Barley and Non Stick Electric Skillets
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 7:31 am
I realize that the "Warrior Diet" gave barley a bad name around here, but like almonds and ricotta cheese, it will be around long after the current fad diets are forgotten.
Anyway, I've made several barley based recipes out of "The Wine And Food Lover's Diet" by Philip Tirman, MD in the past couple of weeks, and they've turned out great. Tirman uses barley as a subsitute for rice (and other starchy grains) in a lot of dishes because it has a much lower glycemic index - which in turn keeps your blood sugar much more stable and leave you satiated a lot longer than rice (even brown rice).
I've made a couple of barley "risottos", a barley "paella", and a barley "pilaf" and they've all turned out great - the taste is a little nuttier than rice, the texture is different (the grains tend to 'pop' in your mouth) and it takes 40 minutes to cook and absorb all the liquids, but the results have been worth it. I even subsituted barley for cous-cous in a "California cous-cous salad" (lemon juice, olive oil, diced red onion and toasted chopped almonds), and except for the longer cooking time, it turned out fine. I could eat this recipe 3 times a week for the rest of my life and die a happy man.
And barley is actually pretty cheap. $1.50 for a 2 cup box of Quaker Oats pearl barley, and 1 cup will expand to 4 servings as a side dish.
Since my range stove top kind of sucks (1 big burner and 3 smaller 'bird's eye' warmers), I've found that a $30 electric non-stick skillet makes an ideal barley cooker - first you toast whatever nuts and stuff you want to add, then you take the nuts out and saute/sweat your aromatics, then you add the actual barley and toast it and coat it with the oils and aromatics, then you add your broth/stock or other liquid of choice, then you cover and simmer for 40-45 minutes, and you add your proteins, veggies, nuts and garnishes back in at various points during the simmering stage. It leaves your stove top free for more attention intensive dishes and it's great for summer cooking when you don't want to heat up the kitchen. And you use about a nickel of electricity in the process.
Barley: it's good stuff.
Anyway, I've made several barley based recipes out of "The Wine And Food Lover's Diet" by Philip Tirman, MD in the past couple of weeks, and they've turned out great. Tirman uses barley as a subsitute for rice (and other starchy grains) in a lot of dishes because it has a much lower glycemic index - which in turn keeps your blood sugar much more stable and leave you satiated a lot longer than rice (even brown rice).
I've made a couple of barley "risottos", a barley "paella", and a barley "pilaf" and they've all turned out great - the taste is a little nuttier than rice, the texture is different (the grains tend to 'pop' in your mouth) and it takes 40 minutes to cook and absorb all the liquids, but the results have been worth it. I even subsituted barley for cous-cous in a "California cous-cous salad" (lemon juice, olive oil, diced red onion and toasted chopped almonds), and except for the longer cooking time, it turned out fine. I could eat this recipe 3 times a week for the rest of my life and die a happy man.
And barley is actually pretty cheap. $1.50 for a 2 cup box of Quaker Oats pearl barley, and 1 cup will expand to 4 servings as a side dish.
Since my range stove top kind of sucks (1 big burner and 3 smaller 'bird's eye' warmers), I've found that a $30 electric non-stick skillet makes an ideal barley cooker - first you toast whatever nuts and stuff you want to add, then you take the nuts out and saute/sweat your aromatics, then you add the actual barley and toast it and coat it with the oils and aromatics, then you add your broth/stock or other liquid of choice, then you cover and simmer for 40-45 minutes, and you add your proteins, veggies, nuts and garnishes back in at various points during the simmering stage. It leaves your stove top free for more attention intensive dishes and it's great for summer cooking when you don't want to heat up the kitchen. And you use about a nickel of electricity in the process.
Barley: it's good stuff.