Inna’s Culinary Inventions

Francis’s favorite thing in the world is the combination of strawberry and rhubarb. Knowing this, his mom gave me a bunch of frozen rhubarb a couple weeks ago. Now I’ve never EVER dealt with frozen rhubarb before, so I had no idea that when I’d go to thaw it, it would turn into spaghetti. It took me a little while to figure out that this didn’t mean that it went bad, but by that time, I had already decided to incorporate apples into the strawbery-rhubarb crisp that I was making so that I wouldn’t have to use so much  of the floppy-rhubarb.

I honestly don’t know if Francis enjoyed apples intruding on his favorite combination of flavors, but I really enjoyed this dessert and it was gone in a matter of three days. It was also super easy to make, which was a big plus. I think I may have used a bit too much butter in the topping so it wasn’t as crumbly as I would have liked it to be, but it was still very yummy.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Apple Crisp

Source: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

For the filling:
Ingredients:
two small stalks of rhubarb, chopped
3 apples, chopped
2 pint baskets of strawberries
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss the apples, rhubarb and strawberries with the remaining ingrediens and arrange fruit in an oven-safe dish.

For the topping:

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats or chopped nuts
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

Using your fingers or the paddle attachment of a mixer, work the butter with the rest of the ingredients so that each piece is coated and you have a coarse, crumbly mixture.

Cover the fruit in the dish with the topping and bake for approximately 1 hour.