Blast From the Past

Are you tired of making the same starches for dinner?  Day after day, rice, pasta, potato, rice, pasta, potato, repeat...  Me too.  If you're like me, you've probably experimented with yams and quinoa, seeing as they are fairly popular right now and most likely, a part of the Super Foods group.  (If you don't know what I'm talking about, just ignore that last bit!)
But this week I went old-fashioned.  Not oats, but close.  Barley.  I've actually had it sitting in my pantry, waiting patiently for me to utilize it.  Apparently, you can use it as a side dish.  However, I decided to introduce it to my family (read - the kid) as a part of a one dish dinner.
If you are like me, you've only had it in it's most popular form, canned beef barley soup.  Well, I didn't strike out too far from that tried-and-true favorite, other than the fact that my beef barley soup didn't come from a can.  I made it myself.  It was easy, didn't take too much time to prepare and turned out better than any canned concoction I have ever eaten.

"Old Fashioned" Beef Barley Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. stewing beef, cut into small chunks - more if you want a meatier soup
•  2TBSP cooking oil
• 1 TBSP butter
• 2 leeks, chopped and washed 
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed and diced
• 4 - 6 cups beef broth
• 1/2 cup pearl barley, rinsed and cooked to "al dente"
• a couple of twigs of thyme or 2 tsp. dry
• 2 tsp. Italian Seasoning ( A pre-made mix of marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano, basil)
• A dollop Worcestershire sauce 
• A small splash Kitchen Bouquet

Method:

In a small sauce pan, place barley with quite a bit of water and bring to the boil.  Simmer, as you would pasta, for around 25 minutes or until al dente.  Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, put your dutch oven/soup pot on medium/high heat for a couple of minutes to bring it up to temperature.  When hot,  add oil, then butter.  When the butter is melted, add your cubes of beef.  Only add enough beef to make one layer.  If you have more, then do it in batches. When the beef is browned, season with salt and pepper.  Set the browned beef aside.  

To the already hot pot, add the celery, leeks and carrots, using their moisture to scrape up the brown bits left from the beef.  Season with a bit of salt and pepper.  Cook until softened.  Add garlic, cook two more minutes.

Add thyme and Italian seasoning, letting the heat wake up the herbs for a minute. Add the beef, the broth,  the Worcestershire and the Kitchen Bouquet. Simmer for approximately 1/2 hour; check that the beef is tender and the seasoning tastes right and, if the beef is close, add the barley.  Simmer for another 20 minutes.

Serve with big slabs of sour dough bread and butter!