On Food and Cooking

The most complex and sophisticated puree
sauces are made in Asia and Mexico. The
sauce or “gravy” for many Indian and Thai
dishes begins with finely ground plant tissues
— onions, ginger, garlic in northern India,
coconut in southern India and in Thailand —
and a number of different spices and herbs.
These ingredients are then fried in hot oil
until much of the moisture has boiled off, and
the plant solids are sufficiently concentrated
that the sauce clings to itself and the oil
separates. The frying also cooks the sauce,
eliminating raw flavors and developing new
ones. The sauce is then slightly thinned with
some water, and the main ingredient cooked
in it. Mexican mole sauces are prepared in
much the same way, except that the
foundation ingredient is usually rehydrated
dried chillis; pumpkin and other seeds are
another major element. Thanks to the high
pectin content of the chillis, moles have a
more suave, finer consistency than the Asian