Rhubarb and Orange Tarts

A few people have asked for the rhubarb and orange tart recipe, it was taken from the April/May edition of Jamie and so here it is! Strangely (for me) I followed the recipe exactly (omitting the ginger):

Butter for greasing
plain flour for dusting
375g ready-made sweet shortcrust pastry
300g rhubarb stems cut into 5cm pieces
juice of 1/2 an orange
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
2tbsp stem ginger finely chopped

custard:
290ml milk
2 large egg yolks55g golden caster sugar
20g cornflour
100ml double cream lightly whipped
1/2 tsp good-quality vanilla extract
grated zest of 1 orange


1. Grease 4 x 12cm loose-bottomed tart tins with butter. Dust a work surface with flour. Roll the pastry out to about 5mm thick. Line each tin with the pastry, easing it into the sides. Prick base of each tart with
a fork a couple of times, then refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Bake the pastry cases for 15–20 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool.
2. Place the rhubarb in a frying pan with the orange juice, sugar and ginger. Simmer gently for 12–15 minutes till softened and syrupy. Let cool, then chill until needed.
3. To make the custard, heat the milk in a pan to just below boiling. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in a little hot milk, then the cornflour. Mix in the remaining milk. Rinse out milk pan, then return the custard to the pan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring continuously.
Boil for 1 minute, stirring, to thicken, then pass through a sieve into a bowl. Place damp greaseproof paper directly on the surface to prevent a skin forming and allow to cool. Once cool, fold in the cream, vanilla extract and orange zest. Spoon custard into each tart case, top with rhubarb and drizzle over some juices.


They are really lovely but next time I would make the following changes:
*Use homemade shortcrust pastry, it's world’s better
*With the custard I don’t think mine needed to be put through the sieve, it was already smooth enough and it seemed like an added unnecessary step.
*The rhubarb could do with some orange zest in the mix as well as juice, for a bit more zing.
*The cream mix with the zest could use a little orange juice as well for extra flavour.