Roasted Rhubarb and Blood Orange Layered Fool

Rhubarb is one of the first crops to be harvested in the UK and for us it's one of the highlights of late winter and spring! We like to roast rhubarb so that it keeps its shape rather than boiling it to a mush. When combined with blood orange, ginger and a good dose of sugar, rhubarb becomes absolutely sublime. You could eat it on its own, but we like to layer it with yoghurt to make a colourful layered fool.

See how easy it is to make in this bite-sized video from Rob Wicks of @eatpictures.

Roasted Rhubarb and Blood Orange Layered Fool

with Orange Flower Water Yoghurt

Serves 4

Dietary: Wheat Free

Ingredients

• 500g rhubarb
• Juice and segments of 2-3 blood oranges, depending on their juiciness
• 1 or 2 knobs of Crystallised ginger
• 2-5tbsp vanilla sugar depending on thickness of rhubarb stems
• 250ml yoghurt
• 1-3 tsp Orange Flower Water (to taste)
• Vanilla sugar to taste

Method

1. Remove the leaves from the rhubarb and cut the stalks into 2.5cm lengths. Lay the rhubarb lengths in a shallow ovenproof dish or roasting tin.
2. Squeeze over the oranges, add the orange segments and grate in as much crystallised ginger as you like (it’s quite strong so go slowly) and sprinkle over the sugar.
3. Bake at 200°C for 15min until tender but still retaining its shape (start checking after 10min – you don’t want it to collapse into mush).
4. Set aside to cool.
5. Fold together the yoghurt with the sugar, using a large metal spoon.
6. Add Orange Flower Water and sugar to taste.
7. Once the rhubarb is cold, spoon or pipe a layer of cream into the base of a glass.
8. Top with a spoonful of rhubarb.
9. Repeat the process.
10. Serve as they are or topped with toasted flaked almonds.

Tips:

How to segment an orange:

1. First, take a small sharp knife and carefully slice off the top and bottom of the oranges.
2. Let one orange stand on its flat bottom and carefully hold it still. Look for where the pith meets the orange flesh and cut down the orange to remove the skin and all of the pith. The more accurate you are the better so you don’t waste orange or end up with too much pith.
3. Once you have removed one strip of peel, turn the orange and remove another strip of peel and pith. Carry on removing peel until the orange is fully peeled-remove any final bits of pith.
4. Over a bowl to catch all the juices, hold the orange carefully in your hand and line up your knife to one side of one of the lines, which show you where the segments are. Cut just up to the middle of the orange, not all the way through.
5. Repeat this all around the orange, holding the “pages” of orange segment back with your thumb as if they are pages of a book as you go round the orange. Be really careful when cutting your final segments.