10 Reasons to Get Fired Up about About the Blow Torch

10 Reasons to Get Fired Up About the Blow Torch

09 Feb 2016

Journalist

If you own a blowtorch we'd reckon a guess that you've used it for caramelising sugar on the top of a crème brûlée but other than that it probably spends most of its time at the back of the cupboard.

We're here to give you ten reasons why you should still re-kindle your passion for this awesome kitchen tool, especially when dealing with popular ingredients like steaks, fish, vegetables and more.

Ideal for charring, caramelising and browning a blow torch can be your best friend in the kitchen bringing out those unique and desirable tasty flavours achieved through the Maillard reaction,

So matches at the ready, the time has come to re-light your blow torch as we give you the run down on a selection of its top uses.

Our top 10 uses for a kitchen blowtorch:

1) Frozen steak - Char the exterior of a frozen steak then pop it in the oven until your level of doneness.

2) Sous Vide Steak - run the torch over the exterior of the steak to get the Maillard Reaction. Check it out in action in this video from Sansaire.

3) Hay or herbs - set fire to the hay or herbs until they smoke, bringing out lovely sweet or fragrant flavours. Check out this recipe from chef Scabin where he fires a bed of herbs for this fillet steak cutlet.

4) Vegetables - chargrilling all variety of vegetables from celeriac to peppers. Mark Moriarty used a blow torch to chargrill the celeriac in his winning vegetarian dish in S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 and we agree it has plenty of potential when it comes to vegetables and even fruit.

5) Pork Crackling - run the torch over the crackling until you get that sought after 'crackling' sound.

6) Tomatoes and peppers - instead of putting them in the oven for 15 minutes try running a blowtorch over the skin until it blisters and the skin peels away easily.

7) Bacon wrapped...anything. Crisp up bacon wrapped around vegetables and more by applying direct heat from the torch.

8) Marshmallows - Let's face it mashmallows are always better with a charred exterior. (See main image.)

9) Fish - crisping up fish skin or searing the exterior of raw fish by running the blow torch along the fillet.

10) Baked Alaska and meringue - browning the exterior of your glistening white dessert will add a spectacular new dimension.

11) Creme Brulee - ok so it wouldn't be right if the blowtorch's best friend didn't make the list. The blow torch is instrumental in achieving that hardened sugar on top which cracks as you break through to the creamy dessert below.