Rhubarb and ginger is a marriage made in heaven. In springtime when rhubarb is available, in the UK at least, it would be a great miss not using this delightful ingredient to make fools, cakes, chutneys and even flavour drinks with it. This tart is very simple, uses bought puff pastry but delivers bags of flavour. The ice cream is one of those easy things to make if you have an ice cream machine and goes well served with other fruit like strawberries or on its own perhaps drizzled with some syrup from a stem ginger jar.
I have used these ginger biscuits but you can use any other cruncy ginger biscuits you like.
Ingredients (serves 8)
For the rhubarb and ginger tart
- 4 sticks of rhubarb
- A piece of ginger approx. 5cm x 2cm long
- Juice of 2 oranges
- 100g brown sugar
- Ready rolled puff pastry
For the ice cream (serves 8-12 depending on size of scoops and what else you serve with it)
- 300ml full fat milk
- 300ml double cream
- 2 tonka beans (or the seeds of vanila pod or 1 tbsp vanila extract)
- 4 egg yolks
- 100g caster sugar
- 5 Botham’s Shah ginger biscuits, crushed
- 4 pieces of stem ginger finely chopped
To serve
- Crushed ginger biscuits, toasted almond flakes and edible flowers (optional)
Method
To make the ice cream, put the milk, cream and tonka beans in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Immediately turn the heat off and let the flavour infuse for 10 minutes.
In a bowl beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar till pale and fluffy. Slowly strain and pour some of the milk into the egg yolk mix whisking vigorously to avoid the eggs curdling. Return the egg mix to the saucepan with the rest of the milk/cream mixture and whisk over a low to medium heat till the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Chill the custard in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably overnight and churn in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturers’ instructions. Transfer to an appropriate container with a lid and add the crushed ginger biscuits and finely chopped stem ginger. Stir well, close and keep in the freezer. Remove the container from the freezer and keep in the fridge for approximately 20 -30 minutes before serving to soften.
For the tarts, wash and trim the rhubarb. Slice on the diagonal in pieces of approx. 3mm thickness.
Peel the ginger and chop roughly. Top and tail the oranges and cut with a sharp knife all the peel including the bitter pith. Cut the oranges in four and place with the ginger in a small blender. Blitz and strain the combined juices into the bowl containing the rhubarb slices. Add the sugar and macerate for 15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Drain the rhubarb and put the juice in a small saucepan. Bring the saucepan to a medium to high heat and reduce the juice to a syrup consistency.
Preheat the oven to 180 0C.
Cut the pastry in half lengthwise and then each piece in four equal rectangles. Using a small knife score all around every piece 1 cm in from the edges. Prick inside the border lines with a small fork.
Arrange the rhubarb pieces on each rectangle within the borders and place onto an oven tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 30-35 minutes till the pastry is golden brown.
Use the orange and ginger syrup to brush the tarts all over. Serve each slice with a ball of ice cream and more crushed ginger biscuits.