FEBRUARY Eat The Seasons: Rhubarb. Recipe: Rhubarb and Custard Tart

This February we celebrated Rhubarb - and we've collaborated with chef and friend of CED Fabrizio Ricotta who's written a recipe for a beautiful rhubarb and custard tart for us.

Here at Cook Eat Discover we have one foot in the UK and one in Italy. Our cooking holidays and workshops focus on the culinary traditions and techniques of the latter. But when I think about rhubarb, it evokes nostalgia of a childhood spent in the English countryside. Cutting through its fleshy pink stalks and picking it in the garden with my mother, before the house would fill up with the amazing aromas of a steaming rhubarb crumble that she had baked.

As far as we have seen, it's not something that is widely eaten in Italy. (Much like parsnips, which I was once told by an Italian friend are only good for feeding animals!) Indeed rhubarb isn't an obvious crowd-pleaser; it has a rather harsh flavour if it isn't given the appropriate preparation. I remember being in the garden's rhubarb patch as a kid and thinking it was a good idea to bite straight into a raw stalk - wow, what sharpness! But balance it with the right amount of sugar and its rasping tartness mellows, and gives way to something that is deep, fruity, complex and completely delicious. We absolutely love it.

In fact it doesn't seem to have been widely eaten much, apart from in medicine in east Asia, until the 19th century. Seemingly because at this time sugar became significantly more affordable in North America and Europe, hence rhubarb could be made much more enjoyable by sweetening it and reducing its mouth-puckering acidity.

It is 'forced' rhubarb that hits the shops from right at the beginning of each year in the UK. The plants are put in dark sheds and the lack of light and extra warmth 'force' the rhubarb to burst forth and provide an early harvest of rhubarb that is super pink and sweet. This is enacted in the famous 'rhubarb triangle' in Yorkshire, where it is grown abundantly in forcing sheds between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell. Traditionally the forced rhubarb is harvested by candlelight; what a romantic scene!

What to look out for, and how to prep it

Like most fruit or veg, you're looking for crispness and firmness. The older it is, the more it will go limp and soft. With many such plants, the longer they are dead the more their natural sugars turn into starches and you lose the intensity of flavour - so fresh is best. The leaves are not to be eaten, they are in fact slightly poisonous. Just trim the base of the stalks if there is any dirt or discolouring. Slice the stalk up into pieces and that's all there is to it!

What can you do with it and what does it go with?

Rhubarb is usually cooked down into a stewed consistency - it falls apart quickly when heated. It needs plenty of sugar to balance it as you stew it. It's also beautiful stewed with ginger, and can be combined with other fruits with triumphant results - try cooking it with orange juice or strawberries. Once sweetened and stewed it's amazing as it is - just dip a shortbread biscuit into it! If you want the rhubarb to keep its form, you need to cook it very gently before it falls apart - a light poaching or even a gentle baking.

It is traditionally eaten in the UK in desserts. Rhubarb crumbles are divine. It goes really well with cream and custard - the combination of the punchy sourness of rhubarb with rich and mellow creaminess is just perfect. This is the case with rhubarb fools, syllabubs, rhubarb and custard or in the case of our special featured recipe below, rhubarb and creme patissiere tart.

You can use it to make jams and chutneys, and it also provides a great counterbalance for rich and fatty meats - try it with pork belly or a homemade terrine/pate. It also cuts through oily fish such as mackerel like a dream.

Why is it good for you?

Nutritionist and friend of CED Emily Moreton - thenutrinurse, told us why we should all eat more rhubarb:

Like all fruit and vegetables it is a great source of fibre. Dietary fibre helps to slow the absorption of sugars which is essential in the management of type 2 diabetes, managing your weight and overall health.

Rhubarb is also a great source of vitamin K and calcium which are both involved in blood clotting, bone and teeth health and maintaining a healthy heart. Furthermore, rhubarb contains the antioxidant phenolic acid, which supports healthy skin and protects your body from free radical damage.

