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Here a recipe for a dessert that was always on our menu due to popular demand

STRAWBERRY & RHUBARB CREME BRULEE DESSERT

Shopping list:
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8 pieces Strawberries (nice sized)
1 bunch Rhubarbs
250gr Sugar (Castor is best, but any white sugar will do)
250ml Cream (Pouring/Running Cream)
4 Eggs (Yolks)
1/2 Vanilla Bean or 1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
1 Teaspoon (heaped) Corn Flour

The story behind it:

The creme brulee is a dessert that was always extremely popular at my restaurant, it was in fact the most ordered dessert of all desserts we ever ran...

Rhubarbs are basically available all year round but sometimes, you may have to pre-order it from your local green grocer.

It's a versatile recipe, where the Strawberry & Rhubarb can be replaced with any other fruit or filling - your imagination is the limit!

We sometimes replaced the rhubarbs and strawberries with stewed plums, or another tasty way is a salad of mangoes and passionfruit.
Fruit that's in season usually tastes the best anyway, so without doing much to it, your success is basically guaranteed.

RECIPE (makes 4 portions)
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Rhubarb & Strawberry Compote
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1 bunch Rhubarbs
100 gr Sugar
50 mil Water
8 pieces (nice sized) Strawberries

• Rhubarab; remove all the green and the bottom bits (usually about a couple of inches worth)
• Cut into thumb width pieces.
• Place into a pot
• Add sugar and water and cover with a lid
• Over high heat steam for about 2 minutes, stirring once or twice, turn off the heat, and let sit for another 5 minutes. Let cool.
• Slice strawberries, mix with four to five heaped table spoons of the rhubarb stew.
  

Vanilla Bean CUSTARD
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250ml Cream
1/2 Vanilla Bean
4 Egg Yolks
70 gr Sugar
1 Teaspoon (heaped) Corn Flour

1. -Pour cream into a small pot
   -Split vanilla bean long ways, scrape out the seeds, making sure to add both the seeds and the bean to the cream
   - Heat cream & vanilla
2. -Whilst cream is warming up, whisk egg yolks, sugar & corn flour until foamy
3. -Mix boiling hot cream into egg, then pour the whole mix back into the pot
   - Return pot to low heat, keep stirring with a wooden spoon until the custard thickens up - DO NOT BOIL any more, just let it thicken.
4. -Once thickened, pour into a container (Takeaway for example) cover with a pierced freezer bag or plastic wrap, so that no skin is formed whilst it's cooling down)
   - Cool down in fridge.
   
5. Assembling the dish:
   

• Take 4 ramekins (or small coffee cups)
• Fill in 1/3rd with the fruit compote
• Top up with the vanilla custard (discard the now cooked-out vanilla beans)
• sprinkle liberally with sugar until it's totally covered by it - don't be shy!

Set your oven on very hot using the grill/broil function or the top element (heat has to be generated only from the top).

• Place the filled ramekins on a baking tray and let the sugar caramelise.
• Remove from oven being careful not to touch the melted sugar.
• Serve

Hint:
If you have a party and want to serve this dish, you can prepare the entire dish to the stage where you are only left with sprinkling the sugar and caramelising the top. It's no problem to do fill the dishes 1-2 days in advance.

We used to use a gas blow torch, of the type plumbers use, to caramelise the sugar top. If you start to do this recipe a lot, it makes caramelising definitely much easier and quicker...

Left over Rhubarb stew/compote: Eat with French toast or on top of your porridge or breakfast cereals...

Kitchen terms / glossary
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Creme - a French term loosely translating into 'Custard' for our purpose
Brulee - a French term loosely translating into 'burnt' - but don't actually burn this one just browning the sugar will be what you need here...
Rhubarb - the stem of a plant, usually red, growing as long as a forearm, with dark green leaves
Compote - a stew of sweetened fruit
inch - 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters - but there is no need to be very exact here...
thumb with - as wide as your thumb is - mine is quite fat, but this doesn't alter the outcome...
Corn flour - also called corn starch - can be substituted with potato starch...
Vanilla bean - the fruit of a vine sourced mostly from Madagascar and more recently Fiji, can be obtained in delicatessen or some well stocked supermarkets. Vanilla beans should be soft to touch and be kept in an airtight container or can be wrapped and frozen for later use.
Vanilla essence - for our purposes you can replace the vanilla bean with one teaspoon full of essence in the cream instead of the fresh Vanilla.
Ramekin - a straight walled cup (no handles) sometimes also referred to as soufflé dish
French toast - dip slices of bread in a mix of sweetened milk/egg mix and fry golden in butter or margarine. (2 eggs, 200 mil Milk, 50grams Sugar - if you like this one sweeter, mix a couple of tablespoons of sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and sprinkle over the top... - Sunday breakfast, here we come...)

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