Strawberry & Rhubarb Parfait

So, M woke up with Chicken Pox today! I am pretty excited. She is currently eating udon noodles with butter. She is slightly under the weather, but calm before the storm perhaps? Hasn't lost her appetite though. For her that is always the last to go. No remedies yet, but I am anticipating some Rhus Tox due to her already wanting to itch!

While she was lounging away this afternoon counting her pox, I thought about how inspired I was at my girlfriend's house yesterday. I came over to pick up M from some play time with her best friend, and she had whipped together a strawberry rhubarb pie. It was really wonderful, tart, sweet and in season. Then her partner came home and he let me try a batch of lavender shortbread cookies he had just made the day before. I was in heaven! So today with my over-the-hill strawberries, I made a compote with rhubarb to assemble a parfait. A couple of weeks back I was drooling over Fix Me A Snack's post called Yogurt 101, and this is a spin on her version of Rhubarb Compote with Strawberries.  I wanted it to be "sugar" free, but I did add a teaspoon of rose petal sugar from AllStar Organics to the compote because it is so luscious and indulgent, especially paired with strawberries.

Instead of using traditional sugars, I used honey and maple syrup which substituted nicely in the rest of the parfait. The vanilla beans I initially bought some months back because I was so curious how 2 oz. of ground vanilla beans could sell for less than $5. Creating this link however, I am noticing that the website charges over $12 for the same thing! Either way, I love using these ground beans in sauces, whipped cream, cakes.... anything I can get away with. I use a sieve to separate the seeds from the larger pieces and it works nicely to make sure it is not clumpy when I add it to wet ingredients.
I ate this for lunch. I was really impressed with the floral flavors, and how well the greek yogurt blended in with the fruit!

Strawberry & Rhubarb Parfaits
makes 2 parfaits

Compote
1 cup rhubarb cut into small cubes
1 1/2 cup strawberries cut into small cubes
1 tbls honey
1 tsp orange flower water
1 tsp rose petal sugar
very small pinch salt

Yogurt
1 1/2 cups low fat organic greek yogurt
1/2 tsp raw ground vanilla beans
1 tbls maple syrup

1/2 cup toasted, blanched, slivered almonds


In a small bowl, add yogurt, maple syrup and ground vanilla beans. Mix well and set aside for flavors to meld. 

In saucepan add strawberries and rhubarb. Add pinch salt and cook for around 8 minutes or until strawberries start loosing their shape and rhubarb is soft. Remove from heat and add flower water and rose petal sugar. Cover and set aside for a couple of minutes to let flavors mingle.

In a heavy bottomed pan, add almonds and put on med-high heat. Stir almonds frequently so they don't burn, but brown nicely. This takes about 5 minutes. Pour into a bowl and let cool.

To assemble, add one layer of compote, one layer of yogurt and one layer of almonds. Repeat so that almonds end up on top. If you are making these ahead of time, wait to put the last layer of almonds until before serving so they stay crunchy.