Herbs and Spices as Thickeners
Some herbs and spices are used to provide the
substance of a dish as well as its aromatic
essence. A puree of fresh herbs, as in the
Italian pesto sauce made from basil, is thick
because the herb’s own moisture is already
bound up with various cell materials. And
thanks to the abundance of those cell
materials — mainly cell walls and membranes
— such purees also do a good job of coating
oil droplets and so creating a stable, luxurious
emulsion (p. 628). Fresh chillis, which are
fruits, produce a watery puree, but one that
cooks down to a wonderful smoothness thanks
to its abundant cell-wall pectins. Many
Mexican sauces are made from a backbone of
dried chillis, which are easily rehydrated to
produce the same smooth puree; and
Hungarian paprikashes are thickened with
powdered chillis.
Indian and Southeast Asian dishes often