I share Italian, French, Asian recipes and others yet Scandinavia besides the obligatory Noma mentions has not gotten much attention.
Thanks to the recent arrival of The Scandinavian Kitchen (Kyle Books, April 2011) by Camilla Plum, I can remedy to this shortcoming.
Rhubarb cordial
For this cordial you can use old, woody stalks, and even enormous, green stalks will provide a lovely rosy result. I don’t give precise quantities here.
Once you’ve picked your rhubarb, all you need to do is work out how much sugar you need: take 4 cups per 4 cups of juice as your starting point, but you may need double that.
Chop the rhubarb stalks up roughly, then place in a saucepan, push down well, and barely cover with water. Bring to a boil and let the fruit simmer for 10 minutes.
Mash the cooked rhubarb into threads using a balloon whisk, then transfer into a large cloth or piece of cheesecloth which you can tie to a faucet for the juice to drip into a bowl in the sink. It must drip, all by itself, until the pulp is dry; if you squeeze it, the juice will be cloudy.
The following day, bring the juice to a boil and add sugar as you wish—there are no rules, and of course the sourness of the rhubarb will vary.Add at least 1 and 1/4 cups, then take it from there. Pour the cordial into sterilized bottles, and store in a cool place, or freeze in plastic containers.
You might not be able to enjoy Rhubarb Cordial this week-end yet it sounds like a good idea for Easter Week-End…
Slow Food San Francisco shares a Visit to Camilla Plum's organic farm outside Copenhagen (Vimeo video)
(* Recipe reproduced by permission of publisher, Kyle Books USA)