Welcome back friends.
Good to have you here!
The March Madness dealie is in full swing so there will be television options this weekend and for the next several weekends.
/cracks open a 40 of Alabama’s finest for UAB
//pours out most of it
Did you come back to find out what we’re going to do with the delicious beefy stew-like substance we made last week?
Well shit! I’m honored!
Lucky too because that is EXACTLY what we will be doing today.
This isn’t going to be your run-of-the-mill Sunday Gravy episode either. Something about this recipe, well… it changed me. Fundamentally changed me. Like on the fucking molecular level and shit, it changed me.
I’ll get to that in a moment but just know it’s true before we get to the good stuff.
Today we’re making beef with barley soup!
A few weeks back in the comment section our very own Gumbygirl mentioned that she was making beef and barley soup. I asked her how she made her version and she shared. I also mentioned that I would give that a shot during the upcoming season of Sunday Gravy.
And here we are.
Again, I do take requests and often find inspiration from you wonderful folks.
I imagine most everyone here was exposed to a variety of Campbell’s soups while growing up. Regular goddamn right of passage here in the US. I know I certainly was. I was fine with most of them, even ate the vegetable soup that had the little letters and numbers and shit in it.
Remember that one?
Sure there was chicken noodle, a favorite for when staying home with a cold or flu, tomato was always tasty with a grilled cheese sandwich too.
My two favorites were bean with bacon, which we have made before…
and this one; Beef and barley. I was a big fan of this soup.
When first leaving home at the tender age of 19-20 and striking out on my own, there was always a can or two of this in my mostly empty kitchen cupboard. While I was armed with my basic but still fairly rudimentary arsenal of cooking knowledge this soup helped fill a void.
On those long bouts early in the working career where you hoped to have enough food on hand to survive until the next payday this shit was a lifesaver. You could stretch your buck a little further by making a batch of rice and pouring the soup on top.
Yes. I did.
As you get older and develop your chef skills to a much higher level you leave some of the old staples behind. It may also be that the soup had a terrifying amount of sodium in it.
While it served as a staple growing up and a good way to stretch the food dollar when you moved out on your own, I had never made it from scratch.
Until today.
Shall we?
Beef and Barley Soup!
recipe inspired by cookingclassy.com
SOME chuck roast cut in to cubes*
1 leftover beef bone – if you have one
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped carrots (about 2-3)
1 cup chopped celery (about 2 ribs)
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 large)
1 Tbsp tomato paste
4 cloves minced garlic
1 (32 oz) carton beef broth
1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp minced fresh rosemary
2 tsp minced fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2/3 to 1 cup pearl barley
*The “SOME” beef in the recipe is because we ate most of it in the wonderful yet punishing Number 12 burrito from last week.
As with many quality soups and stocks this one begins with the usual suspects.
This is basically the building block of almost any good soup out there. Our old friend the mire poix.
What’s different today is the size of the cut. We actually want to leave the chunks bigger today so they are identifiable when the soup is finished cooking.
Give the carrots a slice, not too thin and not too thick.
Onions next. OK to leave them a little chunky. If you look closely you’ll see I already cut up the celery and dumped the onion on top.
Then we get them in the pot for a good sweat. I go about 10 minutes on this step.
Add in the tomato paste and garlic and cook until just aromatic.
This should look like a familiar step from last week.
I had the foresight to stash this little beauty in the freezer. It’s from my New Years rib roast.
Not a ton of meat on there, you’re right. It will impart flavor from the bone though and the marrow will help to give us a gelatinous boost.
Get the beef stock into the pan.
We’re going to simmer the beef bone, vegetables, herbs, soy sauce, Worchestershire and seasonings for about a half hour. This is key to reaching the right texture for the veggies.
While the stock simmers take out what’s left of our roast beef from last weeks recipe. Cut it into bits.
Yeah. Sure could have saved a bit more beef. Blame it on the burrito. Go ahead and add the beef to the soup and let simmer for about 15 minutes or so.
Next to the grains!
Pearl barley! Back a few years ago you could find this at your local grocery store – maybe some of you still can – it’s on the same shelf as the rice and dried beans. I did not have any luck at my two regular stores though.
Also available at Amazon.
Add the barley and cook until the barley is tender and the soup has coalesced. This depends entirely on how firm you want the texture of the barley. I like mine with a slight chew but not too hard. It was about an hour of additional cook time.
