Rhubarb, pear and hazelnut cardamom crumble

Rhubarb, pear and hazelnut cardamom crumble

I’ve been vacillating wildly lately between complex baking projects that have been languishing on my to-do list for years, and throwing together the simplest ingredients possible because the motivation to cook for one is just. not. there. One pan frittatas with fried zucchini, handfuls of herbs and goats cheese; a can of tomatoes becomes shakshuka with a few spices, herbs and poached eggs; the extent of my baking a one bowl banana bread (rum, dark chocolate and sourdough banana bread but STILL) and this rhubarb, pear and hazelnut cardamom crumble – which I will admit to polishing off most of over the course of a couple of days. It’s comfort in a bowl of fruit, butter and meltingly sweet vanilla ice cream.

The rhubarb pear filling is bright and tart, and requires cooking the pears briefly with vanilla and lemon just to soften before adding the rhubarb and tumbling into your crumble dish. The topping is almost short-bread like and gently spiced with cardamom and toasted hazelnuts (you can make this part ahead and leave in the fridge for up to a few days). Bake – and this is important – until the fruit is bubbling bright pink up over the edges of the golden brown crumble. Mandatory, even if it takes a little longer than you think. Find the recipe here.

This month

• Currently cooking:

  • Morning buns - lockdown cooking projects continue with these croissant dough based buns, spiralled with orange-scented cinnamon sugar and served up with vanilla bean custard. My butter cracked and my croissant folds have a lot of work to do, but they still turned out satisfyingly buttery and flaky. Recipe via the Tivoli Road bakery cookbook if you want to have a go.

  • These pistachio, tahini and raspberry bars - easy yet impressive, made up of a shortbread base topped with pistachio frangipane.

  • Alison Roman dinner parties (at home) continued with her spiced pistachio brown butter roast pumpkin and frizzled chickpeas with caramelised red onion and chunks of feta - I've linked the recipes above and would highly recommend both.

• Currently consuming

  • Vittles: one of a proliferation of new food newsletters that have emerged from the desks of people working from home around the world (read more about the newsletter phenomenon here), Vittles is run by London journalist Jonathan Dunn and pays writers for interesting pieces where food, culture and politics collide, and that might not ordinarily be published by big newspapers. You can sign up for it here.

  • Another essay from an email list, this time On Luxury (and the varied value of resources) from the desk of Alicia Kennedy. On the industrialisation and subsequent devaluing of products that come from colonised parts of the world - sugar and coffee being prime examples.

  • Hunger by Roxane Gay: I've already mentioned her series of essays, Bad Feminist, and this follow-up memoir details Gay's struggles with her body and all that it entails. Food is inextricably intwined with our bodies, and it was a haunting insight into the many and varied facets of her experience in our current society.