Our Pearl

Barley. Barley is going to save our life.

Members of the Ramshackle are beginning to feel the pain of no rice, no pasta, no quinoa. Nothing, it seems, substantial enough from people to get their fill -- people are rallying for something hardy, something that will make the meal, something that will provide energy after the initial fruit juice and vegetable remnants run through you.

Barley.

Bob's Red Mill gets their Pearled Barley from Oregon and Washington. It's delicious.

Here's something to make --
Barley Risotto.

5-6 cups veggie broth or water
Put this is a pan. bring to a boil then turn to simmer while you do the rest of this.

1 TB Butter
4 Shallots or 1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 large carrot [chopped fine]*
1 cup mushrooms [chopped]*
1 1/2 cups barley
3 TB fresh parsley [chopped]

In a deep skillet [big enough to eventually hold 6 cups +] melt the butter, saute the shallots/onions for 5 minutes. add the garlic, carrots and mushrooms. Saute 5 more minutes.

Add the barley, stirring the whole time, saute for 2 minutes.

Ok this part is serious --- Add the broth 1/2 - 1 cup at a time until you've used it all. But the TRICK is that you add 1 cup then stir it and wait for the broth to be absorbed until you add more. So this whole process of adding the water and what not will take about 45 minutes.

It's worth it. Sometimes I stopped stirring, put the lid on a came back in 5 minutes to add more water and stir more.

Then after the barley is soft and chewy -- stir in the fresh parsley. You could also add Parmesean cheese and a squeeze of lemon at this point. [though local lemons are tough to come by].

*We didn't have either carrots or mushrooms in our fridge. So I used a green bell pepper and fresh green beans. Still real good.