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Kitchen Vegetable and Roots II [Rhubsrb]
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La Belle Cuisine
Rhubarb Soup with Citrus Sorbet
Simply Sensational Desserts
by François
Payard, 1999,
Broadway Books/Random House
“Not only was this the most popular soup on my menu at
Restaurant Daniel,
but I received a bartender’s certificate from Bartender magazine for
creating
it.
It mixes nicely with vodka, but it was most famous there as
part of a Cham-
pagne cocktail: Just pour a half inch of the soup into the
bottom of a Cham-
pagne glass
and fill the glass with Champagne – magnificent!
This soup is also a superb digestif. What gives it such flavor dimension is
the grenadine and the lemongrass. If you can’t find lemongrass, lemon zest
makes
an acceptable substitute. Serve with Citrus Sorbet (recipe below).”
Makes 8
servings
Flavor Sachet
Grated zest of 1 lime
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped, or
grated zest of 1 lemon
Soup
1 pound (about 7 medium stalks) (454 grams)
rhubarb,
trimmed,
washed and chopped
2/3 cup (134 grams) sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (100 grams) grenadine
Garnish
6 strawberries, washed and hulled
1 mango, peeled
2 passion fruit
8 mint sprigs
1. Make the flavor sachet: Place the lime zest, orange
zest, and chopped lemongrass in the center of a 4-inch square of
cheesecloth. Gather the
corners of the square together to form a pouch and
tie with a piece of
kitchen string.
2. Make the soup: Combine the rhubarb, 4 cups (944 grams) water, and
the sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Remove
the pan from the heat; add the sachet and stir in the grenadine.
Cover the
pan and allow the flavors to infuse for 2 hours.
3. Make the garnish: Slice the strawberries lengthwise 1/8 inch
thick.
Stack the slices, a few at a time, on top of one another, and cut the
stacks into thin strips. Cut 1/8-inch-thick slices of mango flesh off the
pit. Stack the slices, a few at a time, on top of one another and cut the
stacks into thin strips (you will need 80 strips). Cut the passion fruit in
half and scrape the seeds into a small container; reserve the fruit for
another use.
4. Serve the soup: Divide the strawberry strips among eight soup
bowls. Remove the sachet from the soup and whisk for a few seconds to break
up the rhubarb fibers. Ladle the soup over the strawberry strips in each
bowl. Arrange mango strips in five crisscross patterns around the peri-
meter of each bowl. Spoon a few passion fruit seeds between the mango
crisscrosses in
each bowl. Garnish the soup with the mint sprigs.
Citrus Sorbet
“…The banana is an important element, because when you blend so much
citrus
together for the sorbet, you have to add water to cut the acidity.
Without the
banana, the texture is too much like that of an ice. And the
banana
isn’t acidic,
so it balances the flavor as well as the texture…
Grown-ups
might also like it
with a splash of vodka over it.”
Makes
about 1 1/2 pints
Special Equipment: Ice Cream Machine
2/3 cup (134 grams) sugar
1/2 banana, peeled
1 cup (242 grams) fresh orange juice
1 cup (242 grams) fresh grapefruit juice
1/2 cup (125 grams) fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons (30 grams) grenadine
1. Combine the sugar and 1/2 cup (118 grams) water in a
medium sauce-
pan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the
sugar.
Remove the
pan from the heat and pour the syrup into a medium
bowl. Refrigerate until
chilled, about 2 hours.
2. Place the banana in a food processor and process until smooth. Add
the
citrus juices and grenadine and process until combined. Stir into the
chilled sugar syrup.
3. Freeze the sorbet in an ice cream maker according to the manu-
facturer’s
instructions. Serve immediately, or pack into an airtight
container and
store
in the freezer for up to 1 week.
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