Cooking With Barley

[poliphilo]

I made lemon barley water this morning.

Apparently it's good for you in all sorts of ways.

I simmered two ounces of pearl barley in a quart of water for half an hour (all measurements approx), strained off the water, added the grated rind and juice of one lemon, then allowed it to cool.

The recipe I was following also calls for honey, ginger and cinammon- but I don't see why. I tasted it. Ailz tasted it- and we agreed it was fine as it was. 

Then, at the recipe writer's suggestion, I improvised a soup around the cooked barley- and that's what we had for lunch.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Goodness me! I had no idea you could make your own lemon barley water - to be honest, it had never occurred to me that it actually had barley in!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I've never really understood barley water. I mean, I'm sure you're right about it being good for you, but I don't see how it improves the taste of a drink. If thirsty and faced with water, barley and lemons, I would discard the barley, and just make a drink from the water and the lemons instead.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I bought some from the shop and Ailz looked at the price tag and then went online to find a recipe.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The barley doesn't taste of anything much, but it gives the drink a velvety texture. Store-bought lemon barley was one of my favourites when I was a kid.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I never had it in my early childhood, as it just wasn't part of my home environment. So by the time I came across it in friends' houses when I was a bit older, I think it already just tasted icky and wrong - like the ordinary squash I was used to, but with something else I didn't want in there too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The other thing I really loved was lucozade. It's what my mother gave me when I was ill- and so went hand in hand with being off school.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah, well see that I did have as a child, and in exactly the same circumstances. Plain, old-style Lucozade (as opposed to the many new-fangled flavours they have now) still hits the spot, even though it actually tastes quite weird, and I'm not sure I would like it if trying it for the first time now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is a strange taste. I had some a while back- for the first time in years- and I have to say I was a bit disappointed.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I've never had barley like that. Barley as an addition to vegetable soup is quite nice, I think.

Lemon-barley water sounds a long way from my personal experience and quite possibly destined to stay that way. I have seen oatmeal water and, though I'm sure the differences are great, I want no part of that, either.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

What do you guys call a fruit flavoured concentrate that you dilute with water? Well, lemon barley is one of those. I drank a lot of it when I was a kid. I assure you it's really quite nice- if you like that sort of thing.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Good question: I don't know that we have a formalized term in colloquial use for a fruit-flavored concentrate. A fruit drink might be called some sort of "-ade", patterned upon "lemonade". Made from concentrate, I suppose we would simply call it "instant lemonade".

The iconic instant fruit-flavored drink of my generation was Kool-Aid, which at least in my day was made from a concentrated powder, sold in packets, to which was added water and sugar. I suspect that lemon barley is much better, obviously.

My wife's grandfather was from Edinburgh, so despite the fact she was born and raised in Managua, she loves lemon-flavored oatmeal water, which sounds suspciciously like your lemon barley water, only with more mucilage.