CREATING CHAR AT HOME
Executive chef dishes on how to best add trendy flavour enhancer to your creations
Jeremiah Langhorne bends over a small coal bed in the kitchen at his restaurant, The Dabney.
As he fans them, the coals shoot out sparks. The 1,000 F (538 C) heat from deep within the firebox lashes out. He reaches in, barehanded, to spread some baby vegetables in a wire basket set on the coals and keeps fanning.
Langhorne, the restaurant’s owner and executive chef, is going for a good char.
Char is the dark edge on a cube of roasted squash, that deep brown bubble on your pizza crust and the dark cross-hatch marks on your steak. It is a trending flavour enhancer at restaurants, but home cooks often end up burning foods instead.
Here are some pro tips: A stovetop or oven is a more stable ■ environment than open flame for practising with char. If you try fire, wait for the wood to burn into glowing coals. Then pull the coals to the side and cook directly over them. Use only coals that are fully red.
Keep it dry. Although you can ■ toss the food in a little oil, chefs recommend keeping the cooking surface dry. A dry surface can reach a higher temperature without smoking or burning a cooking oil. Oil on the surface of the food will quickly bond and cook along with the hot food, rather than smoking with the skillet or griddle. Chefs say cast iron is the best surface for getting the high heat you need for charring.
Don’t move the food around. ■ Recipes have conditioned us to think food needs to be cooked for an even time on each side, but this isn’t true of char. Proper technique means leaving the food longer on the first side, letting it release its natural juices and develop a tasty crust. Resist the temptation to shake the pan or turn the food before it’s ready.
Wait for the sweat. So, when ■ is that food ready to flip? Start checking it when it starts “sweating.” As vegetables cook, they release their natural moisture. That moisture creates a barrier between the food and the cooking surface. The food will then release easily.
Stay focused. Food can go from ■ charred to burned in a heartbeat, so don’t get distracted. Langhorne focuses fiercely on his coals, fanning, poking, adjusting.
In front of The Dabney’s massive hearth, Langhorne piles the charred vegetables over a scoop of farro salad. The bite-size pieces of carrot, fennel, beans, peppers, okra and turnip have the occasional dark patch or browned edge, but overall they look glistening and tender.
A bite of baby bok choy showcases Langhorne’s mastery of the technique. The vegetable still has an al dente heart, but the skin is soft and melting, with a deep, umami-rich infusion.