Saturday, June 20, 2009

Rhubarb Rose Cobbler





I'm not only obsessed with baking from scratch, I'm also very obsessed with using fresh ingredients in my baking whenever I can.

It's rhubarb season. You'll see them every time you turn around at the produce section in grocery stores. However, I just want to use those freshly cut from the garden. I want to do that because I hear people talked about what they made with their "garden fresh" rhubarb and how onderful they are all the time.

I don't have any rhubarb in my garden but my friend Karen does. Karen was generous enough to picked a big bunch of rhubarb for me to make this beautiful dessert.

I have tried rhubarb dessert before but this is my first time using it in my baking. I did a bit of research on the internet on how to prepare rhubarb and trimmed all the rhubarb that Karen gave me. I can't tell you how excited I was: nothing beats fresh vegetables or fruit from the garden!

Again, this is another recipe from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course. Did anyone other than Fleming had thought about using rhubarb and rose together? I have to say this is one of the best food combination. For once, rose is playing the supportive role. The earthiness from the rose preserves and rose water rounded out the sharp, tart flavour of rhubarb beautifully. Rose also makes an ordinary rhubarb cobbler become an elegant dessert that's romantic enough for a proposal dinner.

I'm terrible with gardening but for sure next year, I'll plant my own rhubarb!