This is the ultimate seasonal comfort dessert, bursting with colour, flavour and buttery textures.  Rhubarb and strawberries are a perfect fruit  marriage, and such a stunning pinkish red hue.  These are  semi roasted then topped them with a generous amount of pistachio and vanilla crumble. I finished it all off with a delicious and creamy cinnamon infused ice-cream, worth the effort of making  your own, but a decent drizzle of custard or pure cream is also perfect for this dessert. 

Served on the Cole and Mason Barkway acacia board – such an easy transfer from oven to table and stylish to boot. 

Kitchen tools needed: 

• 1 ovenproof deep sided dish – approximately 30 x 20 cm
  
• Ice cream maker 
  
• Digital thermometer 

Ingredients: 

Rhubarb and strawberry mixture:

• 600g fresh rhubarb stalks, trimmed as per below
  
• 250g strawberries, hulled and halved
  
• 80g raw caster sugar
  
• Juice of half a small lemon
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
  
• 2 tablespoons butter

Pistachio cinnamon crumble:

• 250g plain flour
  
• 30g caster sugar
  
• 30g brown sugar
  
• ½ to 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  
• 125g unsalted butter
  
• 50g halved pistachios
  
• Good pinch of sea salt

Cinnamon Ice Cream: 

• 425 ml full cream milk
  
• 2 cinnamon sticks
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste  (or seeds scraped from one pod and added to the milk with the pod)
  
• 15g skim milk powder
  
• 120g raw sugar
  
• 3 egg yolks
  
• 250ml thickened cream (35%)

Method: 

For the ice cream (prepare the night before): 
 

1. Heat the milk in a medium sized saucepan with the cinnamon sticks and vanilla until just about to boil. Remove from heat, cover and infuse for one hour.
   
2. After an hour, beat the yolks and sugar until creamy.
   
3. Heat the milk again until just about to boil, take out and reserve the cinnamon sticks and whisk the hot milk into the yolk mixture.
   
4. Return it to the saucepan and heat over a low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard reaches 85 degrees Celsius. 
   
5. Transfer to a bowl, add the cinnamon sticks again and chill covered overnight. 
   
6. The next day remove the cinnamon, churn the ice-cream until semi frozen, add the cream and continue churning until done. Store in the freezer. 

To prepare the fruit and crumble:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius – fan forced

1. Wash the rhubarb, remove the leaves (these are toxic so discard) , and peel off any fibrous outer parts. Cut into 4cm pieces and place in a bowl.
   
2. Wash, hull and halve the strawberries and add these to the rhubarb along with the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Allow to infuse for one hour.
   
3. Grease the baking dish with butter and add the fruit along with all the juices. 
   
4. Bake at 170 degrees Celsius (FF) for 15 minutes. 

Prepare the crumble while the fruit is roasting:

1. Mix the flour, sugars, cinnamon, salt and vanilla in a large bowl.
   Cube the butter and add to the flour mixture
   
2. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the mixture until fully combined and a crumble has formed. Squeeze clumps together to make some bigger crumble pieces.
   
3. Stir in the chopped pistachio nuts. 
   Spread the crumble over the roasted fruit and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes until golden and bubbling. 

Serve hot with balls of cinnamon ice-cream. 

Some tips:

Macerating the fruit before baking helps to keep it in shape, and prebaking also allows the fruit to cook and retain some shape before adding the crumble.
You can even try adding other fruits such as apples or berries. 

Try and squish together the crumble mixture while adding to the fruit to get some nice biscuity chunks of crumble when you serve.  Keep the mixture on top and don’t be tempted to press it into the fruit as it may become more soggy. 

This is equally delicious with a blob of pure cream or your favourite custard – even a bit of everything.