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Strawberry Rhubarb (and Orange) Crisp

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp from Serious Crust

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp from Serious Crust
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp from Serious Crust

Well friends, my favorite season is upon us. The season of rhubarb. The time of year when I try to fit in as many strawberry-rhubarb (or just rhubarb) recipes as my taste buds can handle, which is usually not a problem. These days, I buy a large bag of rhubarb every weekend at the farmers market, and then I whip something up late in the week to enjoy over the weekend. Thus far, I’ve made a pie, some compote, rhubarb simple syrup so I can make these, and this strawberry rhubarb crisp.

I found the inspiration for this recipe on a blog I love, and read at least a few times a week called Design Sponge. It’s a beautiful design blog, full of postings about furniture DIYs, beautiful spaces, colors, living in, city guides, recipes, party ideas, women running their own businesses… the list goes on and on. I find so many things on this blog that inspire me, and so many of their pictures make me wish I could be wherever the photo was taken. Seriously, I recommend it.

Anyway, I thought this recipe would be especially nice because of the addition of the sweet citrus of orange to the usual strawberry-rhubarb-ness. It’s always nice to try a little twist to shake things up, no? I made the filling (based on the recipe I found on the website), and my roommate Carmelle made the topping (and did not follow a recipe at all – she’s like that), so while mine had a different topping, I’ll give you the topping they have on Design Sponge. I also doubled the amount of filling, mostly because I had a ton of strawberries and rhubarb to use up, but I’ll give you the smaller portions, and you can double if you’d like.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

2 cups fresh rhubarb, diced (about 3 stalks)
2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced into large pieces
3/8 cup sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (depending on how juicy your strawberries are, you may want more)
1/4 cup orange juice (preferably fresh-squeezed, as per usual)

Crisp Topping

3/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup quick cooking (not instant) oatmeal
7 tablespoons (about 3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

Whipped cream or ice cream for serving

Instructions

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. To make the filling, mix the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, and orange zest together in a large bowl. In a measuring cup, dissolve the cornstarch in the orange juice and mix it into the rest of the filling. Drain about 1/2 cup of juice from the mixture into a cup and set aside (you will use this later to pour over individual servings). The best way to do this is get an extra person to help you tip the bowl while keeping the fruit in with a wooden spoon. Pour the filling into an 8×8 baking dish and place it on a sheet pan (not a terrible idea to line it with parchment paper or foil).

Crisp Topping

In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the sugars, flour, salt and oatmeal. With the mixer on low speed, add the butter and mix until the dry ingredients are moist and the mixture is in crumbles. You want the butter to stay cold, so if you don’t have a mixer, either work quickly with your hands or use a pastry cutter type thing. Sprinkle the topping over the filling, covering it completely, and bake for about 45 minutes, until the filling is bubbling and the topping is golden brown.

Allow to cool, and once it has you can pour that drained juice from earlier over the top of each serving (Or, if you’re lazy, you can pour it over the whole dish). Serve warm with fresh whipped cream (or vanilla ice cream, if that’s how you roll).

Fried Baby Artichokes

Fried Baby ArtichokesFried Baby Artichokes

We have been hitting up our local farmers market like crazy. If you live in Portland and you don’t go to the PSU Farmers Market on Saturdays, you are seriously missing out. Especially when the weather is beautiful and there is SO MUCH PRODUCE everywhere to be found. It’s really incredible.

Lately, Jonah and I have bought chanterelles, fennel, fiddlehead ferns, rhubarb (so much rhubarb), strawberries, a chicken, radishes, leeks, lamb steaks, sunchokes, spring onions, cheese… the list goes on. There is so much delicious local food to be found, it’s like being in heaven. And these mounds of food and people walking around in sundresses and shorts with bouquets of flowers are all so beautiful.

Anyway, one of my favorite things we’ve found at the market is baby artichokes. Have you ever had fried baby artichokes at a restaurant? It’s a common Italian dish. The leaves get crispy and a little burnt and it’s really yummy. So when we brought these home, we knew we wanted to make that dish. We found a simple recipe on Martha Stewart’s website, and Jonah took over the making of these little guys. We bought 8 of them to cook, but the recipe is obviously variable depending on how many you want to make.

Fried Baby Artichokes

Ingredients

8-12 baby artichokes
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt, plus some for serving
4 cloves garlic (or more, if you want), lightly crushed
lemon for serving

Instructions

Prepare the artichokes by removing the tough outer leaves, cutting off the top third of the , and peeling the tough dark green layer from the stems with a paring knife. I know, it seems like you’re losing a lot of artichoke here, but you’re really just getting rid of all the really tough parts that would make this whole thing harder and far less pleasant to eat.

Pour the oil and 1/2 cup water into a medium sized, deep, heavy pot and add the artichokes and 1/2 tsp of sea salt. Turn the heat on to medium-high, and let them cook, turning them over occasionally (you don’t want them to get burned on one side). Cook them until the water has evaporated and the oil starts to spit, which, trust me, it will. This will take about 8-10 minutes.

