Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp and the Bare Kitchen Challenge

My mom used to make rhubarb pie with fresh rhubarb from a patch behind our house. I remember harvesting the rhubarb with my mom. We would have to bushwhack our way through a jungle of overgrown weeds and uneven hillside behind our house. It always felt like we were some kind of expedition. When reached the rhubarb patch the plants reached my 6 year old waist and the leaves were as big as my head.  I remember being really sweaty and fighting bugs, the notorius Maine no-seeums. It seemed such a journey but was probably only 100 yard round trip.

I never liked rhubarb pie - it was too bitter for my taste.  But I always liked the challenge of harvesting it.

Twenty-five years later.....in a more urban location, I drive about 4 miles to pick up my farm share and find 4 stalks for rhubarb and a quart of strawberries in this weeks share. I search google for a recipe, thinking that I'll give rhubarb another go as my taste buds have matured as an adult and I seem to have a more open palate - I hated cheese when I was younger and now love it! For all you people who believe Google is watching you...here is more proof. The first or second "hit" from a search of "strawberry rhubarb recipe" is a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp that contains alcohol. Man, Google totally has me profiled and will soon be feeding me audio ads through my phone while I sleep.

Now armed with a great recipe, I check my refrigerator and cabinets and realize I'm missing or low on several staples:

Not enough strawberries - just shy of a quart after snacking on a few when I got home from the farm.

Unknown quantity of rhubarb - yes 4 stalks, but how many cups does that make?

No brown sugar. No big deal since I can make my own brown sugar with molasses and white sugar - Add 2 Tbsp. of dark molasses to 1 cup of white sugar and mix thoroughly. Damn, no molasses. Hmmm, maybe white sugar and some honey?

Low on butter, gasp! I only had 6 tablespoons and the crisp part of the recipe called for 12 tablespoons.

It was late at night and I didn't want to make a trip to the store even though I was missing major crisp ingredients. I decided to use what I had for strawberries and rhubarb - 4 stalks of rhubarb equaled 4 cups and 1 quart of strawberries was about 3 cups. I added a little more sugar to the strawberry rhubarb mixture - I suspected I might be missing some sweetness since the recipe called for 5 cups of strawberries  I decided to halve the crisp recipe to match the amount of butter I had on hand. Finally, I made an amber sugar, substituting honey for molasses in the make your own brown sugar recipe. By the way, I made up the term amber sugar - but it sounds like it should exist...and it does, but has nothing to do with honey.

Wow, I think that is the most experimenting I've ever done with baking and it turned out really wonderful. The strawberry rhubarb mixture was plenty sweet - I could have gotten away without adding the extra sugar. Next time I will only use the extra sugar if I use strawberries from out of season or from California, which tend to be less sweet because they aren't vine ripened. The honey gave the crisp an earthy taste and half as much crisp made for a less heavy dessert. I served it warm with some homemade vanilla ice cream. You can use store bought if you didn't buy your roommate an ice cream maker for his birthday. Topped with whipped cream would be tasty too.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Adapted From Southern Food from about.com
 Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients
4 cups chopped fresh rhubarb (about good sized stalks)
1 quart (~3 cups) strawberries, hulled, rinsed, sliced
1 cup granulated sugar (plus 1/4 cup if you are using non-locally ripened strawberries)
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup Grand Marnier liqueur, or use Cointreau or Orange Juice

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar (or amber sugar - 1/3 cup sugar + 2 tablespoons honey)
3/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped pecans, slivered almonds, or other chopped nuts
Pinch salt
1 large egg, slightly beaten (the original recipe called for 1 egg, and I used most of the egg for the halved version. Didn't feel the need to waste half an egg and it turned out fine)

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 to 2 tbsp. confectioners' sugar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon almond extract, or Amaretto liqueur

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly butter the bottom of a large (4-quart) baking dish. A 15x10x2-inch pan will hold 4 quarts, or use two smaller pans, such as 11x7x2-inch or 9-inch square. In a large bowl, toss the rhubarb and strawberries with the granulated sugar and orange zest. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the Grand Marnier or Cointreau or Orange Juice and toss with the rhubarb mixture until well coated. Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish and set aside.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the butter, flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon with a pastry blender until crumbly. Stir in the almonds or pecans and salt, then stir in the egg with a fork until well blended. Drop the mixture by spoonfuls evenly over the rhubarb mixture and bake for 45 minutes, or until nicely browned and bubbly. Remove from oven and keep warm while making whipped cream. If desired, serve this crisp with ice cream instead of fresh whipped cream.

In a medium size bowl, whip the cream with the confectioners sugar until soft peaks form. Beat in the almond extract. Cut the warm crisps into squares and serve topped with generous dollops of the whipped cream.