Friday, January 20, 2012

How to Make Your Own Veggie Broth (a.k.a. Mirepoix)

Say what??...Mere, huh?
Shortly after my first stint at making vegetable broth with celery, carrots, and some leftover onion, I was told that this kind of broth is known to professional chefs (like on those cooking shows) as mirepoix (pronounced meer-pwah). So if you want to sound professional when you're at home cooking your veggie broth, and your family asks, "What are you making?" you can look up from the stove and say, "oh, it's just my mirepoix." That's got to make them impressed, at least for a couple of seconds!

Making veggie broth is extremely simple.
(And, by the way, if you want to make chicken broth, you can do the exact same thing, except use leftover pieces of your rotisserie chicken in pot)
1) Roughly chop leftover vegetables.
2) Put them in a large pot.
3) Cover the veggies with water.
4) Simmer on medium to med-low (depending on your stove), covered, for about an hour.

The veggies I used here were (as mentioned earlier), celery, carrots, and onions. I also added pepper and dried parsley just because.
When it's done, use a slotted spoon to remove the vegetables and discard. Strain the rest of the broth into a heat-proof bowl, and allow broth to cool. Then you can use it for soups or other recipes, or put into containers and freeze for later.

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