White Sand or Rhubarb?

My husband is gone. Not gone, gone. Just back to work gone. For the time being, work has taken him to right around here. For how long? No one really knows. Maybe a month, maybe three. It is hard to say. Which is fine with me. Really, it is just fine. I don't mind one bit. Not at all, really. It is okay. I'm fine and I just need to keep telling myself that over and over and over and...

In an effort to console myself, and to keep myself from singing this to Poppy and Tilly, I remember that Stephen's job allows me to keep the dream of my kitchen sporting this in green and this and a new one of these alive. 

So, for now, my culinary whims have shifted. Shifted from grown-up cooking to trying not to have a battle at the supper table cooking. Tilly, toothless at almost eight months, has started to revolt against spoons. So, she eats chopped up supper, or should I say smears, throws and drops chopped up supper. I notice I have a much more laissez-faire attitude to feeding this one than I did with Poppy, but I still need to prepare a couple of versions of each meal. This all means that simplicity is key right now, which can be darn delicious and makes you feel better too.

The best way to get Poppy to eat something she isn't really enjoying is to bribe her, no I am not above bribing my children - needs must and all that, with dessert. Even better, a favourite dessert. And, believe it or not, most of those come containing rhubarb.

And no, we don't have our own little microclimate here. Rhubarb is not in season, almost but not quite. I am using up all of what is left in the freezer from last year's harvest to make room for new. So, there are a few rhubarb recipes coming in the next little while to prepare you for the glut. And doesn't that feel springish?

I have never used a recipe to make fruit crisp, but this one turned out really well, and I remembered to measure and make note of the quantities, so I thought I would share. Even the not so keen on rhubarb, Caribbean cruising husband (not that I mind) liked it. Although, that could have been the lashings of vanilla whipped cream he was really enjoying.

I chop the rhubarb when it is fresh and then freeze it in a single layer on a baking tray and transfer it to a zipper bag ready to draw us out of winter depths when needed. For this recipe, I used it straight from the freezer. You could easily use fresh. I also use Lara's pure oat flour. It isn't available everywhere but you can substitute all purpose, or half AP and half whole wheat. But, if you can get your hands on the oat flour, I think it makes a great crisp top. I like to use old fashioned rolled oats when I can. Tapioca isn't something everyone has on hand but it is a great thickener for fruit based stuff like this. I used a vanilla bean because I had some but it can be skipped.

I am calling this a crisp here but we call it a crumble 'round ours in one of our mid-Atlantic verbal mishmashes.

Rhubarb Crisp 

4 cups chopped rhubarb

2 tablespoons fine tapioca

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds removed

2 cups rolled oats 

1 cup oat flour

1/2 cup butter cut into small pieces

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla.

Preheat oven to 325º.

In a mixing bowl, toss rhubarb, tapioca and granulated sugar and vanilla bean seeds together, coating the rhubarb. Transfer to oven proof dish.

Rub oats, flour, butter and sugar together until butter is distributed and the it sticks together if you squeeze some in your hand. Gently cover the rhubarb with the 'crisp.'

Bake for around an hour. You should be able to see the fruit bubbling up around the topping.

No, I didn't feed this to Tilly but I did think about it.