Rhubarb parfait and dinner with L and G

Last night, P and I had our friends L and G over for dinner, an event inspired by the fact that I had made a rhubarb parfait on Wednesday night, and it was sitting in the freezer, waiting to be eaten. But what is a rhubarb parfait?

According to my newest cookbook, Anna and Michael Olson Cook at Home: Recipes for Everyday and Every Occasion, what they call a rhubarb parfait is essentially a semifreddo - but because they got the recipe from friends in Germany (because Italians don't really use rhubarb), they referred to it as (I'm guessing) the Germans did.

As you can see in the picture, it came out in the shape of the loaf pan it was frozen into. The way it's made, for those of you not familiar with how a semifreddo is put together, is reminiscent of how ice cream is made, using egg yolks and sugar and cream. The difference here is how they are mixed together: the egg yolks are whipped, then hot sugar is beaten into the egg yolks. Whipped cream is then folded into the egg yolks, and then whipped egg whites are folded in. At the end, what is basically a rhubarb compote is gently stirred in. It's then frozen in a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap at least over night. I would give the whole recipe, but it's long and involved, so if you're really interested, check out their recipe in the book.

Given how it's made, it's not surprising that the flavor resembles ice cream, though it's simultaneously heavier and lighter in mouth feel than ice cream. Heavier because there is no milk to offset the fat in the cream; lighter because of the air whipped in in all three stages of assembly. The flavor of rhubarb in this recipe doesn't hit you in the face; it's delicate, and (I hate to say) a bit boring. I'm looking forward to pouring the other rhubarb compote I made over some homemade vanilla ice cream - it's sweet enough to offset the sharpness of the rhubarb flavor so you can taste much more than just a hint of rhubarb in every bite.

The rest of our dinner, though, was far from boring. L and I prepared the food:

- A salad of greens from our CSA share and fennel, with a citrus dressing, not pictured here because it wouldn't fit on the plate in the first round of eating!
- Cucumber from the CSA share, with sour cream, lime, & basil from our balony garden, from In the Kitchen with Anna: New Ways with the Classics
- A quinoa salad, created by L, with tomatoes, feta, pine nuts, mint from the CSA share and basil from the balcony garden, with a balsamic vinaigrette
- Sweet potato oven fries
- Pan-seared salmon

All of it was delicious, and felt very appropriate for the summer that's approaching. I would make every single one of the components of this dinner again - the quinoa salad in particular. In the spirit of Greek cooking, though, rather than giving a recipe, just put in all of those listed components as much as is necessary!