let cook for an additional 10 minutes. The rhubarb should be reduced to a sauce.
5. In a large skillet, heat remaining oil on medium-high. Place chicken in pan and season with remaining salt and black pepper. Brown chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side.
6. Place chicken into a greased 9x13 baking dish and cover with rhubarb mixture; sprinkle with brown sugar.
7. Place baking dish into  oven and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Serve with rice.

Inspired by Food Floozie's Curried Rhubarb Chicken.

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Strawberry-rhubarb Dessert Topping

It's the beginning of Strawberrypalloza at the Haggis and the Herring. Yesterday, we went strawberry picking at Whittamore Farms, and it was a bumper crop. We were placed at a remote end of the field where, apparently, nobody has ever picked strawberries before. We weren't even there for 30 minutes before we had a giant bucket full of beautiful strawberries!

With a trip to the farmer's market, we also picked up some rhubarb and other goodies before heading home. Meredith spent the rest of the day making three different strawberry-based recipes and prepping a fourth for the next day... and that didn't stop her from taking a few work-related calls in between. The first recipe, a dessert topping, turned out so very, very tasty. The original recipe called for far more sugar and red food coloring. Neither were necessary for these excellent results.

Strawberry-rhubarb Dessert Topping

• 4 cups rhubarb, chopped
• 10 oz fresh strawberries, chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca
• 3/4 cup sugar

1. In a large microwave-safe dish (e.g., Corning), combine the rhubarb, strawberries, water and tapioca and let stand for five minutes.
2. Cover and microwave on high for six minutes. Stir and cook for an additional four minutes or until the rhubarb is soft.
3. Stir in the sugar, recover and microwave for an additional two minutes.

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