Rhubarb Lattice, Rhubarb and Custard Ice Cream with a Framboise and Rose swirl.

 

Tinseled spires, glistening branches, tinkling icicles, wandering in a winter wonderland – it aint! Wall to wall damp, relentless rotten rain, endless grey and drizzle, it’s currently chucking it down out there! One is little inclined toward the inclement, one creaks when it’s dreek. I confirm the English love brooding commentaries about the weather, ailments, and their animals.

Recipe dearie?

 

  

  

  

 

The new season Rhubarb from the market is ‘cheek-puckeringly sharp’ but a glorious colour and I prepared it thusly…

 

  

 

Wash, dry, chop (at a jaunty angle) sprinkle with sugar to taste and microwave, uncovered for 5 mins in a suitable dish. If your oven is on pop it in there until softened. Allow to cool.

 

  

 

 

Line a flan tin with short crust pastry, dock with a fork, and bake blind for 10 minutes in a medium hot oven. Remove the case from the oven briefly and paint with egg yolk, return to the oven to pale golden brown, this forms a seal and prevents a soggy bottom (sadly not wobbly thighs).

Fill the case with drained pieces of rhubarb (retain the juice), rasp over the zest of a lonely looking clementine because it was sitting there and add juice to the remainder.

 

  

 

Remove dust and packaging from a vintage lattice cutter and whizz it over pastry lid.

Note: purchased 22 years ago and it has just found its ‘must have one of those’ calling.  If you have mastered the knack of fitting fishnet tights to a hyper active, keen to please, great Dane puppy you are on a winner for the technique required for this maneuver.  Given time and impetus this will be my new ‘go to hobby,’ got the fishnets just need to get the puppy?

 

  

 

Hand cutting lattice is achievable with a steel rule and a sharp knife and makes a little pastry go a long way. They are easy to source via the net and baking shops etc. Swoosh over the lattice with beaten egg yolk and then pop it onto the top shelf of a pre-heated medium hot oven until the desired golden brown is achieved, that’s the pie not the puppy.

 

  

  

 

Reduce the remaining juice in a medium hot pan add then add a decent slug of Framboise liqueur and a couple of dessert spoons of rose syrup. This is a matter of taste you can omit or add more as desired, be careful if using rosewater can often have the ‘Malcolm Powder’ affect, just taste, taste, taste as you go if it’s too sweet add a little fresh lime or orange or a spritz of balsamic to sharpen.

 

  

 

Stir the reduction through some semi defrosted, store-bought, vanilla ice cream and return to the freezer or use the no cook vanilla recipe shown here.

 

 

Crisp pastry, with sharp fresh rhubarb served warm, together with the creamy cold ice cream which has sweet, floral and sharp notes, a real palette pleaser.  I incorporated most of the syrup into the ice cream base and then reduced the syrup further to a sticky drizzle to squiggle through before firming in the freezer it made a natty little pud albeit 22 years in the making.

Toot toot

x

 

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