The Learning Center

Herbal Spotight: Rhubarb With My Rustic Rhubarb Clafoutis Recipe

5/31/2021

We are deeply immersed in Rhubarb season right now & loving every moment of it! Sadly underappreciated by many, this under-rated garden gem is a favorite in our family. It is one of the most versatile things we grow, working equally well for savory dishes as for sweets & drinks. This week, I share one of my family's favorite ways to enjoy it with my Rustic Rhubarb Clafoutis recipe --

Cultivated as far back as 2,700 B.C, rhubarb was first brought to America in the early 1770s by Benjamin Franklin. It is a hardy, perennial vegetable filled with antioxidants, vitamins C & K, calcium, potassium, & a whole lot of fiber. Its tart-acidic flavor sweetens up considerably when cooked, & can be used in both savory dishes & desserts with great success. Two of my family’s favorite ways to enjoy it are in our Cherry Rhubarb Pork Loin & in a simple clafoutis dessert where I pair it with candied ginger. A clafoutis, for the uninitiated, is a simple, baked dessert from southern France that features fruit & a custard-like batter. Cherry is the classic, but we make them quite successfully with all different fruits. They are extremely easy to make & absolutely fabulous. They can be served warm or cold, often dusted with powdered sugar & occasionally served with whipped or ice cream.

Of the many types we like to make, the rhubarb is decidedly a house-favorite! [I am certain to feature other versions of clafoutis in the future….]

This recipe can be made with fresh or frozen rhubarb-- in fact, we always cube some up & pop it in the freezer during rhubarb season so that we can enjoy this clafoutis in the Fall & Winter as well. The candied-ginger is a lovely complement to the sweet-tart flavor of the rhubarb, as is the blend of vanilla/almond/lemon the Buttercup Baking Extract provides. Plain vanilla extract works well too if you do not have Buttercup on hand.

Rustic Rhubarb Clafoutis

grab buttercup extract here

Roughly 12 oz Rhubarb, chopped into bite sized pieces
Roughly 1 oz Candied Ginger
2 eggs
½ c sugar + 2 TBS sugar [separated]
5 oz milk
¾ c flour
2 TBS unsalted butter, melted
1 ½ TBS Buttercup Extract or vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a pie or square baking dish: Butter & dust with sugar. Rough-chop your cleaned rhubarb & your candied ginger. Place the pieces in the prepared pan, spacing them evenly. In a mixing bowl, beat ½ cup of sugar with the eggs. Add milk, mix well. Slowly add the flour [sifting if desired,] stirring to incorporate. Stir in the Buttercup [or vanilla] baking extract & the melted butter. Pour your batter over the fruit; redistribute the pieces of rhubarb & ginger so they are evenly distributed if necessary.

Bake until cooked through & a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Sprinkle 1 TBS sugar on top & return to the oven for an additional 2 minutes. Your clafoutis will puff up beautifully as it cooks, but will settle as it is removed from the oven -- No worries though! It will still be delicious! Despite being crustless, slice it up like pie to serve. Serve it warm or cold, with vanilla ice cream if desired.
Personally, I like to save a slice or two to eat cold the next morning with my tea!

I hope you give this ridiculously easy recipe a try-- Clafoutis just may be your new, favorite thing! It is quick & easy to make, & I find it disappears just as fast! Truly one of the best ways to enjoy rhubarb, this recipe is just the thing to make if you find yourself with a bunch you're not sure what to do with! Do let me know if you give it a try & please share what you think! Until next time --
Take care & take time to #StopAndEatTheFlowers

For more fun try my
Rhubarb-Ginger Drinking Shrub Recipe

Click For The Recipe

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Herbal Spotlight: Wild Violets, with my easy Crème de Violette recipe

5/17/2021

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I'm blessed with an abundance of wild violets & take full advantage of it yearly! Not only are they extremely useful & delicious, they are beautiful too! Join me as we explore their many uses & I share my easy Crème de Violette recipe--

Wild, sweet violet [Viola odorata] is an herbaceous perennial often found growing on the edges of forests, in clearings, & even, to some people’s chagrin, with wild abandon in neighborhood lawns. Personally, I welcome these beautiful, useful flowering plants. Each year, we collect basket after basket full, using some fresh for salad, garnishes, jellies & syrups, infusing some for medicines & liqueurs, & drying some for tea & to ensure we have a supply year-round.

