The weather is getting warmer and rhubarbs are ready to harvest! When I saw rhubarbs ready to go, I decided to write about this weird plant with edible stalks.
It is from polygonaceae family (rheum rhabarbarum, French rhubarbe) with appealing red stems. It is not grown in Turkey so not really known there. But it can grow well under Turkish climate. It is perennial and zero maintenance! So if you have a garden, plant it somewhere, you won’t regret!
I have never met this plant until we moved to this house. I haven’t even heard of it. When I found these large leaves growing in the garden I wondered and found out about it.
Then I discovered how to eat it! It is usually used for cakes or tarts as it is quite sour, but there are also salads or sauces that you can prepare with rhubarb. In desserts it’s usually used with strawberries, but of course tou can use only rhubarbs.
Be careful with the leaves, they are not edible, actually they are toxic so there is a reason why it’s usually sold without the leaves. Don’t taste as I did, it is quite bitter. And did I say toxic?
Tart ? Pie ? Galette?
When I say tart I mean this: “A tart is a sweet or savory dish with shallow sides and only a bottom crust. Tart crusts are usually made from pastry dough: traditionally flour, unsalted butter, cold water, and sometimes sugar. The goal is a firm, crumbly crust. Tarts are baked in a pan with a removable bottom, or in pastry ring on top of a baking sheet so that it can be unmolded before serving.”
A pie means something different: “A pie is a sweet or savory dish with a crust and a filling. The sides of a pie dish or pan are slopedIt can have a just a bottom, just a top, or both a bottom and a top crust. A pie crust is traditionally made of flour, salt, cold water, and lard (or shortening) but many pie crust recipes use a combination of fats such as butter, lard, or vegetable shortening, or just butter. The goal is a crisp, flaky crust. Pies are served straight from the dish in which they were baked.”
“A galette is a round pastry wrapped and fruit filled dessert that is baked on a baking sheet. They are very easy to make because they are virtually formless.” Source
The Quick Rhubarb Strawberry Galette
We always discuss with Alp, he loves pies with cream filling, I like them but I also like tarts and galettes. And we both call them all “tarts”!
Anyway, with all the sun we had this end of april, we decided to not to waste the rhubarbs and make a tart. (see?) This galette recipe is quite easy, it’s not worth calling a recipe! Clean the outer fibery part of rhubarbs, cut the rhubarbs and strawberries, put them on tart doug (feuilleté, please!), sprinle with sugar and cook in the oven preheated to 180C, that’s it!
I add strawberries because when you clean the fibery parts of the rhubarb you loose the beautiful reds. Also when cooking, all the juice from strawberries give the galette a nice and bright colour.
If you don’t have tart dough, use any millefeuille dough. If you have the time you can also make your own dough but this recipe is a 5-minute one for me. Quick and light! Actually I make the same galette with apples, cinnamon and sugar (optional) at cold winter time. Keep in ming though, for rhubarb you need to add some sort of sugar (honey, maple syrup, …) because it is not sweet as apples. Also the sugar merges with the fruit juice to create a sweet-sour jelly which I like a lot. To be sure the fruit juice is not too much, you can sprinkle a little bit of flour. The whites you see in the picture are the flour.
By the way all the aromatic herbs are at (or close to) their best now so remember to use them a lot!
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