Rhubarb

Rhubarb is a perennial that makes its appearance right about now, sending thick, juicy stalks up out of the ground and large, lush, inedible leaves. It's pretty and pink in cake.

Rhubarb cake

 

Rhubarb is a close relative to sorrel, whose sour leaves are eaten in small quantities in the spring time (they also contain oxalic acid, as I wrote about with regard to spinach in my last post). Because we eat the stalks of rhubarb, it’s botanically a “vegetable” and not a fruit, but its sour taste precludes doing much besides sweetening it up with some honey or sugar and eating it for dessert. Fortunately, rhubarb is high in vitamin C, so it’s not a totally lost cause, nutritionally! 

 

We have a rhubarb plant in our garden, and it’s the first thing to poke out of the raised bed.

 
Picking rhubarb, which likes cool, springtime weather.
 

Each spring, I’m surprised anew that it’s there, since its leaves die back completely in the winter and it just disappears from sight. One rhubarb plant feeds our family several rhubarb cakes and pies per season. As you pick the stalks, new ones grow to take their place until the season is too warm for them and they wilt. Before that, you can harvest the stalks repeatedly, preferably before they get too big.

 
Just-picked thin rhubarb stalks. 
 

Below is my favorite recipe for rhubarb cake, printed last year in the Onion Skin. It’s hard to find recipes for rhubarb cake that aren’t too sweet for my taste. I cut the sugar in half when I adapted this recipe for the Onion Skin and substituted half whole wheat flour. Oddly, when it comes right out of the oven it doesn’t taste very sweet, but once it sits and cools (you can refrigerate any leftovers overnight), the sweetness of the cake becomes more pronounced. You can also dust it with a little powdered sugar. Super easy, a 3-year old could practically make it. ("Mom, you don't need to show me how to cut, you showed me when I was a toddler.") 
Practically.

 
 

Off to make rhubarb cake. 

Rhubarb Cake
3 large eggs
½ cup sugar
¾ tsp. vanilla
Pinch of salt
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ tsp. baking powder
1 pound rhubarb (a little over 3 cups), diced
Butter for greasing the pan
 
Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt with a wire whisk until frothy. Add the flour and baking powder and continue to mix just until combined.
 
Butter an 8x8 baking dish. Spread the rhubarb in the bottom of the dish and pour the batter evenly on top. (It will look like you have more fruit than batter – don’t worry, it will puff up in the oven.)
 
Bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer insert in the center comes out clean and the top is golden. Cool at least 20 minutes before serving, and refrigerate any leftovers. Serves 6-8.
Spring