Month: September 2009

Risotto of toasted barley with roasted cauliflower

In the previous post I mentioned a recipe from Gourmet magazine for a risotto made from toasted barley and roasted cauliflower. I decided to make it for supper.

I’d encourage everyone to do a little Googling and read up on the benefits of barley. Not only is it a great base for comfort foods, it’s about 10 percent protein, and it’s an excellent starch for diabetics, with a glycemic index of 25 or so. It’s a nice thickener for soups and broths.

I’ve said this often, but it’s always worth repeating: We should all eat like diabetics even if we’re not. This is especially true in middle age and thereafter, though younger and younger people are being diagnosed with diabetes these days. Plus, a diet suitable for diabetics is just plain healthier, for everyone.

If you try this recipe and you’re not accustomed to cooking barley, cook the living daylights out of the barley, and add as much liquid as you can get the barley to absorb. If that takes an hour, so be it. Substitute whatever is handy. I used a little tomato juice in the water instead of chicken stock, and I used cheddar cheese instead of the parmigiano-reggiano. Frankly I don’t think cauliflower roasts all that well, though. It tends to become a little tough and dry. But any sort of vegetable could work in this recipe.

Toasting the barley before the liquid is added

Roasted cauliflower

The barley is almost done.

Is it soup yet?

Barley is not at all hard to find in the United States, but I don’t think I’ve ever known a traditional cook who uses it. That’s a shame, because not only is barley a fantastic comfort food, its glycemic index is very low — 25. The best soup I ever had was a Scotch broth in a little restaurant in Scotland. It was partly the barley that made the broth so nice and thick (and probably a few sheep bones). Barley can be cooked and served like rice. Or it can be used in risotto instead of rice. In Mediterranean cooking, risotto is a comfort food that probably occupies the same niche as mashed potatoes to us Celtic types.

I bought a bag of barley from the Yadkin Valley General Store, since I knew we’d be getting soup weather before long. I assume the barley came from Pennsylvania, since that’s where this store gets most of its stock. It’s certainly soup weather today: 61 degrees outside with rain and drizzle. I made the season’s first big pot of vegetable soup and included a couple of generous scoops of barley.

I love to have a pot of soup on the stove on cool, rainy days when I have nowhere to go. I’m generous with the garlic. To me, garlic is a vegetable, not just a seasoning. If you crush the cloves lightly but don’t chop them, the garlic flavor won’t overpower the soup.

Soon I want to experiment with some barley risotto. This recipe from Gourmet magazine for roasted cauliflower barley risotto looks inspiring.

Pearled barley

Peeled garlic…

…after a few licks with a cutting board to crush them just a bit

Raw soup with a heap of barley. Yes, that’s a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, but I did use fresh onions, cabbage, celery, etc.

It’s started simmering. Three hours to go.

Banana bread

The autumnal equinox is Tuesday — the first day of fall. At the produce stands, the tomatoes and squash are giving out, and the pumpkins, greens, and apples are coming in. I don’t like to bake during the summer. Not only is the oven a big load on the cooling system, summer foods just don’t crave to be in the oven the way fall foods do. Olive oil and coconut oil are the oils of summer — good for saucing and sautéing. Fall baking likes nut oils and seed soils — even a bit of butter if you dare.

Fruit makes heavy, dark breads far more moist and eatable. Banana bread is a standby. But I plan to make some pumpkin bread as soon as the banana bread is gone. I think I also will experiment with some vegetable breads. Bread made with chopped mustard greens and seasoned with garlic and sage sounds appealing. Mustard and turnip greens are being sold everywhere right now for 99 cents a pound or less.

As always, I try to keep the protein up and the glycemic insult down. This banana bread is made of King Arthur whole wheat flour with plenty of ground flax seed and fresh ground almonds. There are two home-laid eggs. Once again, that’s the vegetarian rule — combine as many types of amino acids as possible to maximize the available protein. This bread contains seeds (flax and wheat), nuts (almonds), legumes (soy milk), and eggs. Don’t get the batter too thick — the flax and almonds soak up a lot of liquid.

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned very clearly that I almost never use recipes. Creativity and experimentation are half the fun. Experienced cooks just know what it takes to make something turn out according to what they have in mind. When I do want to check a basic recipe, I use my 1942 wartime edition of Erma Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking. It’s a great reference that will tell you how to make all the standards from scratch, and from those basic recipes one improvises. Most of my improvisations are about adapting traditional dishes for a Mediterranean diet and applying what we’ve learned about food and health since 1942 (a great deal). And of course I always cook from scratch.

Ground almonds and ground flax seed, before the whole wheat flour was added

Walnut oil