Strawberries, Ginger, and Rhubarb, Oh My!

Spring is fully sprung and after seeing (and buying) the beautiful strawberries at the Farmer's Market yesterday, a hankering for Strawberry-Rhubarb pie overtook me. I didn't see any rhubarb at the market since it doesn't grow well in this climate. I'll test it myself since I planted two roots a month or so ago. Nothing has popped up, but I keep telling myself this winter when it's colder I'll see it thrive. Hmmm. Anyway, since I can't grow it in my own garden, off to Whole Foods I went and came back with some beautiful, slender, ruby red rhubarb.

Then came the dilemma. I'm not a baker. I can't bake. I've tried to bake. There is really no nice way to say this other than I truly suck at baking. So, that narrowed down my baking choice to a crumble...which is usually how my pie crusts turn out anyway. And yet, I wanted a bottom crust...all that strawberry/rhubarb juicy goodness laying on top of a sweet crust to make sure nothing gets lost on the plate. Yep, a traditional crumble wouldn't do. Now, if it wasn't Mother's Day, I would have called Mrs. S. for her recipe. She's (a) family (friend) and I remember her beautiful strawberry-rhubarbs from my childhood which always showed up in the summer for the pool parties, inevitably arriving in her gigantic wicker basket covered with a gingham cloth. I used to have a smaller version of that basket because I loved her entrances to the parties so much....

But, since it was Mother's Day and she's surrounded by a bevy of children and grandchildren today, I'm sure....the internet would have to do. After a lot of yummy recipes passing across my eyes, I settled on a bit of a combination of things. Its core recipe is from Ken Haefich's book PIE
which includes a "skillet crust". This is right up my alley. Basically it's melted butter with vanilla and then the flour and sugar is folded in until if forms a crumb-like crust that can be pressed into your pie plate. Just up my non-baker alley. From there it was adapted by Barbara Fisher on her site Tigers and Strawberries where she added lemon juice and lemon zest as well as ground ginger and cardamon.

I took it one step further and added a tiny bit more ground ginger in the skillet crust and candied ginger in the actual pie/crumble. The pie is decidedly more rhubarb that strawberry given its 2 to 1 ratio, but that's fine by me! It's cooling now and The Squeeze and I will have it after his Mother's Day gig at The Cat Man Blu, a new cajun restaurant that opened up in place of Casa Vino. We'll let you know how it is!