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The Holy Trinity - Mirepoix

 Three's a party!

One of the things I was very surprised to find when I started learning to cook, mad scientist style (throw things together, and inflict them on my long suffering wife/friends/family) is that behind a lot of global cuisine is a base of three basic ingredients, and that once you get started with these as a base, they drive almost everything you're cooking, from British stews, Italian ragu, Mexican Chili, even Indian cooking. 


Most cultures have evolved some version of what I call the Holy Trinity (pardon my blasphemy vicar!) but is actually called --in French cuisine-- a Mirepoix (“mear-pwoh”, is how I say it, but don’t take my word for it).


This is a base of three* (sometimes more) diced vegetables that can form the starter for a huge range of dishes and sauces, and more interestingly; every culture has their own take on this principle (even if they don't have their roots in Cordon Bleu ideas), usually in a ratio as: twice as much of part A as parts B and C, but I encourage you to mix that up, especially if you aren’t fond of one part.


(side note: I’m not a fan of celery, you wouldn’t find me dipping it and munching it rabbit-style, but it’s worth shelving personal peeves at this stage of the cooking, as it’s going to form a great base for so many dishes and this base is proven in millions of dishes to work.

-- obviously if you have allergies to any of these, absolutely leave them the heck out! The dish will be just fine without.)


Understanding these flavours and vegetables are the basis of understanding the style of cooking you’re going to try, when I was learning to cook later in my years, it gave me a reassuring place to start from, and it starts to give you an understanding of the fundamentals you can grab before you even take out a chopping board, that you know are going to give you the flavour you want.


As a bonus these bases can all be prepped in advance and bagged up in zip-lock/press close freezer bags. Frozen on the day they were prepared, and then used straight out of the freezer. This saves you a ton of time later when you need to pull a dish - out of your back pocket!


Here are some basic (and by no means complete) examples of a nation's Mirepoix, Soffritto or, if you’ve always been told you “Don’t Cook:” Holy Trinity


* (spoiler: it’s not always a trinity)

France (mirepoix)

 - Onion, Carrot, Celery 

Italy (Soffritto) 

- Onion, Carrot, Celery (similar idea but usually fried with Garlic, fennel and parsley - see herb section later)

Germany specialises 

- Leeks, Carrots, and Celeriac 

Spanish 

- Onion, Peppers, Tomatoes and Garlic (which is interesting since 2 of these didn’t exist in early spanish cooking, and brings us on to:)

Cajun/Southern American

- (sometimes actually called the Holy Trinity) Onion, Celery, Green Pepper**

Mexican 

- tomato, jalapeño, garlic, onion, (with additional herbs/spices)

Indian

 - Onion, garlic and chilies (various) - these are usually cooked in Ghee, and cooking from this region is an enigmatic art form all to itself!

China 

-  Ginger, Garlic, and Shallots (again, a wide generalisation of a complex cuisine) 


**When I say Pepper, I am referring to the English way of thinking of Bell or Sweet Peppers, used as a vegetable, if I want to add spice to a dish I will refer to them as Chillies (and I’ll do my best to give a type, lest anyone blow their heads off... as a ‘boy who didn’t cook’, I’ve done that one before!) 


British

- isn’t on this list, not because I don’t think we have a diverse and amazing food culture (which i’ll certainly be getting to in later pages!) but because much of our food culture has been enriched by other European cultures and many of the basics of a mirepoix or a soffritto are just as sensible in anyone's cooking, so in the most British of ways we just kind of kept doing them, and the food tastes better for it.


The Thyme For Herbs


The herbs and vegetables mentioned in this section all work best when fried or roasted in the early part of cooking, meat with a generous helping of olive or vegetable oil (or a more modest one of meat fat), that’s because these flavours are primarily lipid-soluble. Fresh herbs, like mint / coriander leaves / parsley are better used at the latter or end stages of cooking, as these are better as water soluble, and the flavours are better experienced fresh from the leaf or fresh on the dish.


Some herbs you can get away with at any time, so don’t stress about it, but you’ll get better results with adding dry herbs to the cook and fresh herbs to the serve


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Location: London, UK

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