On 26 Jan 00, at 17:42, Jeff Owens wrote:
> Ideas about Barley
Barley and oats are my favourite grains, although I don't eat barley
as often as I would like to.
> lasting relationship. So.. this is about establishing a
> lasting relationship with barley.
Barley has been a part of my diet since childhood. Lemon Barley
as a drink was a household remedy for respiratory ailments. There
was a commercial Lemon Barley drink available in England when I
was a child.
> For lunch today i ate a bowl of barley that was over ten
> years old. The pantry has another thirty pounds of barley
> which will last a few years. My guess is that barley will
> last twenty years in storage.
Assuming you can get a pest free supply, and keep pests out of it.
We've had a lot of problems with pests lately.
>
> The problem with barley seems to be with cooking. It does
> not have gluten and this reduces its popularity. The cooking
> times for whole barley can be quite long. I've seen claims
> barley cooks in less than 30 minutes and wonder if these
> cooks also enjoy eating rubber bands.
Forty minutes does it for me. One of my children's first foods was a
rice barley mixture, cooked for about 40-50 minutes. It is still chewy
at this stage of cooking, but I like that, and mixed with rice it was a
nice combination of textures and flavours.
Maybe they are talking
> about newly harvested barley?
The Barley I buy is of unknown age.
>
> The only way i've found to cook barley is on the woodstove
> starting early in the morning. It can take four or more
> hours. Once cooked it makes interesting sweet porridges or
> savory soups. In many ways it is like potatoes and isn't a
> dominant flavor.
I recently did something similar. Soaked the barley for several
hours and then a long cooking. It made good porridge with raisins
and cinnamon, with or without Kefir as a topping. I found the texture
not as much to my liking as the less cooked barley texture.
>
> With apples and other fruit barley is very good as a
> semi-sweep pudding. In soups as whole grains
I really like barley cooked into a vegetable soup. You know, the kind
of soup that is made with whatever is in need of being used up
soon.
>
> Anyone tried rolled barley for breakfast mixed with juice and
> fruit or nuts?
I have used rolled barley for breakfast, but cooked basically the
same way I cook oatmeal, 1/3 milk to 2/3 water for the liquid.
Sometimes I add dried fruit whether it be oats or barley. Mostly, I
eat it plain with just a bit of maple syrup. Rolled barley is really nice
in homemade granola. Barley ground to the texture of cream of
wheat makes a really nice porridge. I had this at a retreat I went to.
Stewed rhubarb was being served also, but the cook seemed very
surprised that I topped the barley with the rhubarb. It was very good,
and equally good reheated the next day with left over fruit salad as
a topping.
I use barley flour instead of wheat flour in my favourite apple
crumble recipe. And have made a shortbread type cookie with
barley flour. Rolled thin this recipe would make a good pie crust.
Less sweetener and it would probably make a good cracker of
sorts.
I really like Barley.
sph
Sandra P. Hoffman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.flora.org/sandra/
