Rhubarb

Its rhubarb season and I'm starting to see it appear at farm stands and grocery stores.  In New England, we had rhubarb growing in our backyard like a weed.  It's a hearty perennial plant grows near a body of water and can be transplanted easily. It will even grow well in a large pot. This stuff is everywhere and upon further research, I discovered that rhubarb has a long and illustrious history. Dating back to 2700 BC in China, rhubarb root was cultivated for medicinal purposes and was used to treat everything from constipation to the plague. When European merchants started trading with China, they carried rhubarb back to the west. Marco Polo's accounts of his travels to China mention rhubarb prominently. It was first planted in Italy in 1608 and over the next few decades, it spread all across Europe grown exclusively for medicinal purposes. In the mid 1700's, it started showing up in recipes for pie and tart fillings and in the early 1800's a Maine gardener introduced it to New England.  Now you can find rhubarb all over the country.  

Rhubarb is a green, leafy plant with red stalks that resemble thick celery. The leaves look a bit like kale and are toxic to human and animals, but the red stalks are a very interesting food item. Typically, its chopped up into small pieces and cooked with sugar. When it cooks down, it becomes thick and slightly stringy and has a lovely pink color. Rhubarb is seriously tart, but with enough sugar, it takes on kind of a floral perfume-like flavor. When it's added to other fruit, like strawberries or peaches, its flavor blossoms into something truly remarkable. It's also full of pectin, so adding it to jams and preserves not only gives them great flavor, but helps them set up nicely. It is frequently added to fruit pie filling, in which it melts into the other fruit and adds a distinctive yet mysterious richness. 

Several years ago, my mother-in-law put together a family cookbook of recipes she collected from many different relatives. Rhubarb plays a pretty substantial role in this cookbook and my husband speaks with fond nostalgia about a rhubarb sauce that his grandmother made and served over vanilla ice cream. I found that recipe in the family cookbook and made it with some of the rhubarb I'd found at the farmers market. It's just rhubarb, sugar and a little bit of water, cooked until the rhubarb falls apart, which takes about five minutes. I served it warm spooned over vanilla ice cream and I thought it was delicious. But there was a lot of it left over in the fridge and how much rhubarb sauce can two people eat? 

A week later, I went strawberry picking and came home with 6 pounds of ripe, juicy berries. We were planning a party for July 4th weekend and we talked about serving the strawberries at the party. I suggested strawberry shortcake, but my husband took the idea a step further and suggested a strawberry rhubarb trifle. A trifle is an easy, delicious and beautiful dessert featuring fluffy cake, chunky sauce, fruit and whipped cream or custard layered into a glass bowl. I've made trifles before and people are always impressed with the stunning visual and I figured it would be a perfect way to use up that rhubarb sauce.

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB TRIFLE

2 cups of cooled rhubarb sauce (4 cups of chopped rhubarb, 1 cup of sugar and a 1/2 cup of water, cooked over medium heat until the rhubarb breaks down)
4 cups of strawberries, cut into pieces and sprinkled with sugar
1 vanilla cake, angel food cake or sponge cake
2 cups of whipped cream or custard
A deep, glass bowl for presentation

This recipe does require a little preparation the day before you assemble and serve it. If you make this dessert too far in advance, it starts to break down too much and the cake will become mushy. I advise making it just a few hours before you plan to serve it. I bought a vanilla cake at the store, but you can bake your own if you like. Lady fingers, angel food cake, sponge cake or just a plain yellow cake will work just fine. You want something spongy so it soaks up the sauce. I cut up the strawberries the night before the party and sprinkled them with just a touch of sugar so they'd break down a bit and become slightly soupy. A few hours before the party, I whipped the cream with a little vanilla and sugar until it was stiff, assembled the trifle and popped it in the fridge. 

I started with a couple spoonfuls of the rhubarb sauce in the bottom of the bowl. Then I broke the cake up into medium sized chunks, about 2 inches, and laid them on top of the rhubarb sauce, pressing down slightly to get a tight fit in the bowl. Then I spooned a layer of strawberries on top of the cake, making sure they were up against the sides of the bowl, and gently pressed down again to compact everything. I spooned some of the rhubarb sauce on top of the berries, then added about half of the whipped cream, again making sure it was flush against the sides of the bowl. A second layer followed, starting with cake, followed by strawberries, then rhubarb sauce. You've got to keep adding a little gentle pressure with each layer to make sure it's all compacted in the bowl, but don't press too hard, just enough to keep the layers close together. Keep an eye on the sides of the bowl to make sure your trifle is beautiful. I topped the bowl with a final layer of whipped cream and added some chopped berries on top for decoration.

I put the trifle out half way through the party and nobody wanted dig into it and destroy its beauty. Finally, I took the first spoonful and everyone else followed. It was gone within about 30 minutes and I swear I thought I saw someone licking the bowl.