Rhubarb Ice Cream

This ice cream turned out better than I dreamed... yes, I dream about rhubarb, sometimes.

Rhubarb Sauce (see previous post from July 2010)

Dairy-Free Ice Cream

6 egg yolks

3/4 c granulated sugar

1 Tbs Mexican vanilla

1-1/4 c almond milk (or soy milk)

1-1/4 c canned coconut milk (this adds the creaminess in place of whipping cream)

Beat egg yolks and sugar until it thickens and becomes light colored. Slowing add the milk to the eggs and sugar, stirring until combined. Then heat the eggs and milk in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat, continuously stirring about about 2-3 minutes. Then remove from heat and chill.

Once cooled, add the coconut milk and stir. Strain the mixture into an ice cream maker, or freeze in a shallow pan, whipping the ice cream at least once during the freezing process. Just before the ice cream is completely frozen, swirl in the rhubarb sauce. For me there is no such thing as too much rhubarb sauce, but add to taste. 

Reserve a little of the rhubarb sauce. Top each scoop of ice cream with a spoonful of the beautiful red sauce and serve. I'd say that I hope you saved room for dessert, but there's always room for ice cream!

Rhubarb Sauce

It's summer again and that means it's rhubarb season!

I bought some fresh rhubarb a couple weeks ago, but then life took a different turn and I knew that wasn't going to have time to make anything with it right away. So I chopped it into 1/4" pieces, generously sprinkled some white sugar over it, and froze it.

Then when I had a little more time on my hands last week, I pulled it out of the freezer. Once it was mostly defrosted, I placed it in a sauce pan and heated it on low and I added more sugar to taste. I let it cook down for about an hour, and then added a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar.

Here are some basic guidelines, but you can tweak the amounts to your tastes:

4 cups fresh rhubarb
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

The sugar and rhubarb should create enough juices that you don't need to add any liquid, but if it becomes dry you can add a tablespoon or two of water or fresh squeezed orange juice. When it's done, the pieces of rhubarb should fall apart when you stir it. Let the mixture cool before placing it in jars and refrigerating. The mixture will thicken a little as it cools.

We used this rhubarb sauce to make rhubarb dairy-free ice cream; as a topping for ice cream, cereal, and toast; and in a refreshing drink with sparkling mineral water and some fresh mint. I'll let you in on a little secret, I even like to eat the rhubarb sauce by the spoonful. Shhhhh....

Here's another recipe for rhubarb syrup that was emailed to me by a friend. I guess I'm just going to have to buy more rhubarb!
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/case-study-rhubarb-syrup/