Here is another recipe from the Le Cordon Bleu MasterChef cooking class.  To us it is known as a Rhubarb Crumble, but in Ireland they call it Grabhar Biabhog.

I remember having rhubarb pies when I worked in Illinois, and they were always made with syrupy strawberries and rhubarb.  I assumed that the pies would be far too tart if they didn’t have a lot of sugar and strawberries.  Well, were we ever surprised at this rhubarb crumble.  No strawberries, it was not loaded with sugar, and it was not pucker your mouth tart.  It was good!

Okay, here was the deal.  What Chef Chad Prudhomme ( I found out his name) demonstrated, and what we made were not exactly the same as the recipe we were given in the pack.  Basically he added whisky and salt and pepper.  I am sharing what we did in the class.

First we made sure to cut off any leaves on the rhubarb.  The leaves are poisonous.  Bad, bad, bad!  (I think the rhubarb had been peeled for us.)  Then the rhubarb stalks were sliced in little triangles.  (If you turn the stalk over for each slice it will make the little triangles.) See how Excellent Cook Nancy is holding the knife.  That is the way to do it.

After the rhubarb is sliced, you melt about 1/2 of a stick of butter in a skillet until it begins to brown.

Sauté the rhubarb in the butter until it is beginning to soften.  This is when you do the pull back on the handle of the skillet to flip and mix-up the rhubarb.  Chef Chad is showing us how to do it.  I really never got the hang of it, but I am still practicing.  You do not have to stir if you do this.

Add sugar and continue to cook until the sugar is melted and glazed on the rhubarb.  It will look something like this.  Isn’t it purty!  Then you add salt and pepper.  Chef Chad said to do it, and do it we did!

This is the fun part.  You add whiskey to the rhubarb and tilt the pan until it catches on fire.  I could not believe that I actually did this.  Sweet Mother of Pearl, it was so much fun.  (Do you think I am a pyro?)  Eventually, it burned out.  Nancy told me that she had a friend that said she ate her liquor rather than drank it.  That sounds good to me.

This was the filling for one crumble.  Then they told us we were to make two crumbles so that each of us would have a crumble to take home.  That was very nice of them, and we were happy to oblige.  But…  It is no wonder that we were the last to leave the class.

The cute little pastry student demonstrated how to make the crumble topping.  She was our helper, and she was so nice.  Cut the butter into the flour.  Then add brown sugar, cinnamon, and rolled oats.  Place the cooked rhubarb in a greased pie dish.  Cover with the crumble mixture, and bake.  (It is a good thing to place the crumbles on a lined cookie sheet so they don’t spill over onto the floor of your oven.)  That is it.  Our crumble filling was delicious, but there was a problem with our crumble topping.

We did not receive the correct amount of ingredients for the crumble topping.  As I told you, the ingredients were prepared for us just like on TV.  Well, there had to be something wrong with our set of crumble ingredients.  There was way too much flour, and (excellent cooks that we are) we knew it did not have enough butter for the amount of flour and other ingredients we were given.  We were so bumfuzzled, flabbergasted, and disappointed that  we didn’t take a picture.  For the record, Chef Chad’s amount of topping was correct, and his was wonderful.  They also gave us fresh whipped cream to serve with the crumbles.  Oh, yeah!

Look carefully and you will see a finished rhubarb crumble in this picture.  It is a crustless pie that is almost like a cobbler.  I will diffidently make rhubarb crumble again.  It was easy and delicious.  For some reason, I thought I was eating healthy when I ate rhubarb.

Don’t forget the whipped cream.  It was w-o-n-der-ful!  (Maybe the whipped cream isn’t so healthy, but it is good.)

Blessings to you and yours,