Monday, June 29, 2009

Rhubarb syrup and rhubarb pie

A generous gardening friend gifted us with great armloads of rhubarb so I set about making rhubarb syrup on Saturday morning. I made this years ago with frozen rhubarb to use as a base for a Christmas party punch (out of a Company's Coming Christmas cookbook which is still packed so I just made it up as I went along here). It is simple to make and delicious. This year I wanted to freeze some in ice cube trays so that we could have some to pop into a glass of sparkling water whenever we wanted.I love the colour.
And the boys love the drink - the tartness of it is so refreshing. I used about 8 cups of chopped rhubarb simmered for 20 minutes in 6 or 7 cups of water with 1 1/4 cups sugar added. Then strain and there you have it. Delicious! (But don't throw out the cooked rhubarb mush left after straining off the juice. I popped it in the fridge and am using it for topping my scotch oats each morning.) By making it not too sweet you can serve it with sparkling water for a rather tart drink or you could serve it with a sweetened lemon/lime type soda and it still wouldn't be overly sweet.
Pink seems to be the theme around here just now as our home has wild rose buds everywhere.

I chopped up some to save in the freezer and decided to make a strawberry rhubarb pie as well (since we had been strawberry picking the day before).
The pie filling is based on this recipe and then I just made a crumb topping for it.
Now I'm thinking I'd like to make some more of these rhubarb apple muffins for tea time today except I didn't copy down the recipe or if I did it is still packed somewhere which hasn't occurred to me yet. I've found another recipe for Apple Oat muffins from Vegetarian Times scribbled down in one of my books so I'll try that one out with some rhubarb added. ;-)

8 comments:

Cheryl said...

Mmm, strawberry and rhubard is my favorite kind of pie/crisp!
I'm definitely going to try the rhubarb syrup. My kids have been eating the stalks dipped in sugar and can't get enough of it, but they love to make "pop" by mixing juice with bubbly water, so they'll go nuts for this (and it looks so pretty!).

affectioknit said...

YUM! I love rhubarb!

Leigh said...

My grandmother grew rhubarb and my dad loved it stewed. I didn't care for it when I was little but have developed a taste for tart things as I've gotten older. I didn't realize syrup could be made from it. I will have to plant some rhubarb next spring and give this a try.

Mary-Sue said...

oh my! okay, that's it. i'm making this TODAY! yum. thanks!

Kelly said...

Hi Heather,

Just found your sweet blog a few weeks ago. We made this rhubarb syrup and just LOVED it.

We are also homeschoolers—I have a soon to be 10 year old boy. We live in Calgary. I grew up in BC and I'm wondering where you live. It looks very familiar.

When you have a chance, could you e-mail me? I have a couple of really good book titles I want to share with you.

take care and many thanks for all the wonderful inspiration!

warmly,
Kelly

Heather said...

Hi Kelly

Thanks for your comment. So glad you liked the syrup.

We live in the Okanagan Valley in B.C. We love it here! I would love to hear the book titles - can never have too many good books on my "to read" list. If you check back here feel free to leave me your email address so I can contact you or even leave the book titles in the comment section, I know there are other avid readers here too. Thanks!

Kelly said...

Hi Heather,

My e-mail address is browninkstudios@hotmail.com

We've made 2-3 batches of rhubarb and syrup—Yum!
Now have our friends hooked on it as well.

K.

Mike said...

The pie looks really good. I always struggle to make pies. I dunno why it's so hard for me?