Green Giants Secret Sauce

How does the Jolly Green Giant make that butter sauce in his microwave vegetables? And where do you find a Green Giant sized microwave? Back to the sauce. That buttery looking, starch stabilized sodium bomb is a ripoff from classic cooking. It's called beurre fondue, simple translation "melted butter". How do you keep the butter from breaking down and getting all greasy? Well follow me

We are going to do a simple poaching of yellow squash but you can do most any vegetable that cooks in a reasonable time. Try it with leeks or corn off the cob.

• Cut your yellow squash in uniform pieces
• In a sauté pan add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan
• Add your squash and season with sea salt and anything else you want, herbs etc
• Crank up the heat and add a couple of Tablespoons of cold unsalted butter.
• As the water steams away toss the pan and then incorporate the butter
• When the butter is all incorporated turn the heat back and continue to cook until it's done enough for you.

Be careful not to add too much water, better to use too little. You can also make a pot of beurre fondue using the same technique but skipping the vegetables. Beware you will use a lot of butter but it is a great way to cook fresh produce.

Another easy way to pull this off is to use a steel bowl. Let's try this with broccoli. Steam the vegetables as usual. Put in a steel bowl and add a few tablespoons of cold unsalted butter and toss to coat. The water hanging on to the broccoli will emulsify with the butter.

And why do we use unsalted butter? The butter is higher quality because it has no salt to hide imperfections. And it's a control thing, you want to control the amount and quality of the salt you use.

Cook like you mean it, G