Barley Bliss!

I found this recipe from the March 2014 edition of Food & Wine Magazine:

David Chang's Pearl Barley Porridge with Ham and Eggs

Ingredients:

• 1 cup apple cider
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• one 4x6 in piece of kombu
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 onions, thinly sliced
• kosher salt
• 1/2 cup cooked smoked ham, chopped
• 2 cups pearled barley
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 eggs, poached
• thinly sliced scallions, for garnish

David Chang enjoying his porridge.

What's good about this recipe:

Barley is a delicious, and in my opinion, highly underrated grain. In this recipe David Chang elevates it into a savory and satisfying "porridge" great for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Stock is so important to creating flavorful bean and grain dishes. In this recipe Chang brings the cider, broth and kombu to a boil and then allows the mixture to steep 40 minutes. This sweet, salty and savory combination creates amazing depths of flavor that I'll be sure to use in many dishes to come.

Simplicity. I love how simply and elegantly (yes, barley can be elegant) this dish turned out. With minimal ingredients full of flavor like kombu and soy sauce paired with simple items like onion and barley this dish was surprisingly sophisticated.

Cooked Barley

What I learned from this recipe:

Barley takes a lot more liquid to cook down into a porridge! Generally barley to liquid ratio is 1 cup barley per 3 cups liquid. In this recipe Chang only calls for 2 cups of liquid per 1 cup of barley. As a result I had to continually add water after all the stock had been cooked off. I would recommend doubling the stock amount (it's so good you could quadruple it and freeze the rest for another time) and using at least 3 cups liquid per 1 cup barley when cooking. 

Poached eggs are casually listed as an ingredient. I find this frustrating as it has taken me a lot of time and experimentation to perfect the technique of poaching eggs. Here are the important factors:

1. Shallow Water. You want just enough water in the pot to cover the egg.

2. Proper water temperature. You want to find the perfect balance between a boil and a simmer. If the water is at a rapid boil it will jostle the egg and deform the shape. If the water is not hot enough the egg white will not coagulate effectively.

3. White Vinegar. Vinegar helps set the egg protein in the water.

4. Put a lid on it. Once the egg is in the water, turn the heat down and cover.

Here's a quick video I made to demonstrate the method I find most effective:

Overall, I would definitely make this again. It's a wonderful dish to cook on a rainy spring day and makes enough for leftovers!

RECIPE 1: ROASTED CAULIFLOWER SALAD with LENTILS and DATES

I should've known better, I know better.

One important element to success in the kitchen is honing and then listening to your intuition. In the beginning little is "intuitive". Kitchen intuition is really a knowledge that has been so incorporated into the way we think that we no longer consciously engage in the thought process. For example if a recipe calls for baking broccoli in a 425 degree oven for 2 hours our "intuition/common sense" might light up, questioning what wouldn't burn left in an oven that hot for that long. However, if you're like me, you follow the directions - and end up with burnt broccoli! Luckily the next time you see an error in a recipe like that you will know it's a typo (which may happen more often than you think) and the author most likely meant 20 minutes, not two hours. But I cannot stress the importance of following a recipe exactly when first learning to cook. Your kitchen is a very loose, perhaps messy at times, interpretation of a chemistry lab but don't be intimidated. Only basic math skills and a sliver a of patience may be required for this science course. Just like my experience in chemistry, when a recipe I've tried doesn't turn out, it's usually because I didn't follow the directions! Put simply, follow directions in the beginning, develop a standard knowledge base and then allow your intuition and experience to guide you from there.

Now that I have thoroughly exhausted the importance of following directions, I will examine a recent recipe I tried where I really should have listened to my intuition.

