Mirepoix (Meer-pwah)

[bassman]

A long time biker friend lady from LA had a thread about cooking down some Mirepoix for base stock for whatever she decided on. Probably Jambalaya, Creole or Gumbo. Make up her mind when she went through the cupboards. I'd not heard of this so looked it up found the "Holy Trinity" of vegetables. I didn't have bell peppers so chopped up 4 cups of onions, 2 cups of celery, 2 cups of carrots. I do have Olive Oil and most of the many seasonings they call for so I'm thinking of hitting the stir fry pan.

I got the part about the onions first until clear, then blend in carrots, celery, cook down until thoroughly blended adding the various seasonings as I go. We have basil, rosemary, thyme, and oregano. Have garlic cloves and masher. Now one recipe I read is to basically make a tomato soup out of it but thinking I'd like to try something a little fancier. I can get sausage or chicken at local store. No shrimp except frozen. Plan on starting this either tomorrow or Saturday. Anyone got some good recipes for me? I can always go for the soup of course.

[jvh]

You have the start of a good braise. I'd go with lamb sharks or beef short ribs. Add beef stock and maybe a little red wine. Cook until tender.
A secret ingredient: about 1/2 tin of anchovies. Believe it or not.
Vern

[bassman]

You're saying to add meat before I do tomato or skip the tomato and use the mirepoix to season the meat and make a stew?

[jvh]

Yep I'd skip the tomatoes. But I'm not a big fan but if you like them put them in. I don't really think of it as a stew, just braised meat. Use the vegetables and liquid as a gravy. To turn it into stew just add fresh vegetables of your choice when the meat is about tender. There are many options and they will all be good.
Vern

[flyslinger]

Mirepoix is classic French cuisine, Holy Trinity is cajun cuisine. Close but not the same. You will never find carrots in a true jambalaya, gumbo or etoufee'. At least none cooked in Louisiana. Mirepoix is a great base for stocks, demi glace, soups, braising, etc.
Bottom line, a true mirepoix is onion, carrots and celery and is the classic vegetable base used in classical French cuisine.
A true holy trinity, (sometimes called cajun trinity) consists of onion, bell pepper, and celery and is the classic vegetable base for cajun cuisine.
If there are any substitutions for the three ingredients, it may be good, but it is no longer a mirepoix or cajun trinity.
Both mixtures can and are often used in conjunction with a roux. A roux is simply an equal amount of flour and oil, or sometimes butter, that are slowly heated and cooked on the stovetop in a skillet or dutch oven. Cast iron is the preferred cookware in Louisiana for a roux, but it's not really necessary. You must stir a roux constantly or it will scorch and burn.
A roux can range from a blonde color for béchamel sauce all the way to a dark chocolate (almost black) color for a gumbo. The mirepoix or trinity is added once the correct roux color has been achieved and the veggies are cooked in the roux until softened. Then stock or water is added to make the sauce. Sometimes a little wine or tomato paste is added as well.
It all depends on the dish you are making.

[EastslopesTH]

You're saying to add meat before I do tomato or skip the tomato and use the mirepoix to season the meat and make a stew?

With all the Italian herbs at your disposal, I would make the classic Osso Buco. Start by dredging the veal, beef or lamb shank (ok I use venison or moose shank for this too) in flour then brown all sides in a dutch oven (or cast iron pot) then remove from pot. Cook down your mirepoix in the pot and season with oregano, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper etc and add tomato paste (I also add some stewed tomato) then mix well and add your meat back into the pot. Then add wine (white whine for veal, but I use red wine for red meat) to de-glaze the pan and reduce liquid down by about half. Add back some stock (chicken stock for veal or lamb or beef stock for beef, venison, moose), bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover pan and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until meat falls off the bone. Top up pot with more stock if/when the liquid cooks down. Serve with an full-bodied Italian red wine.
Quite frankly one of my favorite ways to cook moose shank which is quite lean and can dry out with cooking if you're not careful.

[snorider]

2:1:1 Onion: carrot: celery. In creole just swap out the carrot for bell pepper. I would go for the jambalaya. Ain't no reason to fear the carrots. After all Creole cooking is just french cooking adapted to the climate of LA. I try to avoid the canned tomatoes. Fry the sausage in an enameled cast iron pot, add your roasted chicken( I buy the preroasted hens or even fried chicken from the deli at the local store for this) cut into bite sized chunks and cook together a few minutes. If you go with uncooked chicken remove sausage first and set aside then fry the chicken. Season with plenty of S&P and paprika. Return your mirepoix and meat to the pan, then add your fresh tomatoes, cook until the maters' can be mashed, add frozen okra or file' powder and hot peppers or pepper sauce to taste. MORE PAPRIKA! Now with your pan nice and hot add the rice and stir well. Add chicken stock to volume and bring to a simmer. When the rice is about half cooked is where I like to add pre-boiled and seasoned seafood frozen shrimps are fine just cook em first with bay leaves or old bay in the water then drain. Simmer until the rice is soft or as long as you can take it. Man this is making me ready for lunch at 10am!

[eastprong]

For osso buco, don't forget the gremolata at the end:
https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen ... /gremolata

All braised dishes are livelier with gremolata. Substitute shallots, for garlic, other herbs and citrus for the lemon.

