Despite the wet weather the strawberry season has arrived and The Capital’s food section last Wednesday listed some great recipes and locations for U-Pick farms. Our local strawberries have a better taste than the packaged varieties from California found in the stores. This is because they are varieties of berry grown for flavor rather than for their keeping qualities and large size.
I want to add a couple of recipes to promote what I think of as a marriage made in heaven, the pairing of strawberries and rhubarb. Rhubarb is a vegetable; we eat the bright red stalks of the plant. It’s available now in stores, choose slim stalks with a bright color.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Compote

4 cups rhubarb chopped into ¾ inch lengths
4 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
¾ cup sugar
A few drops of lemon juice

Cook the rhubarb in a large pan over a low heat with the sugar and a couple of tablespoons water, until it is tender, about 15 minutes. If you already have an oven on, it can cook in there for 30 to 45 minutes.
Once the rhubarb is cooked, pile in the strawberries and let them sit in the hot juices to soften. Add the lemon juice to spark up the flavor.
Serve at room temperature or chilled. This compote is good with ice cream or plain yoghurt and also dresses up an angel food cake.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie

3 cups each of chopped rhubarb and strawberries
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoons instant tapioca
A few drops of lemon juice

Toss all the ingredients together and turn into a 9 inch pie dish, let sit for 20 minutes or so.
Cover with pastry (see below) and brush the top with beaten egg for a glazed crust. For a crunchier crust, sprinkle with a little sugar too.
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, and then turn down the oven to 325 and cook for a further 45 minutes. Cool before serving.
Pie Dough --enough for two 9 inch crusts or one large one. Can be frozen.

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
11 tablespoons chilled butter
7 tablespoons chilled all vegetable shortening
1/3 – 3/8 cup iced water

Place the flour salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to mix.
Add the butter and shortening, chopped into ¼ inch dice, pulse again until the mixture looks like it has small peas in it, about 3 or 4 5 second pulses.
Add the ice cold water, pulse once and turn out into a large bowl. Gather the mixture together and swiftly give it a couple of kneads so that it is a cohesive mass. Do not over work it at this stage.
Rest for at last a half hour before rolling out and baking.