Rhubarb between melon balls

This fruit salad tastes as inviting as it looks. The delicate flavors of spring rhubarb with the ginger and cantaloupe are lovely.

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:

• 4-5 stalks fresh rhubarb
• 1/2 cantaloupe
• 2 tbs. sugar

for the dressing

• 2 tbs. sweet desert wine
• 1 tbs. ginger syrup

Directions:

1. I chose the youngest bright pink rhubarb for this recipe.
2. Wash and slice the rhubarb and slice in small bite sized pieces, Perhaps on a slant, as that would present nicely.
3. Place in a small sauce pan.
4. Cover with water and add the sugar.
5. Cook or poach the rhubarb for about 3 minutes.
6. Stay and watch, have a fork ready to test if it has begun to get soft.
7. It is not so easy to cook rhubarb.
8. It goes from hard crunchy pieces to totally string mousse in minutes.
9. When it has just begun to get soft, remove it from the heat and plunge it into cold water to stop it from further cooking.
10. You can then place it in the refrigerator (still in the cold water bath) until needed.
11. Shortly before serving, using a melon baller, make melon balls from the cantaloupe.
12. Mix the sweet wine and ginger syrup together to make the sauce.
13. Arrange the melon balls and the rhubarb on a plate or in a bowl and drizzle the sauce over.
14. I garnished this with the mint leaves, but did not eat them with the salad as the flavor of the mint rather over powered the flavors of the ginger, rhubarb and melon.

Note:

Here is a useful tip, just in case your rhubarb did overcook and fell appart.
You can put it in the blender add 1 tablespon of sugar and puree. It makes a very lovely coulis (sauce). You can then use is on pancakes or waffels or as a soup with a bit of soy yogurt floating in the middle.