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strawberry week

Strawberry Rhubarb Tarts

June 8, 2010

strawberry rhubarb tart

Yesterday when I was at the market going through the usual vegetable section, I saw a lone pair of greenish stalks on one of the shelves. I almost didn’t pay any attention to it, thinking it was celery. And just when I went closer to pick up the box of endamame beans placed right next to it, I did a double take. Crimson stalks? And then suddenly all the images of rhubarb I had seen on the internet flashed through my head. A little scratching on the surface gave me the tangy smell that I safely assumed to be rhubarb. I still couldn’t believe my luck, so I went over to the shop attendant and he confirmed that it was indeed rhubarb. The joy, the joy!

And just like that, the fate of the last pair of rhubarb stalks was sealed: I’d go home and make strawberry rhubarb tarts!

I read up a little on how to cook with rhubarb. Should it be peeled? Should it be precooked? What proportion of strawberries to rhubarb should I use? I tried to keep my expectations as low as I could (though it was hard) because on many an occasion I’ve just ended up tossing the stuff that has got a backing of a hundred reviews.

strawberry rhubarb tart

So anyway, I chopped up gorgeous stalks of rhubarb, one green and one pink and tossed it with half a cup of sugar (you can adjust this depending on how tart your berries are and how sweet you’d like them to be) and frozen strawberries and let it sit for about 30 minutes. This way the frozen strawberries will soften and the tart rhubarb will absorb the sugar. This mixture tends to get watery, especially when using frozen berries, so just pick the filling up with the fork so the dough doesn’t get too mushy. Also, in the end you can top the syrup with some club soda and treat yourself to a strawberry-rhubarb fizz. It’s delicious.

For the tart base, I used the Ottolenghi recipe I used for the chocolate tart I made a while ago. To kick it up a notch, I used half vanilla bean sugar and half icing sugar. The dough smelled lovelier than any other dough I’d made before and looked so pretty with the tiny specs of vanilla in it. After this was refrigerated for a bit, I rolled it out into a large rectangle of about 1/8^th inch thickness. Then I cut that up into 4 equal parts and placed the filling in the middle and pinched the sides together and transferred them to the baking sheet. That’s it! No fluted tart pans. No buying multiple small pans to make individual sizes. No worrying about blind baking. And if someone has the nerve to complain about the jagged edges, tell them that’s the rustic look you were trying to achieve. Besides, I actually think this rustic look is kinda cute.

strawberry rhubarb tart

So did it meet my expectations? It sure did! Everyone at home loved it, although they weren’t really fascinated about the big rhubarb discovery (I know!). The baked tart is not too sweet, and it’s not too tart, and though it would probably be nice with some vanilla ice cream, I’d like to eat mine warm and just the way it is. I’m so happy that we finally get rhubarb here. Now I can start saving rhubarb recipes, which earlier, I only gawked at. Have you any suggestions?

Individual strawberry rhubarb tarts
Serves: 4

Tart base:
½ recipe of the Ottolenghi tart dough recipe.

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling:
2 stalks / 200 rhubarb, sliced with the skin on
200g strawberries, quartered fresh or frozen
½ cup / 100g caster sugar

Equipment:
Pastry blender and Bench scraper

Method:

In a bowl stir together all the ingredients for the filling and let it sit together for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle of 1/8th inch thickness and cut through the centres to get 4 rectangles.
Now place the filling in the centre of these individual rectangles.
Try to work quickly, so the dough doesn’t get too warm and soft, making it harder to handle. Fold the edge of the dough toward the filling and up, to create a ruffled edge. Continue around the perimeter, until all of the filling has been held by the ruffled sleeve. Slide a bench scraper or spatula under the tart and transfer it to a parchment-lined baking tray.
Freeze or refrigerate this for 30 minutes, or until the dough has firmed up.
Bake in a preheated oven at 170C/340F for 25-30 minutes; until the pastry is golden and the juices are bubbling.
Serve warm!

