roasted rhubarb

Adapted from Nigel Slater and Rose Bakery. As Nigel says: "warm, rudely pink rhubarb and some snow-white frozen yogurt has a smart, bright flavour and is breathtakingly pretty..."

Roasted Rhubarb
10 stalks young, pink rhubarb
2 oranges
1/4 - 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
pinch of fleur de sel

Set the oven to 400 degrees F / 180 C
Cut the rhubarb into 3-inch lengths and lay in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with the fleur de sel. Zest and juice the oranges and add to the fruit, combining well. Sprinkle the sugar over the fruit, to taste. You'll need a fair amount as it will lift the flavour of the fruit and provide syrup.
Bake for 25 minutes. The rhubarb is done when the stalks are tender enough to crush between your fingers. You may want to add sliced strawberries at this point. The warmth and sweetness will help their juices emerge.
Leave to cool a little before serving with frozen yogurt, gelato or crème Anglaise.
Serves 8-10

Crème Anglaise
1 cup single cream
1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise to scatter the seeds
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup superfine organic sugar

Tip the cream and vanilla bean into a heavy saucepan and bring gently to the boil, then immediately remove from the heat. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar. Tip some of the warm cream into the bowl to warm the eggs, then pour the mixture back into the cream in the saucepan and stir gently with a wooden spoon over very low heat, until the cream coats the back of the spoon. This will take 2-5 minutes depending on how hot the cream was to begin with.
Strain into a jug or bowl and chill.
Serves 4