- btercanli
- 25 Şub 2020
- 5 dakikada okunur
THE RECIPES IN THIS CHAPTER ARE UNITED BY A MARRIAGE OF CONVE-
NIENCE RATHER THAN A DEEP AFFINITY OF TECHNIQUE OR INGREDIENT.
The sauces are similar in that they are purées (for the most part) of vegetables,
chiles (which are vegetables), and nuts, and some of the sauces use vegetables,
chiles, and nuts together, so it made sense to corral them all here, even though
they have distinct and varied personalities. Many of these sauces have roots in
cuisines from around the world, though they are not meant to be authentic ver-
sions of anything other than authentic to the way I cook at home. And they only
scratch the surface of the countless sauces that cooks in other parts of the world
make every day.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THIS SAUCE?
Most of these sauces are made by simply cooking the main ingredient until soft,
pureeing it, and then seasoning it (you’ll see that not all are cooked, or puréed, but
most are). The question the cook needs to ask when making these sauces is how
to capture enough depth of flavor so they become sauces and not simply purées.
One answer comes with a little help from our usual friends: flavorful oils, vinegars,
spices, and aromatics such as garlic and herbs. Each of the sauces in this chapter
benefits from another ingredient that is an accent, counterpoint, or underpinning
for the flavor of the primary ingredient in the sauce: fruity extra-virgin olive oil
blended with nuts in the walnut sauce or the reduced balsamic vinegar that gives
nerve to the butternut squash sauce.
Another key is cooking the main ingredient enough so that its flavor and texture are
more concentrated than they were in the ingredient’s original state, ensuring the
sauce delivers the necessary flavor punch. Finally, it’s critical to control the texture
of these sauces. The primary ingredients have seeds and skins and fibers and
chunks and other textural elements that you need to wrangle.
WHAT CAN GO WRONG AND HOW CAN I FIX IT?
These sauces are dependent on texture, whether fluid and flowing or thicker and
“dollopy,” and that ideal texture can be elusive, given the variation in the consis-
tency of your main ingredients. The methods for most of these sauces are straight-
forward: puréeing and straining. Although these techniques are seemingly simple,
how you execute them can make or break your sauce.
You can purée your sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor, pass them
through a food mill, or, if very soft, push them through a sieve. The French use a
sieve designed specifically for this purpose called a tamis (pronounced tah MEE),
which is also known as a drum sieve. (I bought one during cooking school, but
after a few years, I realized that I was only using it as a steamer basket, so I sold it
at a yard sale.)
THE BLENDER will give you the best consistency. But, as I’ve noted elsewhere, I
think a blender can be a pain to use and clean, so I use it only with large quantities.
The trick, however, is to begin by puréeing only the solids, adding any liquid ingre-
dients once you have a thick purée. That way, the blades are more efficient and you
don’t end up with solid bits floating in liquid that sometimes just bounce around
and never become thoroughly pulverized. Do stop the blender as needed and
scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula, being careful not to push so far down
that the spatula snags on the blades (one of the reasons I hate blenders).
A FOOD PROCESSOR is a good choice if the main ingredient you are puréeing is
quite soft. If the vegetables or chile is undercooked, the processor doesn’t always
do the best job of eliminating the graininess. You also need to scrape down the
sides of a food processor midwhirl, but that’s simple enough to do. A mixture with
a lot of liquid can be trouble, however, because of the hole in the center of the pro-
cessor bowl.
A FOOD MILL is a good old-fashioned piece of equipment that is fantastic for
puréeing potatoes, celery root, and other fall-apart starchy vegetables and is also
brilliant at separating out skins and seeds. So while the bell pepper skins in the
Smoky Red Pepper Coulis are puréed along with the flesh of the peppers if you use
a blender or food processor, most of the skins will be strained out if you use a
food mill. This results in a silkier sauce, though some volume is lost.
This leads me to the issue of straining. I’m all for leaving things natural if the flavor
is satisfactory. But with a sauce, straining is often worth the extra effort. Not only
does it remove distracting bits of cellulose, but it also aerates the sauce, adding
just a hint more creaminess to the feeling on your tongue.
To strain, I use a fine-mesh sieve that is 7 inches/17 centimeters in diameter and
has a long handle on one side and a small loop on the other, which allows me to
secure the sieve over a bowl or saucepan as I work the contents through the mesh.
The best way to do that is with a rubber spatula, though a wide wooden spoon is
good, too. One of my prize kitchen tools is an unassuming white plastic card that I
bought in Paris, curved on one side and straight on the opposite side. It’s called a
racle-tout, or “scrape-all,” and it’s excellent for scraping out the last bit of batter
from a bowl and for forcing a mixture through a sieve and scraping off the purée
that clings to the underside. You’ll find a few different versions of this handy tool at
cookware stores. The one I like is made by Matfer.
HOW MUCH SAUCE PER SERVING?
The sauces are so diverse in this chapter that the serving sizes vary from a couple
of tablespoons for something like the Butternut Squash and Apple Cider Sauce to
¹/2 cup/120 milliliters for the red chiles sauce when used in the Simple and Deli-
cious Enchiladas.
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Almost all of these sauces are pureed, which is best accomplished by using a food
processor or blender. I prefer the processor unless the sauce is very liquidy, in
which case the blender is best. A fine-mesh sieve lets you give your sauces a satiny
texture.
STORAGE
Most of these sauces need to be eaten within a few days, so it’s good to have a
plan in mind when you make them. The Roasted Green Chile and Tomatillo Sauce
with Avocado is an exception—no need to plan, because it’s so good that you can
put it on everything.
