Winter Vegetable Purée

The winter root vegetables—big leeks, turnips, and the gnarly celery root— make the most delicious sweet purées. Even without copious amounts of butter or cream, they are full of flavor. Usually vegetables are blanched in large amounts of water so that they will cook as quickly as possible, but here the vegetables are cooked in just enough water to keep them floating in the pot. By the time the vegetables are cooked, the water is thick and flavorful and used, in place of cream, to thin the