BUILDING FLAVOR, BODY AND TEXTURE: PART 2
For a dark mirepoix tomatoes are sometimes added for more color and flavor, in a ratio of 2 oz (60 9) to I lb (500 9) mirepoix. Thus you would have
8 oz (250 9) onion (or onion/leek) 4 oz (125 9) carrot 4 oz (125 9) celery 2 oz ( 60 9) tomato
Tomatoes have a very strong flavor that can easily take over if too much is used.
The size of the pieces will vary according to use. if you are going to cook them a long time, as in making a stock, you will cut them in 1- to 11/2-inch (2l/2-3 cm) pieces so that their flavor will not be exhausted before the stock is finished. if the cooking will be brief, as in making a sauce from pan juices or a cream soup, you will cut them much finer—say small dice. This will expose more vegetable surface to the liquid and draw out more flavor in the allotted time. Whatever the size, the pieces should be roughly equal so that all the ingredients will cook at the same rate. The following guidelines will give you the most flavor and the best flavor from a mirepoix of any kind.
Use only good-quality products. Thoroughly wash all products, especially the leek, which is usually very sandy. To clean it well, cut it in half lengthwise and rinse thoroughly under running water. Cut all vegetables the same size. Keep the ratios of ingredients carefully balanced. If the mirepoix is going to be cooked a long time, use low heat to avoid a bitter flavor.
But vegetables are only half the flavorbuilding story for stocks, soups, and sauces. Most of the time the mirepoix vegetables are accompanied by certain herbs and spices that enhance the flavor blend. Some cooks consider these to be part of the mirepoix and some don't, since they may vary with the product being made. To avoid confusion we will use the term mirepoix to refer to the vegetables alone.
For making stock the standard group of herbs and spices that goes with the mirepoix consists of bay leaf, thyme, parsley, clove, and peppercorns. In this section we refer to them as stock herbs and spices.
Another combination of herbs and vegetables is the bouquet garni (boo-kay gar-nee— literally, garnished bouquet). This term originally referred to sprigs of herbs—parsley, thyme, and bay leaf—tied together with a string which in turn was tied to the handle of the stockpot. When cooking was done, the herbs could easily be pulled out of the pot. Sometimes a celery rib, cut in half, was added to the bouquet. The herbs were placed in the trough of one half and covered with the other half, and the string was tied tightly around the celery.
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