21 May 2010

Rhubarb Hibiscus Butter

I wanted to do a rhubarb jam or something, and the recipe I found went something like the following:

1/2 lb rhubarb, sliced (~1-1/4 c?)
3/4 c sugar
2 T lemon juice
2-3/4 T dried hibiscus flowers, minced

1. Macerate rhubarb in sugar >6 hr, 'til most of the sugar has dissolved
2. Add lemon juice and hibiscus
3. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly for ~10 min that it takes to thicken
4. Remove from heat, let sit ~5 min, ladle into jars
5. Process 15 minutes in water bath

Yields...Well, I don't know actually. First off, the recipe didn't say, and second off, I ended up stealing some of the rhubarb (+sugar) for a batch of scones. I ended up with exactly one cup, and I stole about 1/3 c macerated rhubarb, so I'd guess 1-1/2 c. otherwise.

The person that posted the recipe said that the result would be jammy, but it's certainly more of a butter. But my! It isn't shy about taste. It's more like POW! RHUBARB! ...and hibiscus. It's quite tart, so if I do something like this again, I'm going to drop the lemon juice entirely I think. I do, however, like it as a butter instead of a jam, so no added pectin.

6 comments:

  1. Your rhubarb hibiscus butter sounds wonderful. If I can't find any dried hibiscus, can I substitute it with something else? Like roses?

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  2. Hi mangocheeks, I've seen it done with many different things, including lavender, thyme, and rosemary. I haven't personally seen roses, but I don't know any reason why it wouldn't work, since it's just added as an extra. I can say that the color with hibiscus is phenomenal, even if you end up getting rhubarb that is more green than red like I did.

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  3. Well guess what, I will finally be making this - this week.

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  4. Thanks Andrea. I couldn't find the dried hibiscus, so went ahead and made it with rose petals, turned out great. Then I found the hibiscus flowers, bought esp. for this recipe, so yesterday I also made another jar. I will be posting both my variation and your recipe on my blog. I hope that is okay with you. There will also be a link to your blog.

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  5. Perfectly alright. I'm very happy to just have good recipes out where people can reference them.

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