When Barley blows up

[bloviatrix]

Although the weather is nice and mild, I found some lovely mushrooms at the greenmarket today and decided to make a pot of mushroom barley soup.

My problem is that that as the barley cooks, it absorbs most of the soup liquid leaving very little broth. I've tried cooking the barley separately, but I wasn't happy with the soup when I did that. The barley was a gloppy and added an unpleasant flavor.

Any suggestions?

[Brad S]

Toast your barley first.

[skmcdade]

I agree -- toast/saute the barley.

Or put the barley in later and don't cook it so long.

Or use more liquid.

HTH!

[bloviatrix]

Toasting never occurred to me. I'll try that next time.

[Suzanne F]

Escoffier suggests cooking the barley separately before adding it to consomme. But what did he know?

BTW: great minds think alike! I started some beef stock yesterday, and am making mushroom/barley soup for tonight! except that I don't have any barley, so I'm using farro. Not as starchy, so it won't get all slick and gluey in the soup.

[WHT]

I cook the barley separately in stock. If I am short on stock I use a good soup base never bullion. It imparts flavor without throwing off the balance.

[bloviatrix]

Well, I managed to rescue my soup. I was loathe to add additional water, as I figured it would dilute the flavor (I used mushroom broth), so I rehydrated some dried porcinis. I strained the liquid and added that to the soup. I also added the chopped porcinis. This way I kept the rich, mushroom-y flavor, but had a good liquid to stuff ratio.

Next time I'll try toasting the barley first.

Thanks all.

[Rachel Perlow]

Also, next time, use less barley.