The annual appearance of firm red and green rhubarb stalks in farmers’ markets heralds that winter is finally over. Knowing rhubarb season is fleeting, I usually buy enough to fill my baking and cooking cravings. This year, it’s time for a Strawberry-glazed Rhubarb Yogurt Cheesecake.
My affinity for rhubarb started early. In our first small garden in America, my father, Tato, nostalgic for plants that grew in Ukraine, planted several short thick rhubarb rhizomes. After a few warm weeks each spring, red and green stalks began to peek out of the ground, which by the end of May or June grew into enormous spreading bushes with dark green ruffled fan-like leaves.
I eagerly awaited the stalks to grow about one foot tall so Tato would give me a special treat – a piece of raw rhubarb dipped in sugar. I was in seventh heaven quickly chewing on the stalk to release its sour juice sweetened by repeated dunking in sugar crystals.
For years I thought munching on raw sugar-sweetened rhubarb was Tato’s Ukrainian creation until I learned that children throughout Scandinavia, and in pioneer families like Laura Ingall’s homesteading on the American plains, also enjoyed this special springtime treat.
Eating it raw wasn’t the only way my family enjoyed rhubarb during its short season. I remember rhubarb in slab pies and tarts, compotes and other baked treats, and especially a cold rhubarb soup garnished with a swirl of sweetened heavy cream.
But today’s American cooks remember rhubarb (also called “pieplant”) as a rustic and quaint relic of their grandmothers’ kitchens, although home cooks in small northern communities of the US, where pie-making and canning are still practiced, incorporate rhubarb in baked goods, preserves or sauces. In other parts of America, however, cooks are unfamiliar with rhubarb, and view it as an unusual ingredient. No doubt rhubarb’s short growing season and its limited distribution in American groceries has discouraged cooks from experimenting with it at home. Some cooks recall that it is poisonous and are nervous to cook with it. Restaurant chefs occasionally include rhubarb on spring menus in savory and sweet dishes.
Rhubarb (botanical name Rheum rhabarbarum) is an herbaceous perennial cold-climate vegetable* best grown in gardens and fields where temperatures fall below 40°F (4.4 °C) and in hothouses in northern parts of the globe. Field-grown rhubarb is harvested from late April through June, depending on the regional climate. The season for hothouse-grown rhubarb is longer.
The edible part of the rhubarb is the petiole, the stem-like stalk that attaches the leaf to the main plant. Rhubarb stalks have a crisp structure resembling celery and a pronounced sour taste with an aroma vaguely reminiscent of sour green apples. The roots and leaves of rhubarb containing oxalic acid are inedible and are routinely discarded.
Traditional Chinese medicine recognized rhubarb’s digestive and purgative properties as early as 2700 BCE. Dried rhubarb was a valued commodity along the Silk Road. According to Laura Kelley, author of The Silk Road Gourmet, “the finest quality rhubarb was more expensive than cinnamon or saffron.” By the 11th century, the plant’s rhizomes were transported by travelers across the Eurasian continent to northern European countries where it quickly adapted to the European climate. For the next six centuries, rhubarb’s use continued to be medicinal, sold primarily by druggists.
“By the 18th century the English were using [rhubarb] to make sweet pies and tarts,” says Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking. But when settlers brought rhubarb to New England in the late 18th century, its culinary uses were well-established in northern Europe. Over the next two centuries, pioneer women carried rhubarb rhizomes across the plains on the westward trek, expanding its cultivation throughout the northern United States and Canada. Currently, fifty percent of commercial production of rhubarb is in Pierce County, Washington; the remaining fifty percent is grown in Alaska, Oregon and Michigan.
As rhubarb’s culinary uses grew over the centuries, its medicinal applications declined. Nonetheless, rhubarb, low in cholesterol and calories, is still valued for its beneficial nutritional qualities. According to the USDA’s National Nutrient Database, rhubarb’s valuable components are dietary fiber, protein, vitamin C, vitamin K, B complex vitamins, iron, potassium, manganese, magnesium, calcium and polyphenolic flavonoids like beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin.
