This dessert doesn't look like much, especially since I was slightly squiffy when I took the photo, but it tastes sublime; the perfect April dessert - pink and airy, making good use of spring rhubarb and the first strawberries of the season. If you happen to have rhubarb bitters then this is the time to use them, if not, substitute for half a teaspoon of additional booze.
2 lbs rhubarb (about 5 stalks)
1 lb strawberries
1 pint whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsps rum, brandy or cognac
1/4 tsp rhubarb bitters
Preheat oven to 400.
Cut the rhubarb stalks into roughly 3" pieces. Lay them in one layer in an oven-safe dish and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the sugar. Drizzle 1/2 cup of water over the top, tightly cover the dish with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the rhubarb cool as is in the oven.
As soon as the oven is cool, remove the rhubarb from the oven and drain the syrup into a large bowl. Place the cooked rhubarb in the fridge to chill. This recipe can be made up to this point the day before.
A couple of hours before you are ready to serve the dessert, hull the strawberries and cut in halves or quarters depending on size. Add to the bowl containing the rhubarb syrup, sprinkle with the rhubarb bitters or booze and toss well. Set aside in the fridge to macerate. Stir from time to time.
In a separate bowl, whip the cream until it has formed stiff peaks. Add the sugar and the rum and beat to combine.
Fold in the rhubarb and watch your cream turn the most gorgeous shades of pink. Do not overmix as this dessert looks prettiest when a little of the white of the cream is mixed in with the different pinks, rather than ending up with a uniform colored mousse. Taste to see if this is sweet enough for you. Rhubarb is sour and requires a lot of sugar; 3/4 cup was as low as I could go without the dessert being acidic, your taste buds may require more. And taste a strawberry before adding more sugar to the mousse as the sweetness of the strawberries will make a difference as well.
Right before serving, spoon alternating layers of mousse and strawberries into individual serving dishes. Finish with a few pieces of strawberry and drizzle a little of the syrup from the bowl containing the strawberries over the top.
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