Rhubarb and Orange Tart

I have brought the sweet little bunch of outrageously pink rhubarb up to Derbyshire with me, its colour flushed the same as my cheeks when I stepped off the train into the biting cold. It's hard to believe that I'm still in the same country; the other day in London I was wearing a skirt. Fresh air though, relief from the Big Smoke. My cold is already better, although my nose is running more than yesterday. My mum made a risotto tonight, which was just what I needed, velvety and enveloping and soft and nubbly.

The rhubarb needed eating immediately, no longer so crisp and snappy as it was when I bought it on Friday. I wanted to show off its shameless Ann Summers hue and fresh flavour, so I made a rather summery tart, with a curd made from the candy poaching juices and the fruit, lightly poached, piled on top. Sexy.

Rhubarb and Orange Tart

Sheet of puff pastry, ready-made or home made (how very virtuous of you if you manage the latter), rolled out a bit

Juice from the poached rhubarb (see below)

3 level tablespoons cornflour

2 egg yolks

A small knob of butter

Forced pink rhubarb (catch it quickly as its season, January, is happily behind us for the most part), cut into short chunks

Orange, juice and some segments

Juice of half a lemon

200g caster sugar

A vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out

Trace a rectangle about half an inch from the outside of the already-rectangular sheet of rolled-out pastry, like a picture frame, with a knife, not cutting through the pastry all the way. Bake at around 180C, for the length it takes you to prepare everything else.

Put the sugar in a dry saucepan and let it melt and caramelize slightly. Tip in the rhubarb chunks, at which point the caramel will harden and splinter. Don't worry! Put in the vanilla pod too, and the scraped-out seeds, and the orange juice. Don't stir, but shake, as the rhubarb will break up which you don't really want. As soon as the caramel has dissolved again, take it off the heat. Let it cool a bit, then tip gently into a sieve to crain off the juices. Set the rhubarb aside.

Put the cornflour in a bowl and add just a bit of the juice to make it into a smooth paste. Then bring the rest of the liquid to the boil in a pan and pour it over the cornflour paste. Put this mixture back into the pan and stir constantly for a few minutes, tasting at intervals until there is no trace of cornflour-flavour. Loosen it up with a bit of orange juice if needs be.

Take out the pastry case, and if there are any gaps seal them with a clementine or tangerine marmalade, or apricot jam; if not, you risk having a soggy pastry case floating on a bit of rhubarby juice. Spread the curd on top, and then the rhubarb on top of that. Scatter a few segmented (pith- and peel-less) oranges on top if you like, to make it go further. Put back in the oven for a few minutes to meld all the flavours, then serve quite quickly with dollops of thick Greek yoghurt, Total brand is best. The sweety-like flavours really will put you in a mood for summer, or at least spring, and I bet you a wardrobe re-assessment, resulting in the putting away of heavy woollens, will follow, however badly judged it turns out to be.