Barley "Risotto" with Rosemary Focaccia

My husband loves barley and  always says I don't make it enough.  I'm not sure why that is.  Perhaps it's because the kids don't love it as much as he does or maybe it's the time it takes to make it.  After his request for barley for tonight's dinner, I came up with this after browsing many recipes.  If you have all the veggies chopped and ready to go in advance, the recipe isn't as time-consuming prep-wise.  Whether you use water or stock for this recipe doesn't really matter, as long as you have at least 5 to 6 cups of liquid.  This time I used half water and half chicken broth and also added a chicken bouillon cube for some extra flavour.
This makes a very large batch of barley.  This will easily serve 6 people as a main dish with even some for leftovers.
I paired this with a rosemary focaccia bread that tasted great dipped in this barley (and was the real star for the kids).

Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 pkg (227g) sliced cremini mushrooms, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, thinly sliced
2 celery sticks, thinly sliced
1 cup pot barley, rinsed
5-6 cups liquid (water and/or broth)
1 bouillon cube (optional)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 pkg chopped spinach, thawed
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp dried dill weed
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In a medium pot, melt the butter over medium heat.  Saute the onion for about 5 minutes, until tender but not browned.  Add the mushrooms, stirring occasionally until they release their juices, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute or so.

2. Add the barley and stir to coat.  Add your liquid (start with 5 cups) and soy sauce and bring to a boil; add the bouillon cube if using.    Reduce the heat to low, simmering gently.  Cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice.

3. Add the carrots, celery and dill. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.  Add the spinach and chickpeas, cooking for another 5-10 minutes, until barley and vegetables are tender.  Add more liquid if necessary to ensure the barley doesn't stick.  There should be a small amount of liquid left and the barley should have a bit of a "bite" to it. (If you'd like this "risotto" to have more of a soup-like consistency, add even more liquid [ideally stock for more flavour].) 

4. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan.  Season with salt and pepper.

Rosemary Focaccia
This is really quick to prepare if you have dough ready to go (homemade or store bought).  The dough recipe below will make two round pizzas or one large rectangular one.  If you are dividing it in half, you can easily refrigerate it overnight or freeze for up to 2 months.  If you are freezing it for later use, wrap the dough in plastic wrap first and then place in a freezer bag.  To thaw, unwrap the dough and place it on a plate for about 3 hours to let it reach room temperature.  Before using the dough make sure it is at room temperature. 

Ingredients:
2-1/4 tsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1-1/4 cups warm water
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
3-1/2 cups flour

Focaccia topping
1 tbsp cornmeal
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh rosemary
coarse sea salt
black pepper

Directions:
1. In a bowl put the water, sugar and yeast and let it stand until foamy (about 10 minutes). 
2. Add the salt, olive oil and flour and mix using the dough hook until it comes together.   I find it best to knead the dough with my hands for a bit to form it into a smooth ball. 
3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turning to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise until it is doubled in size, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and punch down.  Knead into a smooth cylinder and divide it in half.  Knead each half to form 2 smooth balls, dusting with flour if sticking.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
5. To make one round rosemary focaccia, you will use one ball.  Lightly grease a round pizza tray and sprinkle with corn meal.  Place the dough on the prepared sheet and stretch the dough from the center outward to the edges of the pan.  (If the dough is too tight, let it rest for another 10 minutes before trying again.)  Cover the flattened dough with a damp kitchen towel and let rise for 15 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 450F.   Make dimples in the dough with your fingertips.  Drizzle with olive oil and spread around.  Sprinkle with rosemary, salt and pepper. 
7. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.  Cut the focaccia into pieces and serve warm or at room temperature.

Dinner & Dessert

Happy New Year!!

Today was not a very productive day for the pile of marking sitting at my front door, but I did get to do some amazing cooking and baking!  I haven't put anything on the blog lately, not because I'm not cooking, but because I don't have time to type up the blog post.

So today you are going to get two recipes: a one pot barley and chicken cacciatore and a lemon-blueberry loaf.

And I apologize in advance for the terrible photos I have included - I always forget to take the photo until the leftovers are packed up.  Maybe that should be one of my new year's resolutions! ;-)

One Pot Barley & Chicken Cacciatore

This recipe takes its inspiration from Giada DeLaurentiis' Everyday Italian Cookbook. It's a modification of her chicken cacciatore recipe.  I decided to add barley because of how much my husband loves it. It is a very filling dinner, and definitely enough for lunch the next day as well.

Ingredients:

4-5 full chicken leg/thighs

salt and pepper

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 tbsp olive oil

1 large red bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1-1/2 tsp dried oregano

3/4 cup wine (I used red)

1 can (28 fl oz) diced tomatoes with juice

3/4 - 1 cup chicken broth (I put closer to 1 cup since I was adding barley to the recipe)

3/4 - 1 cup pearl barley, rinsed

Directions:

1. Sprinkle each piece of chicken with salt and pepper and dredge the pieces in flour to coat lightly.

2. In a large, heavy saute pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Working in 2 batches, add the chicken pieces to the pan and saute just until brown, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside. Add the bell pepper, onion, garlic and oregano the same pan and saute over medium heat until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the wine and simmer until reduced by half, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the barley. Add the tomatoes with their juice and broth. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them to coat in the sauce. Bring the sauce to a simmer.  Continue simmering over medium-low heat until the barley is tender and the chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes.  Stir occasionally to prevent the barley from sticking, but be careful not to break apart the chicken, and keep the meat covered in the sauce.

4. Remove the chicken and transfer to a platter.  You can boil the sauce a little longer to thicken the sauce and cook the barley.  Spoon the barley onto plates and place the chicken on top or along side it.  This would also go great with pieces of chicken, making it more like a stew.

