Rhubarb and blood orange crumble

For a herb so associated with savoury food, bay works wonderfully well in sweet dishes and produces subtle and warming notes of vanilla and nutmeg.

Serves 2

35g butter 50g plain flour 25g oats 35g demerara sugar Zest of 1 blood orange 25g chopped walnuts for the crumble filling Segments from 1 blood orange 2 sticks rhubarb, chopped into 5cm lengths 3 tbsp of orange juice 1 tbsp demerara sugar for the custard 250ml full fat milk 50ml double cream 5 bay leaves 3 egg yolks 60g caster sugar Zest of 1 blood orange

1 Preheat oven to 190C/Fan 170C/ 375F. In a large bowl, use your fingers to rub together all of the crumble topping ingredients except the walnuts, only incorporating them once the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs.

2 Arrange the blood orange and rhubarb in a small oven dish, pour over the orange juice and then sprinkle with sugar, making sure that some of the sugar falls through to the lower layers. Top with the crumble and pat down lightly, then bake for 30–40 mins.

3 To make the custard, put the milk, cream and bay leaves into a saucepan and bring up to boiling point, then remove the pan from the heat and leave to infuse for at least an hour.

4 In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and orange zest. Remove the bay leaves from the milk and cream and pour the mixture over the sugar and eggs, whisking as you go. Tip it all into a saucepan and place over a low heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, for at least ten minutes. The custard will slowly start to thicken up and should be ready when you can draw a clean line through the thickened mixture coating the back of the spoon. If at any point the custard starts to split, plunge the saucepan into a basin of ice-cold water – making sure none of it spills over into the custard – and whisk until it is smooth again.