Roasted Rhubarb for Rhubarb and Custard

Rhubarb stole my heart after my husband bought me a strawberry rhubarb pie in Cape Cod for my birthday 5 years ago. This is the third year in a row where I have bought the beautiful long reddish green stalks from Berkeley Bowl, committing to making something with them. This year’s theme became “rhubarb and custard”.

After the upteenth time watching Great British Bake Off, I found myself craving “rhubarb and custard”. I imagine myself on a cold rainy Sunday evening being served a hot pudding with a pretty pitcher of custard to drizzle on top of my “pud”. (My apologies in advance to anyone British reading this blog).

The fruit recipe anchoring this dessert is roasted rhubarb. When it came to the cooking of the rhubarb component in “rhubarb and custard”, common directions include either a stovetop compote, poached rhubarb or roasted rhubarb. In the spirit of curiosity and less mushed up fruit, I chose a roasted rhubarb recipe. Melissa Clark’s Roasted Rhubarb in the NYTimes Food was an excellent starting point. My personal recipe flavors the fruit with orange and fresh ginger which creates a beautiful blush colored orangey gingery syrup that is delicious to sneak sips of.

Since, desserts remain a treat in my house and rhubarb is seasonal so I’m not positive I’ll make the recipe again this year. Still, this recipe is a keeper so here are notes for future me (primarily) as well as all of you in case you’d like them.

Making Custard – Cooking and Tasting Notes

On the morning I decided to make custard, we only had 3 eggs. Consequently my primary requirement for a custard recipe was that it used 3 yolks (or 6 or 9). I also explicitly wanted a recipe to use up heavy cream. In the spirit of minimalism, I tried a recipe that didn’t have corn starch although my research also suggested that the addition of corn starch would help the custard smoother without straining it.

All my requirements led me to the RecipeTin Eats custard recipe which was quite forgiving my clumsiness and use of vanilla extract. After I accidentally got some egg white into the yolks and let the milk boil (but not burn), I was sure my custard would fail. Instead, it thrived and I made it extra smooth with a final push through a tea strainer (which caught a couple stray pieces of cooked egg).

A few notes based on how I made the recipe:

• The custard was a quite thick but pourable. While I had hoped for a thinner custard, I am pretty sure its thickness was due to the following:
  • Using a US cup measure (which is closer to 240 mL instead of 250 mL which is standard for UK and Australian cups)
  • Letting the milk boil instead of just warming
  • Cooking the custard too long
• The custard as made was also on the sweet side when eaten plain which was likely caused by the aforementioned liquid shortage. However, rhubarb desserts which are naturally tart benefit from a sweeter custard and when I paired the rhubarb and custard, I did not notice the extra sweetness.

Making Roasted Rhubarb – Cooking and Tasting Notes

The only asterick is that with my original amounts of sugar, I didn’t think it was sweet enough. I immediately thought of a line in Sheri Castle’s wonderful The New Southern Garden Cookbook:

Cooks were once taught to sweeten rhubarb pie with as much sugar as would be used in any fruit pie and then add that much again and then turn around and throw in another handful over their shoulders.

I felt so seen because I felt overwhelmed by the amount of sugar I was sprinkling over the fruit. However, after eating it, I thought it could have benefited from another handful so my recipe reflects the amount of sugar I would use next time. Thankfully the custard was on the sweeter side.

Assembling Rhubarb and Custard for a Crowd

For 4 dessert portions, I’d recommend using 1 recipe of the roasted rhubarb (below) and doubling the custard recipe I have recommended (use a total of 6 egg yolks). Serve the warm rhubarb in a bowl and then top with hot or cold custard, serving extra custard on the side.

Other Ways to Use Roasted Rhubarb

Apart from making rhubarb and custard, roasted rhubarb is perfect with creamy things as well as crunchy oat-y things. I like mine with oatmeal, yogurt and with ice cream. Don’t forget to drizzle some syrup as well as fruit.

Other things to make with Rhubarb

• Strawberry Rhubarb Crostini (one day I’ll have more time to make this)

Roasted Rhubarb

Recipe by Preeyanka

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Calories

300

kcal

Ingredients

• 3 cups rhubarb chopped into 1/2-3/4 wide pieces (~3ish stalks)

• 1/2 cup white sugar (or more to taste)

• 1.5 inch piece peeled ginger, cut into 1/6-1/5 inch wide coins

• Zest of 1 organic orange

• Juice of 1/2 orange

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pack rhubarb in a single layer into a 9in by 13in baking dish. Intersperse coins of ginger throughout the rhubarb.
• Zest 1 organic orange directly on top of rhubarb (or zest separately and sprinkle over the rhubarb).
• Sprinkle sugar evenly over the rhubarb. Pour juice evenly over the rhubarb.
• Bake at 375 for 20-30 min until rhubarb is soft (or to your preferred texture).
  
• Serve hot in bowls with either hot or cold custard poured on top.