{ 17 comments }

Strawberry and Apple Jam

February 19, 2010

When I saw the picture of the strawberry jam in Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, I just knew that I had to make that jam. Gorgeous ruby red, with blueberries peeking through, the jam looked spectacular. What I found even more interesting was that Ina had used green apples with the strawberries for the jam. Her reason was to use up the natural pectin that is abundant in green apples, but mine was to highlight the flavours of strawberries and apples equally (well, almost.)

You might feel making jam might be super labour intensive and would probably think that these tasks are better left to grandmums. I used to think so too, until I realized how quickly this jam came together.

I love, just absolutely love how this tastes. I always prefer my jams chunky to get the feel of the fruit, but you can go ahead and puree it if you like a smooth texture.

Strawberry and Apple Jam

Liberally adapted from: Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics by Ina Garten

1 lb / 500g strawberries, washed and hulled
14 oz / 400g caster sugar
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
½ cup fresh blueberries (I used dried)

Cut the large strawberries into half and leave the small ones whole.
Now place the berries in a heavy bottomed saucepan, such as a Le Creuset, and toss it with the sugar.
Bring the mixture to a boil over a low heat, stirring often. Now add the apples and blueberries. Let the jam continue to boil until it reaches 220F on a candy thermometer; this should take 25-35 minutes.
Make sure to skim and discard any foam that rises to the top every so often.
Allow the mixture to cool and store it covered in the refrigerator for 1 week or can it according to manufacturer’s instructions.

{ 33 comments }

Strawberry Lassi

February 18, 2010

If there is anything I can drink by the gallon, it’s got to be Strawberry Lassi. Lassi is a perfectly smooth yoghurt-based creamy drink that is really popular in India (Of course, blending it with strawberries isn’t traditional.) This is a season favourite that has become a breakfast staple for me (along with being a lunch substitute and a snack to satiate a midnight hunger pang!). The strawberry lassi is so gorgeous to look at, baby pink speckled with vanilla crystals, that I find myself playing with the bottle of strawberry lassi as if it were a kaleidoscope.

All you need is 4 ingredients and an immersion blender (or a fork to mash and a whisk to mix) and you will have a luscious and utterly creamy strawberry lassi ready in just a few minutes. Don’t fret if you don’t have vanilla beans at hand, you can skip it entirely and still enjoy a yummy strawberry lassi.

Strawberry Lassi

Serves: 2
Note: You may need to vary the sugar based on how sweet your strawberries are and personal preference.

400g / 14 oz. plain yoghurt (or you can use vanilla yoghurt too, I like Dannon)
150g / 5 oz. strawberries, washed and hulled
60g / 2oz sugar
½ a vanilla bean, split and scraped

In a medium sized bowl, place the strawberries and sugar together and blend together with the immersion blender. Add in the yoghurt and vanilla bean innards and blend until it all comes together. If you’re impatient, just drink it up. If you’re Zen-like, let the vanilla bean sit in the strawberry lassi for 30 minutes (refrigerated). Serve cold over ice cubes.

{ 14 comments }

Strawberry Butter

February 17, 2010

The best things to come out of my kitchen from last year’s strawberry madness were without a doubt the strawberry pop tarts and the supremely creamy frozen strawberry yoghurt that I made over and over again (and I don’t think I can ever get enough of. Ever.)

Just when I thought nothing could possibly outdo these favourites of mine, I was in for a pleasant surprise in the form of strawberry butter. Strawberry Butter! How could I not have thought of this sooner? My favourite fruit + butter, lots and lots of butter, come together to give me straaaaawberry buttttaaah! Okay, enough of the dramatisation, but I cannot tell you how this ridiculously simple butter will change the way you have your ho-hum butter on toast. Heck, I’m not even a butter on toast kind of person, but with this strawberry butter, I’m a convert.

