hulless barley

involtini di bietole / rainbow chard roll-ups

| Simona

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I ♥ colored varieties of Swiss chard (the Italian word for chard is bietola, plural bietole, also called bieta). When I bought the leaf in the photo and its companions at the farmers' market, my intent was to make involtini with them. I guess I am in an involtini phase (see my recent post on involtini di peperoni). 

colored chard

To make sure I prepared the chard leaves properly, I turned to my main resource in the kitchen, "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison, where in fact I found an explanation of how to prepare the leaves as part of the recipe for Chard Rolls with Winter Vegetables. From that recipe I took also the idea of chopping the chard stalks and central ribs that were cut off to make the leaves rollable and add them to the filling (ripieno). As I have written in a recent post, I like chard stalks (coste) a lot.

As part of the filling, I decided to use hulless barley, of which I have a steady supply as part of my grain CSA share. I cooked half a cup of barley the way I described in this recent post, then took half of it and added it to the other ingredients of the filling at the end. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Ingredients for the filling:

  • half a medium red onion (cipolla rossa), finely chopped
  • a shallot (scalogno), finely chopped
  • the leaves of a few sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 2 carrots, finely diced
  • the chard stalks, diced (see Note below)
  • 2 tablespoons of raisins (uvetta), rehydrated in lukewarm water for 10-15 minutes
  • a sprinkling of cinnamon and of allspice
  • salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • half a cup of hulless barley, prepared as the described in this post, then halved (you can use the leftover barley in many ways, for example, add it to a soup)
  • freshly grated cheese (optional: I used some of my homemade Wensleydale cheese)

Note: The bunch of rainbow chard I bought at the farmers' market had short stalks, which I cut, and also cut a couple of inches of the central rib, so that I could later roll the cooked leaf easily. The result is a heart-shaped leaf of sort.

I boiled the chard leaves for four minutes, in two batches to avoid overcrowding the pot, drained and spread them on a towel. They certainly require a bit of care in handling.

Preparing the filling:

  • warm up some olive oil in a pan
  • add onion, shallot and thyme and cook for a few minutes
  • add carrots and chard stalks and cook, covered, adding some water as needed to prevent sticking (I used some of the chard cooking water)
  • when vegetables are tender, add barley and raisins, drained
  • add cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper and stir well

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Assembling the involtini and finishing the dish:

  • place a chard leaf smooth side down (another instruction from Deborah Madison's recipe mentioned above)
  • place 2 tablespoons of filling above the cut you made to remove the hard part of the main rib
  • cut a bit more, if needed, so that the rolling is smooth
  • if the bottom flaps of a leaf break off, set aside, then, at the end, chop and add to the leftover filling
  • fold the long edges in over filling, then roll the leaf up along the other direction
  • place roll-ups over remaining filling (another idea from Deborah Madison's recipe mentioned above)
  • add half a cup of water and simmer for 10 minutes
  • after 5 minutes, sprinkle cheese on some roll-ups (that is what I did, to try the difference)
  • serve immediately

Both versions of the involtini were excellent. I particularly like that the filling makes also the accompaniment. I am also happy about the way the dish looks: I think the photo speaks by itself.

Whb255 This is my contribution to edition #255 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Prof. Kitty of The Cabinet of Prof. Kitty.

This post has the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

involtini di bietole

or launch the involtini di bietole audio file [mp3].

about food[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Update: I am submitting the first photo of this post to a special end-of-the-year contest currently ongoing at the about food site (in Italian). Twelve photos will be chosen by about food editors and they will be featured in their calendar. 

 

 

minestra di fave e orzo / fava bean and barley soup

| Simona

fava bean and barley soup

Last Sunday, for a dinner with friends, I prepared three soups. One of them was the result of my first attempt at cooking dried fava beans (fave secche).

While I am very familiar with fresh fava beans (fave fresche), and prepare them often when they are in season, I had never had the chance to meet the dried kind up close and personal.

