roasted rhubarb creme brûlée on a cold winter's day

Cold cold winter's day. Days are short and the darkness seems to invade the deepest corners of the soul.

Magh Bihu - the Assamese harvest festival - in the middle of the winter and little in the way of celebration for those Non Resident Indian Assamese (NRIAs). Assam celebrates with enthusiasm and folks abroad can only reminisce. The late night communal feasts followed by the early morning bonfires - meji - and all those fabulous Assamese pithas - memories and dreams!

How does one celebrate when family are far away and most are recovering from the excesses of the festive season? Hmmm... and NG insists that he wants to cook. Well. let the man cook and just think of desserts. Easy. Decadence. Creme brûlée - with some tart roasted pink rhubarb to relive those cold winter days in Assam. Get it all in the oven the first night and then sit back and relax and let the kids have fun with a blow-torch the next day or night!

Recipe for Roasted Rhubarb Creme Brûlée

Equipment

1 flat oven tray lined with a silicone mat

1 large deep oven tray

6 ramekins (150 ml sizes are suitable)

whisk

wooden spoon or wire whisk

2 large bowls

or 1 large bowl and one saucepan

blow torch, if available

Ingredients :

8 large free range egg yolks

1 pint / 500 ml double cream

1 vanilla pod

3 ounces caster sugar

400 grams of pink rhubarb, chopped into 2 cm lengths

about three ounces of caster sugar (or more!) to sweeten the rhubarb

extra caster sugar for the caramelized sugar topping

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Spread the rhubarb on the flat tray and sprinkle liberally with the sugar.
3. Roast the rhubarb for about thirty minutes until the rhubarb is soft - the sugar will have melted and there will be a sticky pink syrup. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
4. Turn the oven down to about 150 degrees C.
5. Get the ramekins ready on a large deep oven tray. Distribute the roasted rhubarb equally between them - mathematically impossible?
6. Heat the double cream in a pan or in a deep bowl in the microwave with the vanilla pod until it is just about to boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
7. Beat the sugar and the egg yolks together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon - using a whisk will make too many bubbles which are not wanted.
8. Slit the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the egg and sugar mixture.
9. Add the hot cream to the egg and sugar mixture slowly stirring with the wooden spoon or wire whisk all the time. The mixture will thicken slightly like a runny custard. Carefully pour the mixture into the ramekins fairly equally. Some rhubarb pieces may float to the top - does it really matter? No!
10. Put the tray into the oven and pour boiling water into the oven tray so that the water comes up to about half to two-thirds of the height of the ramekins. Bain marie is the term.
11. Leave the ramekins in the oven for about thirty minutes - the custard should have a slight wobble when the ramekin is tilted gently. Hot hot hot! use an oven glove to do this. If the custard is still too runny, leave for another ten minutes. But do not let the custard set hard - it will be a horrible creme brûlée.
12. Take the tray out of the oven and then lift the ramekins out to cool. Once the ramekins are cool, put them in the refrigerator till you are ready to eat them - hopefully within the next day or two.
13. A few minutes before you are ready to eat, take the ramekins out of the fridge. Take a tablespoon of caster sugar and pour it into a ramekin. Swirl the sugar around and tip the rest into another ramekin - keep swirling and pouring and adding more sugar until all the ramekins have a layer of sugar.
14. Get the blow torch ready and caramelise the sugar on the top. Move the blow torch around gently until the sugar melts and bubbles away. Be careful that the sugar does not get burnt. If you do not have a blow torch, get the grill really really hot and caramelise under the grill. Purists will sit the ramekins on a bed of ice so that the custard does not boil over.
15. Let the sugar cool down and harden into a golden brown stained glass effect. Serve with some extra roasted rhubarb if you wish.

Tap tap tap with the back of the spoon to break and get through the caramel and carefully get a spoon into the ambrosial dessert. Heaven.

The egg whites from making the creme brulee were not thrown away - made snowy white meringues studded with dried rhubarb pieces the next night!