Mushroom Black and White Barley Vegetable Soup

Mushroom, Black and White Barley, Vegetable Soup

Blue Heron Kitchen

This soup feeds a crowd (It yields about 4-5 quarts of soup), but here’s the good news:  if you’re cooking for yourself, it’s going to work for you. Portion it, freeze it, and when you come home after a long day and it’s been dark outside since, like 3:00 and all you can think of is another bowl of yogurt or cereal or a can of minestrone for dinner, you can eat dinner not from a can or a box.  Heating this up is fast, healthful and lends itself to variations. Throw in some whole wheat pasta or some cooked beans.  Cut up some cooked chicken sausage or add some meat, like turkey, chicken or pork. Grate some Parmesan cheese over it.  It’s fat-free, fiber-rich and like most of the soups I’ve been making, it has lots of kale.  I love kale.                                                  

I'm a stock cheater.  I use the organic soup bases called Better Than Bouillon. It’s a product from Canada that you can buy at places like Fairway markets, Whole Foods and other ‘better’ markets.  You can also order it on Amazon.  It tends to be somewhat sodium-packed.  So, you needn’t worry about adding salt to your soup.  I use less of this base than the label calls for.  I like to taste the vegetables. For this soup, I used the organic beef base.  But, you can use the organic vegetable base if you’re a vegetarian.  They used to make an organic mushroom base that was out of this world, but they stopped making it because I was probably the only person who bought it.  Of course, you can use your own stock.  But I didn’t feel like starting with beef bones and all that.  This is an alternative to Health Valley canned soup, not a suggested soup course for your annual “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!” party.

I bought black barley at Fairway.  You can probably find it at a good health food store.  It’s available at Amazon.  If you can’t find it, use regular barley.  Try Bob’s Red Mill unhulled barley.  It has more fiber. 

Equipment: A large stockpot,

Time: At least four hours for cooking

Ingredients:

3 Quarts filtered water

3 Tbsp. Better Than Bouillon Organic Beef Bouillon

¼ cup black barley

¼ cup white pearl barley, Bob’s Red Mill sells both hulled and unhulled

4 cups sliced, mixed variety fresh mushrooms

2 stalks organic celery, diced

3 organic carrots, peeled and diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 bunch of kale, chopped fine

2 small organic Yukon Gold (or other variety that aren't for baking) potatoes

1 14.5 oz. can salt free organic diced tomatoes (I used Whole Foods’ 365 brand)

Chopped, fresh parsley to taste

A few sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only

Freshly ground good quality peppercorns

Procedure:

Bring water to boil and add bouillon base

Rinse barley(s) and add to boiling stock and immediately reduce to a simmer

Add all other ingredients and when soup comes to a boil, turn heat to low, cover and cook for several hours, until barley is cooked through. (The hull-less barley won’t be as soft as the hulled or 'pearl' variety.)

You may need to add some more water as it cooks.

Have some fun and throw in other vegetables you may have laying around… cauliflower, peas, parsnips, turnips, and kohlrabi.  (I don’t ever have kohlrabi around, but I like the way it looks and how it's spelled.)

Add freshly ground pepper to taste.  If you feel you need salt, go ahead, but have your blood pressure checked soon.

Peace, love and button up your overcoats,

Jane 

Pumpkin Bread 2010

As economic recovery stalls, largely due to fear and opposition to change and the pitfalls of how government can really ruin our lives, my new mantra is "use it up". I have too much.

These aren't, as my last husband used to say, the 'salad days'. But don't poo-poo the low-cost joy and healing power of fooling around with gourds.

peace and love,
jane

Pumpkin Bread

Blue Heron Kitchen

Don't let fall leave without pumpkin bread.   

This year’s updated Pumpkin Bread, like last year’s, doesn't leave that oily residue on your fingers because it has no oil. It's better that way because it uses a little butter.  And what I like about this most is that it doesn’t have that generic clove-heavy, “autumn spice” blend that guarantees to any other ingredient you might otherwise taste. It’s not cloyingly sweet; and the subtler spicing and ‘rougher’ texture renders a true quick bread.  This bread ain't no loaf.

