Idaho Lentil Soup

Mashing & puréeing 114 recipes

• Smooth to the degree the dish asks for, judged on the tongue rather than by eye: no lumps, no fibres, no grit, unless texture is the point.
• No gluey elasticity: a spoonful drops cleanly off the spoon rather than stretching in a rope behind it.
• The consistency holds: it mounds on a spoon and stays there, neither slumping flat nor standing so stiff that a spoon has to cut it.
• Nothing separates on the plate: no water or fat weeping out into a ring within a minute of serving.
• The colour is even throughout, with no streaks of unincorporated fat, liquid, or seasoning at the edges of the bowl.

Where it goes wrong A starchy ingredient met a high-speed blade, so the cells burst and released their starch: what should be light comes out as an elastic glue that lifts off the spoon in one mass.

Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes

• No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
• The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
• The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
• The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
• It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.

Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.