Barley is the Old/New Farro

I've been reading a lot of recipes lately that call for an ancient Italian grain called farro and recently tried to find some for a recipe that sounded good. Farro? What's that? Well, that what every clerk in the natural food stores, specialty stores and Italian markets that I checked asked me too. Since I couldn't find this elusive grain anywhere, I took a close look at the photo for the recipe and decided that it looked pretty much like barley.  I did a quick Wikipedia search and found that I was right in my assumption--barley is actually very similar to farro, and has an incredible history, having been one of the first domesticated grains.

So now I've forgotten all about farro and I'm throwing my allegiance back to barley. Yes, I'm fickle like that. I always have barley in my cupboard to make Black Bean, Corn and Barley Burritos anyway.

I got the framework for this recipe out of last year's Bon Appetit magazine and kept it in the back of my head, always meaning to make it, yet somehow always forgetting.  Today, as I walked around Trader Joe's, I saw all the ingredients and it just came together for me.  (I like to think I cook in the style of "The Matrix": it all just looks like static until you finally see the picture made by the 1s and 0s.)

My final recipe is actually quite different from the original because I just can't stick to a recipe. (There are always more vegetables that can be added!) But in case you want to compare, here it is.

Barley, Green Bean, and Chicken with Goat Cheese
loosely adapted from Jeanne Thiel Kelley in Bon Appetit


1 cup barley (find it near the dried beans in the market)

1 chicken breast

1 small onion finely diced
2 cloves garlic
1 carrot, finely diced
1 cup of green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely diced
1 cup corn
1/4 cup of white wine

2 oz goat cheese
zest of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of chile flakes
handful of chopped parsley

Cook barley according to package directions.

Meanwhile, cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  In a large skillet saute the chicken over high heat quickly with a little oil until cooked and remove from pan, set aside.  Add a little more oil and then the garlic and onions over medium heat, saute one minute. Add the carrots and green beans, saute one minute. Add the bell pepper and corn, saute one minute. Add the chile flakes and wine and cook one or two minutes, or until reduced.

Now add the chicken back to the pan and follow with the cooked barley.  Toss it all together and add the goat cheese, lemon zest and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Top it off with the parsley to make it pretty. This should make 2 big servings, or leave out the chicken and it's a side dish for 4.

Jewels Under The Surface

Our winter garden has been somewhat less of a victory than we anticipated.  The fall and winter were busy for us and the garden really took a backseat to the rest of our life.  Maybe it was due to the lack of attention--the humble root vegetables just didn't feel the love that the summer tomatoes did--but I think the winter sun just didn't reach over the house for long enough each day to nourish the juvenile vegetables. Whatever the case, we will be able to plant our summer garden with minimal renovation to the existing garden and that is something to look forward to.

The Brussels sprouts have grown nicely, but have not yet given us those beautiful little cabbages.  The chard has stayed alive, but did not flourish. Nothing happened with the broccoli, onions, and carrots either. Or so we thought until a couple days ago. Anson brought in this adorable fat little carrot.  It was fragrant, almost like artificial carrot scent, and the flavor was more delicate than a grocery store carrot.  We've got a couple more in the ground still and we're going to leave them for another month or so until we start the summer garden.


What else is going on under the ground that we don't know about?  I think we need to investigate those beets from last summer a little closer now...

Oodles of Noodles at Bamboodles

One of my oldest and best friends, Zoki, is a great fan of food of all types and she's an eating champ. Doesn't matter if it's a churrascaria, shabu-shabu or a gastropub, she is down for it. Zoki is the only person I know that almost always gets dessert.  I've even seen her order two desserts. The girl is not afraid to eat (see photo below).

So I always look forward to our monthly lunch/dinner date because we pick a new place every month and she is always as enthusiastic about trying something unusual or new. This month we dropped in on Bamboodles, a Chinese restaurant in San Gabriel that is known for making their own noodles fresh every day.  For those of you that know me, noodles are on the bottom of my personal food pyramid.  They make up about 40% of what I eat on a daily basis, the rest being 30% vegetables, 20% wine, 5% protein and 5% candy.

The prospect of a noodle style I haven't eaten yet was very exciting and Bamboodles didn't disappoint. Owners Chuck and Jason Lew have brought the Bamboodles concept from their native China to the Chinese community of San Gabriel in Los Angeles County. I got a chance to hang out and talk to Chuck and watch Master Kenny make them in the traditional method using a long bamboo pole.

It all starts with a Korean white flour that is mixed with 1 egg per pound of flour and water. The raw dough is then "kneaded" with a long bamboo pole that Master Kenny controls by hopping back and forth across the dough with the pole under his leg.   

The dough goes through a press, much like an oversized pasta maker. It is run through several times in increasingly smaller thicknesses. Not able to find these specialized machines in the U.S., Chuck imported them directly from China.

     

The dough is moved to the next machine which cuts the noodles into individual strands. You can see Kenny with a bag of flour, dusting them along the way.

     

He portions each batch into 20 perfect individual servings.

             

We took Chuck's recommendation and tried the Chicken Lo Mein.  It was nothing like any of the lo meins I've had in the past, it was done with a light white wine butter sauce and topped with delicate fried onions.  Understated and delicious--my favorite of the day.

            

The beauty of this one alone was worth trying it.  Green Tea Pork with Spinach Noodles.  Look at that color!

Spicy Wontons with Pork.  Not too spicy, and heavy on the garlic.  This is the dish you can smell as the server walks by with it...heavenly.

They also make wontons skins from scratch every day (that's a whole other post!).

                          

Bamboodles House Dumplings. Zoki proclaimed they were the best dumplings she's ever had.

You can watch the noodles and wonton skins being made throughout the day through a window in the dining room.  Owner Chuck explains the process to some guests and their kids.

Bamboodles is located at 535 West Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, Ca. 91776. 626-281-1226.

Five Star Blondies the Easy Way

Baking is not something I do very often.  I should clarify that--baking sweet things is not something I do often.  Cakes, cookies, crème brûlée--I love to eat them but you won't catch me making them from scratch very often.  I guess I just don't get the same satisfaction from mixing ingredients together and waiting until the buzzer sounds as I do from stirring, sautéing and tossing food over an open flame.  Consequently we usually don't have a lot of sweet treats in the house, and that's probably for the better since they end up becoming my breakfast, rather than the snack they were meant to be.

But sometimes I get a craving for something sweet and I've recently started making Five Star Blondies.  It's a blondie with a little personality--chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, pecans and toasted coconut. Technically, they are not really blondies as my friend Garrett explains. But for those of us who are baking impaired this is probably a really good approximation. From what I can tell, blondies are basically chocolate chip cookie dough without the white sugar, so if you don't tell anyone you used cookie mix I won't either and no one will be the wiser.

The recipe comes from Continental Mills, a food manufacturer that makes baking mixes, including the Krusteaz pancake and waffle mixes you probably have in your cupboard.  I scaled it down by using the retail size chocolate chip cookie mix instead of foodservice size basic cookie mix. So unless you've got an army to feed, go ahead and give this one a try.

Five Star Blondies
1 - 17oz package chocolate chip cookie mix
1 - stick of room temperature butter (1/4 pound)
1 - large egg
1 - handful of toasted coconut flakes
1 - handful of butterscotch chips
1 - handful of pecan pieces

Mix cookie mix with butter and egg. Add coconut, butterscotch and pecans in your desired amounts. Bake as directed.