Anna Jones is Head Chef of The Granary restaurant at Weston Park on the Staffordshire/Shropshire border.
The restaurant’s menu is focussed on homemade dishes inspired by the seasons and driven by harvest from the estate’s Walled Garden.
Here, Anna, pictured below, shares her recipe for custard tart with rhubarb.
Custard tart with rhubarb
Ingredients
For the pastry:
225g/8oz flour
1 lemon, zested
125g/5oz butter
50g/2oz caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
For the filling:
9 egg yolks
50g/2oz caster sugar
1 pint whipping cream
Nutmeg
200g/7oz diced rhubarb
50g/2oz sugar
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3.
For the pastry, rub together the flour, salt, lemon zest and butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Then add the sugar to the mixture. Beat together the yolk and whole egg and slowly add these to the mixture. Mix until the pastry forms a ball and then wrap tightly in cling film and pop in the fridge for two hours.
Line a 18cm/ 7 inch tart tin with parchment paper and place on a baking sheet.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to 2mm in thickness.
Carefully arrange the pastry into the tin then put a loose disc of parchment on top and fill with baking beans.
Bake blind for 10 minutes, remove the beans and allow to cool.
Turn the oven down to 130°C/gas mark 1.
Bring the cream to the boil, whisk the yolks and sugar together and add to the cream. You don’t want the cream boiling or you will get scrambled eggs!
Place the pastry case in the oven and then pour the custard mix into the shell. Grate nutmeg generously over the top and then bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the custard is set and has a gentle wobble.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Pair gently with poached rhubarb – the perfect classic combination.
For poached rhubarb, stew the diced rhubarb with the sugar and stew gently until soft but not broken up.
