Thank you for saying that, Duchess. It’s hard to know who is out there, quietly reading.
So here’s another recipe: I”m going to try to limit my recipe contributions to dishes made with stored foods, so those of us in prepping mode (vs homesteading, since we don’t have a farm yet!). Unless I cook something I find people like and then I’ll post it here anyway!
Here’s one made with barley. I never knew I liked barley until I started storing it and figured I better learn how to use it. Now I”m a big fan. Chewier than rice, it seems more substantial and filling to me, needing less meat to go with it.
BARLEY INFO
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Here’s a description of the grain I found:
Description.—Barley is stated by historians to be the oldest of all cultivated grains. It seems to have been the principal bread plant among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. The Jews especially held the grain in high esteem, and sacred history usually uses it interchangeably with wheat, when speaking of the fruits of the Earth.
Among the early Greeks and Romans, barley was almost the only food of the common people and the soldiers. The flour was made into gruel, after the following recipe: “Dry, near the fire or in the oven, twenty pounds of barley flour, then parch it. Add three pounds of linseed meal, half a pound of coriander seeds, two ounces of salt, and the water necessary.” If an especially delectable dish was desired, a little millet was also added to give the paste more “cohesion and delicacy.” Barley was also used whole as a food, in which case it was first parched, which is still the manner of preparing it in some parts of Palestine and many districts of India, also in the Canary Islands, where it is known as gofio. Of this custom a lady from Palestine writes: “The reapers, during barley harvest, take bunches of the half-ripe grain, and singe, or parch, it over a fire of thorns. The milk being still in the grain, it is very sweet, and is considered a delicacy.”
In the time of Charles I, barley meal took the place of wheat almost entirely as the food of the common people in England. In some parts of Europe, India, and other Eastern countries, it is still largely consumed as the ordinary farinaceous food of the peasantry and soldiers. The early settlers of New England also largely used it for bread making. At the present day only a very insignificant quantity of barley is used for food purposes in this country, and most of this in the unground state.
Barley is less nutritious than wheat, and to many people is less agreeable in flavor. It is likewise somewhat inferior in point of digestibility. Its starch cells being less soluble, they offer more resistance to the gastric juice.
There are several distinct species of barley, but that most commonly cultivated is designated as two-rowed, or two-eared barley. In general structure, the barley grain resembles wheat and oats.
Simply deprived of its outer husk, the grain is termed Scotch milled or pot barley. Subjected still further to the process by which the fibrous outer coat of the grain is removed, it constitutes what is known as pearl barley. Pearl barley ground into flour is known as patent barley. Barley flour, owing to the fact that it contains so small a proportion of gluten, needs to be mixed with wheaten flour for bread-making purposes. When added in small quantity to whole-wheat bread, it has a tendency to keep the loaf moist, and is thought by some to improve the flavor.
The most general use made of this cereal as a food, is in the form of pearl, or Scotch, barley. When well boiled, barley requires about two hours for digestion.
General Suggestions for Cooking Barley.—The conditions requisite for cooking barley are essentially the same as for oatmeal. It is best cooked slowly. Four parts of water to one of grain will be needed for steaming or cooking in a double boiler, and from four to five hours’ time will be required, unless the grain has been previously soaked for several hours, in which case three hours will do. If the strong flavor of the grain is objected to, it may be soaked over night and cooked in fresh water. This method will, however, be a sacrifice of some of the nutriment contained in the grain. Barley thus soaked will require only three parts water to one of barley for cooking.
YUMMY BARLEY RECIPE
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And the recipe: it’s easy to make, yummy if you like a chewy casserole, although I do use less sour cream than the recipe states. Maybe start with adding half and then see how you like it.
Barley Stroganoff
1 lb ground beef
2 tsp Olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp oregano
8 oz mushrooms
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 tsp salt & 3/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 cup sour cream
2 cups cooked barley
1 tsp flour
1/2 cup half and half
Cook ground beef until brown and crumbled in large pieces. Drain and remove from pan. Add OO, onion, and mushrooms and cook 4-5 min. Season with oregano, marjoram, s&p. Cook 4 more minutes. Stir in half and half. Blend together sour cream and flour. Stir in sour cream mixture, barley, and neat. Cook over low heat until bubbly and heated.