Trying To Explain What Rhubarb Is To My Foreign Co-Workers

Apparantly, rhubarb is not a common food worldwide.  To me, rhubarb always meant that spring had arrived, my friends and I would try to chew on the stalks grown in the backyard without puckering up our faces.  We had rhubarb pie.  Laura Ingalls Wilder talks about making rhubarb pie in her first year as a wife (back then it was called pieplant) and how she forgot to add sugar.  I was talking about my CSA to my co-workers from Spain and Argentina respectively and apparantly, neither had heard of rhubarb.  Despite my best descriptions, they were still confused.  I love rhubarb, but the days of sugar-laden rhubarb pie are beyond me.  There is only so much pie one can eat before you start looking like you've been eating pie every day.  Its been one of my bigger challenges to use up the rhubarb from my CSA each week.  Most rhubarb recipes are for pie, more pie, pie with strawberries, or jam.  Blah blah blah blah and blah.  And then I came across the concept of a rhubarb custard.  Now, the consistency of rhubarb when cooked, is very creamy, and sometimes described as custard-like.  The rich milk and egg combination in custard with the sugar scaled back and just a dash of vanilla made for a relatively healthy Rhubarb Custard Pie. 

 

No, its not a pretty pie.  Its probably why the original recipe which inspired this dish called for a standard pie crust on the top and the bottom, to cover up the ugliness.  However, the flavors were just about right, and it was reminiscent of a slightly sweet quiche.  I would use a little more milk in my milk to egg ratio than I did this time for a creamier texture, but would probably not change a single thing else.

 

First, I had intended on making a basic graham cracker crust, because I figured since it works for cheesecake, it would work for another creamy type o' pie.  I completely forgot to buy graham crackers and so I improvised a Pecan Pie Crust with about 3/4 cup of pecan bits, 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1.5 TBSP sugar in the raw, and 1 TBSP butter mixed with 2-3 TBSP warm water (enough to get the dough a right consistency to press out into a pan).  I didn't do a pre-bake, and just poured the filling right in.

 

The rhubarb custard filling was pretty simple.  I whisked together 3 eggs from the Farmer's Market and an equal part 1% organic grassfed cow milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 2 TBSP all purpose flour.  Then I add 3 stalks of rhubarb into 1/2" pieces, mixed together and poured into the pie crust.  I baked this for about 45 minutes at 400F.  Needless to say, this poor custard did not make it through the weekend.  May it rest in peace and into the sewage system of DC.