I made bite-sized buttery (more butter!), flaky biscuits from Dorie Greenspan and dolloped a generous amount of the butter on top . Warm biscuits, crisp on the outside, and melt-in-the-mouth soft inside, heavily scented with the strawberry butter. Betty couldn’t make a better butter breakfast.

While I’m off to pull out the butter from the refrigerator to spread on some toast (you don’t need to wait for it to soften! It’s soft and spreadable!) , I’ll leave you with the recipe.

Strawberry Butter

Note: It is important to have all the ingredients at room temperature, otherwise you might end up with a strawberry butter that looks like ricotta cheese, which I actually prefer over the uniform texture, but it won’t have the smooth buttery texture you set out to achieve. If you do end up with the ricotta-like butter and want to smoothen it out, place the bowl with the butter over a water bath on a low heat and keep stirring it so that the heat is evenly distributed at all times. Soon you will see that the butter and strawberry puree come together to give you a homogeneous mixture.

100g butter
30g Philadelphia cream cheese (optional, use butter if you don’t have it)
30g icing sugar
60g strawberries, washed, hulled and pureed

In a bowl, whip the butter and cream cheese until it looks light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and mix until evenly incorporated.
With the mixer still on, pour in the strawberry puree and mix together. You can either go for the marbled look and not mix it up entirely, or go the whole hog.

Buttery Biscuits

Adapted from: Baking From My Home To Yours, Dorie Greenspan

Yield: 12 biscuits

Note: Super easy to make and comes together so quickly. Just make sure to sift the flour with baking powder; nothing can be more nasty than getting a piece of biscuit concentrated with the flavour of baking powder. I wish I weren’t talking from experience.

2 cups / 250g all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
3/4th stick / 80g butter
3/4th cup / 175ml light cream (25% fat)

Line a baking sheet with parchment or Silpat and preheat the oven to 425F/220C.
Sift the flour and baking powder together. Whisk in the sugar and salt.
Working quickly (don’t want the butter to melt), with a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients. You will have irregular shaped chunks, flakes, pebbles and whatnot. This is how it should be.
Pour the cream over the mixture and lightly knead together, until everything has come together. Dust extra flour if required.
Dust a work surface and roll out the dough to a ½ inch thickness.
Using a 2 inch cutter (in my case, I used a 1 inch cutter for bite-sized biscuits) cut out as many biscuits as you can. Use the scraps to roll out the dough for the second time.
Transfer the cut out biscuits to the baking sheet and bake for 14-18 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Serve warm with the strawberry butter!

{ 32 comments }

Strawberry Sorbet

February 16, 2010

While I’m big on collecting kitchen tools and gadgets and I’d like to think that I put them all to good use, the one thing I regret not using enough of is my ice cream maker. And every single time that I do use, I end up kicking myself for letting it gather all the dust.

With strawberries aplenty, I churned out some strawberry sorbet. While I’m more of a rich, creamy ice-cream person, I found the sorbet to be refreshing and pleasantly light. Everyone at home licked their bowls clean and made me make them another batch the next day!

With this sorbet, I’m all set to churn out some more ice-creams and sorbets. And like anything else I get obsessed with, I went and searched for some pretty ice-cream scoops. Just look at what I found! Scoops in assorted colours, anadorable pink scoop and a sturdy looking double coloured scoop. I know what I’m going to be dreaming of tonight.

Strawberry Sorbet

1 pound / 450 g. fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled and pureed
1/4th cup / 50 g. sugar (Indian strawberries are much sweeter, so you might need more sugar)
1/4th cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract (vodka base – vodka keeps the sorbet soft)

In a small saucepan, make the sugar syrup with 1/4th cup water and 1/4th cup (or more) sugar. Let it cool.

In a bowl, mix together the pureed strawberries, sugar syrup and the vanilla extract. Stir well.

Transfer to the freezer bowl of the ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions. If churning by hand, follow the instructions here.

{ 17 comments }

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