The Food Canon

Char-grilling foods is a great way of cooking.

As old as humanity, this must be one of the earliest forms of cooking. Burn some wood. Warm yourself up in the cold. And hang some meat over the fire.

My earlier experiences of BBQ are in my youth camping days. It was almost always chicken wings and sausages galore. In part it is because these are cheap. The wings were of course mostly "chow tar" (burnt) from the sugar or honey in the marinade. We did not know any better. Even then, grilled chicken wings always excite. Somehow.

One of the highlights of the year is the opportunity to cook fine dining Western cuisine for the larger family gatherings. Someone else is always sponsoring the bill. All I need to do is to plan and prepare the meal.

The chefs like what they are doing. The diners like the food. And the one who sponsors believes that he is getting a good bang for the buck. Everyone is happy.  There is nothing like the atmosphere of a home which feels like a restaurant, with food plated to each guest.

Family, food and friends. I am not sure I got the order right but these are always special and anticipated gatherings.

The pan in your kitchen can do a pretty good job at searing and crusting the steak. While almost any pan can do the job, my favourite pan for searing is the Greenpan. If you dry the steak in your fridge, it will make the crusting job easier.

I test the doneness of the steak by the bounce of the meat (just tap). On the average, 2 minutes per side on high fire should work for a medium to medium rare steak of about half an inch thick.