Great Ways to Use a Blowtorch in the Kitchen – in Addition to Crème Brulée
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A blowtorch in the kitchen is such a boon and not only for making Crème Brulée ~ here’s lots of other good ideas.
How to Use a Blowtorch in the Kitchen
~ Make sure the dish receiving the flame is on a metal tray on a heatproof surface.
~ Move anything flammable out of the reach of the flame – alcohol, oily rags, paper, your hair, bits of your or anybody else’s body, etc.
~ Don’t apply the flame to anything alcoholic – it may burst into flames.
~ Hold the flame an inch or more above the surface.
~ Sweep the flame slowly back and forth across the surface you are caramelising. Don’t stop in any one place or you risk burning it.
~ You can, of course, caramelise the top of a large dish but a blowtorch is particularly good for enhancing small individual dishes, such as crème brulées – but other things too.
Things to Brulée with a Blowtorch
Caramelise Fruit
~ Grapefruit for Breakfast – sprinkle caster sugar on the cut halve of grapefruit and then caramelise with your blowtorch. A much nicer breakfast than uncaramelised grapefruit!
~ Pineapple slices
~ Caramelize lemon or other citrus slices for garnishing.
~ Banana slices or the tops of stuffed bananas.
Sugar Crusted Porridge
Sprinkle your porridge with sugar, maybe a flavoured sugar and torch till golden for an exceptional breakfast. If, even after this wonderful porridge improvement, you have some left (not the crunchy bits, I presume) see here for lots of ideas for leftover porridge.
Enhance Cheesecake
I used to put A Personal Lemon Cheesecake on the menu and finished it off with a quick caramelisation just before serving. Here are some easy no-bake cheesecakes that would benefit from this treatment.
Toffee Apple Crumble
I made this delicious apple crumble variation some years ago but, at the time I didn’t have a blowtorch. Now I have, and instead of pouring caramel over the finished dish I sprinkle it with caster sugar and torch it instead,which is even better than the original version. I suggest you do the same!
Rice Pudding Brulée
To me this is a vast improvement on the unbruléed version. You can, of course, brulée hot rice pudding but I prefer to use chilled, possibly leftover, rice pudding with a little cream stirred into it. Divide between ramekins or other individual dishes, maybe with a little jam or fresh fruit or what have you in the bottom of the dish, sprinkle with sugar and brulée away.
Cinnamon Toast and More
If you just have a toaster but no grill making cinnamon toast is, sadly, not possible – unless, of course, you have blowtorch to caramelise the sugar topping! See here for how to make cinnamon and other deliciously flavoured toasts.
Chicken or Duck Liver Pâté!
These smooth pâtés are always best served with something sweet; cranberry sauce, onion marmalade or caramelised onions for instance, but they are superb with a crunchy caramelised sugar topping which also contrasts so well with their creaminess!
Enhancing Dishes with a Blowtorch in the Kitchen
Enhance anything that’s not quite as temptingly golden brown as you’d like, for instance …
~ Meringues (foolproof meringue recipe here) with lots of variation) or Lemon Meringue Pie.
~ Things you don’t see the top of till you turn them out, tarte tatin for instance or upside-down pineapple cake.
~ Gratins, pasta bakes etc.
~ Cheese on Toast
~ The croûte on top of French Onion Soup.
Crisp up disappointingly uncrisp things such as …
~ If your pork crackling is not as brittle as you hoped run the blowtorch over it till it is.
~ Similarly crisp up bacon if you are not happy with it.
Suzy Bowler
Having been a somewhat itinerant chef for over 30 years I was amazed, on my return to the UK, at the blatant food waste that now seems to be rife in the country; amazed and irritated. So much so that I decided to start a blog about spontaneous cooking from leftovers to show people that there are great alternatives to throwing food away.