When the water has cooked off, add the garlic to the pot and reduce the heat to medium. Cover the pot with a spatter screen or an sieve turned upside down (Nice tip Martha! Sadly our sieve wasn’t big enough for our pot… I’m thinking it’s time to invest in a spatter screen). Continue cooking the artichokes and turning them occasionally, until they’re tender and golden brown all over (should be another ~10 minutes). Now take some tongs and put them upside down (or cut-side down, however you want to think about it) in the pan, pressing them down and wiggling them around to kind of loosen up and separate the leaves. Leave them upside down and let them cook like that for another 5 minutes, until the leaves/edges are dark and crispy. Using your tongs, transfer artichokes and garlic from the pan to a plate covered in paper towels. Put the artichokes cut sides down at first, if you can, so they can drain a little bit.

Sprinkle them with salt, squeeze some lemon over top, and serve!

Kale, Squash, and a Runny Yolk

Kale, squash, and a runny yolk

Sometimes you just need an easy dinner. You need to comb through your fridge, scrounge what ingredients you can, and stand there, for a minute, gazing at your collection, trying to figure out what you can make with all of this. It doesn’t have to be fancy, or even graceful, but tasting good and mildly cohesive would be nice. You’ve got a bunch of kale that you really should use soon, a small, friendly looking butternut squash, and a jalapeño. And eggs. Luckily, the roommates always keep lots of eggs around. And do you know what brings a dish together with ease? A runny yolk.

So you slice up the butternut squash, drizzle with olive oil and salt, mix in some chopped garlic, and lay it out on a baking sheet, laying a couple rosemary springs atop it all, sliding it into the oven to roast. You sautée up the kale with more oil, salt, and garlic, and even some jalapeño. And then, to finish it all off, you soft boil a couple of eggs (one for you and one for the tall fellow you eat dinner with). Simple as that, you have dinner.

Kale, Squash, and a Soft Boiled Egg

Ingredients

A small butternut squash, olive oil, and salt (and anything you’d like to roast with it)
1 bunch of kale, garlic, olive oil, and salt
Eggs

Instructions

Peel and cube or slice the butternut squash into whatever shapes you like to eat. Slide into the oven at about 375 and roast until easily pierced with a fork. Sautée kale with a tsp of olive oil, chopped garlic, and a sprinkling of salt. If you want the kale to steam and wilt a little more, you can add some water to the pan (no more than 1/4 cup) and cover with a lid. After letting the kale steam for a bit, remove the lid and let the water cook off.

To soft boil the eggs, bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop the eggs in, allow to cook for 6 minutes (this can be adjusted depending on how you like your eggs). After 6 minutes, remove the eggs with a slotted spoon, run under cold water, and peel.

Put your egg on top of your kale and squash to let the yolk run over the veggies a bit. It adds a nice rich creaminess. Enjoy.

Simple Brownies with Almond

Simple Brownies

Simple Brownies

My co-worker Kelly, who I’ve written about before, has a commune dinner every Monday night. He lives near a bunch of his friends and all of them and their kids (and their pets) all convene for dinner every week. A few weeks ago, Jonah and started joining in. It’s really nice to have that sense of community, which I think can be hard to find when you’re in your 20s and you don’t live near your family.

Going over to Kelly’s on Mondays is so calming. Every member of this group is so kind and funny. They have been having these meals for I’m not sure how many years, but they weren’t even phased when Jonah and I started showing up every week, and have been so incredibly welcoming, pulling up chairs to the table and always making sure we have a drink in our hand. It immediately feels like we’re a part of this family, with the two little boys running around the house and the dogs barking outside. And they feed us delicious food, so I can’t complain.

The first night we went, instead of just grabbing a bottle of wine and heading over (which I was later scolded for not doing), I decided to whip up a batch of brownies. There’s a relatively quick recipe in An Everlasting Meal, so I pulled it out and made a couple of adjustments (mainly replacing half a teaspoon of the vanilla extract with almond extract), and they turned out to be a huge hit. The almond was a really nice and unique flavor with the chocolate.

Simple Almond Brownies

Ingredients

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 sticks butter
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup flour
a handful (or 2) of chocolate chips, or walnuts

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13×9 inch baking dish or pan. In a double boiler on the stove (or a heat proof bowl or a pot over a pot of simmering water), melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring so it’s all nice and smooth. Remove the bowl or pot from heat and let it cool. Once it is cool, add the eggs, beating after each addition. Add the sugar, vanilla, and almond, stir, and then add the flouring, stirring until combined. Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle the chocolate chips (or walnuts, if you’re using them) on top. You can put on as many as you like or as few. Bake for about 30 minutes, but do the clean knife/toothpick check at 20. Mine took roughly 35 minutes. Enjoy!