Having never really come across the combination of rhubarb and strawberry before a couple of years ago, suddenly it's everywhere. Have I been blind or is this a North American thing that has only just reached us? In any case, it's something I want to embrace.
A few weeks ago I saw a recipe for a rhubarb strawberry butter on Simple Bites that sounded good. I made an apple cider butter from the River Cottage Jams and Preserves book by Pam Corbin and it was amazing, so I thought I'd give this a whirl.
I have to say that whilst it tastes nice, it did turn out to be a lesson in reading the recipe properly. North American recipes are very fond of canning as a form of preservation (that's making whatever you're preserving, putting in your jars and then boiling the jars in order to kill bacteria and achieve a vacuum seal). To me as a UK reader, this seems a lot of faff, but there really isn't much sugar in the recipe, so I felt obliged to can and bought appropriate jars (much to Fantastic Mr Fox's horror as I am usually unable to pass storage jars without buying some... You'd think it would result in a tidy kitchen, wouldn't you?).
Anyway, it worked and I seem to have a vacuum seal on at least one of my jars (I only tested one), but it was more effort than normal - and since I failed to start early enough did keep me out of bed... I might make less another time and keep in the fridge or freeze it.
I'd also cook it a bit longer - I think mine is more compote than butter... Tastes nice anyway!
Recipe is here:
http://www.simplebites.net/preserving-spring-strawberry-rhubarb-butter/
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