Fields of Gold

Remember that song by Sting? His version, or the much missed Eva Cassidy's? Can anyone tell me what it means? What's the story that he's telling? I mean, it's a beautiful song, and maybe I should just leave it alone like that, but there's another song that I love but just don't understand what's going on. Am I slow?(No answers to that question, please).

So, that's a roundabout way to introduce you to barley, because we've got "fields of barley" in the song (which makes me think it's set in Scotland, but that's as far as I go). For some reason, people are afraid of barley. They think they don't like the taste, or that it's hard to cook, or something. When you ask people who say they don't like the taste why they don't like it, most of the time you'll get a 'fess up that they've never tried it. They just "heard" it doesn't taste good. And people who think it's hard to cook, have never cooked it.

I will admit, it does have the "health foods of the sixties" feel about it. GET OVER IT. Seriously, barley is not hard to cook, it's really delicious (especially if you like firmer grains), and let's face it, if you are eating brown rice when you eat take out chinese food 'because it's healthier" (and no one born in China will EVER eat brown rice), you have no excuses. Cook it and eat it now.

Cooking barley is absurdly easy. You take one part barley, to two parts water. You add some salt, bring the pot to the boil, covered, and simmer for about twenty minutes, and you're done. If you want, add some butter or olive oil. If you want, add some herbs when you're cooking it. I think bay leaves are a natural here, and you have them in the kitchen "somewhere."

Ok, so you've just made a great side dish. So what? Well, I'm going to tell you how to use that pot of barley to make yet another wonderful soup, one you like, but you've never made: mushroom barley soup. REMEMBER? Right now, it's in the 30s outside our apartment, and I am f eeling mighty smug about the soup in the fridge. It took half an hour to make and here it goes.

While your barley is cooking away, boil some water and pour it over two ounces of dried mushrooms, preferably porcini. Now, I admit, this is gonna cost you. Dried mushrooms are expensive, and two ounces is a LOT of dried mushrooms. But you're about to make four quarts of soup, so it averages out (especially since the other ingredients are cheap), and you can always ask someone who is travelling to Europe to bring some back for you (I ALWAYS do, and I give them soup in exchange).

Let the mushrooms sit in the water, while you peel and cut into coins, two small bunches of carrots, and slice up half of a large bunch of celery, leaves and all. Peel and chop two onions fine.

Told you the ingredients were cheap. Put some oil in a big pot, and then when it begins to heat up, add the veggies, except the mushrooms, all at once. Add some salt, and if you didn't put bay leaves into the barley, three of them. Wh ile they're sizzling away, separate the mushrooms from the liquid (I use my hands, but you can strain this too), and chop the mushrooms up.

DONT DISCARD THAT MUSHROOM LIQUID . Just look to see if there's any sediment on the bottom. If there is, keep it in mind later on in this recipe.

So, now you've got the veggies and mushrooms sizzling away. Pour in two quarts of chicken stock, and whatever mushroom liquid you have. Stop pouring when the sediment begins to move toward the pot. Lower the heat, and cook away for twenty minutes. You'll finish just about the time your barley does, and at that point, you should drain away any leftover liquid here, and rinse the barley in cold water. You're doing this so it doesn't suck up all of the broth. Now , add the barley to the soup, give it a stir, and if you can resist, let the soup sit for a day.

You've just made about four quarts of soup. It's plenty to share, but you may not want to.

When I make this, the only thing I want with it is a BIG THICK slice of pumpernickel bread with a lot of butter on it, and a salad with a very tart dressing. That's my pick. Some people will take leftover meat and put it in the soup and that's just fine too. In fact, you can use beef stock instead of chicken, if you prefer something heartier. You could even do a mushroom stock, and make it a completely vegetarian soup. That's a good t hing to know when you want to serve something hearty to a vegetarian friend.

And you know what? If you have those containers of leftover rice from the take out place, even brown rice, you can say "the hell with barley," and use that instead. But try barley. I guarantee once you do this, you'll start looking up "orzotto" , which is risotto made with barley instead of rice. And you may figure out what Sting's song means, although it hasn't worked for me yet.