Culinarily, rhubarb is recognized by many cooks as a versatile vegetable presenting unlimited sweet and savory possibilities. Cooking rhubarb with sugar, honey or maple syrup balances its sourness and softens the plant’s fibrous texture. Rhubarb’s thick, juicy stalks can be used is used raw or blanched in baked goods such as cakes, cobblers, crisps, crumbles, muffins, jams, jellies, chutneys and other desserts, often flavored with orange zest, strawberries and raspberries and ginger. It also pairs well with dairy products and eggs, such as this Strawberry-glazed Rhubarb Yogurt Cheesecake.
Danish cooks bake breakfast rolls filled with rhubarb, marzipan, and rhubarb cake with cardamom and custard. Norwegians bake rhubarb cakes, plain or with almond and cardamom and love rhubarb pudding. Finnish cooks even add rhubarb compote to refreshing drinks. For decades my mother-in-law, Solveig Johnson, baked classic rhubarb-strawberry pies each spring in Tacoma.
Rhubarb shows up in soups, stews and other savory dishes as well where its natural sourness makes a nice counterbalance to the richness. Rhubarb is added to vegetable stews and used in spring salads. In Ukraine and Russia, rhubarb is added to soups and entrees to add freshness and sourness, often as a substitute for sorrel as, for example, in green borshch. In Poland, it is combined with potatoes and mushrooms in a gratin. In Iran, rhubarb khoresh combines lamb with rhubarb and herbs. In the British Isles, poultry, especially goose, stuffed with rhubarb is a special occasion dish. Rhubarb enhances savory glazes, marinades and sauces, and pairs well with pork, chicken, game, quail and duck, as these stronger-tasting meats can stand up to the tartness.
This Strawberry-glazed Rhubarb Yogurt Cheesecake combines the classic rhubarb-strawberry pairing with a light, creamy cheese filling. Three steps of this recipe should be readied a day before baking: preparing pastry dough, preparing rhubarb and preparing yogurt cheese.
The preparation of dough is simple and can be done. I did it by hand, but it can also be quickly prepared in a food processor.
Preparing rhubarb takes a bit more care. Because rhubarb cooks fast in water and can dissolve into a purée quickly and I wanted distinct rhubarb strips, I blanched the rhubarb in gently simmering water for 1-2 minutes or so depending on thickness and quickly cooled it in iced water. Although for this recipe I sliced the rhubarb stalks into strips, rhubarb can be cut in any desired shape, but thicker pieces may require longer blanching.
The yogurt filling is based on labneh, a Lebanese strained yogurt** with cream cheese texture but with fewer calories. Preparing yogurt cheese requires draining yogurt overnight to remove much of the whey.
The resulting Strawberry-glazed Rhubarb Yogurt Cheesecake is a delectable blend of sweet and sour. The rhubarb pieces topping the creamy base are soft but retain their integrity. Adding the strawberry-rhubarb juice from maceration as a glaze perfectly balances out rhubarb’s tart flavor with the sweetness of strawberries and adds a lovely shine to this pie. This rhubarb-strawberry and yogurt combination creates a tangy, delicious dessert.
Strawberry-glazed Rhubarb Yogurt Cheesecake
For dough:
10.6 ounces (300 g) all-purpose flour
3½ ounces (100 g) confectioner’s sugar
1 pinch fine salt
7.1 ounces (200 g) butter, unsalted and very cold, cut into thin pats
2 tablespoons cold water
For rhubarb topping:
4 -5 stalks rhubarb ***
1 cup (250 ml) strawberry juice****
¼ cup (52 g) sugar
For cheesecake filling:
3 large eggs
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (220g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
14.11 ounces (400g) Greek yogurt, strained
Scant 1 cup (100g) sour cream
⅓ cup (43 g) flour
For strawberry glaze:
2½ teaspoons (7g) gelatin
Preparing dough: In a large bowl, whisk flour, powdered sugar and salt. Then add cold pats of butter.
Toss pats with flour, separating as you go. Then squeeze the pats flat with fingers, working fast to keep butter cold. When finished, the dough should have a coarse sand texture with thin pieces of flour coated butter still visible.
