We visited my parents up in Clear Lake recently and during one of our walks my mom suggested we pick some of her neighbor's fresh rhubarb. It was a really large plant, and she told my mom to take as much as we wanted.
As soon as we got home my wife decided to make a chutney with the rhubarb. Growing up my grandma used to make what she called "rhubarb sauce" that was a lot like applesauce. I loved it so much, she kept giving me jars for the next twenty years. This chutney is very similar.
She started of by slicing some fresh ginger.
Next came what looks like 1/3 cup of brown sugar.
She added that to the chopped rhubarb in a saucepan and cooked it for 10-20 minutes until it bubbled away.
After those flavors had gotten to know each other pretty well, she extracted the ginger slices.
By this point the rhubarb had broken down and released a lot of moisture. The chutney is a lot like a jelly that you can use to top ice cream, waffles, or just spread on some English muffins.
It is sweet from the natural sugars plus the addition of some brown sugar; but there is also a nice tartness and acidity from the rhubarb that makes this a really enjoyable taste. The ginger kind of rounds out the flavor profile and gives you a really bold (condiment) if you will, that is versatile in what you add it to. As a kid I just liked to eat a small bowl of it. Now that I'm an adult I will get to try it in bunch of new ways.
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