Rhubarb looks like celery a bit, but pink…cuter.

Originally from North Asia known as a medicinal plant, the rhubarb has been introduced in Europe by Marco Polo.

Considered as a vegetable we consume the stalk only as the leaves are toxic.

Raw, cooked, with salt or sugar to palliate its acidity. It’s commonly cooked for dessert : tart, syrup, crumble… But can be cooked as a vegetable.

The harvest is from April to September.

You can make a sexy tart so fast and easily, it was my very first time I cooked rhubarb (very exciting!) and I was very very happy with the result (I made everything with soya milk).

So happy that I made a compote as well.

Full in vitamine C, potassium calcium it is also a very good laxative (less glamorous I know).

The dough :

Ingredients :

-300g of flour

-150g of softened butter

-1/2 tsp of salt

-3tbsp of sugar

-8cl of warm milk or soya milk

Method :

The butter has to be out of the fridge 3 hours before starting baking, if not put it in the microwave at maximum power for 1min. It has to be softened but not melted.

Mix the flour, salt and sugar, add the butter and knead quickly with your fingertips. You will obtain a coarse semolina within 2 or 3 min.

Incorporate quickly the milk while kneading to form a ball. Roll the dough on a baking paper, it’s easier. Phe-heat you oven at 180°, grease your mould then spread your dough, prick it with a fork and put it in the oven for 30min.

While your dough is in the oven, prepare the ‘crème patissière’ :

Ingredients :

-500 ml of milk or soya milk

-100g of sugar

-50g of flour

-1 tsp of vanillia sugar

-2 egg yolks

Method :

Heat the milk with the vanilla sugar.

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar till it whitens. Mix well.

Pour the eggs and sugar mixture in the milk and add the flour last.

Mix it on a low heat until the cream become thicker.

Then, when your dough is ready, don’t stop your oven but put it down to 130°.

Wash and cut the leaves and extremities of 1 kilo of rhubarb. Cut them in little slices, put them on a baking tray, sprinkle with sugar and put it in the oven for 30min. Taste it during the cooking, if it is too acid add some more sugar and do it again until it’s the way you like it.

 

Spread the ‘crème pâtissière’ on the dough, sprinkle with the rhubarb and c’est tout !

 

 

For the compote, I put ¼ of sugar of the weight of the rhubarb with a trickle of water. During the cooking, taste it and add some more sugar if it is too acid. Cooking is also a question of feeling. Cook it slowly till the rhubarb melt completely, you can savor it straight away or keep it in the fridge for a few days or even for a few months in a sterilized jam pot.