The strawberry-rhubarb garnish I put all my yogurt and my ice cream

The classic combination of strawberry and rhubarb spring is perfect for people like me who do not have a huge sweet tooth. It is also perfect for people who do it. Rhubarb – technically a vegetable, but used more often in fruit contexts, such as pie garnishes – is purely tart, without any trace of sweetness. Strawberries help to push it more decisively in the territory of ripe fruit, but you still need additional sugar to balance the intense acidity of rhubarb. And this is what is so great on this subject: add as much or as little sugar as you like your taste.

One in my favorite ways to prepare strawberries and rhubarb is cooked in a compote. It is fast, versatile and fully customizable. I do mine sweet enough so that I can serve it as a dessert, but not so sweet it would also seem junky to eat it as breakfast. In both cases, it often means a spoon on a bowl of yogurt, but it would be just as happy alongside the fresh ricotta or mascarpone, the panna cotta, cake, waffles, pancakes, crêpes, scones, toasted bread or, if you feel more British, crumpets.

For an interesting flavor torsion, I add a small amount of ground fennel seeds, which succeed just as successful in carefully walking the edge of the sweet razor – it is not a hot spice like cinnamon or nutmeg, but it always has notes of anise that work with all kinds of desserts. Remove a little more on the sugar and you could completely eat with a pork chop.

To start, I stretch the rhubarb into pieces, then I put it on the heat in a saucepan with a small amount of water, which generates enough steam to start cooking. In a preparation like this, I like my rhubarb completely softened and decomposed, so I let it cook for a few minutes in this way, covered, before adding the strawberries.

Then, I add the strawberries, that I cook until they are very soft and plump, adding a burst of shiny color. I also add fennel and sugar, generally in a spoon to taste until I have the impression of having struck the sweetness of my sweetness, whether it is sweet enough for pork or sweet enough for a sundae of ice cream.

June 2016

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