three colours pink

 

first things first…a pink peppercorn is actually not a peppercorn at all…..but the dried berries of the  South American (native to the Peruvian Andes) shrub “Schinus Molles” that tastes peppery. Blood lines aside…its a great peppery addition that gives colour and a certain fruitiness.  So when I thought strawberies and black pepper and rhubarb and strawberry compote…the pink peppercorns came to mind.

Now part of Rhubarb’s magic is its tartness so to make it palatable it does need sugar…but I think its a pity to smother the rhubarb in huge amounts of sugar so I use fructose here to keep things really light.

Use this magical compote to top a panna cotta or a summery cheesecake. Simply add some thick yoghurt or creme fraiche (“smantana”). Throw in some granola for a very special breakfast.

Gadgets & Gizmos

A saucepan.

Ingredients

As with other compote recipes the quantities are a guide…if you have a few strawberries past their best lurking at the back of the fridge then use them all up here.

1 kg approx rhubarb chopped into cubes

500g strawberries approx chopped into small cubes

3 tsp pink peppercorns ground roughly (quite easy to find and nice fragrant ones at magazinul de mirodenii)

 

100g fructose

How To

Chop the rhubarb and place in a saucepan with the fructose and pink stuff

Add a couple of tablespoons of water – just enough to create a bit of steam to stop the rhubarb burning before it produces enough of its own juices to cook in – and switch on high until that water boils.  Then switch to the lowest setting and check after 7-10 minutes.  The rhubarb should be cooked but still hold its shape.  We don’t want crunchy we do want cooked but we don’t want school dinner out of a tin rhubarb mush.

Let it cool down and its ready to use.