{"id":9271,"date":"2021-05-28T03:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T03:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=9271"},"modified":"2021-06-06T19:42:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T19:42:01","slug":"rhubarb-a-northern-climate-favorite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/rhubarb-a-northern-climate-favorite\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhubarb: A Northern Climate Favorite"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Rhubarb, C. Bowen<\/p><\/div>\n


\nIs it a weed? Is it a delectable garden treat? One thing is for sure, rhubarb is a classic Swedish ingredient. It\u2019s a plentiful perennial here in Minnesota, too. As a kid, I would head out to the garden with a bowl of sugar, hack off a stalk or two of this sweet and sour treat, dip it, crunch, and repeat! This week, we’ll honor rabarber<\/em> and by making <\/span>rabarbersaft <\/span><\/i>(rhubarb \u201cjuice\u201d) from a Swedish recipe.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Sweden to the Midwest<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n

In the midwestern United States, rhubarb is a backyard staple. The long reddish-green stalks grow rapidly each spring, a few feet high once fully grown. Some folks consider this hearty perennial a pest, and I’ll admit, I often take this unique ingredient for granted, until a <\/span>recent Swedish class reminded me of just how special rhubarb is.<\/p>\n

One of my students lived in Sweden until the age of 7 and when her family relocated to Texas, she unknowingly said hej d\u00e5 <\/span><\/i>to one of her favorite flavors, rabarber<\/em>. Growing up, she searched for rhubarb on grocery store shelves hoping to recreate the r<\/em><\/span>abarberpaj <\/span><\/i>(rhubarb pie) receipt she was so fond of. When she finally found it at a Whole Foods store years later, it was priced at over $10 a pound, but she decided to buy a bundle regardless. The cashier had never seen this red-stalked wonder before. My student later realized the confused cashier charged for celery by mistake at only $0.91 per pound. Her years of waiting to be reunited with rhubarb had paid off – literally!\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>The Nordic countries and the northern U.S. share a climate, so it\u2019s no surprise that favorites like rhubarb grow well and grace tables in both places. In Minnesota, rhubarb is most commonly baked into a \u201ccrisp\u201d or \u201ccrumble,\u201d similar to a Swedish sweet <\/span>paj<\/span><\/i>. Oven-baked crumbles consist of a crunchy topping made from oats, sugar, butter, and maybe chopped nuts. But today, we\u2019re going in a more <\/span>svensk<\/span><\/i> direction and making <\/span>saft<\/span><\/i>!<\/span>
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Rabarbersaft recept –\u00a0<\/i>Rhubarb saft<\/em> recipe<\/b><\/h2>\n

This week, I finally answered the call of the rhubarb in my backyard (it’s been asking me to turn it into something delicious for days now)! Instead of a classic baked preparation, I decided to make <\/span>saft<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Saft <\/span><\/i>translates to juice, but it\u2019s more of a lemonade consistency. Typically saft<\/em> is made by boiling an ingredient to capture its essence, rather than pressing it into a juice. Other popular Swedish flavors are bl\u00e5b\u00e4r<\/em> (blueberry) and fl\u00e4der<\/em> (elderflower), you can buy saft<\/em> concentrate in these flavors at IKEA. <\/span>Saft <\/span><\/i>is a sweet refreshing drink and mixes well with bubbly water or alcohol if you\u2019re craving a cocktail. Below is <\/span>Lena S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m\u2019s recipe from the website Mitt k\u00f6k.<\/em><\/span><\/a>
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Ingredienser – <\/i>Ingredients\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

\u00a0yields about 2 liters of saft<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n