Barley stuffed peppers - an experiment!
I've always been a big fan of barley, though i've only really ever had it in soups and stews (and cholent!) A few weeks ago I saw a packet of pearl barely on the supermarket shelf and decided I should give it a go - after all, i'm always looking for new store cupboard ingredients, and also ways to increase my fibre intake!
It sat in the cupboard until last night. I've been pondering using some for a while, but inspiration was lacking. So since I didn't have much in the way of fresh supplies - i'm due to go shopping tonight - I decided to give it a go with making stuffed peppers. I make these fairly often, but I usually use rice as the grain to stuff them with.
This was true experimental cooking; a bit of this, a bit of that, a bit of whatever is left. The washing up was overdue and so I didn't have many clean pans. This led me to bake part of the filling where normally i'd do it on the stovetop. Into a baking dish went Things I Found in My Fridge: Half a courgette (zuchinni), a small bit of aubergine (eggplant), some haloumi cheese. I cut all these up into small cubes, about 1cm. I also put a few whole unpeeled cloves of garlic there, and drizzled the lot with olive oil. On top of all this I sat a red pepper, cut in half with the seeds removed.
While that lot was baking at a medium heat, I set the barley on to cook as directed. Silly me, I misread the packet and didn't realise it took an hour to simmer instead of as I for some reason thought 40 minutes. Oh well. It left me even more time than i'd thought to deal with all that washing up! After 40 minutes the peppers were soft and starting to blacken at the edges, so I took those out and set them to one side.
Due to my mis-timing, the barley wouldn't be done until about ten minutes after the programme started that I had planned to watch on tv. I had *another* look at the packet and noted that it suggested adding to your recipe and doing the simmering stage there instead. Now, while I realise they probably meant in a stew or casserole or something else full of liquid, I figured that spending the last ten minutes in the oven couldn't hurt. I took the baking dish out of the oven, removed the garlic and tipped the remaining contents into the pan of barley. Then I squeezed the now caremalised and squidgy garlic cloves into the mix. Mmm. Normally i'd put both salt and pepper in, but I thought that the salty haloumi would stand on it's own so I just gave it a few good grinds of black pepper. This mixture got piled into the pepper halves which i'd put back into the baking dish. Well, I say into... it turned out to be into and around, since i'd overestimated how much the barley would swell! I packed it all into the dish, added a dash of water and stuck it back into the oven in some foil.
I sat and watched my programme, while the smell of cooking wafted in making me extremely hungry. When I couldn't stand it any more, I went to fetch the results...
Mmm, i'll definately be making these again! The barley was nutty and flavoursome, with a nice texture quite different to rice. The sweet roasted peppers, salty haloumi and roasted garlic gave enough flavour that I didn't feel shortchanged by lack of any other herbs or spices. It made enough for two servings, so i've just demolished the leftovers for lunch. Each time I had some crisp lettuce on the side.
I think soon I might go a more traditional route and use the barley with some nice lamb chunks I have in the freezer. But pearl barley gets the thumbs up!
It sat in the cupboard until last night. I've been pondering using some for a while, but inspiration was lacking. So since I didn't have much in the way of fresh supplies - i'm due to go shopping tonight - I decided to give it a go with making stuffed peppers. I make these fairly often, but I usually use rice as the grain to stuff them with.
This was true experimental cooking; a bit of this, a bit of that, a bit of whatever is left. The washing up was overdue and so I didn't have many clean pans. This led me to bake part of the filling where normally i'd do it on the stovetop. Into a baking dish went Things I Found in My Fridge: Half a courgette (zuchinni), a small bit of aubergine (eggplant), some haloumi cheese. I cut all these up into small cubes, about 1cm. I also put a few whole unpeeled cloves of garlic there, and drizzled the lot with olive oil. On top of all this I sat a red pepper, cut in half with the seeds removed.
While that lot was baking at a medium heat, I set the barley on to cook as directed. Silly me, I misread the packet and didn't realise it took an hour to simmer instead of as I for some reason thought 40 minutes. Oh well. It left me even more time than i'd thought to deal with all that washing up! After 40 minutes the peppers were soft and starting to blacken at the edges, so I took those out and set them to one side.
Due to my mis-timing, the barley wouldn't be done until about ten minutes after the programme started that I had planned to watch on tv. I had *another* look at the packet and noted that it suggested adding to your recipe and doing the simmering stage there instead. Now, while I realise they probably meant in a stew or casserole or something else full of liquid, I figured that spending the last ten minutes in the oven couldn't hurt. I took the baking dish out of the oven, removed the garlic and tipped the remaining contents into the pan of barley. Then I squeezed the now caremalised and squidgy garlic cloves into the mix. Mmm. Normally i'd put both salt and pepper in, but I thought that the salty haloumi would stand on it's own so I just gave it a few good grinds of black pepper. This mixture got piled into the pepper halves which i'd put back into the baking dish. Well, I say into... it turned out to be into and around, since i'd overestimated how much the barley would swell! I packed it all into the dish, added a dash of water and stuck it back into the oven in some foil.
I sat and watched my programme, while the smell of cooking wafted in making me extremely hungry. When I couldn't stand it any more, I went to fetch the results...
Mmm, i'll definately be making these again! The barley was nutty and flavoursome, with a nice texture quite different to rice. The sweet roasted peppers, salty haloumi and roasted garlic gave enough flavour that I didn't feel shortchanged by lack of any other herbs or spices. It made enough for two servings, so i've just demolished the leftovers for lunch. Each time I had some crisp lettuce on the side.
I think soon I might go a more traditional route and use the barley with some nice lamb chunks I have in the freezer. But pearl barley gets the thumbs up!