Food Friday: April Fools

Sadly, I am not clever enough to come up with a brilliant idea like the BBC’s famous spaghetti farm for April Fools Day. You have to watch this little video even if you have seen it before. ‘Tis the season to enjoy something silly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU

I have my humble, little container garden of basil and greens, and earlier this week I planted some sprouting garlic to start my Middle Street Garlic Ranch. All I need now are tomatoes, and the fabled spaghetti harvest, and I will be in business. I’ll need some breadfruit, too, I suppose.

I thought we could test drive some fruit fools, and decide for ourselves which would be the tastiest way to spend April Fools Day. This cannot be a choice which we make lightly – do we want whipped cream, custard or yogurt? Do we want to add meringue bits or crumbly crumbs to give the mixture a little texture? Do we stew the fruit, or crush it? We will have to don our aprons with open minds and mouths. It is time for the fool smack down.

When I was growing up we had a couple of rhubarb plants in the lower garden by the corner of the old barn cum garage. perennials, they were spectacularly lush every summer, with huge rain forest-worthy leaves; their growth fueled by being the plants closest to the compost pile. I am sure my mother kept the plants just for their appearance, because she never cooked the pink stalks. They were attractive, just not food-worthy in her judgment. She grew plants purely for their ornamental value, rarely for harvest. We did grow tomatoes every summer, and there were the few times my father tried to introduce a green pepper crop, but mostly we had flowers for their beauty alone, and their ability to lure butterflies or hummingbirds.

The rhubarb I see these days in the grocery store does not live up to my memories of the rhubarb in the back yard – the strong, stringy batons that were wildly sour when we tried to nibble them. (“Don’t eat the poisonous leaves,” we were warned, so we assiduously removed all vestiges of the dangerous green as diligently we avoided the three forms of poison ivy.) What I see at the market these days is rhubarb that is far from it place of origin, and has gone all limp and sad. Therefore, we must restore this herbaceous vegetable that aspires to be a fruit, and is the center of our April Fools Feast, with a fluffy whorl of cream and sugar greatness.

Here are several ways to prepare rhubarb for a delicious smackeral of a fool – by stewing, boiling or puréeing. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/apr/12/how-to-make-perfect-rhubarb-fool

If you want to venture beyond your own back garden harvest, (or the farmers’ market crispy fresh rhubarb) you can always try soft berries, which you only need to smash a little, before blending with the cream, custard or yogurt. I am always partial to raspberries, with strawberries being the more practical and economical choice, in a heady mixture of whipped cream. If I could swirl the berries in Devonshire cream I certainly would, but a nice big bowl of fresh homemade whipped cream is perfection unto itself.

There cannot be a simpler recipe to follow for a delectable dessert: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9592-strawberry-fool

But if you add some meringue to strawberries and cream, you can puff out your chest and announce that everyone is eating Eton Mess, which sounds grand, and tastes even better:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/eton-mess-103204 We like to promote recipes that include gratuitous dollops of alcohol, as you can tell.

And once you have mastered Eton Mess, a strawberry Pavlova is destined to be your next dessert accomplishment. This is most impressive, but it requires a slightly steadier hand than the Mess, so cut down on the cooking sherry. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9641-strawberry-pavlova

But once again I have strayed from the footpath. Now that we are enjoying a beautiful flower-filled spring, let the joy we have felt watching the cherry blossom petals waft onto the lawn extend to whipping up some cream and crushing some fruit. Enjoy a fool’s paradise.

“Compromise is a stalling between two fools.”
― Stephen Fry