Help: what does it mean to "puddle" a vegetable?

For example, in Jenise's recipe for her wonderful meatloaf: "I served ours over a puddle of soft, steamed zucchini. "

Thanks, Bob

Funny you should mention that, Bob. I referred back to that recipe just a couple of days ago. I assumed the "puddle" recipe referred to zucchini that was chopped or sliced and then steamed to the point that it was soft enough to more or less form a "puddle" under the meat loaf. But that's just an assumption and you know how those go....

[Robin Garr]

I took "puddle" to be a noun here, Bob, a soft pool; not a verb or a technique.

[Jenise]

I took "puddle" to be a noun here, Bob, a soft pool; not a verb or a technique.

You and Mike are both right. The zucchini was deliberately cooked to a soft stage; however, it was also puddled in the culinary verb sense, served under the main item not alongside.

Many thanks, Mike, Robin and Jenise. I gave the recipe to a friend who asked me what it meant.

She said she is a miserable cook, but that this was the best meatloaf she had ever eaten -- and by far the best dish she ever made herself.

Thanks for that as well, Jenise. Best, Bob

there is now a 'culinary verb'? "to pubble" is a verb? so, this extremely odd activity of putting something on top of a bunch of something else - something that is not a sauce - is now dignified with its own form of speach?

[Jenise]

there is now a 'culinary verb'? "to pubble" is a verb? so, this extremely odd activity of putting something on top of a bunch of something else - something that is not a sauce - is now dignified with its own form of speach?

Yes, absolutely. One normally puddles a sauce, but in the case of a soft vegetable the word puddle as a noun to describe the mound or verb to describe the placing and general shape of it is a great economy of words. The instruction would take many more without it.