Funny how one thing leads to another.
I recently needed only a couple of stalks of rhubarb, to pickle, to top some delicious sticky rice cakes for a pre-dinner nibble. As our rhubarb pickle loses its vibrant colour after a week or two, I only pickle what I need.
What to do with the rest?
A bit of poaching with some star anise, orange juice and zest produced a cup full of delicious pulpy sweet rhubarb.
What to do with that?
With friends for dinner and one of our gluten-free shortcrust pastry cases handily sitting in the freezer, my best option was obvious. I blind baked the tart case, spread the base with the orangey, spicy rhubarb and topped it with a frangipane into which I threw some Grand Marnier and some chopped almonds.
It was surprisingly lovely. A quickly scribbled down recipe was handed out all round. And here it is for you too.
Just in case you’re interested in pickled rhubarb, we’ve included that recipe at the end.
Cheers,
Rosie
RHUBARB, ORANGE AND ALMOND TART
Serves 6-8
1 24cm pastry case, blind baked (see below)
Rhubarb
1 bunch rhubarb, washed, trimmed and cut into 1-2cm lengths (yields about 320g)
1 orange, finely grated zest (reserved) and juice
120 gm caster sugar
1 star anise
Place all ingredients into a heavy based saucepan over a low heat. Once the rhubarb starts to soften and exude its own juice, increase the heat to medium and allow to simmer, stirring often to prevent sticking and burning, until the liquid has reduced to nothing and you have a thick pulp. Remove from the heat and fold in the reserved orange rind. Allow to cool.
The rhubarb will store in the fridge for up to a week. I leave the star anise in to allow the flavour to infuse, just make sure you discard it before use.
Almond Filling
120 gm unsalted butter, softened
150 gm caster sugar
100 gm almond meal
2 whole eggs
50 ml Grand Marnier
100 gm blanched almonds, finely chopped
2 tablespoons flaked almonds to garnish
Cream butter and sugar together by hand or in a food processor. Add the almond meal, eggs, and Grand Marnier. Stir in the chopped almonds.
To Assemble
Increase oven temperature to 180°C.
Spread 1 cup of the cooked rhubarb evenly over the base of the blind baked tart case. (Keep the remaining rhubarb for another use – delicious on muesli for breakfast or for dessert with ice cream or yoghurt drizzled with honey.)
Top with the almond filling. Don’t over fill.
Bake for 10 minutes. Open the oven door and sprinkle the tart with the flaked almonds. Reduce the oven temperature to 160° and cook for a further 20 – 25 minutes or until the tart is golden brown and springy to the touch.
Cool on a rack.
Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.
Pastry
Makes enough for 2 x 24cm tart cases
250 gm Revenge Gluten-free Almond Plain Flour Mix (see below)
85 gm caster sugar
65 gm unsalted butter, cold, cubed
1 whole egg
1 pinch salt
Place dry ingredients into a food processor and process for a couple of seconds to combine.
Add cold butter cubes and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add egg and process until the pastry comes together into a ball. You may need to add iced water, a teaspoon at a time.
Place pastry onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat into a disc about 1cm thick. Refrigerate for an hour before rolling out. (Pastry will keep in the fridge for at least a week.)
Preheat oven to 160° C.
Remove half the pastry from the fridge and knead until it is smooth and pliable. Roll out in between two pieces of non-stick baking paper to around 3mm thick. Line a 24cm loose bottom flan tin with the pastry and return to the fridge until firm. Remove from the fridge and blind bake.
The remaining pastry can be kept in the fridge for at least a week or rolled out to line a 24cm flan tin and then frozen – very handy to have on hand. Remove from the freezer and blind bake.
To blind bake:
Line your chilled pastry-lined tin with foil, pressing well into the corners. Fill with baking weights, (raw rice, dried beans or purchased pastry weights all work equally well) pushing them up the sides of the shell.
Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully remove the foil and baking weights. Return the tart shell to the oven for a further 7 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool on rack.
The cooked pastry case will keep, wrapped in plastic wrap for 3-4 days.
REVENGE GLUTEN-FREE ALMOND PLAIN FLOUR MIX
280 gm almond meal
210 gm besan flour
280 gm fine white rice flour
175 gm corn flour
Whip up a batch and store in the fridge.
PICKLED RHUBARB
2 golden shallots, finely sliced
1 bunch rhubarb, cut into julienne then into 1cm lengths
50 gm fresh ginger, in fine julienne
300 mls Japanese rice vinegar
200 gm caster sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Toss shallots, rhubarb and ginger together in a heat proof bowl. Place the vinegar, caster sugar and salt in a small saucepan, allow the sugar to dissolve over a low heat then bring to a simmer. Simmer for 2 minutes the immediately pour over the rhubarb mix. Strain the liquid back into the saucepan and bring to the boil again. Pour over the rhubarb mix and allow to stand, tossing from time to time until cold. Transfer to a non corrosive container and allow to stand for 4-6 hours unrefrigerated. Store in the fridge.
The Pickled Rhubarb will begin to lose its vibrant colour after a couple of weeks so eat it up quickly or serve it pale pink.