Flambéing

The senior chef is flaming the dish in the wok.

Flambéing is a way of preparing food, consisting in setting fire to the prepared food and leaving it on fire 20-30 seconds, or to burn out. In practice, it looks like this, that when frying meat or vegetables, a glass of strong alcohol is poured into the heated pan. High temperature makes, that the alcohol evaporates very quickly
and together with fat it forms a flammable mixture. When flambéing, the dishes take on a completely different effect, surprising taste. The most commonly used alcoholic beverages are depending on the dish and cuisine they may be: cognac, whisky, brandy, tequila, fruit distillates, slivovitz.

When preparing dishes on an electric or induction cooker, to set fire to the pan, we must use some external source of fire, e.g.: lighters. If we prepare dishes on the gas cooker, we don't have to use lighter or matches to light it, enough (after pouring alcohol into the pan) gently tilt the pan to the lit gas, and the fire will "jump" by itself
for the dish.

There are a few rules to keep in mind when trying to flambé at home:

– no flammable objects may be hung over the flambéing site, the fire from the pan can be up to 50 cm high;

– when flambéing, do not lean over the pan to see the effect better, because a bursting fire can burn our face;

– if we want to extinguish the flame ourselves in the pan - the best way is to cover the pan with a lid, without air supply the fire will go out quickly by itself;

Most of the dishes prepared in Asian cuisine are flamboyant: meat, fish, vegetables, seafood. At home, we can try this art on any pan-fried dish.

I often make Mexican style pork neck in this way. Rub the slices of pork neck with Mexican spices and leave it in the fridge for 1 hour. During this time, I cut the different colors of the peppers into long strips and the onion into feathers. I put the pork neck on hot fat, I fry thoroughly and add vegetables. I fry the whole thing until the vegetables are lightly golden. I pour a glass of tequila and set it on fire. I leave it until it burns out completely, which takes about 20 seconds and immediately put it on the plate.

ENJOY YOUR MEAL!

If you have any other interesting recipes that you are flamboying - share them with us!