Food At Faithlegg - New Season Rhubarb Parfait, Honey Streusel, Poached Rhubarb, Italian Meringue

Jenny Flynn, the head chef at Faithlegg House Hotel, joins Maria McCann on The Saturday Café for Food At Faithlegg. For March's instalment, Jenny talked us through a very tasty,

New Season Rhubarb Parfait, Honey Streusel, Poached Rhubarb, Italian Meringue

This is the perfect time of year for rhubarb, it’s in season so should be easily available in the shops. The great thing about this recipe as well is that the parfait can be prepared in advance and frozen.

Vanilla Parfait:

• 150g castor sugar
• 50ml water
• 75ml egg yolk
• 1litre semi-whipped cream
• 1 vanilla pod scraped.

Method:

1. Cook sugar and water to 121c add in egg yolk and vanilla whip until cool.
2. Fold in semi-whipped cream.
3. Portion into 8 silicone rounds or you could use an ice cube tray if you didn’t have anything else.
4. Leave to freeze overnight.

Rhubarb compote

• 200g rhubarb roughly chopped.
• 50g sugar
• ½ small lemon zested
• ½ tbsp cornflour
• 35g butter

Method:

1. Put rhubarb, sugar, lemon and butter into a pot.
2. Bring to the boil and mix the cornflour in with a small drop of water, and add to the mixture bring back to the boil then allow to cool.

Honey streusel (crumble mix)

• 100g butter melted.
• 85g caster sugar
• 50g plain flour
• 75g Flahavan’s oats
• 5g ground almonds

Method:

1. Combine the sugar, flour, almonds and oats in a bowl.
2. Mix in melted butter and leave to the side cook over low heat for about 10mins or but in a warm over160c.

Italian meringue

• 50ml egg whites, approx. 2 egg whites
• 100g castor sugar
• 25ml of water

Method:

1. Put sugar and water into a small saucepan over medium heat cook until 121c this will take about 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, start to slowly whisk the egg whites in a mixer until they start to foam.
3. When the sugar reaches temperature slowly pour into egg whites while still whisking
4. Turn the whisk up to full speed and whisk until cooled to room temperature-the meringue is now ready to use. Put into a pipping bag ready to use.

Assembly

On the base of the plate add the crumble mix,

Pop out the parfait from the mould in the freezer, and place it on top.

Drizzle some compote around and lastly pipe the Italian meringue onto the parfait and use a blow torch to colour the meringue.

Enjoy!

Jenny Flynn