Risotto-Style Barley with Mushrooms

Every now and then it seems that I forget what it's like to get sick and be miserable. So last week, I thought I'd test the waters and come down with a fever, sore throat and a cough to add to the fun trying to sleep. Oh, and mucus in the lungs. I can't believe I almost forgot that part. Silly Susie. Well, the verdict has just come in. Being sick is just as miserable as I remembered. And nothing really can beat having to write a paper and work on a presentation all the while wanting to crawl into bed and not move for three days straight.

Somehow I survived the in class presentation on Saturday, and thanks to two rounds of Advil provided by one of my professors, I even had a voice. Went home, made this recipe, and then promptly slept for twelve hours and thought I was going to keel over when I finally made it out of bed on Sunday around 11. Oh, to be young and home and have Mom take care of me when I am sick. But wait! I had the second best thing! Mom and Dad are visiting Denver from NH, and after I discovered that I had left my bottle of Advil at work, they came with a special delivery on Sunday for me. Almost as good as getting to stay home from school and watch a combination of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Little Mermaid, and The Princess Bride.

I'm finally feeling significantly better tonight. Well enough, in fact to post this week's blog entry. After last week's success with wheat berries, I've decided to test the waters by going through all of the grains I can come across in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. This week it was pearl barley. I don't know what the difference is between pearl barley and husked barley yet. But there was another bin for those as well. I also massively overstocked on barley, so I already have another barley recipe lined up for next week, if I can handle another week of it so close to this recipe. Only time will tell.

This recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit, November, 1998 as viewed at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/15672

This recipe yields 4-5 servings. Total recipe time: about 1 hour


Ingredients:
1 cup pearl barley (way costlier than wheat berries - I think it was a full $1.39/lb)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
12 oz baby bella mushrooms (I'm trying to teach myself about mushrooms, too. Baby Bella mushrooms are darker than the standard button mushrooms, and after trying them in this recipe, they have a lot more flavor as well. The original recipe calls for button mushrooms and one large portabella mushroom. Quite frankly, you don't need more than the 12 oz mushrooms in this recipe, and I will be cutting them smaller than I did as well. I sliced them. In the future, I will halve and then slice them.)
See original recipe for spice recommendations. I used dried basil and garlic powder (quickly becoming my two staples)
5 cups water (The recipe calls for either mushroom broth or vegetable broth. I made some vegetable broth in the original 4 cups of water, using one bouillon cube but frankly it wasn't even needed. When the mushrooms cook down they add a lot of liquid with a lot of flavor.)

Directions:
1. Cook the onion in a large saucepan over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, until the onion starts to cook.
2. Add the mushrooms, cook until mushrooms have browned, about 15 minutes.
3. Add the barley and stir until it has absorbed the excess liquid from the cooking mushrooms (about 1 min)
4. Add 4 cups water and bring the whole thing to a boil
5. Reduce the heat back to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes, covered. (I didn't turn the heat down enough and the barley stuck to the bottom of my pot. Total bummer. Especially when you're sick and just want to go to sleep anyway.)
6. Add one additional cup of water, and stir off and on for final 10 minutes, uncovered. The barley and mushrooms will get creamy and totally take on a risotto texture and appearance.

So my initial reaction to this recipe was mixed, as I think my reaction always is to new tastes. But now that I've tried it again, I think I like barley. It's not as high in protein as quinoa and wheat berries, which makes me think I probably won't cook with it as frequently, but it does have a distinct taste. This dish does taste a lot heavier and heartier than the wheat berries do, and I totally understood why this would be served traditionally with meat. It almost tasted like it had meat in it, which was a little weird for me. I will likely make some form of this again, but perhaps substituting for a less flaverful mushroom.

Alright, bedtime.