Rhubarb

After a long winter of nothing in the market to make sauces for duck breasts except for fruit that we froze last summer and fall, rhubarb made its first appearance this week. Here's a really easy sauce that I like to pair with Moulard Duck breast and a nice fruity Shiraz. Rhubarb is one of the few vegetables that we typically treat as a fruit, that is, it almost always ends up in a sweet application.

Rhubarb Shiraz Sauce

5 pounds rhubarb, chopped
8 fluid ounces (1 cup) Shiraz
18 ounces (2 cups) sugar

This is a puréed and strained sauce, so in prepping the rhubarb, I don't worry about strings. For a pie or sauce in which you want chunks of rhubarb, peel any strings away just like you would for celery or asparagus.

Time zero. All the ingredients in a non-reactive sauce pan on medium high heat (yes, this is actually our grill; it works great for things like this).

Five minutes.

Ten minutes. Stop here for a chunky sauce.

Fifteen minutes and all the rhubarb is tender to the point of falling apart.

The final sauce, well blended and passed through a chinois.

And there you have it. It couldn't be simpler.