Rhubarb Crisp

Once the rhubarb is cut up, this recipe comes together very quickly. After the crisp is prepared and before baking, it can be kept, covered, in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake it. It’s a great use for fresh rhubarb and can easily be doubled or halved, based on ingredient availability. Vanilla ice cream is the natural pairing for this, or almost any rhubarb dessert.

Fresh Rhubarb Crisp (adapted from McCall’s Dessert Discoveries, 1965)

1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
½ c. rolled oats
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
½ c. butter, melted
4 c. fresh rhubarb, cut into ½” pieces
1 c. granulated sugar
¼ c. unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease an 8”X8” baking pan. In large bowl, combine 1 c. flour, oats, brown sugar, mixing well. Use a fork to stir in the butter, making a crumbly mixture.

Put topping aside. Combine rest of ingredients in baking pan, add ½ cup water, and mix well. Sprinkle topping evenly over filling.

Bake, uncovered, 35 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and rhubarb is tender. Serve warm.

Fried Tofu

This is another tofu recipe from Santa Maria’s excellent Chinese cookbook. If you don’t want to make the sauce, the tofu can be fried and used in stir fries or other Chinese dishes. The sauce could be used as a dipping sauce for Chinese appetizers.

Fried Tofu (Zha Doufu) (Adapted from Chinese Vegetarian Cookery, 1983)

1 lb. firm or extra firm tofu, drained
3 Tbs. cooking oil
4 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. rice vinegar
1 Tbs. rice wine or sake
1 tsp. hot or red pepper oil
Slice the tofu in half crosswise and then again – you will have four rectangles. Cut the four halves into triangles. Heat the cooking oil in a wok or frying pan and fry tofu until golden on all sides.

Stir the other ingredients in a bowl to make a sauce. Put the fried tofu in a serving dish and pour the sauce over it to serve.

Pineapple Brownies

These were one of the winners in the 1952 Pillsbury baking contest. They were entered by Josephine Demarco of Chicago, Illinois, and deserve to be more widely known. They are delicious on their own, but also with ice cream, chocolate syrup, and sliced fresh strawberries. The original recipe called for nuts, but I don’t generally like nuts in my brownies. However, you can add ½ cup chopped nuts when you add the chocolate. I’d recommend pecans to pair with the pineapple.

When adding the last bit of chocolate dough to the pan, use multiple, small spoonfuls to make spreading easier. An offset spatula would also help, and I plan to own such a thing one day.

Pineapple Brownies (adapted from Pillsbury’s 4^th Grand National 100,000 Recipe and Baking Contest 100 Prize-Winning Recipes, 1953)

1 ½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
¾ c. soft butter
1 ½ c. sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple, well drained
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 375. Grease 12”X8” (or similar-sized) pan well. Mix together dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. Beat in vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients. Put one cup of dough in bowl and add pineapple. Mix well and set aside.

To the rest of the dough, add the melted chocolate and mix well.

Spread about 1 ½ cups of the chocolate dough in the baking pan.

Cover with the pineapple dough.

Drop rest of chocolate dough over pineapple dough in spoonfuls and spread carefully to cover.

Bake 45-50 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.