Rhubarb "almost-preserves"

[Deleted]

I was digging around in the freezer and found several bags of last-year's rhubarb. Unfortunately, I bagged it in a hurry, meaning to package it better later. Of course I never did, so each 3 cup bag was now about 2 cups of partially-dehydrated rhubarb. What to do, what to do, what to do. . . .

Make preserves of course. Or in my case, "almost-preserves" because I think I'll probably use it up before I get around to finding my jelly-jars.

I put the contents of a 3 cup bag of rhubarb (actually about 2 cups now) in a glass measuring cup, and put it in the microwave for 3 minutes to start thawing it. Then I added 3/4 cup of white sugar, and nuked it for another 8 minutes, stirring with a fork every minute or so. Then I let it cool in the cup before moving it to a covered bowl in the refrigerator. The rhubarb came apart like it always does when you make preserves, the sugar absorbed the juice and made a nice syrup. Cooking it a bit longer than usual made it set up almost perfect for spreading on bread.

If any strawberries make it to the freezer this year, I'll try adding some of them to a later batch; if not, I'll try adding some pineapple and/or blackberries to the next batch.

I'm making waffles for breakfast tomorrow. The new "almost-preserves" will almost make up for having to mow and weed all day tomorrow.

[manygoatsnmore]

We call that rhubarb sauce at my house and it's my favorite way to eat rhubarb...good on ice cream, too.

[hobbitlady]

I call mine rhubarb compote(laugh) and mix mine with honey on the stove in a pan. My favorite way is with more strawberries than rhubarb though and yep I like it best on ice cream.

[susannah]

I love that idea! It's been a good rhubarb year and I have quite a few bags of it in the freezer. Normally I just use it in baking up rhubarb crunches, but eventually that gets old - even though we love rhubarb. I'll definitely be trying the rhubarb almost-preserves/sauce/compote - thanks you guys!