T he Cu l i nary North On the Table
DINING IN
TART SMART by STACEY BRUGEMAN
Shortbread squares made with rhubarb curd are a fresh-coast iteration of a coastal grandmother classic.
W
hen i moved home to michigan, my dad potted up all of the rhubarb plants in his garden and hauled them to our farmhouse. It was a housewarming present of sorts—my childhood rhubarb at a time when he and my mom were simplifying. My husband popped them in the ground that first growing season and we treated them like newborn babies—checking on them often and tending to their every need. The second summer we simply let them grow—gardening experts recommend waiting three or four growing seasons to harvest transplanted rhubarb stalks. This spring, as these hardy members of the buckwheat family shot through the earth, I laughed at the era of letting them establish themselves. My 11 childhood plants are far happier on the sunny slope where Dan planted them than they ever were during my youth. With leaves the size of small umbrellas and firm, beet-red stalks, we now have more rhubarb than I can use, and I’m always looking for creative things to do with it.
Those who cook with rhubarb know that it is bracingly tart, much like lemon. I recently asked myself, “What do I make with lemon that I could instead be making with rhubarb?” Curd came to mind. When I was in college, my grandma used to send me lemon bars in the mail. While she spent most of her life in Michigan, she was living in Charleston at the time and was so very “coastal grandmother,” before coastal grandmothers were a thing. I grabbed her recipe (yes, handwritten on a splattered index card) and used it to inspire these rhubarb bites. This May, let’s make fresh coastal grandmother a thing by offering these at the next soccer tournament tailgate, for teacher appreciation week or that choir concert bake sale. Stacey Brugeman is a 20-year food and beverage journalist. Her work has appeared in Food & Wine, Saveur, Travel + Leisure, Eater and on Instagram @staceybrugeman. Sarah Peschel, @22speschel, is a stylist and photographer with an appreciation for all things local agriculture, food and drink.
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