Rhubarb: a new experience

Tags

canning, chutney, postaday2013, rhubarb

This morning I decided to do something with the rhubarb that I had still hanging out in my refrigerator, I was feeling guilty that my friend Bonnie had taken the time to hand-deliver it to me in addition to the handwritten recipe and I still hadn’t even touched it. I have to admit that I have been a tad busy, but still the rhubarb chutney wasn’t going to make itself.

Making the chutney itself was so easy, just follow the recipe and you are done in a half an hour. The involved part was the canning process; I had never canned before, so I did what any savvy cook does, when in doubt go to the Joy of Cooking. I love that book. Sterilization isn’t hard, just a little time consuming, and after forty minutes you’re done.

I don’t know how the rhubarb chutney turned out, according to the recipe you need to store it away for a year. So I have it labeled and hopefully next year I will remember it and serve it with a nice piece of sautéed foie gras.

A present of rhubarb from a friend’s garden

Tags

cream, gratin, postaday2013, potatoes, rhubarb, swiss cheese

You have to appreciate a lady when she promises you rhubarb from her garden with a copy of her recipe for rhubarb chutney and the very next day, she delivers said rhubarb and recipe. Bonnie is a peach! I will have to make her recipe so that I can tell her at next month’s French club meeting that it was yummy. I should try to make something else and deliver her some of whatever I come up with. While she was at the door, I was in the process of peeling potatoes because I decided to make a gratin Dauphinois or gratin of potato. It has been the perfect weather for baking and roasting things because it’s either drizzling, cloudy or sunny at a cool 69 degrees. I am not complaining, I love the roasting and the baking, I am only getting concerned for my plants because there is such a thing as too much rain and they can drown. Tomorrow they are predicting between 3 and 5 inches of rain, the grass in the park behind my house is flooded already, tomorrow won’t be pretty for the water logged meadow. Theoretically the next time we are due for sun will be on Saturday. My plants and I will be looking forward to Saturday. I do have to say that this spring has been really great in one aspect, I haven’t been plagued by May flies at all, between the rain and the wind, they were nowhere to be found this season. Hooray for that!