Vegetable Creams and Purées

Purées et crèmes de légumes (vegetable purées and creams) teach one thing before all else: texture is governed by water. A dry or farinaceous vegetable needs sieving, brisk pan-drying, butter, and just enough milk or cream to relax it. An aqueous vegetable needs a liaison (a binding element) of mashed potato, or stiff Béchamel sauce when the result is a crème. C'est la même grammaire across dried peas, beans, cauliflower, celery, and chestnuts.

The professional formula assumed pints of cooked vegetables waiting beside a saucier free to sieve and work them over a brisk fire. At home, two cups fit a 10-inch sauté pan, and three tablespoons of butter preserve its one-and-one-half-ounce-per-pint proportion. A food mill or fine sieve replaces repeated brigade labor. Only the batch and the hands have changed: extra holding pans are scaffolding and can go, but sieving and drying are the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the purée holds a soft mound, tastes distinctly of its vegetable, and carries a quiet butter sheen without greasiness. The decisive step is the brisk drying. Do not reach for the milk or cream until the spoon leaves a trail that stays open briefly behind it.