wierd fruit

my mommy and daddy needed a pick-me-up tonight, so we went over with this:


rhubarb is wierd...i mean, think about it. it is a fruit? it looks like pink celery. i can't say i feel entirely comfortable with it's form, but it's content has put me greatly (to my surprise) at ease.

i had never dared use rhubarb before, but i all of sudden got a hankering to make a strawberry-rhubarb something or other. i didn't want to make a full pie, so i decided upon a galette. i LOVE this rustic form of dessert.

i had to sort of fudge my way through it because i didn't know what i was doing. i ended up using the skeleton of a filling recipe from one book and joined it to the flesh of a dough recipe from another book. i was afraid it wasn't going to turn out because i couldn't tell for sure how much sugar to use. anyhoo, because i knew nothing about how rhubarb works its wonders, i couldn't be sure it wasn't going to come out too sour, or too sweet for that matter.

but, one's fears are put to rest (or are realized!)when one takes a bite. ;) joe was seriously delirious over it, my mom wanted a double portion, and my dad, though he didn't want any at first, said it was the best pastry-category dessert he's ever had.

thus, you all MUST have this in your reperatoire. i'm saying it's "my" recipe because i had to patchwork quilt the recipe together from different sources and then make some personal changes/additions. but it's super easy to make! just beware, the juice from the strawberries can bubble itself out and make a mess of your pan. and, if you make one big galette out of the dough (like i did here), kudos to you if you can figure out how to get it off the pan and onto the serving platter in one piece (maybe if you let it cool entirely...but then of course you have to make sure that your crust won't stick itself permanently to your pan by means of all that sugary berry juice). smaller ones handle just fine transferring from the pan to the serving dish or dessert plate.

strawberry rhubarb pie

by jen carlson

crust:

2 1/4 C. flour
1/4 C. sugar
pinch of salt
12 Tbl. butter
ice cold water

combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl of kitchenaid. cut in butter on medium-high speed till the butter is small pellets. with the motor running, add some of the cold water a bit at a time, enough to make the dough just start to come together. it's easy to add too much liquid, so stop pouring in the water and wait to see if the dough begins to gather itself together - at that point, you're good to go. dump dough out of the bowl and form into a general round. wrap and put in fridge for 30 mintues. meanwhile, do up the filling.

filling:

3 C. rhubarb, sliced into half-inch pieces (about four stalks)

2 C. strawberries, sliced lenghtwise in half

1 C. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 C. flour (you could up that a bit so there's not as much juice to ruin your pan)

add all ingredients to a big bowl, and stir to combine. let sit for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, to let the sugar set into the rhubarb.

when the dough is chilled, roll it out (not super thin) into a circle, about 15 inches or so across. move dough circle to baking sheet. pile in the filling, leaving room around the edge to fold the extra dough over. pinch extra dough up over the filling, brush dough with milk, and sprinkle with a little sugar. bake for 30 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven.