Stewed Rhubarb
Ingredients
- 4 cups chopped rhubarb
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup sugar—more or less, to taste
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- A handful of cranberries for colour, if your rhubarb is not the red variety
Instructions
- Place water, rhubarb and cranberries, if using, in a small pot, cover, and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until rhubarb is soft but still retains its shape.Add sugar and lemon zest and cook for a minute more. Taste and add more sugar if you like. Pour rhubarb into a strainer set over a medium-sized bowl. Allow the juice to drip through until the stewed rhubarb is fairly solid—about 15 or 20 minutes. Reserve juice. Serve stewed rhubarb in parfait, use in quick breads or muffins, spread on toasted scones, or spoon it into your morning yogurt. Will keep, covered, in the fridge for about 1 week, and for up to 6 months in the freezer.
Notes
Rhubarb Parfait
Ingredients
- 2 cups stewed rhubarb
- 2 cups Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup granola
Instructions
- Choose your serving dishes—4 glasses or jars that will hold up to 8 oz.
- Layer ingredients in each glass, starting with a tablespoon of granola, followed by 2 Tbsp of yogurt and two of rhubarb. Repeat, ending with a spoonful of yogurt and a sprinkling of granola. Chill until ready to serve.
Notes
Pelly Button Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 oz gin
- 3 oz rhubarb juice
- 2 oz soda water
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- Berries or lemon for garnish
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients, except garnish, in a tall glass over ice. Stir and add berries or lemon.
Notes
Early in June, I walked into the summer kitchen at the Stepping Stone homestead, on the Pelly River, to a loved and familiar sight: Jim Tredger at the stove, keeping his eye on three bubbling espresso pots of coffee.
He turned towards the door with a big smile, saying, “You’re just in time, coffee’s ready!”
Some Yukoners are lucky enough to have cabins in the wilderness; others are lucky enough to know some of those people. I fall into the latter category. Jim and his wife Carole Kroening have welcomed me to stay at their little corner of beauty (on the banks of the Pelly) for more than 10 years now. Visits to Stepping Stone have been a highlight of many summers.
Always, Jim has been the first one up, lighting the fire in the big old wood-fired cook stove, putting the rhubarb on to stew and making the first of many rounds of coffees for guests who meander in as they wake up.
There is no morning schedule at Stepping Stone; it all happens organically. Sometimes a guest gets up at the crack of dawn to make a batch of scones; other times, like this past June, a guest flips crêpes in the big frying pan and offers you your choice of sweet or savoury fillings—or both.
The savoury version might be asparagus from the Stepping Stone garden, combined with gruyère and prosciutto; the sweet, a combination of berries picked last year, with a dollop of whipped cream or yogurt.
In the afternoon there might be a cooking project, under Carole’s direction. Perhaps you’ll be mixing dough or prepping toppings for the famous Stepping Stone pizza—every visit includes pizza baked in the outdoor oven, with a fire set up by Jim that burns until the oven reaches 500F, so that pizzas cook in minutes. The toppings are dreamed up by Carole, though guests are encouraged to contribute memorable combos they’ve enjoyed recently, or long ago, and there’s always a dessert pizza. This year it was rhubarb and melted chocolate.
Stepping Stone rhubarb is as famous as the pizza: in the garden there are at least six massive plants that produce fat red stalks, all summer long. Jim and Carole are always dreaming up new rhubarb recipes. A few years ago, Jim invented the Pelly Button Cocktail, made with the juice strained from the morning’s stewed rhubarb. In haskap season, the garnish is a spoonful of berries floating on top.
This year, Carole wanted to experiment with a rhubarb fool, typically fruit and whipped cream folded together into a beautiful creamy mess. Together, she and I opted to turn the fool into a parfait. There were no complaints.
