Though I live in Central Texas, where rhubarb nor raspberries grow well, I still enjoy working with them when I visit other parts of the country.

I just visited the NYC area and rhubarb is heavy on farmers market tables. I was tempted to bring some home with me on the plane to make more of this delicious sauce I whipped up a couple weeks back after a great sale on organic rhubarb and organic raspberries at Whole Foods Market. I compromised and bought strawberries, and proceeded to eat the entire pint myself in 2 days. Strawberries would work well in this recipe if you don’t have raspberries.

Rhubarb raspberry sauce

yields 6 half pints

Ingredients:

5 large stalks of rhubarb (14 oz)

3 half pints of raspberries (6oz each)

2 1/4 c sugar

1/2 c lemon juice (save the lemon seeds when juicing the lemons)

[Optional] 1 Tbs rosewater

Method:

1. Combine rhubarb, raspberries and sugar in a large glass or ceramic bowl, cover, and allow to sit at room temperature for up to 8 hours or in the fridge for up to 48 hours.

2. Make the sauce by dumping the macerated mixture into a large, heavy-bottomed, non-reactive pan. Put reserved lemon seeds into a metal tea ball and add to the pan with the lemon juice. Turn on heat to medium-low to dissolve any remaining sugar granules.

3. Once all sugar has dissolved bring heat to medium for 5 minutes to soften rhubarb. Use an immersion blender to puree the mixture, or pour the contents of the pan (carefully!) into a blender and then return to the heat.

4. Carefully stir the mixture to allow additional moisture to evaporate and for the sauce to thicken. Use a long spatula or spoon since stirring will cause bubbling and you don’t want it to burn you.

5. Use the frozen spoon test to assess the finished texture of your sauce. If you want it thicker, then keep it over the heat for longer, but keep retesting with additional spoons.

6. When sauce has thickened to your liking, remove from heat and add rosewater if using.

7. Prepare jars for waterbath canning and process for 15 minutes.