Rhubarb advice: Don't eat your greens

Late spring perplexes me a little. While I dash around to fields and farm markets in search of baby lettuce, wrinkly spinach and fat, sweet asparagus, other cooks wield sharp knives and hack off stalks of rhubarb.

I probably have never tasted really good rhubarb, which is why I guess I’m not always trying to steal it from my friends, or grow it myself or wield a knife and hack off a stalk myself.

Below are two recipes from accomplished cooks, who love the stuff.

Certainly, there are  reasons to eat rhubarb.  It is abundant. It is low in calories (if you eat it without sugar, which apparently never happens). It has lots of vitamin C, and some fiber and calcium.

It also has a lot of oxalic acid in its leaves, so this is a health page tip: don’t eat the leaves, only the stalks.

Rhubarb chutney “Amazingly delish�

I’m not a good measuring devotee, so my instructions lean more toward inspirational than instructional.

About 1 cup dark brown sugar and a tablespoon or two of molasses

1/2 cup red wine vinegar and a squish of half a lime

Grated peel of one-and-a-half Valencia oranges

1 tablespoon of cardamon seeds

2 Thai dried peppers

1 2-inch knob of grated fresh ginger

2 cinnamon sticks

1/2 cup currants

8 sticks rhubarb, coarsely chopped (about four cups)

Put all the ingredients except currants and rhubarb in a saucepan and simmer until the sugar is dissolved, about 15 minutes. Throw in the currants. After the currents plump, add the rhubarb. When it starts to separate but not shred, remove from heat. Cool. Put it all in a jar and let it mull for 24 hours.

Then spread on cold or warmish game hens, which, of course you have severed vertically and weighed down with foil-covered bricks and grilled. Or just slather it on a humble chicken sandwich.

—Melissa Davis

Rhubarb-apple crumble Adapted from “Good Housekeeping Baking�

Serves six

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

4 cups rhubarb stalks, cut into 1-inch chunks

3 medium-to-large Granny Smith or other tart apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats

1/3 cup all-purpose or gluten-free all-purpose flour

I  like crumbles because they’re easy to convert to gluten-free, as they don’t use much flour and they’re really all about the fruit. I also added strawberries, cut in thick slices on the top of the other fruit before I added the crumble.

Preheat the oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add fruit and toss to coat. Spoon the fruit mixture into an 11-by-7-inch glass baking dish or similarly sized shallow casserole.

In a medium-sized bowl mix the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, oats and flour. Mix until well-combined. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the filling is bubbly.

Any cobbler is improved with a little bit of cream, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or crème fraîche.

— Tara Kelly