ninkasi23 and I were discussing ideas for my February diary, and came upon the fact that we both love barley. I have two recipes with barley that are big favorites, and so does she, so we decided to coauthor this diary.
The first two recipes come from a little-known wonder-of-the-world that, alas, no longer exists, called the Co-op Home Economists. When we moved to Berkeley in the mid-seventies, The Co-op (Consumers’ Cooperative of Berkeley) was the grocery you shopped at if you wanted to shop your politics. It was a regular grocery with a couple of stores, and also had a Credit Union (still our main “bank”). But the grocery stores had stuff like a staffed “Kiddie Corral” where beleaguered parents could drop off toddlers to free themselves to shop. It also had Home Economists who, among other things, produced healthful recipes and handed them out for free. Their Barley handout is encased in a plastic cover in my primary recipe notebook. It tells us that:
Just Barley
Whole barley can be cooked like rice, using about 1 ¾ cups water to 1 cup barley. Bring water to a boil, add ½ tsp salt and barley. When water simmers again, reduce heat, cover, and cook until it’s tender and water is absorbed (about 35 minutes). Use like rice with meat, or serve as a breakfast cereal with milk.
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Barley Salad with olives, scallions, and lemon-oil dressing
This Co-op Home Economists’ recipe got bumped from my olive diary in favor of this one. I’m typing in the whole recipe, but for Mr pixxer and myself, I typically make only ½ recipe, and even that yields leftovers (which are great, but don’t leave them more than a couple days). My added notes are in [ ]s.
From the original: “If tuna is used, this makes a main dish for 8, each with 17 gms protein.” I also calculated that 1/8 of the recipe without the optional add-ons* has ~6g fiber. But I never add them!
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups whole barley
- 2 ½ cups water
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup [fresh-squeezed] lemon juice
- 1/3 cup [olive] oil
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- ¼ cup chopped green onions [I slice them into rounds]
- ¼ cup chopped green peppers [small dice]
- ½ cup pitted ripe olives, halved
*OPTIONAL stuff:
The recipe lists two optional additions which I have never used b/c I love the salad so much the way it is. The first is simply to add two 6-7oz cans of tuna, drained. The second is to add marinated Brussels sprouts: Trim ¾ lb Brussels sprouts, slice lengthwise and cook in water barely to cover till just tender, 7-8 minutes. Toss hot Brussels sprouts with any favorite French dressing and chill several hours. Drain. Serve as hors d’oeuvre or in barley salad.
Preparation:
Bring water and salt to a boil; add barley. When water simmers, reduce heat, cover, cook 35 minutes or until barley is just tender and water is absorbed. Toss cooked barley with lemon juice and oil. Chill. Mix remaining ingredients with barley.
(Garnish with Brussels sprouts, if using, and/or mix in the tuna.)
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Yum! Thanks pixxer! ninkasi23 here ;-)
That salad sounds fantastic and on a similar note here is a barley salad I made last spring that is a warm salad of sorts:
Skillet Barley With Broccoli, Feta, and Tomatoes Recipe
from Serious Eats
Note: Leave out the jalapeno and season with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried red chili flake if you'd like to have more control over the heat level in the dish. Also feel free to substitute broccoli with other vegetables if you like to cook with the seasons.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
- 1 shallot, roughly chopped
- 1/2 jalapeño pepper, roughly chopped (see note above)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cups broccoli florets (I actually used frozen so added it later with the broth)
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup pearled barley
- 3 ½ cups homemade vegetable stock or store-bought low-sodium vegetable broth (I used chicken stock since I have it on hand)
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
Directions
-
1. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the shallots, jalapeno and a pinch of salt and cook until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and broccoli and cook until the broccoli has browned slightly, 4 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- 2. Add the barley and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and allow the barley to cook until the liquid is absorbed and the barley has softened, 35 to 40 minutes.
- Adjust the seasoning to taste (remember that the feta will add a fair amount of salt). Stir in up to 1/2 cup extra broth if a looser consistency is desired. Top with crumbled feta and serve.
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Another way I like to use barley is to make a risotto with it, which you could call barsotto I guess?
Barley, Mushroom, and Red Pepper Risotto
- 1 cup of pearl barley
- About 1/2 lb of mushrooms (I had button but any kind you like will do)
- 1 red bell pepper
- ½ med sized onion
- 1-2 cloves of garlic minced (I just added some garlic powder to the sauteed mushrooms cause I was being lazy)
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 32 oz carton of vegetable stock (or your preference of beef/chicken) +/- another cup depending on the barley. Mine took a little extra before it was at the tenderness I was looking for.
