Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote and Fool

Strawberry with rhubarb is one of my favorite fruit combinations. In pies, on biscuits, stirred into a fool. And making a compote is such an easy thing. My tiny strawberry bed barely makes enough for me and my youngest to creep out and snack on. That is, if the terrapins, squirrels, and birds haven't snacked already. So I wait until strawberry season is at its height and then I start looking at Aldi for the 99 cent cartons. That's when I stock up- seven or eight cartons at a time. The price means the berries have been held cool and are as ripe as they are ever going to be- so act fast! These babies are so fragile that even overnight in the fridge can see some starting to mold. Take your bounty home, cap the leaf tops, slice as desired (or not at all), put into freezer bags and chuck into the freezer. Then they are ready whenever you are.

I am blessed to have a rhubarb gorgeous plant in my herb bed. I grew it from one of those cheesy looking little cellophane bags with a cardboard tag that they sell in spring. They may look like dead stick-like things, but the roots are actually alive. 

If you don't have a plant or anyone to donate to your cause (and compote is a very worthy cause!) then rhubarb can be hard to find. I don't frequent Farmer's Markets because I try to grow what I need myself. Perhaps you can find some there. The only reliable place I have found is in the frozen fruit section in the Harp's grocery store. This means that you can have strawberry-rhubarb pie in winter when you sometimes need it most.

 
 For the compote I used 8 cups of sliced strawberries and 6 cups of chopped rhubarb. I sprinkled on a 1/2 cup of sugar to get the fruits juices flowing and then set the pot over a medium-low heat. You can add more sugar at any time. Cook until the berries soften and gradually begin to slump into a bubbly jam-ishness. That's not a word, but I say it, so it counts. You know the compote is ready to use, or put up, when the rhubarb is so tender that it smushes when you press it with a spoon. It took about 30 minutes for this amount of fruit. 

Then taste and adjust for sweetness. I added a touch more sugar here and there as I tasted, and ended up putting in one full cup of sugar total. That probably doesn't seem like much for the ration of fruit, but my strawberries were meltingly sweet. And I like my compote with a little tangy aftertaste of tart rhubarb, but some folks like it candy sweet. This is your food, make it how you like.

If you don't have this amount of fruit, cut my portions in half, or even fourths. This is not a hard and fast recipe, this is a slow and easy one. Your strawberries may be less ripe, your rhubarb extra tangy. Just relax, and adjust until you think it is yummy.

Now you can slather it directly on hot biscuits while it is warm! Or this is the time to can while it is hot. Please see my post on canning jellies and jams, it includes my video where I show you every step of the way, it's here: Canning Jelly with Ms. Sam. Otherwise you can just funnel it into jars with lids and keep refrigerated.

But after it is cool... well, that is when you can assemble your fool. The British have lots of foods with amusing names: Toad in a Hole, Spotted Dick, Possett, Fool, and so on. But the thing is, amusing names aside, these things taste amazing. And I know I have said before that there are some foods that are so simplistic you can't imagine that they will be anything to dazzle the taste buds. But there is an alchemy that goes on sometimes, a miraculous melding of ordinary items and suddenly they are transformed into more than the sum of their parts. By some miracle they simply become heavenly. Fool is one of these things.

Look at the chunks of berries and cubes of rhubarb- Gorgeous Deliciousness!

All you need is some heavy cream, whipped with sugar. I use powdered sugar to sweeten my whipped cream. It has cornstarch in it and so it helps to stabilize the cream, helping it to maintain its volume longer and be less likely to weep. Layer the whipped cream and the strawberry-rhubarb compote into a jar or glass. If it is clear then you will get to see all the enticing  layers. 

As beautiful as it is delicious. I know it's just cream and fruit, but together...Mmmm-mmm!

"If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be rhubarb fool, which I make with ginger and a hint of elderflower cordial."   ~Sebastian Faulks

(see my posts Elderflower Cordial, and Elderflower syrup, and you might be interested in my delicious Strawberry Rhubarb Pie! )