Rhubarb Rhubarb...Part 2

So after my first rhubarb bake, I decided to try and find some stalks with a bit more colour to them. After hopping on the tube and travelling in to the next borough I found a market stall holder selling some lovely pink ones.

I wanted to choose a recipe that involved minimal cooking of the flesh so as to retain the colour, so roasting first in the oven to soften the rhubarb seemed like the obvious thing to do, but what then? Maybe a pastry case filled with crème patisserie and the rhubarb on top?

I settled for a take on a classic custard tart, made with roasted rhubarb and shortbread base. A berry that I particularly like paired with rhubarb, is raspberry. Try and pick raspberries that are very ripe and sweet, otherwise the combination of the tart raspberry and acidic rhubarb will require extra sugar to cut through. I had some raspberry curd leftover from a previous cake so decided to add this to the custard to give the flavour a berry hit, but you can easily just use fresh unadulterated raspberries.

There are a number of rhubarb custard tart recipes out there, where the custard is poured over whole pieces of vegetable, but I decided to puree the rhubarb and mix this in to the custard to create a lovely vibrant coloured filling.

INGREDIENTS FOR SHORTBREAD BASE

250g plain flour

70g soft light brown sugar

20g demerara sugar

3/4 baking powder

pinch of salt

170g cold butter, cubed

1 small egg

INGREDIENTS FOR RHUBARB CUSTARD

550g rhubarb

150g raspberries

3 medium eggs

175g caster sugar

60g cornflour

DIRECTIONS

FOR THE BISCUIT

1. Pre-heat oven to 160c for fan or 170c otherwise. Line and grease and 20cm x 20cm baking tin. You should two lots of baking paper, with each one over hanging the sides so you can lift the tart out of the tin once it's cooked.

2. Place all of the dry ingredients and butter in to a food processor and whizz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (or alternatively you can do this by hand).

3. Pour this mixture into a bowl and add the egg, working the dough until smooth.

4. Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough to a thickness of 5mm. Mark out the baking tray on the dough and cut out the square, pick up the pastry and place in to the tin. Use any scraps to fill any holes you may have.

5. Bake in the over for 20-25mins until the pastry is golden.

6. Any left over pastry can be cooked for you to nibble with your tea.

FOR THE CUSTARD

1. Turn the oven up to 180c fan (190c otherwise) and cut the rhubarb into 4" chunks. Put these on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 12 minutes or until soft. Reduce the over to 145c fan (160c otherwise)

2. Use a stick blender (or food processor) to whizz the rhubarb, raspberries, eggs, sugar and corn flour together. Pass the mixture through a sieve and then pour on to the biscuit base.

3. Cook for 35-40 mins or until the filling has set.

4. Leave to cool completely and then refrigerate for a couple of hours.

5. Lift out of the tin, dust with icing sugar and use a knife run under hot water to cut the tart.

Rhubarb and Raspberry Custard Tart