May 29, 2004
Compote Rose
[Pink Compote]
I've always been a great fan of tart and acidic things. I also love the French word for this special combination of tastes, "acidulé", which perfectly conveys the idea of something colorful and tingly and refreshing. As a child, my favorite candy were the ones that gave your tastebuds shock therapy -- I remember with particular fondness those little flying saucers made of pastel wafer paper, filled with a pink powder that tickled and fizzed and made your tongue pucker and curl with delight.
Now that I'm a big girl who can read ingredients lists (E128, anyone?), I don't really eat candy anymore, and I just turn to more natural sources to get my "acidulé" fix. Rhubarb season is, of course, a very happy time for me, and it sees me consuming this wonderful, humble, versatile fruit in all shapes and forms, while it lasts.
Much to my glee, the latest Campanier basket included a kilo of rhubarb. I decided to go for simplicity, and made compote, in the oven, pairing the rhubarb with some raspberries I had in the freezer.
The compote took on the most lovely shocking pink color, and was as soft and tart and sweet as I had hoped. A cup of this, with a digestive biscuit to dip in, and I couldn't possibly think of anything else I'd rather eat. Well okay, if I think a little harder I can, but you get the point.
Compote Rose
- 1 kg rhubarb (untrimmed weight)
- 150 g raspberries
- 100 g sugar
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Rinse the rhubarb, trim the ends, and cut the stalks in one-inch chunks. Combine them with the sugar and raspberries in an oven-proof dish.
Cover the dish with foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, and serve with shortbread cookies or digestive biscuits.
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More Recipes Like This One:
~ Rhubarb Compote with Pink Champagne Cookies
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~ Peach Apricot Compote with Red Poppy Cream
~ Zucchini and Chicken Salad with Raspberry Vinegar
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Comments (13)
Permalink | Posted by clotilde in Desserts & Sweets - Recipe Inside!
Rhubarb baked with the juice and zest of one orange and some sugar is also quite nice. But not as amazingly PINK. It's a pretty good breakfast with toast too.
Posted by Charlotte on May 30, 2004 9:03 PMOh, I can almost taste the tingly sourness! :)
Posted by Karen on May 31, 2004 12:32 PMOT, [Clotilde, I wrote a little review about you and C&Z in a italian literature festival weblog. In Italy we don't have, as my knowledge, such a real --beautifull, gracefull *everything*full-- weblog gourmande. I'll translate this article as soon as I can for you. Now I'm quite busy, Marta's social life is more active than mine. I'd love to do that next week. Till then, ciao, Elena aka Comidademama]
http://www.pordenonelegge.it/blog/index.php?blogid=2&catid=3
Posted by comidademama on May 31, 2004 1:46 PMah! you can also reply in french or in english if you like it, ciao
Posted by comidademama on May 31, 2004 1:49 PMCharlotte - I've had some of my compote with cereal, but I'll definitely try it with toast, too!
Karen - Oh, you a fan of all things "acidulé" too?
Elena - Wow, thanks a lot for the review, I am most honored! Since I barely speak ten words of Italian (all of them food items), I've had to run it through the Babelfish translator. It doesn't make much sense, though :), so I would love to see a translation when you get a chance!
Posted by clotilde on June 1, 2004 4:30 PMI will,clotilde, i will .
Posted by comidademama on June 1, 2004 5:57 PMRhubarb is making quite a comeback! In the past couple of weeks, I've made strawberry-rhubarb crumble and rhubarb fool, and I'm contemplating a rhubarb jam.
I too adore the tart tingle, and have converted my rhubarb-suspicious BF. What a wonderful word, "acidulé". Anyway, there's an article in today's New York Times on rhubarb...and you can get the Times online for free, just by registering. The articles are available for a week, if you're interested.
Posted by Julie on June 2, 2004 8:22 PMDear Rhubarb Fans: Make sure that you look at this week's food section from the NYT (Wednesday): there is a recipe for a stunning linear salad made with asparagus and rhubarb.
Posted by sarah on June 3, 2004 7:27 PMJulie and Sarah - Thanks for the heads-up about the NYT article (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/dining/02RHUB.html ), it's great to see that great fruit brought to the front of the stage, and that salad recipe looks gorgeous.
Posted by clotilde on June 4, 2004 10:50 AMClotide, I've been stewing rhubarb for the last few weeks according to a recipe I found on epicurious.com. This week I followed your suggestion of cooking it in the oven with some raspberries and some sugar, added some strawberries too -- and it came out DELICIOUS. Thanks for the recommendation!
Posted by Miriam on June 6, 2004 11:47 PMMiriam - I think I'm never going back to cooking rhubarb in a saucepan! :) I'm glad you liked it. The strawberry addition sounds excellent, rhubarb and strawberry is generally a great pairing!
Posted by clotilde on June 8, 2004 6:14 PMDiscovered the blog a few weeks ago, but this is the first recipe I've made/post.
Posted by Shira on April 19, 2005 11:14 PMMade this for dessert tonite w/the first of the English field rhubarb and frozen berries. Added vanilla sugar instead of regular and baked it for a bit longer. Absolutely delicious, with beautiful colour and texture. Thanks for the idea!
Here's the tart rhubarb treat that we had over the weekend.
Just the right amount of sugar, not overly sweet. Seems like it would make good pie filling!
Bon appetit!
Posted by Terri on July 3, 2007 2:32 AMPrivacy. The email addresses you enter will not be used for any other purpose than the sending of this message.