Professor Butter Beard’s “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose”
I see Spring in pastels. My soul’s eyes are drawn immediately to the iridescent blues, shimmering yellows, glowing pinks, luscious lavenders, and mint greens. My mind instantly starts to weave them together into tastes and textures and aromas. The most anticipated of all the springtime gifts, in my opinion, is the arrival of the first brave stalks of rhubarb. As I wait for the pink to rise from the earth through the stems, my culinary dreams begin their dance, obsessed with the pinks found in all my favorite artist’s creations.
John Singer Sargent’s “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose” depicts two young girls dressed in white who are lighting paper lanterns as day turns to evening in a garden strewn with pink roses, yellow carnations and tall while lilies. The inspiration for this painting came during a boating expedition Sargent took along the London Thames during which he saw Chinese lanterns hanging among trees and lilies. Sargent had just moved to the Cotswolds in England from Paris in an attempt to escape the scandal caused by his 1884 painting “Portrait of Madame X.”
The two young girls are the daughters of the Victorian illustrator Frederick Barnard, noted for his work on the novels of Charles Dickens between 1871 and 1878. Dolly, left, eleven years old and Polly, right, seven years old, were chosen because they had the exact hair color Sargent was seeking. The artist was able to work only a few minutes each evening when the light was exactly right. He would place his easel and paints beforehand and pose his two young models in anticipation of the few minutes when he could paint the mauvish light of dusk. Edmund Gosse, a friend of Sargent, wrote:
“Instantly, he took up his place at a distance from the canvas, and at a certain notation of the light ran forward over the lawn with the action of a wag-tail, planting at the same time, rapid dabs of paint on the picture, and then retiring again, only, with equal suddenness, to repeat the wag-tail action.”
The title of the painting come from the song “The Wreath,” by the eighteenth-century composer of operas Joseph Mazzinghi, which was popular in the 1880’s. It is written that Sargent and his circle frequently sang around the piano during the evenings at Farnham House in the Cotswolds. The refrain of the song asks the question “Have you seen my Flora pass this way?” to which the answer is “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.”
The pink of Sargent’s roses inspired this Rhubarb in Cardamom Custard Tart. Before baking the stems into the tart, cook them ever so gently with a bit of sugar to help tenderize and sweeten them. When you drain them before baking in the shell, be sure to save the scrumptious elixir to pour over vanilla bean gelato or substitute for the cranberry juice in your celebration Cosmopolitan. Let’s raise a toast to Spring, to pastels, and to Sargent’s roses. Cheers!
Rhubarb in a Cardamom Custard Tart
Sugar Pastry Dough:
10 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup almond flour
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 egg
Filling:
1 lb fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2” pieces
1/2 cup and 1/3 cup white sugar, separately
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 ¼ cup heavy cream
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp kosher salt
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1) In a food processor, combine the two flours, the sugar and salt and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the dough resembles coarse sand. Add the egg and pulse again just until the dough starts to come together. Dump the dough onto a counter and push together into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill one hour.
2) Roll the dough into a round, roughly 1/8” thick. Place the dough in a fluted tart pan, making sure not to stretch the dough. Let the excess dough drape over the edges. Chill the tart shell while the oven comes up to 375 degrees. Spray a piece of tin foil with cooking spray, dock the bottom of the tart shell and place the oiled side of the foil in the shell to hold the sides in place while baking. Bake for twenty minutes, remove the foil and bake for an additional 8-10 minutes to dry and golden. Remove the shell from the oven and trim the edges to the top of the tart pan.
3) While the shell is baking, place the cut rhubarb in a small pan and add ½ cup sugar. Bring to a slight simmer over medium heat, stirring often to cook the rhubarb until just tender (about 5-7 minutes). Set aside in a strainer to drain off the excess liquid. Don’t you dare throw that elixir away! Use it over ice cream or add to your favorite celebration beverage.
4) In a non-aluminum bowl, whisk the three eggs. Add the 1/3 sugar, the cream, the salt, and the cardamom and vanilla paste, lightly whisking to combine. Finally, lightly whisk in the melted and cooled butter.
5) Place the drained rhubarb in the cooked shell and even it out over the bottom. Pour the custard over the rhubarb to just below the rim of the crust. Bake in the 375-degree oven between 30-35 minutes until set. Cool completely, and then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator at least one hour before serving. Just before serving, dust the top with confectioners’ sugar.
