Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Rhubarb desserts: Coconut Creams with Poached Rhubarb Recipe



Since spotting the first crisp and sour local rhubarb spears at the market last about a week ago, I've made no less than three different rhubarb desserts already. All of them - let me tell you - worth sharing with you. So if you don't mind, I start with the first one.

The recipe is from BBC Good Food website, and the only change I've done is reducing the amount of sugar. Most British - and pretty much all American recipes - use more sugar than I'm accustomed to, so by reducing the sugar I've 'Estonified' the recipe :)

Coconut Creams with Poached Rhubarb
Serves 4

For the coconut creams:
2 gelatine leaves
400 ml creamy coconut milk
2 Tbsp sugar

For poached rhubarb:
300 g young rhubarb stalks, cut into 3 cm chunks*
1 vanilla pod, split lengthwise
2 Tbsp sugar

To make coconut creams, first soak gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes, until softened.
Heat the coconut milk and sugar in a small saucepan until simmering, then remove from the heat. Squeeze softened gelatine leaves slightly, then stir into the coconut milk, until dissolved.
Let cool a little, then pour into four small 200 ml dessert ramekins or glasses.
When cool, cover with clingfilm and transfer to the fridge for about 4 hours or overnight to set.

To poach rhubarb, place rhubarb, sugar and split vanilla pod into a small saucepan. Spring slowly to a boil (you may want to add a tablespoonful or two of water, but young rhubarb should yield plenty of juice itself, so it's not absolutely necessary) and then simmer, covered, for 7-10 minutes, until rhubarb is softened, but not too mushy.

Leave to cool, then spoon over the coconut creams and serve.

* There's no need to 'peel' young rosy rhubarb stalks, and unpeeling means much 'rosier' desserts.

17 comments:

Dagmar said...

Yummy!!! I love rhubarb and this dessert looks amazing! I'm so happy that it's spring so we can eat a lot of pink beautiful rhubarb.

Congratulations to your photo in Desserts Magazine :-)

Alanna Kellogg said...

Um-ummm. I'll join you for this.

maybelles mom said...

YUM! Rhubarb is my favorite. I have already made vegan rhubarb cupcakes and rhubarb minipies this year. I will try this,but without coconut.

Mariajaan said...

Greetings.
Many thanks. I find seasonal cooking extremely rich and convenient to make. With your advise I keep my otherwise unskilled cooking experiments well reviewed by family and friends. Rhubarb would be one of the products I would have never, ever even tried if I had not travelled to Estonia and tasted the variety of pies and desserts that people can prepare with it in your country. Now I simply love it.
This recipe is very creative and must taste very good!

Anonymous said...

Imeilus foto! Tekitas ka isu proovida...

Patricia Scarpin said...

Pille, these look wonderful.
I love all things coconut!

Anonymous said...

Omg, this must be soooo delicious. I have a big bunch of rgubarbs in the fridge, love them! Luckily my boyfriends dislikes them (can't see how :D), so I can eat them all! And more and more is growing in the backyard of my childhoodhome. How great is that :)

Lisa Fain (Homesick Texan) said...

I've been looking for a creamy dessert to make for a lactose-intolerant friend, and I believe this is it! And I hear you're coming to NYC! Yay! Can't wait to meet you!

ChichaJo said...

I wonder if I'll get rhubarb again over here...this looks delicious!

K Allrich said...

What a lovely dessert! And it's gluten-free. I'm going to tag this in my round-up of gluten-free recipes for Celiac Awareness Month! Thank you.

Jeanne said...

Mmmmm, rhubarb. I really do need to make some rhubarb desserts and soon. I had a rhubarb gratin in a restaurant recently that totally blew my mind. This sounds marvellous too :)

Anonymous said...

oh my god! that is fantaaaastic! :) love rhubarb, love the idea! looking forward to your rhubarb series!

Shaun said...

Pille ~ What an unbelievably beautiful dessert! It looks a bit like blood-soaked snow, but the shocking contrast of colours is certainly alluring. Like you, I often find myself lowering the amount of sugar often called for in recipes. Clearly, I do not "Estonify" the recipes ;-) but I think the reduction in sugar allows me to enjoy and appreciate the ingredients in tart desserts. Gorgeous!!

Pille said...

Dagmar – hope your rhubarb will thrive in your new garden!

Alanna – please do!

Maybellems Mum – vegan rhubarb cupcakes? How interesting. Why not with coconut?

MariaJaan – I know that people have ‘smuggled’ rhubarb back to Spain :) Thank you so much for your kind words!

Liisu – foto sai natuke pimedavõitu, aga magustoit oli hea!!

Patricia – you’d love this then!

Hanna – it’s great indeed – you can try all the different rhubarb recipes on Nami-nami :)

Homesick Texan – I’m very excited about meeting you, too!!

ChichaJo – I remember it wasn’t easy for you last time – hard to find plus very expensive!?

Karina – thank you for tagging this recipe!

Jeanne – rhubarb gratin? Like a crumble or something different?

Maninas – thank you!

Shaun – ‘blood-soaked snow’? Quite a metaphor :)

K Allrich said...

It's up- just tagged this lovely recipe in my May Gluten-Free Recipe Rodeo. :)

Margaret Howard said...

Ah, two of my very favorites -- coconut milk and rhubard. I'd bet you have some wonderful family stories to go with these perfect recipes. Will you drop by, maybe send in a guest blog? to smithfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com? It was be so cook to get the cultural take on food and family from your pov. :-)

Anonymous said...

This was soooo good! although my sister wouldn't eat it because it 'smelt bad' my mum had some and LOVED it!! thanks!