Around two heaped tbsp's of cooked rhubarb counts as one portion of your 5 a day, which you could easily get from a portion of rhubarb crumble, even more of a good reason to eat dessert!

However, everything in moderation - although rhubarb is naturally low in calories it requires the addition of sugar to become palatable, therefore you may want to be mindful of your sugar intake for the rest of the day

Top tip!

Rhubarb also lends itself really well to boozy drinks - infuse it to make rhubarb gin, or make a rhubarb syrup with which you can create a beautiful bellini!

Recipe time

London-based Italian private and restaurant chef Fabrizio Ricotta has written this delicious recipe exclusively for Cook Eat Discover. He says many of his countrymen underrate or are even unaware of rhubarb, but he wanted to champion the fruit by putting together this stunning tart.

While it looks complex, the recipe is made up of just three main components - shortcrust pastry, which is filled with the creme patissiere (pastry cream - a custard thickened with flour), and topped with baked rhubarb.

Don't be put off if you don't want to make the pastry, you can buy a pastry sheet in the shops. The recipe explains how to make diamond shaped rhubarb pieces to create a pattern like Fabrizio has made - if you would rather keep it simple you can lay the rhubarb on the top of the tart in any way, in any sized pieces - it's up to you.

Rhubarb Tart

For the shortcrust pastry:

2 large eggs
100g icing sugar
250g 00 (double zero) flour
125g butter, diced and at room temperature
1 pinch of salt
Zest of half an orange

1. Pass the icing sugar through a fine sieve to break up any lumps and mix it with the flour in a bowl. Blend the flour, icing sugar, salt and butter in a food processor. Pulse it to avoid the mix overheating. You can do it by hand by mixing the ingredients until the butter is completely incorporated.
2. Take the mixture out of the food processor and in a bowl mix in the orange zest and the eggs to bring it together into a dough. Cover the dough with cling film and leave it in the fridge for an hour to set firm.
3. An hour before baking, take the dough out of the fridge and leave outside to warm up. Roll the dough very thin and carefully drape it over a 22cm tart case - you can roll it around a rolling pin to help transport it from your work surface to the case. Press the pastry into the sides and base of the tin. Using a fork, pierce some holes in the base. Putting the tin in the freezer now for an hour will give best results. Cook the tart shell at 150C for 25 minutes. Allow to cool.

For the vanilla pastry cream (Creme Patissiere):

500ml whole milk
2 egg yolks
100g sugar
50g flour 00
10 ml vanilla essence

1. Put the milk and the vanilla essence in a pan and heat it up gently
2. In a heatproof bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until fluffy. Add the flour and whisk until smooth.
3. When the milk is steaming hot (but not boiling) pour half of it over the eggs, sugar and flour, whisking until smooth. Pour the mixture back in the pan with the rest of the milk and cook over a medium heat for around 5 minutes, whisking constantly, until it thickens.
4. Pass it through a sieve and use the creme patissiere to fill the tart shell while the cream is still warm. Don't fill up the tart shell completely, leave some space for the rhubarb later on. Allow to set for an hour.

For the baked rhubarb:

8-10 stalks of rhubarb, all roughly the same width
100g sugar
60ml water
Juice of 1 orange

1. Mix the orange juice with the water and sugar. Bring the mixture to the boil then put to one side.
2. Cut the rhubarb into diamond shapes, with ideally all sides roughly the
   same length. If you would like to be very precise use a protractor to
   measure the pointed angle of each diamond as 60 degrees!
3. Toss the rhubarb in the orange syrup and place the pieces on a baking tray
   Cook the rhubarb in the oven at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool.
4. On top of the set custard, arrange six diamonds in the centre in
   a flower shape and continue working outwards to the edge until all the
   surface of the tart is filled with diamonds, use the smaller diamonds to fill
   the gaps on the edges.