Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler: Absolutley Divine

Photo courtesy of Flickr by Paul Goyette

For the most part, I hate winter. I hate grey days, I hate snow, but mostly, I hate that the farmers markets are for the most part non-existent. I love the minute the farmers markets are back, and I love spending my Saturdays pursuing them for the fabulous locally grown produce. My brain goes into overload processing all of the wonderful recipes I’m going to cook up.

This past weekend my trip to the market led me to purchase some rhubarb and strawberries. This combination gives me flashbacks of my childhood and my grandmother’s fabulous strawberry rhubarb pie. This weekend, I went a new way and made a cobbler out of this sweet and tangy combination.

Ingredients
Fruit mixture
• 4 1/2 cups rhubarb stalks cut into 1-inch pieces (Trim outside stringy layer of large rhubarb stalks; make sure to trim away any and discard of the leaves which are poisonous; trim ends.)
• 1 1/2 cups strawberries, stemmed and sliced
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of quick cooking tapioca
• 1 teaspoon of grated orange peel
Cobbler crust
• 2 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350°F.

1 In a bowl, mix the rhubarb and the strawberries with the sugar, tapioca, and orange zest. Let sit to macerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

2 In a medium bowl, combine 2 Tablespoons of sugar, the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter in with a fork or pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the milk and egg until just moistened.

3 Pour fruit into a 2-quart casserole dish. Drop the batter on the fruit. Bake in a 350°F oven for 35 minutes until cobbler crust is golden brown.

I also topped mine with some vanilla ice cream, and washed it down with a nice Riesling. It tickled my taste buds, and I said farewell to bitter winter.