It’s been a long time coming this year, but spring is finally here. My rhubarb erupted out a few weeks ago. It is almost ready for using. I started assembling all of my favorite rhubarb recipes and came across this gem. Pineapple-Rhubarb (sp)Ring.
Pineapple-Rhubarb sp(Ring). Is another one of great-grandma’s red Jell-O mold recipes. I’m becoming oddly fond of these.
Once a week, we gather with a group of friends to do pub trivia. Our group ranges in ages from late 20’s to mid-70’s and has everything in between. This ensures that we have a wide base of knowledge across generations. It means we can answer most questions.
Except sports. We’re really not good at sports.
“Put the following basketball players in order from shortest to tallest.”
Most of us had heard of one or two of the names on the list.
“Which ones of these quarterbacks have won the Heisman Trophy?”
(Quarterbacks qualify to win that award, right?)
We excel on questions about pop music. One of our dearest friends can tell you what the number one song was on the day you were born.
There is a charming older man on our team who knows world history, US history, geography, and music before about 1985. When we were new to the team, we asked if he was sure about an answer. “Yeah, I was there,” he said. We went along with his answer. He was right.
Another question came up on a different day. “I was there.” He said. Again, he was right.
Now, whenever he is sure of the answer, someone says “Doug was there.” This is the response to him knowing about everything from Washington crossing the Potomac to which President had which number of children to where Steve Jobs was conceived. It doesn’t matter what it is. If Doug is sure, he must’ve been there.
The other night at trivia, a question was asked about when Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule.
“Oh!” I exclaimed excitedly. “I was actually there.”
Doug knew the answer, but I really was there.
In 1997, I applied for and got the opportunity to teach English and travel for 6 weeks in China. I was in college. I majored in International Relations. It was an obvious opportunity. It was my second time on an airplane. I knew no one.
Before we went into mainland China, we spent a few days in Hong Kong for some training and to assimilate a little bit. We needed bonding time as a group and time to recover from jet-lag before embarking on the teaching part of the trip.
Everywhere we went in Hong Kong, there were red and gold banners celebrating their reunification with China. They were in Chinese, so I couldn’t read them, but that’s what our translator told us. The atmosphere seemed festive, but that might’ve just been the energy of the city.
While there, we walked around the night market. We ate breakfast at a place that had an enormous butter sculpture of a dragon. To get into our private dining room at a restaurant, we had to walk through the kitchen where they were in the process of slaughtering chickens.
It was in Hong Kong that I had dim sum for the first time. I ate a chicken foot.
When we arrived at our destination in China, I was willing to accept the explanations of the food we were given.
“What is this?”
“Traditional Chinese dish. Eat, eat.”
“But what is it?”
“Meat. Eat, eat very good.”
“What kind of meat?”
“Oh, I do not know name. Eat, eat, very good. Traditional Chinese dish.”
What in the world does any of this have to do with Pineapple-Rhubarb (sp)Ring?
I ate pineapple in China. I experienced new foods and tried familiar foods in new ways. It may have been part of the catalyst for trying all of these recipes.
I realize, of course, that not everyone can travel to Hong Kong during a pivotal year to have the opportunity to say “I was there” 22 years later at a bar doing trivia. And you can’t go back in time to say “I was there” when this salad was first introduced. But you can feel like you were there by making Pineapple-Rhubarb (sp)Ring to go with your first grilled dinner of the season.
When someone asks you, “What is this delicious thing I am eating?” You can answer “Traditional American food. Very good. Eat. Eat.”
The Recipe:
Pineapple-Rhubarb Ring
Ingredients
- 1 can Pineapple Tidbits about 2 1/2 cups
- 2 cups Fresh Rhubarb cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1/3 cup Sugar
- 1/2 cup Water
- 2 pkgs Cherry flavored gelatin 3 oz size (or 1 large)
- 1 TB Lemon Juice
- 1/2 Cup Pecans Broken
Instructions
- Drain pineapple and reserve syrup. (Ideally, you'd drain it into a glass measuring cup that has room enough to add more)
- Combine rhubarb, water, and sugar into a small sauce pan; cover and cook until tender. This will require more time for slightly older rhubarb than for freshly picked young rhubarb.
- Drain thoroughly, reserving syrup. (Add it to the pineapple juice. This is why I told you to make sure the cup is bigger than you'd need.)
- (And this is where the measuring cup part comes in.) Add enough water that combined syrups and water equal 3 ½ cups.
- Heat to boiling. (At this point just throw it in the microwave. Don't bother getting another dish dirty)
- Add gelatin and stir to dissolve.
- Add lemon juice and cool.
- Chill until partially set. (If you are lucky, this instruction applies to you as well as the gelatin. But I usually use this time to get other things done, which is why my gelatin gets too hard at this point. It's smart to set a timer for about a half hour.)
- Fold in rhubarb, pineapple, and nuts. (It's like 007 instructions. "One Jell-O salad. Folded not stirred.)
- Pour into a 6 cup ring mold. (Let's be honest here, you can pour this into anything that'll hold 6 cups or even into a bunch of smaller containers. Don't let these people tell you how to mold your salad.)
- Chill until firm. (See instruction above on chilling.)
- Unmold onto greens. Serve with mayonnaise. (Really, do not serve this with mayonnaise. I mean, if that's what you do, fine, but I prefer anything that is not that. Sweetened whipped cream, vanilla sauce, rum sauce, pineapple sauce. Just not mayonnaise unless you really like that sort of combination. Or do the hardcore rebellion thing and use no sauce at all.)
And you can trust me on this. I was there.
If you liked this recipe, you may also want to try Something Different Rhubarb Salad, Rhubarb Dream Dessert, and Secret Rhubarb Dessert.
And now I have an idea for a roasted pineapple and toasted coconut something…cocktail? Bread? Meringue Pie? This is an ongoing problem. I start out doing something and then get majorly inspired by something completely different and get too excited to start that and want to forget about what it was I was doing in the first place. I am working harder at trying to finish things before I start something new. It’s killing me in my knitting right now. The biggest problem I have is that I have too many ideas and there is only me that can carry them out. It’s all just time and money, right?
Ok, back on track. A couple of things to note. Pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapple probably works better than pineapple chunks. And if you haven’t read the Jell-O package (and these are small ones, not big ones in this recipe), do not attempt to use fresh pineapple. Most tropical fruits contain enzymes which counteract the gelling property of gelatin. If you want something like a slimy soup, that’s probably fine, but even despite my protests of not caring for Jell-O, I still prefer it to be gelled. The enzymes are useful for other things, though, like tenderizing meat (mmmm…al pastor). But this is also the same thing that makes some people very sensitive to eating too much raw fruit. 
Also…The topping of the Tropical Delight Salad is really good. Don’t skip that step. Even if you decide you want to change the flavor of the Jell-O, or decide not to use bananas, or oranges, do not change the topping. 