Kill the Rhubarb

It’s been a year with lots of milestones for our family, and we finally wrapped up 5 non-stop weeks of celebrating various things with a birthday/last day of school dinner: flank steak marinated in soy sauce and bourbon, some really fantastic grits, David’s famous collard greens, broiled acorn squash, and of course, David’s favorite dessert.

I can’t believe I’ve never blogged this recipe, as it’s a summertime staple for us. It originally came from the July 1997 issue Gourmet magazine and is officially called Doris Gulsvig’s Rhubarb Crunch (it was a reader submission)(and bless you Doris, wherever you are, everyone loves me when I make this), but in our house it’s always been Kill the Rhubarb.

About a million years ago, AKA pre-kids, we were up north with friends of ours. My father-in-law had brought a big bag of rhubarb from the plant in his yard and was delighted that I had a recipe that didn’t “ruin the rhubarb with strawberries.”  Everyone else was watching Looney Tunes while I was prepping dessert and “What’s Opera, Doc?” came on. While Elmer Fudd was bellowing “Kill the wabbit!” I was apparently chopping in time to the music, and thus this dish was renamed. And of course, I have to sing this - with great gusto - every time I make it. And I’ll bet that it’s in your head now too. You’re welcome.

Kill the Rhubarb

1 ½ lb rhubarb
1 stick butter, melted
¾ cup sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 cup water
½ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla
1 cup flour (GF blend is fine)
¾ cup rolled oats
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven the 350 and grease a 13x9 baking pan.

Trim the rhubarb and cut into ½-inch pieces (roughly 5 cups). Arrange the rhubarb evenly in the baking pan.

In a small saucepan, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, water, and half the salt. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer, stirring, until thickened and clear, about 3 minutes. Stir in the vanilla and pour the mixture over the rhubarb.

Stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and remaining salt until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle evenly over the rhubarb.

Bake 1 hour or until the rhubarb is tender and the top is crisp and golden. Cool for about 15 minutes before serving or the top of your mouth will be burned by the delicious liquid hot magma hiding under the oats; should you find yourself unable to wait that long, a large scoop of vanilla ice cream will go a long way towards alleviating your distress.