Home on the Rhubarb Range
Home on the Rhubarb Range
How to enjoy the "fruits" of Wyoming
Regional cookbooks are little windows into home kitchens that offer the real flavor of a particular place. In a world shifting toward universal conformity, they anchor us into an appreciation of unique foodways.
Twenty years ago, I was given the Wyoming Cook Book when I admired it at a friend’s house. I had never been to Wyoming—and little did I know that I would one day live in “The Equality State.” I’ve only ever made one recipe from it, but that one recipe I make every single year.
The Rhubarb Delight recipe caught my eye because the contributor, Judie Anglen from the Cottonwood Ranch Bed & Breakfast in Riverton, states “One of Wyoming’s most abundant ‘fruits’ is actually a vegetable—rhubarb!” I had yet to see the harsh reality of a Wyoming winter or to see the quality of the soil that is ideal for lupine, wheatgrass, and sagebrush with 6 foot tough-it-out roots.
Rhubarb grows from short rhizomes and is a member of the Polygonaceae family of plants that includes knotweed and buckwheat, other tough customers. The perennial is classified as a vegetable because the stalks, or petioles, are eaten, while the leaves are extremely high in oxalic acid and could cause kidney stones if consumed. Washington, Oregon, and Wisconsin grow most of the rhubarb sold in grocery stores with Pierce County, Washington leading the field with half the US commercial production.
Used as a medicinal plant in China for nearly 2000 years, rhubarb was popular in Islamic trading on the Silk Road where its value was higher than with cinnamon, saffron and opium. Rhubarb was grown in England in the 14th century and migrated to Philadelphia by 1730. Thomas Jefferson planted it at Monticello in 1809. Russian cultivars were especially prized and valued for being cold hardy.
Rhubarb is extremely tart and usually paired with a sweetener to make it palatable, earning it the nickname “pieplant.” It also makes a delicious beverage when stewed in water and strained and sweetened to taste. It is high in Vitamin K, which helps blood clot, and in fiber, for gut health.
Ranging from green, to pink, to bright ruby red, rhubarb is a sure sign of spring. Often paired with strawberries for strawberry rhubarb pie or crisp, rhubarb is easy to grow and harvest. It is relatively pest free, though Morgan Kinnes, a therapist at Four Pines Physical Therapy in Alpine, WY says that she has trouble beating the chipmunks to hers.
This recipe for rhubarb is my favorite. It’s very easy to make because you work in stages. It takes just over an hour to make from start to finish, once you have all your ingredients at hand. And it takes a full pound of butter, which must be why it is so good.
Adapted from Judie Anglen’s Rhubarb Delight recipe in Wyoming Cook Book
Makes one 9 x 13 baking dish or 16 large servings
For the crust:
2 cups AP flour
4 tablespoons raw sugar
1/4 teaspoon Kosher or Maldon salt
8 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
For the Filling:
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup AP flour
1 and a half cups raw sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 cups chopped rhubarb
For the Topping:
2 cups AP flour
1 and a half cups rolled oats
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 and a half cups brown sugar
8 ounces melted unsalted butter
Optional:
Whipped cream or ice cream
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In the bowl of a food processor, place the flour, sugar, and salt then the chunks of cold butter, and pulse until you have coarse crumbs. Pat the crumbs into the baking dish and bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes.
While the crust is baking, Beat the eggs in a large bowl then add the flour, sugar, and vanilla and mix well. Add the rhubarb and toss to coat. When the crust is baked, remove it from the oven and pour on the rhubarb-egg mixture. Place it back in the oven and bake for another 30 minutes.
While the filling is baking, make the topping in the food processor or in the filling bowl. Mix together the flour, oats, cinnamon, brown sugar, and melted butter until the dry ingredients are moistened. When the filling is finished baking, remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle on the topping. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes to brown the topping. Remove and serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream, if desired.
It’s rhubarb season and I will make it soon. And then maybe I can move on to other recipes in this little gem of a book, like Ruth Campbell’s Boot Scootin’ Salmon Shootin’ Rootin’ Tootin’ Spreadaroo or the Wyoming Milk Can Dinner submitted by the Home Ec Department of the University of Wyoming. A sense of place, the food of the region, enjoy it while you can.
Bood cover image used with permission. Here’s that book link again
Link: https://www.americantravelerpress.com/books.php?Item=2249&Category=1004
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