[food] rhubarb meringue pie
May. 2nd, 2020 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberett
There is, still, so much rhubarb. This is not the passion fruit and lemon meringue pie I'd been craving and I'm still not actually convinced I like rhubarb, but Adam's happy with it and I have rice pudding so it's all good.
(Obligatory pre-recipe food-blogger anecdote: my grandfather was Very Involved in community musical theatre; my father and uncle were -- often? -- Loitering Urchins, under instructions to provide general atmospheric background noise as of bustling conversation, which could be usefully approximated by muttering "rhubarb and custard" to each other on repeat. I'm not sure how much time they actually spent doing this and I'm pretty sure the story looms disproportionately large in my childhood memories, but nonetheless I have been periodically reminded of this over the past year or so as a result of working out that this traditional pairing is probably at least in part because all the calcium in the custard means that the oxalic acid in the rhubarb doesn't do The Thing to your teeth to nearly the same extent.)
Ingredients
shortcrust pastry (for me, 125g butter + 250g flour + a pinch of salt + sometimes a squeeze of lemon + water, all as cold as possible)
for the Italian meringue:
3 egg whites, and then scale the other ingredients as follows:
50g egg white
100g caster sugar
25ml water
for the filling:
400g rhubarb, cut into ~2cm chunks
100g sugar
some orange juice (or substitute lemon juice, or substitute water)
2tsp cornflour
3 egg yolks
optional food colouring
Method
For the crust:
Line a pie dish with pastry; wash with a little of the egg yolk if you're feeling enthusiastic. Bake blind at 190°C for ~20 minutes, then remove the baking beans and stick back in the oven for another ~10 minutes or so, until it all looks dry and has got a little colour to it. Set aside to cool completely.
For the meringue:
Combine water and sugar in a small pan over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the temperature and bring the syrup up to ~120°C.
While that's going on, whisk the egg whites (in a scrupulously clean dry bowl, etc) to the point of foaming (but you don't actually need even soft peaks at this point).
When the syrup's up to temperature, remove from the heat and pour into the eggs in a thin steady stream, whisking hard all the while. Keep whisking for at least 5 minutes, or until the bowl doesn't feel particularly warm to the touch again: you now have glossy meringue that can keep for several days.
For the filling:
1. Place the rhubarb, sugar, and orange juice in a pan over low heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the rhubarb is breaking down.
2. Meanwhile, in a small vessel of some ilk combine the cornflour with another wee splash of orange juice.
3. Once the rhubarb has turned to mush, add the cornflour slurry and bring to the boil, stirring constantly, until the whole mess thickens up. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes; add the egg yolks, and food colouring (if using -- but that pink above is not natural).
4. Allow to cool completely.
To assemble:
Spread the cold rhubarb mix on the cold pastry. (If either component is warm the pastry will go soggier faster.)
Arrange as much meringue as you can face on top of the rhubarb mix, in however fancy a fashion you desire. (I considered piping this round and then... didn't. What you see here is "a mush, I suppose" with, in the middle, the shape made on the top of the meringue when I pulled the balloon whisk out of it.)
If you have a gas-fired soldering iron or I suppose a culinary blowtorch or similar, burn the meringue some.
Serve.
Notes
I should possibly up the cornflour next time, given the oozing of the filling. I should definitely reduce the amount of food colouring, because wow I got so used to gel colouring not really doing much with macarons that I was all "eh it'll be fine" and DEAR GOODNESS.
This recipe cobbled together from the BBC, The Bearded Bakery, and Delia Smith.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-02 09:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-15 09:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-02 09:30 pm (UTC)*drools*
I am drooling all over your journal. LOL That meringue looks perfect.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-15 09:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-02 10:49 pm (UTC)I'm sure you are right about the creaminess and the tooth-thing but i think there's also something in British style custard almost always being vanilla flavoured (even if it doesn't contain actually real vanilla) and that layers a sweetness on to the Rhubarb's tartness. (because i am a sad geek and have been reading the custard section of Lateral Cooking again i'm wondering why vanilla so comprehensively beat the older UK standard of lemon or the popular in Spain and Portugal etc cinnamon? (I do love vanilla but am not sure why it's become the only option)
(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-15 09:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-15 10:55 am (UTC)I think the vanilla sweetening is just a small complimentary factor and i like looking at flavour pairings as complex and multi-factoral. I meant it as a "yes and" rather than a "no but".
I'm coming from the perspective of Mum being diabetic but dementia meaning she craves traditional "school-dinner" type puddings. So i look for even the smallest, most esoteric ways to reduce sugar when i cook for her (and ideally still please my own ridiculously sweet-tooth!).
(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-02 11:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-15 09:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-03 07:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-15 09:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-04 07:18 am (UTC)we have a steady supply from our Rhubarb in the front garden, and I might actually try this recipe.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-15 09:54 am (UTC)