Ode to Strawberries Part 3: Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

This last Sunday we picked up our first CSA box of the season and I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. We received a nice assortment of fruits and vegetables and even a potted plant. Picking up the box is also kind of exciting, because you don’t really know what you are going to get. It reminded me of the feeling I used to get as a little kid buying one of those “mystery” goody bags at the toy store, and then eagerly ripping open the bag to see just what treasures it held. One of the treasures this week were 2 pints of fresh, red strawberries. But like anything in life, along with the treasures also come the challenges. This weeks challenge was the rhubarb. I have never cooked with rhubarb, and really know very little about it. What I did know was that it needs to be cooked for awhile, and that it supposedly goes well with strawberries. Looking at the rhubarb itself was a bit daunting. Raw rhubarb basically looks like a big fuschia celery stick. I toyed with the idea of making some sort of jam, cake, or crisp but ultimately decided on this crumble. I also toyed with the idea of not using the rhubarb at all, but that would be wasteful and I promised myself that if we purchased the CSA box this summer I would utilize every last piece of produce, so I made the crumble. And I am so glad I did! This crumble was very simple to prepare, smelled great while baking and came out of the oven, gooey, sweet and well, crumbly. This crumble topping is super versatile and I can’t wait to use it again in a month or so when raspberries and blackberries are in season!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

For the Filling:

1 Cup rhubarb, chopped roughly into 1 inch pieces
1 ½ Cup strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/3 Cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt

For the Topping:

1 1/3 Cup flour
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 Teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In an 8 x 8 pan, (you could use a 9 inch pan, or a pie pan, I actually used a 10 inch oval gratin dish.) mix the ingredients for the filling together. Your hands work best for this! Spread filling evenly over bottom of pan. In medium bowl, mix together ingredients for the crumble topping until small and large lumps form. (I.e; crumbles). Sprinkle topping generously over filling. Bake in oven until topping is golden brown and bubbly, about 45-50 minutes. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Ode to Strawberries Part 2: Strawberry, Walnut, & Goat Cheese Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

The weather yesterday was crazy, like a scene out of the Wizard of Oz. Sofia and I were cruising the farmers market (a mini one in the park behind my house, just started, yay!) and buying strawberries. Well I was the one buying while Sofia was “sampling” more like grabbing at all of them on the table and trying to stuff them in her mouth…Anyway, it was hot and sunny, humid, and downright uncomfortable. We walked back to the house and I stripped my little bug down to her designer Costco diaper, filled our glasses with ice water, opened all the windows and tried to cool off. Then within minutes, the wind picked up, the sky turned dark, lightning and thunder ensued and it began to hail. Yikes! Then again, it did add a dose of excitement to our day. The power in the Pearl District (where Jon works) was knocked out still today so Jon got an impromptu 3 day weekend….

Those strawberries? Well, I made a salad with them. The type of salad that makes a fantastic lunch, but add some grilled chicken and you have dinner. It is also the type of salad that comes in handy if say a thunderstorm rolls through and your power is knocked out….

Riesling would go very well with this salad!

3 Ounces goat cheese, crumbled
½ Pint sliced strawberries, sliced
½ Cup walnut halves, toasted
10 Ounces fresh spinach
¼ Cup apple cider vinegar
½ Cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon pomegranate molasses or syrup*
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

* You might be asking yourself what you would do with the rest of a bottle of pomegranate molasses, besides making the obvious vinaigrette. Pomegranate molasses actually makes an excellent marinade for meats (I have coated a turkey in it several times) and also can be used in mixed drinks.

Whisk together the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, honey, pomegranate molasses, and thyme until emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper, set aside.
Place spinach in serving bowl, top with strawberries and walnuts. Sprinkle with goat cheese, and drizzle the vinaigrette over! Serve!

Ode to Strawberries Part 1 : Lemon Yogurt Cake with Strawberry Sauce

June marks the start of the strawberry season up here in Oregon. The return of the strawberry really does scream “summer has arrived!“. (If strawberries could scream that is….). The lines outside the booths selling them at the farmers market this morning looked like something out of 1980’s Moscow. (I would have taken a picture but it was way too crowded!) Despite all that wading through the crowd in the heat, it is definitely worth it for a pint or flat of the season’s first strawberries. The different booths offer samples to customers, so you can decide for yourself which farm offers the best berries. The added bonus? Most of the strawberry farms are from Corvallis, so if you wear your Oregon State gear, (which my husband always does) you will probably wind up with a few extra berries!

Fresh berries from the farm really do taste better! They are redder, naturally sweeter, and juicier than the ones at the grocery store, because they get to ripen on the vine before being taken to market. So go and buy some strawberries now while you can, whether it be from your local farmers market, farm, or roadside stand!

Coming home with this bounty of strawberries, I was so excited! Would I make lunch with them? Dessert? Or would I just eat them all plain, straight out of the basket? After calming down from my strawberry euphoria, I realized that I could do all those things and if need be, go back and push through the crowds to buy more.....

I have a confession to make. As much as I have stated in this blog and proclaimed aloud to my family, that I hate baking, I have started to like it. Maybe it is the controlled process, the concentrated measuring, or the gleeful smile on Jon’s face when I pull something sweet out of the oven, but baking has really started to appeal to me. This weekend, I really had an urge to make some sort of lemon cake. The two recipes it came down to were by Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) and Molly Wizenberg (The Orangette). Molly’s French style lemon yogurt cake won out for two reasons: one, her chocolate chip banana bread recipe totally rocks, and two, I read that she met her husband Brandon via this recipe. Um, how romantic is that? So I had to make this cake, and of course I also had to make a strawberry sauce to serve alongside it! The way I make my strawberry sauce is more of a jammy consistency then a refined sauce. If you would like the sauce to be more syrupy, add another ½ cup of sugar, if you don’t want seeds, then pour sauce through a mesh strainer. This cake is wonderful, lemony, and crumbly, without being overly sweet. We found excuses to eat it all weekend, justifying our gluttony by insisting that the strawberry topping somehow made it healthy. I made this cake Saturday afternoon and it was gone by Sunday evening!

Makes 8 Servings

For the Cake:

1 ½ Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
2 Teaspoons lemon zest
Pinch of salt
½ Cup plain WHOLE milk yogurt
1 Cup sugar
3 Large eggs
½ Cup vegetable oil

For the Lemon Syrup:

¼ Cup powdered sugar
¼ Cup lemon juice

For the Lemon Icing:

1 Cup powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons lemon juice

For the Strawberry Sauce:

1 Cup sliced strawberries
¼ Cup sugar
½ Cup water
1 Teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9 inch round cake pan with butter. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, grease that too. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lemon zest and mix well. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt sugar and eggs, stirring to mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the oil and stir well, until it becomes a smooth yellow batter. Pour into the pan. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes. (Insert toothpick into center of cake, if toothpick comes out clean, cake is done!) Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, using a butter knife along the sides of the pan, invert the cake onto a plate. Remove the parchment paper, and invert the cake back onto the cooling rack. Set the rack on a baking sheet so that it will catch the dripping icing.

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon syrup ingredients. Spoon the syrup over the warm cake slowly. Cool cake completely.

Meanwhile, combine strawberries, sugar, water, and lemon juice and bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Let cool.

In a small bowl, combine the lemon icing ingredients. Make sure to mix well so the sugar is completely dissolved. Spoon the icing over the cake. Let sit about 1 hour. Serve cake with strawberry sauce.