2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Mirpua (lat. Mirpua) - Soup greens originally from France, which is a mixture of a wide variety of root crops.
Description
Most often, you can see rutabagas, roots and leaves of celery, carrots, parsley and its roots, onions, leeks, thyme, etc. in the composition of mirpois. True, often mirpois consists only of onions, celery and fresh carrots. All of them are thoroughly cleaned, after which they are cut into cubes of strictly defined sizes. And only then they are subjected to culinary processing.
Usage
Mirpua is mainly intended for adding to broths - this solution allows you to make any broth more flavorful. By the way, vegetables in completely different combinations can be added to broths both finely chopped (for example, in French cuisine) and whole (in German cuisine). In France, mirpois has long enjoyed the same popularity as a very similar mixture called Matignon.
However, similar combinations of vegetables can be found in the cuisines of other countries. Sofrito in Spain includes bell peppers, garlic, celery and onions, while an Italian blend with a similar name soffritto contains almost all of the same ingredients except paprika. The Portuguese call the mirpois-like mixture refogado - it consists of stewed onions, garlic and tomatoes. And in Creole and Cajun cuisines, the mirpois mixture is jokingly called the "holy trinity" because it consists of bell peppers, celery and onions.
The very technique of cooking mirpois has a much longer history than a funny culinary term - the very first mentions of it were discovered only in the eighteenth century. This mixture received such an interesting name in honor of an aristocrat with a very unusual name Charles-Pierre-Gaston Francois de Levy Mirpois. By the way, this man was well known to the French (and not only to them) and as an ambassador, field marshal and a member of the noble Levy family.
In the popular book Larousse Gastronomique, published back in 1938, it is said that a mixture of mirpois can be prepared in two ways: lean (that is, exclusively from vegetables) and with meat (like Matignon). At the same time, during the preparation of mirpois, it is necessary to observe the ratio of the necessary proportions. So, carrots, celery and onions should be in a 1: 1: 2 ratio. And when preparing white mirpois, carrots are replaced with parsnips - it endows the future delicacy with characteristic pale shades.
The calorie content of mirpois is relatively low - only 38 kcal for every 100 g of product. But this magnificent mixture can boast of the richest vitamin and mineral composition. And it is also not devoid of useful properties.
The onion, which is part of mirpois, is an excellent antimicrobial agent: the phytoncides contained in it ruthlessly kill not only streptococci, but also tuberculosis, dysentery and diphtheria bacilli. They also have a beneficial effect on the kidneys.
Celery is an excellent aid to slow down the aging process, endowed with pronounced sedative properties and is widely used in the treatment of various nervous disorders (primarily caused by overwork). It is often included in the diet of people with diabetes mellitus and is recommended for older people - the ability of this culture to significantly improve water-salt metabolism works wonders!
And the carrot in the composition of mirpois is excellent for bronchitis, bronchial asthma, anemia, pneumonia, tuberculosis and various cardiovascular ailments. It will also serve well for a number of skin diseases, as well as for gastritis with low acidity and diseases of the kidneys and liver.