Directions:
Heat stock in a pot to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
Finely chop the onion and dice the red bell pepper. Clean and remove the stems from the mushrooms and slice.
Saute the onion, red bell pepper, and mushrooms in ~2 tbsp of olive oil over medium-low heat seasoning well with salt and black pepper until the onion is softened and the mushrooms start to give up their moisture. As the mushrooms start to brown add in the garlic. Once the veggies have softened remove to a bowl and set aside.
Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil to the pan and toast the barley lightly for 1-2 minutes then add enough stock to cover the barley. Bring to a simmer.
Stir occasionally until the stock has been absorbed, then add another cup of stock. Repeat. After adding about 4 cups of the stock taste for doneness. Add more liquid as needed until desired tenderness.
Add the cooked veggies back into the pan and fold in, adding a ladle of stock as need to combine. Turn off the heat. Stir in some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and serve with lots of fresh ground black pepper.
Ok, now back to pixxer:
-—
Oh, excellent! Delighted to have more ways to use barley :) Here’s another favorite of mine:
Scotch Broth, my version
I’ll admit I have never actually looked up a recipe for Scotch Broth. The Campbell’s version was one of my favorites back in my childhood, and I knew it had barley as the grain. But it was a sudden recognition of the taste… sometime… that made me realize the soup was based on lamb. The broth is lamb broth, the meat is lamb. The rest is just onions and carrots. I sometimes call this “Scotch Broth as an Italian would make it,” b/c I figured out to pre-cook the onions and carrots in oil, and then the lamb, before adding to the broth, but for all I know the Scottish do it this exact same way. Then what herb to use… “to pull Wild Mountain Thyme, all around the blooming heather, will you go, lassie, go?” Thyme it is!
Lambits and Lamb Broth:
When we buy a boneless leg of lamb at Costco, I come home and cut the meat into kebab pieces, freezing them in 1-serving packets (of six pieces). There are always bits too small for kebab, which I cut to appropriate size for soup and call “lambits.” Of course, there is also a lot of fat, much with bits of unremoved meat on it. I boil this up to make broth, which is the base of the soup below. Remove any solids after boiling, and refrigerate the broth to allow fat to rise to the top and solidify. Remove the fat from the broth and discard (in the city compost collection bin!)
This recipe is tightened up from a blog entry describing how I did it that time, though as I noted there, it is probably a bit different each time.
Ingredients:
- A few cups of lamb broth
- 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
- Half a medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
- ¼ cup of barley
- A couple Tbsp peanut oil or other unopinionated oil [“olive does not seem appropriate for Scotland”]
- Up to a cup or so of lambits
- Two generous pinches dried thyme, or 3x the volume of fresh [highly appropriate for Scotland!]
- Salt
Preparation:
In a saucepan that will hold the entire soup, cook the onion in the oil till softened, adding the diced carrot partway through. When the carrot has begun to soften, add the lamb broth, barley, ½ tsp salt, and thyme. Bring to a boil, and then simmer 25 minutes. Meanwhile, heat more oil in a small frying pan and cook the lambits till browned (several minutes), salting well early in the cooking process. When done, add these to the soup, with at least 10-15 minutes of cooking time still to go. Taste for seasoning — you may need as much as another ½ tsp salt — and to be sure the barley is tender. Serve.
From the blog: “All in all, it turned out to be a wonderful, thoroughly satisfying and delicious soup for a rainy and grey day.”
This beautiful song from the 60s kept running through my head whenever I thought about barley — Widow With Shawl — A Portrait, by Donovan. Even though the barley is only in the first line :)
And of course, the very beautiful Fields of Gold, by Sting. I heard this on the radio at work back in the day, and actually called the radio station to find out what it was.
If there’s an ad at the start for you, maybe you’ll be lucky and get the Elizabeth Warren presidential announcement :)
What’s for dinner at your place? Do you have a barley dish to share? Please pull up a chair and join our feast! Feel free to share recipes, tips, etc. If you would like to write a diary for WFD just send a kos message to me (ninkasi23) : HERE and let me know! It’s easy and fun!
Here’s our upcoming schedule:
What's For Dinner Schedule
date |
post# |
diarist |
03/23 |
13.37 |
Mark Morgan |
03/30 |
13.38 |
esquimaux |
04/06 |
13.39 |
SteelerGrrl |
04/13 |
13.40 |
yojimbo |
04/20 |
13.41 |
esquimaux |
04/27 |
13.42 |
OPEN |
05/04 |
13.43 |
OPEN |
05/11 |
13.44 |
esquimaux |