Rhubarb and Custard on Meringue Nests for Simple and in Season - April

I was delighted when Ren asked me to host Simple and in Season this month.  We are fortunate to have two allotments and eating seasonal, homegrown produce is a real treat for us.  I regularly enter Simple and in Season and love the round up posts as there are so many delicious recipes and ideas.

Simple and in Season is monthly seasonal food blog event. This is a community event, open to anyone with an active blog. All you have to do is to write a blog post with a recipe incorporating any seasonal ingredient. It doesn’t matter where you live in the world, you can link up by telling us about anything that is seasonal to you – savoury or sweet.

I cannot wait to see all the fab recipes linked up this month!  To kick things off I made custard, meringue nests and baked some freshly picked rhubarb from our allotments. It is a delicious pudding but I had some for my afternoon tea, because taste testing is very important. ;oP

Vegetables in season in April: Asparagus, Cauliflower, Cucumber, Jersey Royal New Potatoes, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Radishes, Savoy Cabbage, Spinach, Spring Greens, Spring Onions, Watercress and Wild Garlic.

Fruit in season in April: Rhubarb, Apples and Pears.

Rhubarb and Custard on Meringue Nests

Meringue Nests

4 free-range egg whites

250g caster sugar

Preheat your oven to 150C/130C Fan and line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Put the egg whites in a clean mixing bowl and whisk until they form soft peaks when the whisk is lifted out.

Add the caster sugar, a spoonful at a time, whilst continuously whisking.  Once all the sugar has been incorporated and absorbed the meringue should look shiny, glossy and stiff.

Using a tablespoon, spoon the mixture onto the line baking tray to make little mounds or pipe rounds using a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle.  Put the meringue nests in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Lower the oven temperature to 110C/90C Fan and cook for a further 1-1½ hours until the meringues are crisp on the outside.  Leave to cool.

Custard

600ml milk

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

4 free range egg yolks

2 Tblsp caster sugar

In a large saucepan, heat the milk with the vanilla bean paste allow to just come to the boil.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs yolks and sugar until thick.

Slowly pour the hot milk over the egg yolks whilst whisking vigorously.  When the milk has been completely incorporated, tip the mixture back into the saucepan.

Stir over a low heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon.  This took approximately 5 minutes.

Pour into a bowl and leave to cool, cover the surface with clingfilm to stop a skin from forming.

Baked Rhubarb

500g rhubarb washed, trimmed and cut in to 2cm lengths

60g caster or light soft brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan.

Put the rhubarb into an ovenproof dish and sprinkle over the sugar.  Bake in the preheated oven for 20 - 30 minutes until the rhubarb has softened.  Check the sweetness level and add a drizzle of honey should you wish.

Entry Guidelines

All you have to do is come up with a dish using any seasonal produce you like (savoury or sweet) post it on your blog, add a link to this post mentioning Simple and in Season and linking to www.renbehan.com, this post and then add your post to the linky below.

This linky will run up until 30th April 2014. 

Respect the copyright of others when blogging recipes

Include any seasonal produce you fancy including fruit, veg, herbs, meat or fish.

Link as many recipes as you like. You can link posts entered into other blog events or carnivals as long as it involves a seasonal food item (and fits in with their rules).

The linky-up is open to anyone, anywhere. Although it is great to feature as much British produce as possible, it is always interesting to see what’s in season elsewhere in the world.

By entering your link, you are giving me permission to add your photograph to the round-up. I will link back directly to your post when I include you.

If you have questions or problems, email me or leave me a comment in the comment box at the bottom of the post.

If you are on Twitter, tweet your link adding the hashtag #simpleandinseason mention @RenBehan and @utterlyscrummy and we will re-tweet all those we see.