Saturday, May 13, 2006
Baked Tapioca Pudding with Rhubarb and Orange Compote
Desert time! What would be most appropriate for a beautiful spring time evening? I had bought some rhubarb this morning, but the sticks were really too skinny for crumble. By the time the top is nice and crispy the fruit would be cooked to an unrecognisable mush. So what could I do instead?Last week a lady had seen me walk down the street with Dennis' beautiful organic rhubarb in my bag and told me to try a mixture of rhubarb and orange. "At first I was suspicious," she said, "with the sour rhubarb and the citrus and all. But then a friend cooked it for me and I won't have it any other way ever again." "Sure," I thought to myself, smiled and nodded and, after a bit of food talk, politely excused myself and forgot about the whole thing. But this afternoon I remembered the incident and, most notably, the passion in her voice and decided to give it a try. After a bit of thinking, cupboard scouring and recipe searching I opted for a baked tapioca pudding with rhubarb and orange compote - a time consuming dish, but a worthy finale to a yummy dinner.
For the tapioca pudding:
60g tapioca (alternatively, use pudding rice and adjust the liquid and cooking time accordingly)
400ml milk
100ml cream
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup sugar (plus a little extra for dusting)
1 orange, zest only (reserve the juice for the compote)
For the rhubarb compote:
5 to 6 thin stalks of rhubarb, chopped into 10cm pieces
5 tbsp sugar
1 orange, juice only
To serve:
something crunchy and nutty to complement the textures and flavours of the dishes; I used a Canadian pistacchio almond biscuit, but anything from biscotti to hazelnut shortbread would work)
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. For the rhubarb compote, place the rhubarb into an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with the caster sugar and pour over the orange juice. Poach for ten minutes in the oven, or until tender. Pour the liquid off into a small saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Place tapioca in a medium saucepan along with the milk. Bring to the boil over medium low heat, stirring occasionally. Cook until the tapioca is translucent and almost tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the pudding from turning into a burnt lump stuck to the bottom of the pot. When the mixture begins getting dry, turn off the heat and add the cream. Leave the pan on the stove until the pudding is thick and creamy.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and the sugar. Temper small amounts of the tapioca into the egg mixture. Continue stirring and adding tapioca until you have added at least half of it. Then add this back into the remaining tapioca in the saucepan. Add the orange zest and stir to combine.
Transfer the mixture to an ovenproof dish and sprinkle the surface with sugar. Cook for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until the mixture has set and the sugar has caramelised. Finish it off with a chef's torch if it is not browning sufficiently.
To serve, put a few spoonfuls of pudding in the centre of a plate. Add some of the rhubarb and drizzle with the thickened rhubarb and orange syrup. Decorate with a biscuit.
Christine at 10:06 pm
