Goop
This is culinary goop. Not Gwyneth Paltrow’s untethered lifestyle brand. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been cool since The Royal Tenenbaums.
Mac and I make plenty of jokes about our devotion to goop-based cooking. But like most jokes, they come from a real place. The development of appliances for making fine purees has transformed the treatment of vegetables, specifically the creation of lighter sauces.
If we take a stroll through the Larousse Gastronomique, we find that, before the advent of blenders and food processors, sauces were thickened with animal products - dairy (butter or cream) or reduced meat stocks (see our discussion of bones). If chefs wanted to grind, they hauled out the hand tools - the mortar and pestle or the food mill and a fine mesh sieve.
Seemingly contrary to all my lectures about unnecessary kitchen appliances, what I do possess is no less than three puree machines: a high-speed blender, an immersion blender, and a food processor.
This week we’re making macaroni with a sauce of kale and pumpkin seeds. Creating vegetable goop allows us to incorporate diverse sources of flavor, color, and umami, like seeds and fibrous vegetables, and then distribute them evenly throughout a dish.
Nuts and seeds. Pocket aces for richness. Toasted nuts and seeds add depth and body to any puree. Pesto, mole, muhammara, so many of our favorite sauces combine a vegetable and a nut or seed. Toasting is key for unlocking the aromatics.
Soups. Building a soup is very similar to building a sauce. Goops thicken the base and deepen flavor. For pozole rojo, after getting the meat going, I reinforce the broth with a puree of caramelized onions, toasted hazelnuts, and roasted chilis.
Stovetop pickups. Fried rice, pastas, assorted stir-fries. For fast-moving dishes, it’s convenient to add all the flavorings near the end, all at once, to prevent burning. We like a green goop for fried rice - try alliums, fish sauce, and a bunch of green herbs. Color coding is convenient to prevent a muddled aesthetic.
Is goop just another word for puree? Sure. But we try not to take ourselves too seriously. Plus, purees evoke baby food and swooshes of superfluous sauces from dated New American restaurants. Embrace the goop.
We’re glad you’re cooking with us.
Cheers,
Sten and Mac
Chef Snacks
Cooking Tip
Save herb stems for goop. Make goop with your parsley, cilantro, dill, and other herb stems. Not just the stems, this applies to all extra herbs. Don’t let them rot in the crisper! Make goop.
Fried Rice Seasoning (Green Goop)
Green things and alliums (enough to fill up the blender loosely)
cilantro
parsley
green chilis (serranos or jalapenos)
leek tops
green garlic
lovage
¼ c neutral oil
½ cup vinegar
½ cup fish sauce
2 tablespoons honey or agave
Puree. Taste for seasoning and adjust. If it’s too thick, add more liquid (water is okay).
