Nothing means home to me more than food and putting food by. Food preservation has been on the back burner in our two year transition as we settled into our new home in Charlottesville. In addition, harvests arrive here sooner than I am accustomed, growing up in the Midwest and living in the Northeast. So, I was only able to freeze a few packs of strawberries and rhubarb this year.
People usually love or hate rhubarb. I happen to have a fetish for the vegetable. In part, I owe this to the rhubarb plant my parents have in the corner of their vegetable garden which was likely planted shortly after my father purchased it in 1970. It remains a prolific producer and grows immense in size. I am hoping to duplicate its production at Nara. Note to self: top priority next spring is the planting of a rhubarb plant!
So, I prepared a batch of Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce this week, utilizing the stores in the freezer, producing four small containers to enjoy sparingly but with great enthusiasm. The sauce can be enjoyed warm or cold with waffles or pancakes, ice cream or yogurt, and cakes of all sorts. The sauce is vintage, old school perhaps, but speaks to the palate and yet never fails to impress. Be sure to taste the sauce as you cook and adjust the sugar to your liking as the sweetness of strawberries can vary greatly.
Strawberry Rhubarb
Sauce
1 pound rhubarb stalks, trimmed and cut into ½-inch pieces
(about 4 cups)
2 cups strawberries, hulled, rinsed, and halved
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
- Combine
all the ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil over
medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and cook,
stirring frequently, until rhubarb is tender, about 20 minutes. Remove
from heat.
- You
may refrigerate sauce for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 6 months for
long-term storage.
