September 19, 2008

VERY Expensive Rhubarb Plant!

dWhen we moved to Montana, we bought this very expensive rhubarb plant.But it came with a free house! What a deal!

Sorry... old (and bad) joke...

I've been harvesting rhubarb all summer long, although I think this might be the last. I cut all the stalks today. Don't eat the leaves... they contain oxalic acid, which is poisonous.

Here's the scientific scoop:

Oxalic acid is a strong acid of the composition HOOC-COOH, which crystallizes as the ortho-acid (HO)3 CC (OH)3 . It is sometimes also called "ethane diacid", blah, blah, blah, blah...

Again... don't eat the leaves.
Give the stalks a good rinse in water.
Chop them into 1" pieces.
Put them in the freezer for a rainy day!
I'll try this recipe soon:

Rhubarb Cherry Pie
4 cups rhubarb, diced
1 (1 lb) can red tart pitted cherries, drained
1 c sugar
½ c quick cooking tapioca
Few drop of red food color
2 c flour
½ tsp salt
¾ c shortening
6 T cold water
1 T butter

Combine rhubarb, cherries, sugar, tapioca and food color; let stand 15 minutes.

Combine flour and salt in bowl; cut in shortening with pastry blender until mixture resembles cornmeal. Sprinkle water over mixture; stir ingredients quickly with fork until blended. Gather into a ball; divide in half. Roll out one half to a 12-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim even with edge of pan; moisten edge with cold water.

Spoon filling into pastry; dot with butter or margarine. Roll out second half of pastry as the first; fold in half; slash top with knife to vent steam. Place over filling with fold at center; unfold. Trim upper crust ½” beyond edge of plate, fold edge of top crust under edge of bottom crust. Flute with fingers. For a sparkling top, brush top of pie with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 for 45-50 minutes or until crust is golden.

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