Rhubarb
{sweet and tart with a pleasant resistance to the bite}
Looking like celery with a sunburn, rhubarb announces that spring has arrived in the kitchen. Technically a vegetable though more often treated as a fruit and sweetened, in fact, oversweetened most of time, rhubarb was valued as a curative back as far as 200 BC and was traded widely to western Asian as early as the 10th century. Early and mid 19th century English cooks used the stalks in pies and tarts. Paired with custards and flavored with ginger or orange, it is best cooked just until tender but not disintegrating with enough sugar or other sweetener (honey and maple syrup work well here) to mellow but not overwhelm. Belonging to the same family as sorrel and buckwheat, whether field or hothouse grown, rhubarb is as at home as a tart element in a Persian meat stew where sweet and tart flavors coexist happily and often, as it is in a light-as-air fresh strawberry mousse or in a compote served over a custard based vanilla ice cream.
