Rhubarbarama

People in California eat rhubarb. Occasionally. It shows up at Farmer’s Markets from time to time, but primarily from the coolest, loamiest, more northern California farms. Most of the time, rhubarb is a regional favorite from Maine south to Illinois and west to the Pacific Northwest, as well as Canada, because much of the Cali climate, the Southwest and the South is just too warm for it to thrive. Which is a bummer, for some people. Not so much us — we’d never really eaten rhubarb.

This shocking lapse in our rhubarb education was remedied this past Friday when our farm box produced a half pound of red and green rhubarb. What to do with it? We’d heard it was kind of like string-less, sour celery… (Er…? Okay.) We decided quickly that the sour stalks could first be enjoyed as jam.

Rhubarb Jam

• 1/2 lb. fresh rhubarb, sliced
• 3/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. crystallized ginger, chopped
• grated orange zest, to taste

Combine all ingredients in heavy saucepan, and stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring frequently until jam thickens and mounds on spoon, about twenty minutes. DO NOT ALLOW TO SCORCH. Remove from heat and transfer to jar or dish to cool.

Now that we had jam, which was fairly tasty, we tried to figure out how best it could be shared. (Share!? you gasp. Why? Because T. has a severe sensitivity to foods high in oxalic acid. A#1 on that list? Rhubarb. More on that later.) D’s PhD lecture group has been enjoying having him around not just for his mind, but for the goodies he brings to lectures. Why not share the jam with them? We decided to make jam tarts.

Rhubarb Jam Tarts

• 1 c. sugar
• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 c. ground flax seeds, aka linseeds
• 2 tsp. Garam Masala
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3/4 c. soymilk (more or less)

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. This is a very sticky dough, and the cookies must be shaped with either oiled hands or with two spoons. Whichever way works best for you. Form cookies into balls, and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Next, fill a measuring cup with water, and dip your thumb into the water, then make a thumbprint on top of each cookie. Dip your thumb back into the water for each cookie, or your thumb will stick! Don’t do more than three or four at a time; the dough is springy, and the thumbprint won’t last.

Spoon about 1/4 tsp. of jam into each thumbprint. Bake until lava-like boiling occurs in jam and cookies are golden-brown, about fifteen minutes at 350° degrees.

The cookie recipe we used is made over from our original Tangerine Sugar Cookies, except we cut the amount of oil and added flax seed to give them a bit more lift. The cookies are chewy and well spiced, but very light and mild. The jam gives them quite a punch of sharpness – sour, sweet and citrusy. Yum. The recipe yields two dozen cookies, but …the PhD class …is going to get…twenty-one. *Ahem*.

Note: Rhubarb is tasty but can be a problem for people with rheumatoid arthritis, gout, kidney problems or other health issues where joint inflammation occurs. The oxalic acid rhubarb contains is highly irritating, and bonds with the metal in the body in a chemical reaction, and becomes metal oxalate — a combination of the two in sharp crystalline form — which irritate the tissues. It can cause severe gastrointestinal pain and joint swelling and inflammation.

A 2006 study published at The National Center for Biotechnology Information indicates that it may be possible to cause that chemical reaction which creates oxalate to take place outside the blood and tissues and inside the stomach if calcium supplements are taken when foods high in oxalic acid are consumed. Now, whether or not you want to then risk having some kind of really bad stomachache/gastrointestinal disruption instead of “just” a rheumatoid flareup or kidney stones… would be entirely up to you!

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