Rhubarb & strawberry crumble sundae

It was the savoury dishes that initially attracted me to Henry Dimbleby and Jane Baxter’s excellent Leon: Fast Vegetarian but this is a cracking dessert with in-season rhubarb.

Jane and Henry write: "So easy. So good. This is basically an assembly job, with just a little cooking at the beginning"

SERVES 4

PREPARATION TIME: 20 MINUTES • COOKING TIME: 20 MINUTES

150ml double cream, whipped

4 scoops of vanilla ice cream

4 tablespoons thick custard

FOR THE CRUMBLE

50g plain flour

30g cold butter, cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons caster sugar

50g amaretti biscuits, crushed

FOR THE RHUBARB COMPOTE

150g strawberries, quartered

1 x Rhubarb & Orange Compote recipe (see below)

FOR THE SAUCE

100g strawberries

1 tablespoon caster sugar

a drop of vanilla extract

juice of 1 orange

1. Heat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3.
To make the crumble topping, put the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and crushed amaretti. Spread on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.

2. Stir the quartered strawberries into the rhubarb compote.

3. Blend all the sauce ingredients to a purée in a blender, then pass the purée through a sieve.

4. To assemble, divide half the compote between four sundae glasses and top with the cream. Next add the strawberry sauce and ice cream, followed by the rest of the compote and the custard.

5. Top with the crumble mix, then serve.

VARIATIONS

This sundae can be made with all sorts of fruit combinations. All you need is a fruit compote and/or sauce, custard, ice cream, or whipped cream and something for texture such as crumble or nuts. Serious adult versions could have booze in, too. Try the following combos:

• Banana with toffee and chocolate.

• Raspberry, peach and flaked almonds.

• Pear with caramelized pecans and butterscotch or chocolate sauce.

Rhubarb & Orange Compote

SERVES 4

PREPARATION TIME: 5 MINUTES • COOKING TIME: 10 MINUTES

200g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2cm pieces

125g caster sugar

1 tablespoon grenadine

50ml water

juice and grated zest of 2 oranges

Put the rhubarb, sugar, grenadine, water, orange juice and zest into a pan. Cook gently over a medium heat for 10 minutes, or until the rhubarb is soft.

What to drink: A tricky one. This dessert is already quite orangey so I'm not sure I'd go for the obvious choice of an orange muscat. (The orange in the pudding will strip out the orange in the wine). Try a late harvest sauvignon blanc or a young fragrant moscatel.

Recipe from Leon: Fast Vegetarian by Jane Baxter & Henry Dimbleby, £25, Published in March 2014 www.octopusbooks.co.uk

Rustle up a Red Nose Pudding!

If you’re organising a Red Nose Day tasting tonight here’s a zany idea for a pudding that I devised for a Sainsbury’s magazine feature a couple of years ago when I interviewed TV presenter Phillip Schofield for Comic Relief.

It’s based on the classic French cherry dessert Clafoutis, a crisp sweet batter with cherries - or rather, red noses . . .

serves 8-10

2 x 425g cans of black cherries
3 tbsp of kirsch, cherry brandy or brandy (optional but good!)
4 medium eggs
60g (2 1/2 oz) caster sugar
110g (4 oz) plain flour
A pinch of salt
400ml(14 fl oz) whole milk (i.e. not skimmed or semi-skimmed)
Finely grated rind of one medium unwaxed lemon
A little flavourless oil for the tin
Icing sugar to serve

You will need a shallow rectangular cast iron dish or baking tin about 30cm x 20 cm or 1.5 litres (2 1/2 pints) in capacity

Get the cherries and batter ready two to three hours before making the pudding. Drain the cherries and place in a bowl with the kirsch or cherry brandy, if using. Mix lightly together with a metal spoon and leave to macerate, stirring the cherries into the juice a couple of times. To make the batter put the eggs in a food processor or liquidiser with the sugar, flour, salt and half the milk. Whizz together until smooth then gradually add the rest of the milk. Add the lemon rind and whizz again then pour the batter into a large jug, cover, and leave in the fridge until ready to use.

To bake the pudding preheat oven to 190°C/375° F/Gas 5. Brush the baking dish or tin lightly with the oil and put in the oven for 5 minutes to heat up. Drain the cherries (reserving the juice - a treat for the cook!) and tip into the base of the dish. Give the batter a final stir, pour over the cherries and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until nicely puffed up and brown. (Check after 20 minutes and if it seems to be browning too quickly turn down the heat to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.) Sift icing sugar over the pudding and serve with pouring cream or vanilla ice cream.

Recommended match: A cool cherry-flavoured fruit beer (Kriek) would be the perfect match with this although you could drink a southern French Muscat or other dessert wine.

Don't forget a number of retailers are selling wine in aid of Wine Relief which is contributing to the Red Nose Day charities. You can find my pick of what's on offer in the Guardian though some are no longer available as part of the promotion.

The photograph which is not of my recipe but one very like it is © Lilyana Vynogradova - Fotolia.com