[EastslopesTH]

For osso buco, don't forget the gremolata at the end:
https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen ... /gremolata

All braised dishes are livelier with gremolata. Substitute shallots, for garlic, other herbs and citrus for the lemon.

Ahhh yes don't forget the gremolata as the classic paired condiment.

[bassman]

Okay, I'll be committing all these ideas and recipes to storage for now. Now what I need is to do ribs. Local store had a fantastic sale on ribs. Got 3 racks for what one cost normally. Do I use the general recipe from Eastslopes for ribs? Should I cut ribs up individually and brown them in pan? Cut them into hunks of four to six rib sections?
I'm thinking of more or less following this recipe but not making veggies into paste but mirepoix. Otherwise close to this. Plan is to this for Sunday after the still online church services.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ann ... e0-1943261

[tunafart]

There are many options and they will all be good.
Vern

((psst - Take my word, I've seen him cook, it's worth a shot . . . ))

[EastslopesTH]

Bassman, that's pretty much what I do with moose ribs (even better than moose shank ). I don't think you can go wrong with that recipe. Happy cooking and enjoy!
Ron
PS I think I know what I'm cooking this Sunday!

[ablecane]

Last night's dinner;
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food ... -mushrooms

[bassman]

Well guys, it worked. Took on Eastslopes recipe more or less. Maybe not as good as the next one will be but I ended up using about a rack and half of pork ribs that were poorly trimmed. Worked on trimming them for awhile, then cut them in 3 bone sections. Got a big fry pan with curved sides and dumped in onions. Got them warming up over medium heat in olive oil and started on ribs. Got another fry pan, dipped rib sections in flour and fried in olive oil lightly on each side. While working my way through the stack of ribs a couple pieces at a time I added in celery and carrots, a little more oil and butter and kicked heat up a little. As mixture started cooking through and releasing its juices I added in all the herb and seasonings to pan. Kept going on reduced heat for awhile until mixture looked thoroughly blended and smelled and tasted great.

At that point we couldn't decide how to do it. Following Eastslope we got out a high top pan with lid, layered in mirepoix, couple ribs, mirepoix, ribs until stacked to about 3" from top of pan. At that point wife asked when tomatoes went in. Forgot about them. Took a can of stewed tomatoes and distributed them around sides of pan. Asked her for beef stock and found out all she had was chicken stock. Dumped that in and this left pan still a couple of inches below top of rib stack. Put lid on, kicked heat up until mixture boiled, then dropped down to good simmer and set timer for 1.5 hours. Set timer wrong and went off in .5 hour. Checked and liquid was just about even with top of pan. Set timer for hour and let her go. Timer finally went off and time for the test.

I took off top piece of ribs and the veggies on top of it. Cut one bone off and meat just fell off. Okay, plenty well cooked. Tried and seemed great but a little different than this fried meat and potatoes guy is used to. Tried a little more and was delicious. Got on the horn and sent some texts to some friends I said I was going to try this and if was edible I'd let them know. So wife and I and 3 adults who had already eaten and two kids who had already eaten tore into the pot. The consensus was great meat, great taste, and the liquid mixture was a great basis for soup or stew also. There was only two pieces of ribs left and juice and I'm going to trim meat off ribs, mix with liquid leftover and do a stew/soup for tomorrow. I had my doubts about "boiled meat" but everything was great and I definitely will look at more recipes with this mix and the Cajun Trinity in the future. Little more work than I usually do when I cook but worth it.

So thanks for all the help and only wish I could have had ya'all over for dinner.

[bassman]

So, since no one's responding I'll just tell ya' that earlier I took the two hunks of ribs out of the leftovers. Trimmed all the meat off and cut it up. Pretty simple since bones just pulled right out. Then took a half dozen new potatoes, quartered them up, put it all together in a stew pot, added a little more broth and right now it's simmering on the stove putting out wonderful smells.

Again, thanks for helping me enter a different area beside fried meat and boiled potatoes.

[EastslopesTH]

Good to hear that things worked out. Quite frankly you can braise the meat and the main veg in a hot pan first and then add to slow cooker with stewed/diced tomatoes and broth and walk away if you want a more hands-off method.
Last Sunday I ended up making the Braised Short Rib recipe that you posted with the vegetable puree (minus the carrots). I used some moose ribs which can be tough without thorough cooking. Here's the pic to stew over (pun intended). I will say the puree method yields a nice consistency and coats the meat well. I need to experiment with that method of adding the veg to braised meat.

[ablecane]

I use these whenever a broth/stock is required;
https://www.betterthanbouillon.com/?gcl ... gKrwvD_BwE

[EastslopesTH]

I use these whenever a broth/stock is required;
https://www.betterthanbouillon.com/?gcl ... gKrwvD_BwE

Thanks ablecane, I've seen this product around but never tried it. It looks like a good variety of flavors are available. I'm going to try some.

[Gnome]

+1000 on the better than bouillon, I use the roasted chicken and their beef, beats the bejeebers out of the little cubes! Go Nick Go!

edit; a lot faster than making your broth from scratch.