My mother-in-law has grown and abundance of rhubarb and kindly asked if we would like a stalk or 2. Now, having recently purchased an ice cream maker, I decided that rather than cook a rhubarb crumble and as it was the height of summer, perhaps I could conjure up a twist on this that would be a lot cooler?
This is made up of 2 components, custard and rhubarb, that are mixed together when placing in to the ice cream maker.
The first is the custard:
- 4 Egg yolks
- 100g Sugar
- 1/2 Pint (300ml) of milk
- 1/2 Pint (300ml) of double cream
- 1 or 2 vanilla pods, seeds removed
- Slowly heat the milk in a saucepan until it begins to boil
- Whilst the milk is warming, beat the egg yolks together with the sugar
- When the milk has begun to boil, continue to beat the eggs and sugar and add to the milk
- Add the vanilla and return the mixture to the heat, stirring constantly – do not let the mixture boil, otherwise it will separate. Once the mixture has heated sufficiently, it will coat the back of a wooden spoon with a film
- Remove from the heat, leave to cool and then stir in the cream
Second, the rhubarb
- 3 or 4 Rhubarb stalks
- Sugar (to taste – I never like stipulating how much sugar to use, because some people prefer sharper-flavoured rhubarb, so just keep tasting throughout cooking and add more sugar where necessary)
- Slice the rhubarb and place in to a pan over a low-to-medium heat with the sugar
- Heat the mixture until it turns in to that gooey rhubarb mix that is synonymous with the filling of rhubarb crumble
- Remember to keep tasting whilst cooking and add sugar where required
- Take off the heat and leave to cool
Once both mixtures have cooled, then you can mix together very lightly, so you should end up with a kind of ‘ripple’ effect. Then place the combined mixture in to the ice cream maker and follow the associated instructions.
If you are serving this in a bowl for pudding, then you could even make up a ‘crumble’ mix to scatter across the top of the ice cream…..