Barley and me

Growing up, my grains consisted of only 2 things -- pasta (usually whole wheat) and rice.  My family rarely made ventures into anything else.  I wasn't totally oblivious to other things, and we occasionally had things like couscous, but all in all.. that was it. 

So today I decided to broaden my horizons, and bought my first ever bag of barley.  When it comes to cooking grains I'm usually fine with it, but barley scared me a bit because of its similarity (physically, anyway) to rice.  I have had AWFUL experiences making rice.  I don't think I've ever once made it without their either being too much or too little water.  It always comes out somewhat burned, somewhat undercooked, or both.  And the worst part is I always follow the directions to a T!  I guess it's just not meant to be..

So when I read the cooking instructions for barley and they seemed eerily similar, you can see how I would be worried.  Luckily.. this worry was unnecessary.  I followed the directions on the package, and just halved the entire thing.  I would have thought that it would take only a few minutes less than cooking the full serving.. but (to my astonishment) it took a full 20 minutes less.  I'm glad I checked on it when I did!

The barley came out great, not overdone but certainly not underdone.  Al dente; just right.  I then made a sort of salad with it from a recently purchased cookbook, Favorite Brand Name Vegetarian Cooking.

 

I would usually never consider getting a cookbook that endorses certain brands in its recipes but hey.. I got it on sale for $6.99 so I figured what the hell?

The book is actually pretty dense, with everything from appetizers to casseroles.  I'm not vegetarian, but I do lean towards it, and often cook with tofu as a welcome meat replacement.

The dish I made today was a barley salad, with a mustard/vinegar/orange/cilantro dressing (which was actually quite yummy) and diced bell peppers and black olives.  I only had a small serving of this today as a snack, but tomorrow it is going to be a main part of my dinner so hopefully I will get a picture of it then.

Off to bed!  I have a 4 day week because of the holiday.. which should be good, but really means I need to cram 5 days of work into 4...oh well, it will work out it always does.

Night!