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Herbal Spotlight: Lilacs, with my Honey Lilac Zabaglione Recipe

5/1/2021

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Lilacs: Their heady scent & delicious flavor make them a favorite of mine for everything from perfume to ice cream. Join me this as I use them to flavor a beloved, heavenly Italian dessert called zabaglione.
Lilacs [Syringa vulgaris] are a part of the olive family. Most revered for their amazing fragrance, their flowers also have traditionally been used for medical purposes as well. The blossoms have wonderful astringent & bitter properties on top of ther aromatic ones. This makes them excellent to infuse into facial toners or into first aid tonics, such as witch hazel, where they greatly benefit minor skin issues like rashes & cuts. Their bitter properties make them an excellent digestive aid, making them useful for adding to salads, as an after meal tea, or as an ingredient in your own home-made bitters.

shop our heirloom lilac
cocktail bitters

I often use them solely for their delicate flavor & color in recipes. Softly floral with slight bitter notes, lilac's flavor plays well with honey, strawberries, grapefruit, almond, & vanilla. In this post, I'ill show you how to infuse cream with them. This ‘lilac-cream’ is wonderful to use in custards, ice creams, & any other desserts with a milk component. I will be using it to make an herbal version of a favorite Italian dessert of mine called Zabaglione. It is a creamy, whipped delight traditionally made with sweet Marsala wine. In this one, I skip the alcohol & replace the sugar with honey to compliment the lilac flavor.

Lilac infused cream: Heaven scented and delicious!

Here is my harvest of red, white,and, blue lilac flowers.

Your first step will be to collect your lilac flowers. Any color blossoms can be used. The ‘red’ & ‘blue’ flowers will impart a soft purplish hue to your milk that is quite lovely, but white or yellow flowers will also work. We are lucky to have inherited white, red & blue heirloom lilac trees with our 1841 homestead, so I use a combination of those three. Be sure the flowers you are harvesting have not been sprayed & were not grown close to heavily trafficked roads. First we will infuse our cream, then onto the main event! Let’s get to it!

Lilac Honey Zabaglione [serves 4]

1 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup Lilac Flowers, removed from stems
4 Large Egg Yolks
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Almond Extract
1 ½ TSB Honey
¼ tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
Pinch Coarse Sea Salt
Strawberries, cleaned & sliced, a few whole for garnishes
I like strawberries with mine; they compliment the honey & lilac flavors well

Day Before: Rinse lilacs & remove all flowers from stems. Add the flowers & cream to a heavy cocotte or saucepan on the stove over medium-low heat.
Gently heat, stirring for about 12 minutes -- DO NOT BOIL.
Boiling will damage the delicate flavor of the petals. Remove from heat. Pour cream & petals into a large jar; place in the refrigerator to steep overnight.

Next Day: Strain the petals off from your cream. Lilac petals can be rinsed with water & added to your compost. Your cream will now be flavored with the lilacs &, depending on the color blossoms used, it may also be a soft, pale purple. Pour your lilac-cream into the bowl of mixer with whisk attachment. Prepare your double boiler [or fashion one with a glass mixing cup or bowl & saucepan] with water on the stove. Bring water to a boil. Place the egg yolks, honey, lemon juice, & salt in the bowl over boiling water & whisk until doubled in volume, about 10 minutes. Keep it moving to avoid scrambling the eggs & it will easily double in volume. Add the baking extracts. Turn heat off.

I love to add a few sliced of stawberries to the bottom of my glasses.

Whip your lilac-cream on med/high in the mixer until stiff peaks form. [if you have a kitchen helper, this can be done while you are whisking the yolks] Carefully fold your yolk mixture into the lilac whipped cream. Place the mixture in your fridge to set for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prep your serving dishes. I like to use old coupe cocktail glasses, but any small ramekins or custard dishes will work.

Add sliced strawberries to the bottom of each if desired. Spoon your cooled zabaglione on top of the berries in the serving dishes, dividing it equally over 4 servings. garnish with lilac flowers & strawberries as desired. Voila! The perfect way to end a meal-- Elegant, light & delicious. Yum!

This is one of my favorite ways to use lilacs. I also love to infuse honey with them & make lilac syrup for use in drinks. This year, I just may add some to my witch hazel too--we shall see! I hope you give this recipe a try-- Please let me know what you think!
Until next time -- Stay safe & take time to #StopAndEatTheFlowers