5. My husband grated some Monterey Jack cheese and sprinkled it over top of the barley.  It made it nice and gooey and tasted great as well.  This also made my 18-month old daughter devour her dinner, but each mouthful had to have some cheese in it!

Serves 4-5.

Lemon-Blueberry Loaf

This lovely loaf comes from my cookbook: Wanda's Pie in the Sky. It will make a 9" loaf. It is my first time trying this recipe, but as I'm sitting here smelling it as it cools, I can tell it's going to be so moist and delicious.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 cup fresh blueberries

For the glaze:

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 325F. Butter and flour ra 9x5zx3" loaf pan.

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and lemon juice. Mix until smooth. Stir in the lemon zest. Fold blueberries into the batter just before turning it into the pan.

3. Spread into the prepared pan. Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

4. Once the loaf is baked and cooling, start on the glaze. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar and lemon juice. Heat until the mixture bubbles and the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Pour over the warm loaf in the pan. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.  Turn the loaf out and cool on a rack.

(For this part I would let the loaf cool a bit before actually making the glaze and pouring it over and/or wait more than 15 minutes before removing it from the pan - my loaf was still way too warm and started to break as I took it out of the pan - and it had been cooling for quite a long time!)

The loaf just soaked up the glaze and when I took it out it was so moist all the way through! It looks amazing! FYI It also tastes amazing! It is definitely very moist; the glaze definitely helped with that and gives it a nice sheen. It's a very light loaf - my husband said it'd pair well with ice cream, but even a nice cup of tea would do.

Another Barley Dish - Italian Barley Stew

I saw recently on Breakfast Television a whole segment on barley. They called it Canada's answer to a superfood.  I also learned that there were different types of barley, which I really didn't know much about.  They made a stew-type dish using pot barley.  I did some research and I found out that pearl barley (which is what I used in my other post)  is the most common form used in cooking, but it is also the least nutritious because it is stripped of the bran layer.  Because of this it also cooks the fastest. Pot barley isn't as heavily processed, so it is more nutritious and takes a little longer to cook.  From what I was able to gather, you can pretty much use them interchangeably, with some possible slight modifications to cooking time.

This dish is a lot like a stew as well, but I found it thicker and more hearty.  For lack of a better name, I decided to call it an Italian barley stew simply because of the herbs that are used in it.

Ingredients:

1 onion, thinly chopped
2 tbsp oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, peeled, quartered and thinly chopped
1 acorn squash, peeled, seeded and chopped into approx. 1/2" cubes
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup pot barley, rinsed
1 cup chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Saute onion with oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat till they start to get a golden colour.  Add the garlic and carrots and saute for a couple of minutes until the carrots soften slightly.  Add the squash.  If the pot is dry, add a little bit of oil to the pan.  Saute for another couple of minutes.
2. Add the basil, oregano, salt and pepper and stir; saute for a minute.  Add the wine and scrape up all the bit at the bottom of the pot.  Add the barley and give it a stir.  Let it saute for another couple of minutes.
3. Stir in the broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and stir once again.  Lower the heat, cover the pot and let it simmer for about 45 minutes until the barley is cooked and tender.  Stir occasionally to prevent the stew from burning
4. Remove from heat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  Place into serving bowls and sprinkle grated cheese over top

Barley stew

I made barley once a long time ago and my husband apparently loved it. I never made it again, but tried barley another way that was not as much of a success. Then the opened bag of barley sat in the cupboard, lonely. When I started my daughter on solids (cereal), the third one we tried was barley. My husband turned to me and said, "you made that amazing barley dish once and you never made it again. I loved it! It was like a stew or something." I didn't even know what recipe I had used, but I knew had to find it or try something else. So after trying to find the recipe I used and having no luck, today I browsed the Internet and came up with tonight's dinner: a vegetable barley stew. You could make this truly vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth I used. I would've added potatoes (but I finished the bag yesterday) and thought about adding meat, but decided to keep it simple.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, halved and chopped
1 container (227g) sliced mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 can (796 ml) diced tomatoes in juice
1 cup pearl barley, rinsed
1 carton (946 ml) chicken stock
2 handfuls baby spinach
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat.
Add onions; sauté until onions begin to soften, about 3-5 minutes.
Add carrots, season with salt and pepper, saute until they soften, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary; increase heat to medium-high and sauté until mushrooms soften and begin to brown, stirring often, about 7 minutes.
Add tomatoes with juice; stir 1 minute.
Add barley and chicken stock; bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until barley is tender and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 30 minutes.
Add spinach; stir until wilted. Cover and let simmer another 5-10 minutes.
If the barley isn't done or it's not at the consistency you'd like, you can add more stock till it gets where you'd like it.

As a main dish, you'll probably get 4 servings. If you pair it with a nice meat dish or other side, you can probably get 6 servings out of it. And my husband said he really liked this version!

Below is the pic I remembered to take as I was packing up our lunches.

A new variation: A recently used this recipe but changed up some of the ingredients and it turned out yummy once again! Instead of using mushrooms, I substituted one head of broccoli (chopped into small pieces) and 4 potatoes (chopped into small pieces).  I added the broccoli when I added the carrots and added the potatoes when I added the tomatoes. I also used slightly more than 1 cup of pot barely (rinsed) and closer to 1-1/2 cartons of chicken stock.  I cooked it for about 45 minutes until most of the liquid was evaporated and the barley and potatoes were tender.  I continued on with the spinach as above.  Then I added freshly grated Parmesan over each bowl of stew.