Experimenting with Rhubarb

Let the Rhubarb Experimentation begin!

This weekend I was inspired to begin experimenting with Rhubarb. What all of you out there don't know is that this post has been incomplete and under construction for about a week because I just couldn't decided what I wanted to do with Rhubarb!

A short history lesson: Rhubarb is a vegetable, a relative of the garden sorrel,  that was first found growing in the wild in the mountains of the Western and North Western provinces of China and the Tibetan territories. At some point cultivation of this veggie began throughout Europe and the US. Originally, this plant was used for medicinal purposed because of its abundance of vitamin C and dietary fiber. It wasn't until the 18th century that it was used for culinary purposed by Britain and America.

Rhubarb has a great taste. It's tart with a hint of sweetness. Much milder than a lime and more pleasant to the tongue. :-)

The first dessert that I chose to make with Rhubarb was a Blueberry and Rhubarb Cobbler. It was my first time making a cobbler And using rhubarb. I had never tasted one before and so, naturally I was both nervous and excited to make and try something new. It was fun searching through lots of recipes online to see what ingredients people were using to mix with the fruit portion as well as for the top crust layer.
In the end, I chose a recipe that did not have rhubarb in it and I just added it to the fruit mixture.
The recipe that caught my attention was from the August (current) issue of Bon Appetit, a favorite foodie magazine aka guidebook of mine. What I found interesting about this recipe was that the chef chose a biscuit  to top the fruits below it.
This recipe was easy to make and did not not take a long time to put together!
Below are a few pictures of my Blueberry and Rhubarb cobbler followed by the recipe I used to make it (I altered the original slightly). Below that there is a link to the original recipe from Bon Appetit. Enjoy!

Let Cool for 1 Hour. It will sink a little, but that's okay! :-)

It had just come out of the oven and was still boiling and beautiful!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons plus 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sour cream
• 2 cups fresh blueberries 
• 2 1/2 cups fresh rhubarb cut into 1/2" pieces
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 375°. (I usually wait to preheat the oven until everything is mixed and I'm just about to start assembling.) 
• Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, 3 Tbsp. sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter (make sure its cold); using your fingertips, incorporate until only pea-size lumps remain. Gently mix in sour cream. Knead in bowl until a biscuit-like dough forms, 5–7 turns (overmixing will make dough tough).
• Combine remaining 3/4 cup sugar, remaining 3 Tbsp. flour, berries, juice, and zest in another large bowl. Toss to coat. I poured my mixture into a glass pie dish, but it can also be poured into an 8x8x2" glass baking dish or divided among six 6-oz. ramekins. Tear biscuit topping into quarter-size crumbles; scatter over berries.
• Bake cobbler until juices are thick and bubbling and topping is cooked through and deep golden brown, 20–25 minutes for ramekins or 45–50 minutes for baking dish. I adjusted this to 45 minutes in the middle of the oven and then another 10 minutes in the 1/3 portion of the oven because my cobbler was not baked through enough. Let cool for at least 1 hour in the baking dish.

You can also find the recipe by clicking here: Blueberry-Drop Biscuit Cobbler.

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References:

The Rhubarb Botanical Information, http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/botanical/, (from the Rhubarb Compendium by Dan Eisenreich)