This is one of Pierre’s favorite dessert and I must say I like it too. Rhubarb is not something I grew up with, I didn’t encounter it until my first trip to England. I was a fille au pair at the mansion of Lord & Lady Bolton in Yorkshire. I was in charge of two things; first: was to take the lady’s horse out for a walk in the morning; and two: was to help cook supper. One of the recurring dessert was rhubarb and custard. I don’t remember exactly how we did it then, but this is how I make it now. I like the “enhanced” custard a lot! It is rich, creamy, but not too sweet.
How to make it:
Cook the rhubarb with maple syrup until very soft.
Custard w/ whipped cream:
Boil 2 cups whole milk and reserve.
1/3 cup of sugar
2 egg yolks
Whisk together until foamy.
In another bowl
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup flour
Mix with the egg yolk texture.
Add the milk, mix thoroughly and return to low heat. Cook the mixture, it will thickens quickly, but keep it under a low flame and mix constantly so the ingredients will bind well because uncooked flour is not digestible! Reserve to cool. Keep it covered to prevent a skin to form on top.
You can chill both the rhubarb and the custard until you are ready to serve dessert. When ready to serve whip the heavy cream, add a dash of vanilla extract. Then fold gently cream & custard together. The ratio is equal amount of whipped cream and custard. Garnish with a fruit, strawberry will be best but I had only a peach and I think it looks interesting too. Voilà for now! I am a busy busy preparing for Friday June 19th performance & dinner at 5c Café. I will post about that tomorrow, but save the date for next week end.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Peter // Jun 17, 2009 at 5:16 am
Many thanks for the recipe!! Will try it out (seeing that we have rhubarb in our garden, and that I’m a big fan of custard & rhubarb as well).
P.S.: funky plate!
2 Peter // Jun 23, 2009 at 4:22 am
Prepared & savoured yesterday: what a delight, indeed!
Btb, lead to my proper Proustian “madeleine” experience: suddenly I was thrown back, and reminded of our own, regional preparation: we have the habit of serving the rhubarb not with custard, but with white rice pudding (so not the other typical one with cinnamon & saffron, served with “cassonade”). It used to be a favourite of mine at my grandparents’.
Thanks for the marvellous recipe (& the great blog).
3 Nicole Peyrafitte // Jun 24, 2009 at 5:23 pm
You better be prepared to make it that rice pudding for me Peter! Thanks for being un reader assidu!
4 Peter // Jun 25, 2009 at 5:38 am
My pleasure entirely, to be an assiduous reader!
And: I’ll do my utmost best, although I doubt being able to match the skills of my late grandfather and my mother, who both master the recipe to a frightening degree (incidentally, the “yellow” rice pudding’s my father’s absolute “péché mignon”)!
To be tasted…
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