Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Rhubarb Mint Cobbler

While JA and the kids were at VBS, Ezekiel and I took on a cooking project.  Again, trying to use what I have available in my yard, I googled rhubarb and mint and found this recipe.  However, after I went out and picked what I could (without stripping my rhubarb in an unhealthy manner, I could only get 1 pound of rhubarb (you shouldn't pick more than a third of a rhubarb plant at a time).  Thus, I am going to share the recipe here that I halved. Since, unless you have several rhubarb plants, you won't be able to harvest much more than a pound at a time (I have two plants).

Mommy's helper in picking the mint.
 We picked the rhubarb and the mint, and then washed and trimmed the rhubarb and rinsed the mint.  Remember to make sure you don't have any leaves left on the rhubarb.  I don't want you to get sick.  I actually found a fresh leaf growing up at the bottom of one of my stalks when I washed it.

 I then sliced the rhubarb, and chopped up the mint (1/4 cup) with my Pampered chef Food Chopper.   Add rhubarb, mint, and 1/4 cup, 1 tbsp, 1-3/4 tsp of sugar (I used splenda since I ran out of sugar yesterday!).  Add 1 tbsp of butter (oops, I guess I forgot something).
The rhubarb, mint, and splenda ready for the oven (forgot to add the butter).

Make sure you add the butter as this will help keep the rhubarb from sticking to the pan.  Place your pan in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven when rhubarb is soft and bubbly around the edges and stir with a rubber spatula.

While the rhubarb is cooking mix up your biscuit mixture - I would recommend using the full biscuit recipe if you like biscuits.  I halved the recipe, and think I ended up with too little biscuit mixture, so if I was making the full recipe with two pounds of rhubarb I would recommend doubling this.  Mix 1 cup of flour (I used fresh ground whole wheat flour), 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 5 tablespoons of sugar, and four tablespoons of butter. Mix together until the butter has the size of a grain of rice.  Then add 1/2 cup of milk (less one tablespoon - I just poured the milk just below the rim of the measuring cup).  Mix until the dough gathers in clumps (you may want to just use the spatula for this.)  Divide dough into eight equal pieces (ok, I know where my problem came -- I didn't divide the number of pieces in half :).  Lightly form each piece into a shaggy disk the size of a sausage patty.

Arrange biscuits on top of the hot rhubarb and sprinkle them with sugar (oops, another aspect I missed in the recipe - Hopefully all of you are better at following recipes than I am.)  Put the dish back in the oven and bake for another 20 minutes or until the biscuits are nicely browned.  Serve warm with vanilla or strawberry ice cream.
Now to take the small pan next door for my neighbor.  She is always showering us with cookies and fresh produce.  Now to return the favor.  Feel free to share what you have cooked up recently from what you found in your yard!

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