Rose Prince - The New English Table - 200 Recipes from the Queen of Thrifty, Inventive Cooking

In the UK, the range of grains we can include in our own diet includes rye, oats, spelt and the various strains among these species. Likewise we could expand our repertoire on the vegetable and fruit front, too (see Apples). Barley is a good starting point. It is the oldest cultivated grain in not only Europe and the Middle East but also possibly the world. Some historians believe that it may have been grown in China before rice. Looking at my store of pearl and pot barley, I wondered about this. Pearl barley, like white rice, has had all the bran milled away, leaving a mild-flavoured grain; pot barley still retains some bran, whose oils turn up the flavour volume. Barley has lower protein levels than wheat, hence its gradual decline – it was thought the poor could never be fed on such a grain – but it is sad to miss out on its delicate nature. Why not use it in a recipe and divert attention away from rice for a change?

Buying barley

Pearl barley is available in every supermarket but you may have to go to a wholefood store for pot barley – the one with the bran. The Infinity Foods brand of organic pot barley is widely available ( www.infinityfoods.co.uk; tel: 01273 424060).

Barley Cooked as for Risotto

White pearl barley can be treated in exactly the same way as Arborio rice to make an Italian-style risotto. For 2 people, melt a tablespoon of butter in a heavy-bottomed pan, then add 1 finely chopped shallot. Cook for a minute, then add 150g/5/½oz pearl barley. Cook for another 30 seconds, then pour in a wineglass of white wine and bring to the boil. Begin to add either chicken, vegetable or veal stock a ladleful at a time, allowing the barley to absorb the stock before adding more. When the barley is tender, beat in another tablespoon of butter. Season with salt and pepper and serve with grated cheese. For an indigenous dish, use a British hard, aged ewe’s milk cheese, such as Lord of the Hundreds or Somerset Rambler, or a cow’s milk cheese such as Twineham Grange (a Parmesan taste-alike made in the southeast). Add a vegetable, if you wish – the green kernels of broad beans, or Cos lettuce. The barley would also be good with shellfish, omitting the cheese: add North Atlantic prawns at the second butter stage, first using their shells to make the stock that ‘feeds’ the barley.

Pot Barley and Lamb Broth

More soup to eat regularly, leaving a store of it in the fridge and returning to it until it is finished. This time a broth, heartened with lamb or mutton. You don’t want a soup that is too thick and grainy here but a clear, brown broth, with just enough pearl barley to make it a lunch. The sauce will brighten it, dragging a winter dish into spring. If you use mutton instead of lamb, be aware that there is often a lot of fat on it. If you make the broth the day before you eat, skim off the hardened fat but leave a little – it is not only very good for you but carries a robust, muttony taste.

Serves 4

1 teaspoon dripping

1kg/2¼ shank of lamb, or mutton (neck, shank), including the bone

1 large carrot, roughly chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 celery stick, roughly chopped

1 bay leaf

1 sprig of thyme

6 tablespoons pearl barley

sea salt

To serve:

1 garlic clove, peeled and cut in half

4 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, very finely chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

Heat the dripping in a large casserole, add the meat and brown on all sides. Add the vegetables and herbs, then pour in enough water to cover and bring to the boil. Skim away any foam that rises to the surface. Simmer for about 1½ hours, until the stock has taken on the flavour of the lamb – taste it – and the meat is falling from the bone. Strain the contents of the pan through a large sieve or colander, retaining the broth. Put the broth back into the pan. Discard the vegetables and herbs and pick the meat off the bone. Add the meat back to the pan with the barley. Bring to the boil again and simmer gently for 25 minutes, until the barley is cooked. It should be slightly chewy in the centre. Taste the broth and add salt if necessary. Skim off any surplus fat.

Rub the garlic clove around the inside of a small bowl to release its juice but no flesh. Add the parsley, oil and black pepper and stir. Add a teaspoon to each bowl of hot broth as it is served.

Pearl Barley with Turmeric, Lemon and Black Cardamom

We eat this as an alternative ‘lemon rice’ with curries and dals, or with grilled meat and fish. It is quite possible to adapt this recipe to other grains, such as basmati rice, oat groats, spelt grains or quinoa, if you wish. I like the feel of barley in the mouth – little springy cushions of grain that easily absorb the flavours of whatever they are cooked with.

Serves 4

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1 white onion, finely chopped or grated

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 black cardamom pod

2 level teaspoons ground turmeric

200g/7oz pearl barley

juice of ½ lemon

sea salt

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and mustard seeds and cook over a medium heat until the onion begins to take on some colour – the mustard seeds will make a popping sound. Add the other spices, stir and add the barley. Stir the barley to coat it with the oil and spice mixture, then pour in enough water to come just over 1cm/½ inch above the surface of the barley. Bring to the boil, cover the pan, then turn the heat right down and cook for 25 minutes. Have a peep from time to time – you may need to add a little more water if it is becoming too dry.

When the barley is just tender, add the lemon juice, then taste and add salt if necessary. Try to avoid eating the black cardamom – while it smells heavenly, it is a nasty thing to chew.

	Kitchen note
Eat with the curries on here, here, here, here, Spiced John Doryor Skewered Spiced Mutton.

Barley Water (the Queen’s Recipe)

Jeremy Lee is a chef who likes to be called a cook. He grew up with good food in his mother’s kitchen and is now dedicated to making it for others. Since meeting him and eating at his restaurant, the Blueprint Café in London, I have been awed by his knowledge, and love his simple approach to good ingredients. He is one of those chefs who resist the temptation to add another ingredient to a dish, and he makes a mustardy salad dressing that will activate your tear ducts at 20 paces. The table and cooking of his mother, Eileen Lee, must have rubbed off; you will always find bottled fruit and pickles lined up on shelves in his restaurant and they are not there for décor. Eileen died suddenly in 2006 but, during a conversation that strayed inexplicably to barley (my, how you’d enjoy my company), Jeremy told me about the barley water she would make for her ‘little clucks’, keeping it in a glass jug in the fridge. ‘The recipe, which was called the Queen’s barley water, was pulled from a newspaper,’ he wrote when he sent me the recipe. ‘It was so refreshing, nourishing and also very good for your skin.’ Making it yields a nice little by-catch – a dish of barley to dress with olive oil, shallots and herbs.

225g/8oz approx. pearl barley

2.5 litres/4 pints water

6 oranges

2 lemons

Demerara sugar to taste

Wash the barley well. Tip it into a pot and cover with the water, then bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cook gently for up to an hour, until the barley is tender. Strain the barley (reserve it for another dish) and leave the liquid to cool. Stir in the grated zest of 3 oranges and 1 lemon, then the juice of all the fruits. Add sugar to taste; it should not be too sweet. Pour into a jug and keep in the fridge, drinking within a day or two.