Stir in ice water a tablespoon at a time. Toss dough with a fork. The dough is ready when it looks crumbly but holds together when squeezed. Bring the dough together into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic film and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight. (Food processor instructions: Place all dough ingredients except water into the food processor’s bowl. Pulse a few times until combined; then add water and pulse a few times more until dough forms a ball on the blade. Empty dough on a lightly floured surface. Form into a ball; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.)
Preparing rhubarb: Wash and trim the rhubarb. Cut lengthwise into ¼ inch strips with a sharp knife or mandoline. (Rhubarb may be cut in any desired shape.) Pour several inches of water into a shallow large frying pan and gently simmer. Add rhubarb pieces and once water returns to simmer, blanch for exactly 1 minute. Test for tenderness with a toothpick. If soft, remove immediately to a large bowl of iced water and quickly drain in a colander. Place drained strips in a large bowl. Pour strawberry juice over rhubarb and press with a spoon to submerge all strips. Set aside to macerate for least 6 hours or overnight. (Macerating rhubarb in strawberry juice overnight adds strawberry flavor and further softens the stalks.)
Preparing yogurt: Empty yogurt into a colander lined with cheesecloth. Gather the cheesecloth edges to form a ball around the yogurt and tie into a knot. Hang cheesecloth covered yogurt over a bowl to drain whey overnight.
Preparing filling: In a bowl, place eggs, sugar, sour cream, yogurt and flour. Mix until with a spatula until combined. Then beat with a hand mixer until smooth.
Assembling cheescake: When ready to bake, heat oven to 375˚F (190˚C). Butter a 10-inch (26 cm) pie plate. Lightly flour the work surface and roll dough out to ¼ inch (.6 cm) thickness, 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter. Carefully ease the dough into the prepared pie plate. Trim the dough so that a 1-inch (2.54 cm) overhang remains. Tuck the overhanging dough under the pie dough and form a high decorative edge. Dock the dough with a fork so pastry shell remains flat during blind baking and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Line the pastry shell with a 16-inch (41 cm) piece of aluminum foil fitted inside the pan against the dough; fill the foil to the top of the pastry shell with pastry weights or dried beans. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the edge of the dough is lightly browned. Remove the foil and beans and fill any cracks with the reserved pastry dough. Continue baking the pastry shell for about 15 minutes longer, or until browned on the bottom. Transfer to a rack and let the pastry cool in pan.
Pour the filling into the pie shell.
Drain juice from the rhubarb strips, reserve juice for later use. Pat rhubarb dry with paper towels and dredge in sugar. Arrange rhubarb pieces on the filling, starting with the edge of the pie shell and working toward the middle filling in the pie plate in concentric circles.
Bake in the preheated oven at for 60 minutes or until filling at center reaches 155˚F (68˚C). Turn off the oven and cool pie for 10 minutes with the door open. Cool pie to room temperature. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preparing glaze: In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over a ¼ cup (62.5 ml) of reserved strawberry juice and set aside for 5 minutes to soften. Heat the gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin dissolves completely. Remove from stove and stir in remaining juice. Cool to room temperature.
Carefully pour glaze over the cheesecake until rhubarb is coated. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours for the glaze to set.
Serves 8-10.
*In the United States, however, rhubarb is legally considered a fruit since 1947 when the U.S. Customs Court in Buffalo, New York ruled that rhubarb should be considered a fruit because it is used typically as a fruit.http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/labneh-savory-sweet-versatility/
** http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/labneh-savory-sweet-versatility/
*** Note on selecting and preparing rhubarb: Stalks of medium thickness: 1-2 inches (2.54-5.08 cm) in diameter, nice and crisp, free of blemishes are best. The stalk’s color, often ranging from green to pink to red, does not affect flavor. Stalks should be thoroughly cleaned and cut at both ends. Generally, rhubarb does not have to be peeled, but blemishes should be cut out.
**** Strawberry juice can be made by draining and pureeing frozen strawberries until smooth in a blender or food processor. Then pouring the mixture through a sieve or strainer to separate the juice from the pulp.
One year ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/peruvian-causa-colorful-mashed-potato-starters-chicken-shrimp/
Two years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/labneh-savory-sweet-versatility/
Three years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/jeweled-buckwheat-salad-everyone/
Four years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/firemens-chicken/