Rhubarb compote, granola, vanilla ice cream & whipped cream

I love rhubarb, if cooked correctly its sour & sweet, refreshing & comforting. I learned to cook rhubarb with strawberries at the first cafe I ever worked at. Somehow the strawberries help to sweeten the otherwise extremely sour rhubarb and as we all know I don't like to use a lot of sugar and this is possible when adding strawberries. For this compote I used 1,5 dl sugar, 1tsp honey and 1 tbsp vanilla sugar.

The beautiful this with this compote is its super simple to make and it can be used for your morning yoghurt, eaten just with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, become the filling for a pie and be spread on toast.

For this recipe you will need

5 rhubarb stalks
250 gram strawberries ( I use frozen - allow the frozen berries to defrost slightly, so that they are soft on the outside, hard inside)
1 dl fresh orange juice
1 1/4 dl sugar (I used unbleached caster sugar)
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp vanilla sugar

If you want to be experimental (I was about to add this myself but didn't have the guts in the end) add some freshly ground pepper to the compote towards the end. Another alternative that I can also imagine giving this a kick would be some lemon zest or a small pinch of cardamon.

1. Chop the rhubarb into 3cm chunks and add to a thick bottomed steel pan, add the stawberries, the sugar and orange juice.
2. Allow this mix to simmer on a mid heat for about 5-7min, stirring intermediately. Once the fruit has begun to soften, lower the heat. Allow to continue simmering for another 10 min, while continuing to stir now & then. 
3. Add the honey and stir. 
4. Cook till the mixture becomes like the photo below, all the fruit melted into a kind of thick sauce. The rhubarb should have become stringy and the strawberries melted away into a the sauce. 
5. Allow to cool & taste. 
6. Add the vanilla sugar. 
7. Taste again, adjust with sugar if you feel the need. If you are brave enough now is the time to add the pepper or lemon zest or cardamon but only 1 of these 3 as I do not believe all 3 will improve the taste experience. My tip would be to take a small spoonful of the compote & thus add 1 of the 3 ingredients above to see if they work.

The second part to this dessert is just as simple as the compote. Pre heat the oven till 200 degrees Celsius.

1,5 dl oats
2 tbsp honey
50 gram butter
pinch of salt
1 dl mix of sun flower seeds, sesame seeds & flax seeds
1/2 dl hazelnuts (preferably pre roasted & de shelled)
1 tsp water
1/2 tsp sunflower oil or other mild cooking oil
sprinkle of cinnamon or cardamon - optional

1. Place the oats in a bowl along with the butter, crumble these together so that the oats break and the butter 'disolves' into the oat mix. 
2. Add the salt, cinnamon or cardamon and seed mix. Using a the back of a fork mix & mash. 
3. Add the honey, mix & mash with the fork. 
4. Add the water and oil, continue to mix & mash. 
5. Finally add the hazelnuts, turn them into the oat mix. 
6. place the pix in a oven proof form and place in the oven. 
7. Allow the 'granola' to bake for 10min, then with a spoon or fork mix the granola so that it can be baked through. Do this once again after another 10min. 
8. The granola is ready when it has turned golden and crispy. 

To finish this dish off add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, drizzle the granola mix on top then a generous spoonful of the rhubarb compote & then to top it off a dollop of whipped cream.