This is an experiment to bring a fresh twist to an old traditional favourite - rhubarb and custard - I'm going to try to serve it in the form of ice lollies.
The rhubarb patch is one part of my garden that always flourishes regardless of the weather and whether we nurture or neglect it.
I attribute this to preparation - before I planted this rhubarb, I dug a pit several feet deep and refilled it with a mixture of topsoil, rotted manure and garden compost.
For this experiment, I picked a nice young stick of rhubarb - it snapped when I pulled it - this is a good thing, as it means the stem isn't too fibrous and tough.
I sliced the stem into small pieces and put it in a pan with about half its own weight in sugar and a little water - then very gently simmered it until the rhubarb was soft and broke up easily with a spoon.
I tasted it at this point and ended up adding a little more sugar - rhubarb is quite sour, but the mixture needs to be almost neutral-tasting at this point - because freezing will accentuate the acidity.
The sugar is also needed to turn the mixture syrupy - this makes it easier to handle, and it should freeze to a finer consistency with this additional sugar in the mix.
I could have made my own custard - either with eggs, vanilla and cream, or with milk and eggless custard powder, but I chose instead to use a carton of ready made custard.
This is a good product (no, they haven't paid me to say this) - it's creamy and rich-tasting, and I already know from experience that it freezes well.
I filled the lolly moulds with alternating layers of custard (squeezed directly in from a small hole cut in the corner of the carton) and rhubarb (spooned in, then gently spread out with the handle of the spoon).
After filling, I tapped the whole mould down firmly on the worktop a few times - this expels any small air bubbles to the surface.
After about six hours in the deep freezer, they were ready to try.
They were a bit troublesome to remove from the moulds - so I ran them under the hot tap for 30 seconds to release them.
So here they are - the finished Rhubarb and Custard ice lollies.
They were delicious - a real success - the custard freezes into something like vanilla ice cream, but with a slightly chewy texture - the rhubarb compote turns into a sort of soft sorbet-like slush.
