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It was also what Rapunzel's mother was craving during her pregnancy that ultimately caused her incarceration.



http://embritadesign.blogspot.com

My ex's grandmother, who happened to be Latvian caterer, made delicious rhubarb juice.

mmmmmm

@EmmieB Actually, Rapunzel's mother was craving mâche, not rhubarb. http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/ingredients-vegetables/san-francisco-market-report-mache-045165

Strawberry-rhubarb pie is SOOO good! Also, when I was a kid we would break off a ripe stalk, take the first tart bite, and then dip in in a small Dixie cup of sugar :) Delish!

I have a huge rhubarb patch. It freezes really well. Try the juice with a little vodka or gin for a pretty pink cocktail. The pie is unusual with pecans, but delicious!

My favorites - -

For Juice:
RHUBARB GINGER COOLER
• 3 1/2 lb fresh rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (10 cups)
• 2 1/2 cups cold water
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped peeled fresh ginger
• About 2 cups sparkling water
• Bring rhubarb, cold water, sugar, and ginger to a simmer in a 4- to 5-quart pot over moderate heat, uncovered, stirring once or twice, then simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat and let steep, uncovered, 1 hour.
• Pour mixture through a large fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, gently stirring but not pressing on solids (discard solids; you will have about 6 cups syrup). Chill syrup completely, about 45 minutes.
• Serve syrup in glasses over ice with a splash of sparkling water.


For Pie:
Rhubarb Orange Cream Pie

3 eggs, separated
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. butter
3 Tbl frozen orange juice concentrate

1 c. sugar
¼ c. flour
¼ tsp. Salt
2 ½ c. rhubarb, ½ inch dice

1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell
1/3 c. chopped pecans

Beat egg whites until stiff, adding in 1/4c. sugar. Mix butter with o.j. and yolks. Beat in sugar, flour and salt. Add rhubarb. Fold in egg whites. Pour into pie shell. Sprinkle with pecans. Bake on the bottom rack for 15 min at 375. Continue baking at 325 for 45-50 minutes or until set and brown.

I use Gourmet's recipe for Rhubarb Ginger cooler for the juice. Very Yummy. My mom's pie is the best.

Rhubarb Cream Pie:
3 eggs, separated
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. butter
3 Tbl frozen orange juice concentrate

1 c. sugar
¼ c. flour
¼ tsp. Salt
2 ½ c. rhubarb, ½ inch dice

1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell
1/3 c. chopped pecans

Beat egg whites until stiff, adding in 1/4c. sugar. Mix butter with o.j. and yolks. Beat in sugar, flour and salt. Add rhubarb. Fold in egg whites. Pour into pie shell. Sprinkle with pecans. Bake on the bottom rack for 15 min at 375. Continue baking at 325 for 45-50 minutes or until set and brown.

My mom freezes the stalks as well. She makes just a straight-up rhubarb pie, nothing fancy, just GOOD.

I agree, rhubarb pie without strawberries is the best.

I make chunky, rhubarb sauce and pour it over yogurt. Yummm...the sauce is also very good with on a mix fruit salad and a splash of yogurt and in strawberry-rhubarb jam.
The elderly lady down the street was given rhubarb as a child to "clean out her internal pipes." apparently, to some people, rhubarb is a powerful diauretic.

Other than the requisite desserts, you can also prepare rhubarb as a savory side. My mom's good friend makes a lavender roasted chicken with a side of (barely sweetened or unsweetened) stewed rhubarb in the spring. Yum!

Unless you have kidney stones--rhubarb is full of oxalic acid.

I did this recipe from Gourmet.com for passover and it was AMAZING!!!

Instead of Matzoh, you could do a cobbler topping now I suppose:

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote with Matzoh Streusel Topping

If you can’t find matzo cake meal, grind batches of regular matzo meal in a clean electric coffee/spice grinder until it has the consistency of flour. View more Passover menu ideas in our slideshow.
For compote

1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons potato starch
2 lb strawberries (4 pints), trimmed and halved (6 cups)
1 1/2 lb rhubarb stalks, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices (4 cups)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
For streusel topping

1 1/4 cups matzo cake meal
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup potato starch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter or margarine, cut into pieces and softened
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F.
Prepare compote:

Stir together sugar and potato starch, then gently toss with strawberries, rhubarb, lemon juice, and zest. Transfer mixture to an ungreased shallow 3-quart (13- by 9- by 2-inch) baking dish.
Make topping and bake:

Whisk together matzo cake meal, brown sugar, potato starch, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture forms small clumps. Crumble streusel evenly over top of compote and bake until fruit is bubbling and topping is golden, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool to warm on a rack before serving.

my earliest memory of rhubarb is as a kid eating it straight from the garden dipped in brown sugar (thanks, dad!). mmmm....
my mom loves stewed rhubarb (basically cut it up, stick it in a pot with just enough water to cover, simmer 'til it turns to mush - sweeten with a bit of sugar if desired).
my (and my sisters') favourite is strawberry rhubarb pie though!

@ EmmieB and Kathyrin Hill: wasn't it rapini Rapunzel's mother was craving?

@ Kathryn, I pulled out my old Grimm's and we're both wrong: It's Rampion, which is an herb. Although Shelley Duvall craved radishes....I'm sure at some point it was maiche and rhubarb...things like that get lost sometimes.


I'm copying down all of those recipes. We get rhubarb in our farm box today!

also - it's on a Treehugger slideshow as something pretty and edible to plant in your garden.

http://embritadesign.blogspot.com

Last summer we picked raspberries and I found a recipe for raspberry rhubarb jam that sounded great. We ended up eating too many of the raspberries to make the jam, so instead I made a raspberry rhubarb buckle that was really good!

http://good-life-eats.blogspot.com/2008/10/raspberry-goodness.html

The almost 90 years old widower next door has a patch of rhubarb that his wife planted and used for pies. The rhubarb should be about ready for cutting sometime this week and he has offered it to me.

He said that his "pie maker has gone to heaven".

I'm hoping there is enough there for four strawberry rhubarb pies and that the grocery store has a sale on strawberries. Two pies for the widower to share with his family, one for us, and one more for the new neighbor who moved in next door.

It never hurts to provide a homemade pie for the police officer who just moved in next door.

I love rhubarb--both for its musky flavor and that gorgeous color! But I'd always been sad to mush it into jam, there's just something so perfect about the stalks when you first pick them. I've found using them in tarts and such, if you soak them in a little orange juice first, they get as tender as when they're stewed, but keep their shape and that beautiful pink color.

This is my favorite recipe, thus far: http://hungryoyster.blogspot.com/2009/04/rhubarb-tart-cake.html