I found this recipe in a Food & Wine Magazine edition from March 2014.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Lentils and Dates

Total: 45min Serves:4

• 1/2 C raw almonds
• 1 C green lentils, rinsed
• 1 head cauliflower, cut into 1.5" florets
• 1/4 C plus 1T olive oil
• 1/4t cumin
• 1/4t cinnamon
• 1/4t ground ginger
• pinch of cayenne
• salt and pepper
• 2T tahini
• 3T lemon juice
• 1t honey
• 10 dates, pitted and chopped
• 1/2 small red onion, sliced 
• 4C loosely packed arugula or spinach

I'm not going to list the steps as it is a tedious, and after following them, fruitless endeavor. However, leave a comment or email me and I will happily pass on the directions.

Overall Review:

I was very underwhelmed with this dish. I was also disappointed because there were a few elements of the recipe that concerned me but I followed the directions anyways, hoping to offer an authentic review of the recipe.

Bland Flavor:  One of the things that drew me to this recipe was the flavor profile. I adore cumin, it may smell like stinky feet but it tastes like comfort to me and along with the cinnamon, ginger and dates I liked the Middle Eastern vibe I was getting. The recipe only called to toss the spices with the cauliflower to roast. This element of the salad was delicious but left the rest of the ingredients lacking. In hindsight I would add a pinch of the ginger, cinnamon and cumin to the dressing to enhance the more flavors in the dish.

Poorly Dressed:  My biggest problem with this recipe is the dressing. It’s a salad, proper dressing is essential. I love tahini dressing and make my own variations quite often so when I read these dressing directions I became wary. It's important is to strike a balance of sweet and acidic with the heaviness of the tahini and the recipe called for lemon and honey, which are a great start. The ratio of lemon and honey to the tahini in the recipe though is inadequate in my opinion. I needed more of both. In addition to adding more of these two ingredients I would’ve thinned the dressing out with a bit of water. This was my other complaint with the dressing. It was too thick, too little of it and didn’t evenly coat the ingredients, creating an ultimately “dry” salad (The horror!).

Awkward Composition: I still struggle myself with discerning what I call the “fork factor” of a dish: how well can all the ingredients be delivered in one bite? I found this salad to fall short on the fork factor. Imagine trying to scoop chunky cauliflower florets, little lentils, loose arugula, bits of date and almond all into one bite. It was awkward and this is coming from someone who’s pretty good at spooning portions of food into my mouth. I think if there was more dressing on the salad the date and almond would be better incorporated as well as the lentils but I’ll stop with the dressing already.

Lentil Letdown: I adore all legumes, they are hearty, filling and nutritious. When cooked properly their texture and flavor can really enhance a dish. I was immediately suspect of the lentils in this recipe because it only called to cook them in water. While I love beans, I will freely admit…they can be boring! The hippy inside me just took great offense to that last statement but it’s true. I generally add salt, bay leaf, soy sauce, onion, garlic, molasses and the kitchen sink when I’m cooking legumes. However, it is important to wait until the legumes have come to a full boil before adding any other ingredients otherwise they will take forever to cook.

Needless to say I was not impressed with the lentils in this dish, they came out mushy and bland.

Despite my laundry list of corrections and complaints about this recipe, I'm glad I made it. The cauliflower was terrific and I highly recommend roasting it with equal parts ground ginger, cinnamon and cumin. I also developed more confidence in my intuition after seeing my initial reservations about the recipe evident in the outcome of the dish. 

The trial and error method can lead to disappointing outcomes at times 
but I look forward to my next adventure in the kitchen and I hope you do too!

Welcome, thanks for stopping by!

What am I doing and Why:

I work as a professional cook and baker but have never been traditionally trained or gone to school to develop my skills. As is the case in most areas of my life, I have taken it upon myself to learn and explore this subject. This blog is an extension of that journey as I delve into a pile of untouched recipes I have collected over the years. Every recipe will be new to me and I will try my best not to deviate from the directions and give an objective review of the food I make. I hope my experiences will offer novice cooks and bakers a guideline for developing their own culinary education at home.

So put on your goggles, grab an apron and let the experimentation begin!