I recently had dinner at Andrea Ristorante at the beautiful Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, CA. I concluded the amazing meal with a soothing cup of hot tea which was served with the cutest jar of honey from France. I drink my tea unsweetened, so, not wanting to waste the honey, I took it home with me to use for baking. I knew it would be perfect for my Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp recipe!
After a number of lackluster attempts at finalizing my Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, I’m thrilled to have finally developed a recipe worthy enough to include in my book.
What are my secrets? Three things helped to give my crisp the “wow” factor:
1) Pre-cooking the rhubarb
2) Folding some of the streusel topping into the fruit before baking
3) Using honey as a sweetener
To pre-cook the rhubarb, I did a little innovating; Sous vide is a French method of cooking that means “under vacuum,” and poaching is gently simmering food in a liquid, so I decided to combine these two cooking methods and “sous vide poach” my rhubarb. I used a Ziploc® bag to vacuum seal the rhubarb and then I poached the fruit in a small amount of honey and sugar. It worked out wonderfully, and I didn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy sous vide machine!
This crisp reminds me of how wonderful summer really is. I’m saving this recipe exclusively for my cookbook, but I hope these tips help you with your crisps in the meantime!