Spring

It is hard to believe I've been in Colorado for almost a year now. The snow has come and gone and it's currently 72 degrees outside. The farmer's market has started up again in Boulder, and it's officially spring here at 5,000 feet. A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about a certain Strawberry Rhubarb pie. Do you remember? It's luscious and juicy and bright, like a early May morning right after it rains. It's a hard one to beat, when it comes to seasonal fruit desserts. Still, I love to try new things once in a while, and I've never made a tart or pie with solely rhubarb. So, my darlings, when I saw this recipe for these little rustic rhubarb tarts with a corn flour crust in my current favorite cookbook, I just had to try it. They're like mini french galettes, but with a intriguing twist. Deb at Smitten Kitchen had interesting variation on the compote, with vanilla instead of hibiscus, and that sounded better to me, so I went with her version. 



You start by making the aforementioned compote with rhubarb, a vanilla bean, and a nice hefty dose of brown sugar. The cooked fruit becomes pleasingly jammy and soft, and turns a very dark red hue. Then you make a quite unusual tart dough with corn flour, cornmeal and regular flour, that is bit crumbly at first but comes together in the end. You gently pat out little circles of the dough with the palm of your hand, fill the circles with the compote, and then fold up the edges of the crust to form rustic little packages. The result? I found them delicate and nicely tart, the crust slightly sweet and very tender. I polished off a whole one in a matter of minutes. The Perfect Afternoon Treat is often talked about, but this really is it, no lie.  


In other news, my sister is getting married in about month, in California, and I'm her maid-of-honor. I just know it's going to be the most beautiful day! With lots of good food of course, too. It's all very exciting. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the warm weather here. I'm going to wear lots of dresses and skirts and hopefully ride my bike around town. The other day I wore sandals for the first time in months, and I felt so light and free. I'm going to be drinking lots of Pellegrino with lime and eating frozen yogurt with fresh berries often, that's for sure. There's tulips everywhere downtown, and the warm evenings usher in drinking on rooftops and eating on patios. And let's not forget about picnics! The dry mountain air can be a little intoxicating sometimes here (to some of us anyway), and when you combine that with the heat, it can make one feel a little delirious, but in the best possible way. 


Now, moving on to lemonade and peanut butter cookies, once again. Doesn't that sound nice? I think it does. 

You can find the recipe for the rhurbarb tarts right here.

Comments

Popular Posts