When I saw dried fava beans at the farmers' market, I knew the time had come for me to experiment with them. Melanie and Kevin, the young couple behind Shakefork Community Farm (the grain CSA of which I am a shareholder) had the fava beans for sale at their booth. Melanie mentioned that she had prepared a soup with fava beans and their hulless barley (orzo nudo, literally, naked barley), so I went home with a suggestion that sounded very appealing.

Since I learned from Melanie and Kevin to toast grains before cooking them, I have established a routine to cook barley: I rinse half a cup of barley, then put it in a skillet and warm up over medium heat, shaking the skillet to prevent the barley from getting scorched. After a short while, the popping starts. I keep shaking the skillet until the popping subsides (not all the groats will pop). I let the barley cool briefly then put it in a saucepan with 1.5 cups of water, bring to a boil and cook, covered, until tender (42-45 minutes). I prepare barley this way independently of having a recipe in mind for using it, since even simply cooked as described, it makes a nice side dish or breakfast cereal.

dry fava beans I soaked one cup of dried fava beans in plenty of water overnight (16 hours or so), then drained and removed the skin. (A longer soaking may be needed, depending on the beans, so you may want to allocate 24 hours to this step.) I have seen recipes that use whole fava beans, but I don't like the skin and so I take the extra step of removing it. This is usually easy and I accomplish it by twisting each bean to break the skin. Sometimes I use my thumbnail to break the skin and then twist.

Here is the list of the ingredients I used for the soup:

  • half a cup of hulless barley, rinsed, toasted, cooked in 1.5 cups of water until tender and drained (see above for details)
  • one cup of fava beans, soaked overnight or longer, as needed, skin removed (ditto)
  • half of a smallish onion and one small shallot, finely chopped
  • olive oil
  • two cloves of garlic (due spicchi d'aglio), minced
  • a cup of my homemade chicken stock
  • a cup of water plus more as needed
  • salt and freshly ground pepper
  • two tablespoons of fresh parsley (prezzemolo), finely chopped (from my herb garden)
  • a teaspoon of fresh dill (aneto), finely chopped (ditto)

And here it the procedure I used to prepare the soup:

  • Warm up a bit of olive oil in a saucepan and then add onion, shallot and garlic
  • Cook for a few minutes, then add fava beans, stock and water
  • Bring to a boil and cook, covered, for half an hour
  • Stir and start mashing the fava beans with a wooden spoon
  • Continue cooking, adding hot water if needed. At regular intervals, stir and mash fava beans.
  • Within 10 minutes, the fava beans should be cooked and the mashing will have created a purée with the pieces of fava beans providing some texture
  • Add barley and continue cooking for 5 minutes
  • Add salt and pepper, to taste
  • Add parsley and dill (but feel free to omit the latter, if you are not a dill lover or don't have fresh dill available)
  • Stir, let sit for a minute or two, then serve

I made a rather dense soup, which became denser after spending a night in the fridge. Use water as needed to dilute the soup to your taste. The small portion in the photo at the top is from the leftover soup: I added to it some water while warming it up.

I liked the soup (it was actually the favorite soup of one of our guests). I will make it again. It feels quite appropriate for winter dinners.

A bit more about barley before I conclude.

Hulless (or hull-less) barley is a type of barley in which the tough inedible outer hull adheres losely to the kernel, so that when this barley is harvested, the outer hull usually falls off. Because hulless barley requires minimal cleaning, most of the brand and endosperm is left intact and the germ is present.

Hulled barley is barley that has been minimally processed to remove only the tough inedible outer hull.

Either type of barley is whole grain (integrale) and therefore a healthy choice.

MLLA27Logo400Final This is my submission for My Legume Love Affair 27, the current edition of the popular, legume-centered event created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and hosted this month by the creator herself.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

minestra di fave e orzo

or launch the minestra di fave e orzo audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]