Pearl Barley

I got the idea for cooking pearl barley this way after making krupnik which  is the name of the very traditional Polish pearl barley soup.

Pearl or pearled barley, is whole grain barley that has been processed to remove its fibrous outer hull and polished to remove some or all of the bran layer.  It is the most common form of barley for cooking.

Pęczak is the Polish for pearled barley.

Seeds and grains such as barley, buckwheat and millet were popular in Poland long before potatoes. Rice used to be very expensive, especially before World War 2.

You can cook pearl barley by either  boiling it in salted water or using the absorption method with three times the volume of water to pearl barley, to get a very good plain addition to a meal.

This method adds some cooked vegetables and lots of taste and I think the use of the dried mushrooms is a must.

Ingredients

• 10g dried mushrooms
• 1.5 litres of chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 3 carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 3 stalks of celery *(or half a celeriac)
• 4-5 peppercorns
• 2-3 allspice grains
• Salt & ground black pepper
• 150g of pearl barley

Method

• Cover the mushrooms with boiling water and leave overnight.
• Chop the mushrooms into small pieces.
• Add the chopped mushrooms and the liquor from soaking to a saucepan of stock.
• Peel and grate the carrots on a medium grater.
• Peel and chop the parsnips into small pieces,
• Chop the celery stalks fine.*
• Add the carrots, parsnips and celery to the stock.
• Add the peppercorns and allspice to the pot.
• Bring to the boil.
• Rinse the pearl barley with cold water.
• Add the pearl barley to the soup and bring back to the boil.
• Cook for around 5 minutes.
• Cover the pot with a lid.
• Turn the heat down and simmer for around 30 minutes.
• Check that the pearl barley is nearly cooked.
• Continue simmering and stirring until all the liquid has been absorbed.
• Check the seasonings.
• *
• *If using celeriac – peel, cook the whole piece – remove when nearly cooked and chop into small pieces and put back in.

Served in a J & G Meakin dish – Topic designed by Alan Rogers – 1966 – 1979.