These recipes started life joined at the hip at the instigation of the cookbook. I suggest they be served separately with greater happiness. Certainly it was the best barley dish I'd ever tasted, and it shouldn't be buried under the red-wine sauce.
Chicken stewed with red wine and mushrooms
Adapted from “The Athlete’s Palate Cookbook,” in which a bunch of chefs come up with comparatively healthful meals designed to fuel athletes. I say relatively, because the stuff athletes can burn off is a different standard than I aspire to. Note that the chicken dish is a two-day affair.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of ground nutmeg
8 chicken thighs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 leek, white part only, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups wild mushrooms, sliced
2 cups red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
½ cups chicken stock
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
Method
Mix sugar, ginger, cinnamon, coriander, salt, pepper, cloves
and nutmeg together. Rub into the chicken mixture. Refrigerate overnight.
Bring chicken to room temperature. Heat oil in a large deep
skillet over medium heat until brown on both sides. Remove and set aside. Add
onion, leek, garlic and mushrooms to the pot. Cook until vegetables are
softened. Deglaze the pan with the wine, scrapping up the brown bits. Add
tomato paste, tomatoes and bay leaves. Simmer until mixture has reduced by a
quarter. Add chicken back to pot and pour in broth. Bring to a boil, then
reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 45 minutes. Remove lid and raise
heat to medium high, cooking for another 15 minutes or until liquid has reduced
to a sauce. Add half of the parsley to the sauce. Serve chicken with sauce and
sprinkle with remaining parsley.
Rating: Tasty.
The sugar-spice mixture treatment is intriguing, and has future possibilities.This is a Sunday night type of supper, given the lead time it takes from start to finish. I'd suggest serving it with polenta, unless you care about the health quotient, in which case quinoa or brown rice would do the trick. It needs something absorbent that's not too assertive.
Barley risotto
Adapted from “The Athlete’s Palate Cookbook”
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 ¼ cups pearl barley
½ teaspoon chopped fresh sage
½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
½ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
½ teaspoon chopped fresh chives, plus 1 teaspoon for
garnish, divided
4 to 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter
Method
Heat olive oil in saucepan. Add carrot, celery and onion.
Saute over medium heat until softened. Stir in barley to coat. Add herbs. Heat
4 cups of broth and add enough to cover the barley. Stir frequently. Continue
adding broth to cover when liquid is nearly absorbed, and continue frequent stirring. This
can take quite some time, much longer than for regular risotto, about 45 to 50
minutes. Add additional broth if needed until barley is tender and creamy. Stir
in Parmesan and butter. Serve topped with the fresh chives.
Rating:This was surprisingly tasty. I say surprisingly because I had kind of a bad attitude about this recipe going into it. I'd figured out from another barley risotto recipe I'd seen recently that we were looking at a fairly sizable time commitment, to which this recipe didn't allude. Plus, it called for stirring the risotto constantly, and really, if you're stirring one dish constantly for most of an hour, it better be the main dish, not the side dish. But it certainly didn't merit that kind of attention and turned out wonderfully creamy despite being barley and not being stirred relentlessly. I'd be willing to make it again, just keeping in mind that it's not a fast, fuss-free side dish.
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