Feel free to play around with combinations of nuts and dried fruit.  This year, I opted for dried Monterey cherries, and I added a smidge of orange oil.

I’ve used both home-cooked organic pumpkin as well as canned pumpkin. Either is great. Today, I used Whole Foods’ “365” brand. 

Never cut corners on butter. Give it the sniff test to make sure it’s fresh. You be the judge.  Here’s how I decide whether to use it or lose it: I ask myself (probably aloud): would I make plain butter cookies with this butter?  Try to find 83% fat European style butter.  Plugra (made by Hotel Bar) and Cabot’s are two American-made brands that are excellent.  If you only buy American, Land-o-Lakes is the best. Fairway markets carry the domestic 83% butters (and they’re less expensive than Land-o-Lakes, go figure).

Ingredients:

1 ¾ c. (15 oz. can) cooked pumpkin, fresh or canned

1 c. dark or light (or a combination of) brown sugars, firmly packed (what’s critical is that it’s fresh and moist)

½ c. granulated white sugar

4 oz. (1/2 cup or 1 stick) unsalted butter (European style is best), room temperature

3 eggs, size large, room temperature

2 ¼ c. unbleached all-purpose flour

2 ¼ c. whole wheat pastry flour (Bob’s Red Mill is a great choice and it’s available at Fairway Markets, online and through Amazon)

2 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cardamom (freshly ground is best)

½ tsp. ground nutmeg (freshly ground is best)

¾ tsp. kosher salt

1 ½ c. walnuts, toasted, cooled and chopped

½ c. dried Monterey (or other) cherries, chopped and sprinkled with 1/8 tsp. orange oil (available through King Arthur Flour and through Amazon). Or, you can soak them in a tsp. of Grand Marnier or Cointreau.

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F. 

Butter or spray pans with release: two medium loaf pans, several smaller loaf pans of the same capacity, or a even smaller molds (you’ll work it out) If using paper molds, (great for gift giving/impressing friends and pretending you’re a professional baker.) you don’t need to do anything but set them on a flat cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, measure flours, baking powder, spices and salt and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Set aside.

Prepare nuts and dried fruit and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars.  When light and fluffy, add eggs and mix until blended well.  Add pumpkin (it will look curdled). Add dry ingredients, all at once. Don’t over-mix (interesting historical note: from this common but easily avoidable baker's boo-boo, the colloquialism, “tough pumpkins”). 

Remove from the mixer and using a spatula, fold in nuts and dried fruit until just incorporated.

Gently spoon (really ‘drop’) batter into prepared pans. Be sure there is batter in the corners.  But don’t press, push, flatten or mess around with this batter.  Think of plopping it, like cobbler batter, into the pans and ‘working it’ as little as possible.  This isn’t a fine-crumbed quick-bread.  It’s has more of a ‘spoon bread’ personality.  It’s a coarser crumb and more toothsome, (but it won’t be ‘dry’ if you don’t over-mix or over-anything the batter).

Bake until a metal tester comes out clean and dry. Be careful not to over-bake these loaves, or you’ll yell I should just stop this and stick to teaching Für Elise because you almost choked to death. As soon as they spring back and don’t feel ‘wet’ in the middle, they’re ‘done’. And depending on the size of the forms you use, they’ll bake for anywhere from 15 minutes (mini-muffins, anyone?) to ¾ of an hour! Your molds, your oven, your judgment. (Keep a thermometer in it until you’ve made friends.)

Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes before turning the breads out of their pans.  (If you use paper molds, there is no need to release them.) When completely cooled, wrap well.

Like you, these grow more fabulous with age. Try to let them rest overnight.

Wrapped well, these will keep for a week or two.  I’ll be freezing mine until our annual Faux Thanksgiving this December.

Pumpkin Bread 2010