In traditional French cooking, the term compoter means to cook something gently until it breaks down and reduces into a babyfood-like purée. A compote can be made from cooked fresh or dried fruit. The word compote can also refer to game-based dishes that are cooked in a roux over low heat with bacon and onions until the flesh breaks down. In addition to fruit, peppers and onions are often cooked slowly to make a compote that is served alongside meat, omelettes or spread on toast.
To make a fruit compote, whole or chopped fruit can be soaked first in water and/or alcohol like rum or kirsch or tea to infuse it with flavor, then gently poached in sugar and water until tender. More delicate fruits like fresh figs may also be cooked quickly at high heat to make a compote. Poached pears are a form of compote. Stone fruits such as cherries, apricots and plums hold their shape when cooked this way. Making a compote is a good way to rescue not-quite-ripe fruit that doesn't taste sweet enough to eat raw.
A compote can be flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, or other spices. You can serve it plain or with whipped cream, warm or chilled. Fruit compote can also be used to fill tarts or turnovers, especially when using fruit such as apples or rhubarb that tends to break down into more of a purée when cooked. (That's right, applesauce is a compote.)
what you should know
One of the first signs of spring, rhubarb's red stalks shoot up while the ground's still cold.
Because of its bracing astringency, rhubarb needs an adult dose of sweetener to tame its acidity and let the delicate underlying flavor come through.
stalking barb Look for firm, glossy stalks that are no more than one inch thick. (Most rhubarb varieties become fibrous as they grow larger.)
pie plant While it's really a vegetable, rhubarb's treated more like a fruit. It's been called "the pie plant" because that dessert is its most common incarnation. On June 9, celebrate National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day. Or head to Lanesboro, Minnesota for its Annual Rhubarb Festival.
acid tip Do not eat rhubarb leaves. They contain high amounts of oxalic acid, which can do bad things to you if you consume enough of it.
alumi-non As with most acidic foods, rhubarb should be not cooked in aluminum cookware. If you do, Elizabeth Schneider wrote in Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, "you'll have clean cookware and tarnished rhubarb."
what you need
We're always recommending Edward Bunyard's singular Anatomy of Dessert. For a more recent classic on fresh fruit and its just desserts, try Chez Panisse Fruit, by Alice Waters, or Tartine, by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson.
To hang with rhubarb, you'll need a solid glass pie plate and a nonstick tart pan. (Pie server and ice cream scoop are optional.)
what you do
Coconut & Lime's rhubarb soda is the perfect drink for barbecues and picnics. Not as plain as water. Not as sugary as soft drinks. (It also makes a good mixer with vodka and gin.)
Cook & Eat's scrumptious apple and rhubarb shortcake is like a big, hot, sugary scone.
We love this stewed rhubarb with ricotta alongside grilled fish and scallops, while this spicy rhubarb compote does wonders to grilled duck and chicken.
Cook & Eat broke out the cloves, caster sugar and rare white port for her rhubarb syllabub.
While the rhubarb has a natural affinity for strawberries, Coconut & Lime found that it loves raspberries, too.
featured recipe Aran's coconut, strawberry, white chocolate and rhubarb mousse cake is an inspired mash-up of flavors and textures. It's the featured recipes for week's Root Source Challenge. Visit Aran at Cannelle et Vanille.
Lemon zest adds a bright spark to a dish. There are lots of tools for zesting a lemon -- zester, a knife -- but it's hard to go wrong with a fine grater (such as the popular Microplane version), which makes a beautiful light zest that melds into a dish and gives great flavor.
To zest with the Microplane, just rub the lemon in one direction against the little blades. Turn the lemon as you go so you remove only the yellow part -- the zest. You don't want the white pith just beneath -- it's bitter.
If you use a traditional zester, which makes long, thin strands of zest, or a knife, be sure to finely chop the strands with a knife. The finer shrivels of zest will permeate the dish better than the strands.
To get the most flavor out of lemon zest, add it toward the end of cooking.
Recipe: Agnolotti With Eggplant, Tomatoes And Garlic (Cookthink)
Recipe: Broccoli With Fettuccine, Lemon Zest And Parmesan (Cookthink)
Recipe: Cremini Mushroom Risotto With Lemon Zest (Cookthink)
Reference: What is a Meyer lemon? (Cookthink)
