RHUBARB!!! It’s up in the back yard now, yay!!!
Here’s an easy recipe for a delicious topping for vanilla ice cream. “Delicious” assuming that you like both rhubarb and balsamic vinegar. [edit: and ginger.] It has a lot of flavor. Note that it’s not cooked. It has a nice zing to it. (I tried cooking some of it once to see what that would do to it, and it turned it into something very…ordinary. Don’t cook it.)
Most of the people I’ve served this to have really liked it. A friend served it to her book club and every one of the attendees loved it. But one of my siblings didn’t care one way or the other. If you try it, let me know how you liked it.
If you have rhubarb growing, I’d recommend using young, thin, tender stalks if you can—1/4 to 3/8-inch thick would be good—since it won’t be cooked. I think it looks nice with 1/4-inch stalks cut into 1/4-inch slices so it looks diced. And since it’s very tart and each piece of rhubarb packs a wallop of flavor when you bite into it, small pieces work well taste-wise, I think.
The rhubarb of course will have some crunch to it. Be sure to let the compote sit a bit (at least 30 minutes) before you serve it. It’s quick to make. If you don’t make it earlier, make it before the meal, and it’s ready to serve for dessert.
Best with good-quality vanilla ice cream.
Balsamic Rhubarb Compote
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger root
2 cups chopped fresh rhubarb stalks (leaves discarded, ends trimmed, and stalks cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices)
Procedure:
Mix.
Let sit 30 minutes (or more) to draw the juices from the rhubarb and allow it to soften a bit and let the flavors meld.
Makes about 2 cups
Recipe initially found at The Rhubarb Compendium by Dan Eisenreich. “More than you ever wanted to know about rhubarb” http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/sauce
I changed the wording a bit.
Last summer I had some Balsamic Rhubarb Compote left over, and I put it in the freezer. Recently I put it into a frozen-fruit smoothie that I was making in the blender—frozen banana, frozen raspberries, frozen concentrated orange juice, and whole milk, as I usually do—plus some of the frozen balsamic rhubarb compote. Wow, delicious, I’m going to do that again!