Special edition Friday! This is so simple I didn’t even want to shoot the ingredients — simmer a few cups of chopped rhubarb and strawberry with one cup each of sugar and water for about 10 - 15 minutes. Add a handful of mint leaves (slap them first to release the oils) and then cook for just another two minutes or so. 

Strain and save the solids (taking out the mint) to be used as a soft jam. The syrup can be used in all kinds of drinks — with sparkling water, sparkling wine, or in a cocktail. So refreshing! 

I had to include at least one strawberry & rhubarb recipe this week. This recipe hails from Smitten Kitchen via Martha Stewart, so you know it’s good. Keep this one handy all summer and experiment with all the lovely berries and stone fruits that are going to start showing up!

And remember, follow me at my new facebook page and instagram, for behind-the-scenes shots and other fun stuff!! 

just a little photo I took a couple of weeks ago while walking around Madison Square Park. 

Here, tangy rhubarb creates a sauce for udon noodles, rounded out by honey for sweetness and chili for spice. Beware tiny thai chilis — they are hotter than a jalapeño, so start with a little and add if you want more spice.  

A crumble is one of the easiest improvisational desserts. It’s baked, yes, but it doesn’t require any of the precise measurements of its cobbler or cake cousins.

For just one serving, I used about 1/2 a pound of rhubarb, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 T. of flour in the rhubarb mixture. For the topping, I used 1/8 c. each of flour, sugar, and hazelnuts, and 1 T. butter. Just a dash of cinnamon and ginger will do. It’s very simple to scale this up and put it in a 9x9 or even 13x9 pan, and you can use other berries or stone fruits as well. Just be sure to adjust the sugar based on how sweet your fruit is in the first place. 

Also, I used raw sugar because it’s what I had on hand, but you can certainly use regular white sugar as well. 

Believe me when I say that this chutney is addictive. Frankly, I’ll eat almost anything on bread with ricotta, but this chutney in particular hits all the right notes — spicy, sweet, tangy, savory. You can up the spice or sweetness according to your preference, but this would be a fabulous condiment to have alongside a Caribbean-themed meal. 

…and it’s Rhubarb week! 

Finally. This pinky green stalk is spring at its finest, in my opinion. It is definitely my favorite spring vegetable (yes, vegetable), because it’s so specific to the season, so tart and yummy, and so well-suited to baked goods! 

A vegetable you say?: Rhubarb is often mischaracterized as a fruit, but it is indeed a vegetable. Perhaps some of the confusion comes from the fact that in 1947, a New York court recategorized it a fruit for the purposes of “regulations and duties,” in part to avoid the higher tariffs for vegetables. 

Buying & storage: Look for thin, crisp, red stalks. Store for up to about a week in the fridge, tightly wrapped in plastic. Trim any dried or brown ends before using. 

Fun fact: As a theater nerd, whenever a group scene required unintelligible background conversation we’d whisper “peas & carrots”over and over again, when not trying to make each other laugh with ridiculous or inappropriate commentary. But apparently, in early British radio plays and theatre, the phrase of choice was instead “rhubarb rhubarb.” Who knew!

Now brace yourselves for some rhubarby goodness. 

For this egg drop soup, you’ll need about 2-3 stalks green garlic, 2 cups vegetable broth, 1 egg, and 2 t. cornstarch for each person. Scale accordingly, and season with soy sauce, ginger, salt & pepper to taste.

Making a “slurry” is just a fancy way of saying you need to incorporate a dry substance that has a tendency to clump into a small amount of liquid before adding it to a larger quantity of liquid. If you just dumped cornstarch straight into the soup, it wouldn’t properly distribute, and you’d get little lumps of cornstarch that refuse to break up. By whisking it into a small amount of broth in a separate bowl before adding to the soup, you avoid that issue! 

Was I drawn to making this just because of the alliteration? Maybe. But that doesn’t change the fact that green garlic is an excellent addition to a simple green goddess dressing. It’s totally up to you what herbs to include. I love basil in salad dressing, and tarragon adds a nice mild anise flavor. I used about equal parts of everything — 2 T. sour cream, 2 T. mayo, and about 2 T.+ of each herb. This is one that’s hard to screw up, so just taste and adjust! 

I served this on a chopped salad with snap peas, purple cauliflower, radishes, carrots, and kale. 

Gremolata is a raw condiment traditionally served with osso buco (veal shanks), made simply with lemon zest, raw garlic, and parsley. It’s bright and sharp and works well with roasted or rich flavors. This green garlic version has a slightly milder flavor, and I like to add a bit of olive oil to mine for texture. 

Here I’m serving it on roasted potatoes, but it would also be delicious with fish or tossed with pasta. I used a few stalks of green garlic, the zest of one lemon, juice of 1/2 the lemon, a good handful of parsley, and a drizzle of olive oil. If you want to make it even more briny, you can add anchovies or capers to the mix. 

A thin slick of mascarpone makes this dead simple flatbread a little more special. I am lucky that I’m able to buy Sullivan St. Bakery’s pizza bianca, but you can definitely use any type of flatbread you can find, focaccia, pizza dough…or you can make pizza bianca yourself. There’s really no excuse because it doesn’t even require kneading! 

I was kind of thinking of this as a twist on cacio e pepe, the simple Italian pasta with pepper and cheese. But then I thought, what about carbonara? With that egg swirled in? Instead of making the egg part of the sauce, I decided to poach it instead, because I’m a sucker for a poached egg on top of stuff. 

You could increase the veggie quotient with some wilted spinach or arugula, but I love how simple this dish is, and how much it puts the focus on that delicious garlic flavor.