Rhubarb and Custard

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Shallow baking dish
• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan
• •Wooden spoon
• •Fine-mesh sieve (optional, for straining the custard)
• •Vegetable peeler

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the rhubarb

   Set the oven to 180C/160C fan. Put the rhubarb in a single layer in a shallow baking dish, something that holds it snugly without crowding. Scatter the sugar over the top, tuck in the strip of orange peel, and add the tablespoon of water. That's it. Forced rhubarb is so tender and full of its own juice that it needs almost nothing from you.

   Cut the stalks to similar lengths so they cook evenly. Forced rhubarb is delicate. If the pieces vary too much, the thinner ones collapse while the thicker ones are still firm.
2. 2

   Roast until tender

   Cover the dish loosely with foil and slide it into the oven. Bake for twelve to fifteen minutes, until the rhubarb yields when you press it with the back of a spoon but still holds its shape. You're not making compote. You want distinct pink batons sitting in a pool of their own shocking pink syrup. Check it early. Forced rhubarb goes from perfect to collapsed quickly, and once it's gone to mush there's no bringing it back.

3. 3

   Infuse the milk and cream

   While the rhubarb is in the oven, pour the milk and cream into a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the vanilla pod and its scraped seeds. Bring it slowly to just below a simmer, small bubbles at the edge, no more, then take it off the heat and let it sit for ten minutes. You want the vanilla to have its say.

4. 4

   Whisk the yolks

   In a bowl large enough to hold everything eventually, whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar and cornflour until the mixture turns pale and thick, about a minute of proper work. The cornflour is a small insurance policy. It stabilises the custard against splitting if the heat gets away from you. Old hands can skip it. I don't.

5. 5

   Temper and thicken

   Fish the vanilla pod out of the warm milk. Pour the milk into the yolks in a slow, steady stream, whisking all the while, then tip the lot back into the pan. Set it over a gentle heat and stir with a wooden spoon, not a whisk, moving it constantly across the base of the pan in slow figures of eight. After four or five minutes it will begin to thicken. The moment it coats the back of the spoon and a finger drawn through leaves a clean line, it's done. Trust your nose and your eyes. This is not the time to walk away.

   If you panic and think it's catching, lift the pan off the heat entirely and keep stirring. The residual warmth will carry it through. Custard is less frightening than people say, but it asks for your full attention.
6. 6

   Serve together

   Spoon the rhubarb and its pink syrup into shallow bowls. Pour the warm custard over the top, or beside it if you want to see both. A generous pour. This isn't a dish for restraint. The sharp, almost citrusy rhubarb against the soft vanilla custard is the whole point, and any less than plenty feels mean.

Chef Tips

• •Insist on forced Yorkshire rhubarb if you can find it. The outdoor summer stuff is a different vegetable altogether, greener, coarser, and needs more sugar to tame. Forced rhubarb has a perfume the outdoor kind never gets near, and the colour alone is worth the trip. If it isn't January to March, wait. Come back in three months and it'll be worth it.
• •Low and slow is the rule for custard. A heavy-bottomed pan, a wooden spoon, and your full attention. If you're tempted to turn the heat up to speed things along, don't. A split custard can sometimes be rescued by blitzing with a stick blender, but it's never quite the same.
• •The orange peel is not optional for me. It's a whisper rather than a shout, but it lifts the rhubarb in a way that's hard to name until you try it without. Pare it thinly so you get only the oily coloured layer, not the bitter white pith underneath.
• •Any leftover custard is no bad thing. Cold, thick, spooned straight from the fridge over a slice of cake, or warmed gently to go with tomorrow's stewed fruit. It keeps for two days, covered, and I'd argue it's better on the second.

Advance Preparation

• •The rhubarb can be roasted up to two days ahead and kept in the fridge in its own syrup. Warm it through gently before serving, or serve at room temperature.
• •The custard is best made on the day but will keep, covered with cling film pressed onto its surface, in the fridge for up to two days. Reheat very gently in a pan over low heat, stirring constantly, or serve cold.
• •If making both ahead, warm the rhubarb and the custard separately so each keeps its own character.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 280g)