h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

not sure I've ever had that before We randomly bought a packet of it, a week or so ago, when in the International Supermarket, buying bulghur wheet
i made a Pearl Barley risotto, with mushrooms, onion and garlic, butter and olive oil, some mature cheddar, rosemary and black pepper... nice N simple... and reallly rather tasty very very differnt to doing a risotto with either Aborio or Bulghur wheet
Not too bad a day today. felt very weird out in town earlier, were looking in a few shops and I got all the dizzy, anxiety and disassociation thinggy just low on energy most the day and a bit brain foggy, bowels doing oddness of course though were vaguely stable during the middle of the day which was nice ,blush> think I'll have a long bath now.... oh, and the body shop stuff finally arrived today.... Honey something bath thing, honey something hand/foot moisturiser (as they didn't seem to have my wild rose handcream in), two differnt perfumes a new cuticle oil pen and, err... I think there was something else too though now I can't recall oh, yeh, and the Red Musck shower gel/wash (to accompany the Red Musck body mist and perfume i already have, natch)

Never had pearl barley? You've led a very sheltered life, young man Whenever I make a beef stew or casserole I always add some. It helps to thicken it a little and gives you something else to chew on

Long a favorite of mine too, a barley pilaf as an alternative to rice or Egyptian emmer wheat.




With most whole cereal grains it cuts down cooking time to pre-soak or parch.

Presoak times vary from grain to grain, requiring as much as 3 or 4 days with hominy corn.




Parching takes only a few minutes in the frying pan with just enough oil to coat the pan and the grain.

The color at first lightens, then gradually browns snd will take up cooking water when boiled from the moment it lightens in the parching process.

Me Mum used pearl barley for porridge. She would cook it in water with a little salt, pieces of apple or a handful of raisins and serve it with a dollop of cold butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. We either had milk or juice with it and it was good

Also, barley is a traditional ingredient for pita bread.

I keep reading this thread title as Pearl Bailey.

Just thinking about breakfast selections.

When I wad a kid, the single hot breakfast cereal my Mom most frequently served was a rather stiff and stodgy hominy grits, prepared and served much as Pierce describes with reference to pearl barley.

Well, OK, I may have had it before... but if I had, t'was unknowingly... I.E., not cooked by my own faded hand I still think bulghur wheet is my fav whole grain type thinggy... well asides rice of course, and pigeon peas and stuff and food... well, asides black pudding and bacon and eggs and sausages... err... they're a differnt food group though I guess wanna try a bacon/pork ting with the pearl barley.... butter, onion, mushroom, garlic, then strips of bacon or gammon steak thick slices, then add in the pearl barley, then tomatos I think, for a juice and cook to a ... casserole/stew type thing... I think that'd work...

Och, I'm sure you've had it. It's even in lots of tinned soups and stuff! Think the "Scotch broth" type ones. It always goes into homemade soup when I do it. Really makes the soup into a proper winter meal!

I believe we ate porridge at least once a week. It was cheap and good for your stomach was what my Mum said.

She cooked porridge of rolled oats and pearl barley with water and porridge of semolina, rice and buckwheat with milk.

My favourites were buckwheat, rice and pearl barley. Oatmeal not so much. And semolina I downright detested

mmm... they all sound pretty damn good to me - must get in some winter breakfast type thigns, to make a change from sausages and sausages and black pudding and eggs and things

Today was an odd day. so much extreme random body pain (no I've no idea what that is about), massive cramp (oddly mainly across my shoulders/back) huge pain and 'heavyness' in my left leg (oedema swelling up that foot even more doesn't help walking was a nightmare) massive hot flushes and sweating whilst out (despite being so cold I had to wear gloves) and massive fatigue, diarrhea and constipation nethertheless we whent and b brought tea. more precisely we bought every pack of the tea we buy, that the shop had and bought bread too, then went into a charity shop where I had some kind of panic/anxiety thing combined with halllucinating which was fun. err... which basically ment I just nodded and said things for a while whilst my brain went off on a trip before returning then slept the rest of the day.

just about reachign the time now where the drugs start wearing off, and I begin to wake up and feel vaguely like I'm not a corpse. which is nice.

got a letter through cancelling the cardiology appointment which I did or didn't have from the previous confusing letter they sent. useless admin and duplication of weird illogical unnecesasry organisation oh well. If I do go into congestive heart failure I'll try to tell you on here...

Also of interest, millet seed.

Its often used in canned soup recipes and probably usually mistaken for rice, since the round millet seed expands into a white, fluffy, rice like structure when boiled.

Frequently used especially in gumbo recipes.

ooo... MMMM... not had millet in years shall add that to list of stuff to get next time at international supermarket, or one of the other shops near that bunch of shops ... (near the wholefood place, the hippy vegan place, and the asian supermarkt, and the Korian suparmarket, and the chinese ones too.... )

I think it was on the what's for supper thread that I mentioned using up a packet of millet with a sell-by date of 1998. It was fine and I'm still here to tell the tale. I think I allowed for it with longer cooking times and more liquid.

Back in the 80s I tried lots of rarer ingredients, many of which still lurk at the back of my cupboards.

Millet seed is for the

Seriously though, I have heard of porridge cooked on millet seed, but I don't think I ever tasted it. Only ever saw it in bird cages

I've got some steel cut oats in my cupboard that I bought a couple of years ago to make some Athol Brose. I should check it to make sure the bugs haven't gotten to it and if not, I should make some more this year.

The only time I've used oats recently, is in the bath. on my skin its so fabulus yes, I do regularly wash my body down with oats (inside a musslum cloth bag), and soak in a bath partially full of coconut oil, chey butter, and milk its gorgeous useually it has to be said, with teh addition of sandlewood, jasmine, frankenscence, lemon grass, honey, and a whole host of other good smelling things I must get some more oats in though, for porridge now, as its getting colder

I often take my old fashioned rolled oats neat, raw and uncooked, with milk and fruit.

If you like old fashioned rolled oats, you'll probably also like rolled Canadian triticale cereal, a hybrid of wheat and rye, very similar to rolled oats, only more robust.

oo! that's a new one... not heard of that... and yesh... I do like traditionaly rolled oats I'd forgoten they're nice plain/uncooked too must go buy oats

A favourite Slimming World breakfast is overnight oats, which is oats layered with fat-free yogurt & berry fruit then left in the fridge overnight. The oats soak up the yogurt and it's apparently delicious.

Deb