Shit! Don’t just stand there! Grab yourself a bowl!
It’s beef forward, despite actually needing, you know, more meat. The vegetables marry perfectly with the stock. The herbs are bright and right on the top of the profile. Fresh thyme and rosemary really make this one sing. The barley is filling, rich and paired with the beef component, they really play well together.
If you had some nice crusty bread this would be a great application here.
Delightful!
“But yeah right?” you may be asking.
“What about that life altering molecular level bullshit you were spouting earlier? The fuck man?”
I was getting to that.
I ate a couple of bowls of this soup and refrigerated the rest for later. Having made this on a Sunday night I figured I would take some to work the following week to have for my dinner.
So I did.
People? This shit the next day? Or the day after that?
It got incrementally better EACH SUBSEQUENT DAY!
My god. As good as this was on the first day there was NO comparison to the following days. None.
About Wednesday of the next week I realized that shit, there really isn’t that much meat in this is there? And it’s still goddamn delicious!
Hey?!?
Reader. Want to know what I did? For reals?
The next week I made the soup again. WITHOUT MEAT! Then took it to work every day the following week for my dinner. It’s delicious, satisfying and a beautiful change of pace from my old weekly meals.
This soup turned me…VEGETARIAN!
I shit you not.
Without giving too much away and fucking up the timeline of upcoming episodes of Sunday Gravy I have now not had a single bite of meat FOR 4 WEEKS!
Truth!
Hope that doesn’t freak you out or anything but it’s now a full on social experiment. I have an end date to this madness but I want to play it out.
Does this mean you’ll be reading (gulp) vegetarian recipes over the next several episodes?
It does.
And Dear Brother King Hippo? Have I got a couple of recipes that will blow YOUR damn mind.
Your fear is understandable. “Oh fuck!” I can hear you already.
“He’s gonna talk about how good he feels now” – I feel fantastic.
“Then he’ll probably talk about all of the weight he’s lost.” – About 10 pounds in fact.
“What if we lost him to THEM for good?”
Do you really think that I, ME, MOTHERFUCKING yeah right will never eat a goddamn steak again?
Fuck if I won’t.
The way I see this playing out, when I do finish my stretch of being all vegetarian I can see myself changing my Monday-Friday work meals to possibly being all vegetarian then in a few months when I have my annual physical I want to see the end results. Which would still allow me to eat whatever the fuck I wanted on the weekends!
Real talk, I take two blood pressure meds and one for cholesterol. As of my last check-up there was talk about possibly getting to the point where I wouldn’t need them.
I would like that.
A lot.
I’ll keep you all informed as I go.
Going to be honest now, it’s going to be really hard to not be a “preachy vegetarian type” because this shit is a revelation. I had no fucking idea just how delicious this would be. I always took it as a form of self-sacrifice and a last resort after getting bad news from the doctor.
It’s not like that at all. It’s absolutely doable and incredibly delicious.
Got a fun one for you next week that is certainly going to be in the regular work-week rotation from here forward.
Stop by to find out all about it next week.
I promise it won’t hurt.
Have a great rest of your Sunday.
PEACE!
[…] remember season 8 for a few reasons. I’ll always refer to it as the “Soup” season since holy goddamn fuck we did a shitload of soup […]
[…] vegetarian thing now and a strange coincidence has occurred. Two weeks ago when I made the beef and barley soup -without the beef – I just so happened to cook it again the same day that it appeared on […]
[…] hit a groove and it’s not difficult to be a vegetarian at all anymore. Between last weeks beef and barley soup, this weeks recipe and the 3rd soup(ish) recipe I’ll be sharing next week I’ve not only […]
I wish Duke had a (pro-war) Russian player so I could hate them properly. I mean, like, I hate Duke, but it’s not like they’re out there bombing maternity hospitals or anything.
It’s interesting that Roach can play so well under Coach K. I’d assumed that roaches and other types of vermin were natural enemies.
They can cooperate on the tacit assumption that if one of them perishes the other will eat the corpse
Woke up from my nap craving a burger. Considering that I only eat those once or twice a year it must be a subconscious contrarian reaction to all the veggie talk downthread. Gonna find a pub
That was really nice and fun to watch.
And they scored AGAIN
Hahahahah really hope some the chelski players are watching this
Barcelonaaaa are Rocking 💯
Hook this shit right to my veins.
Hahaha
Should be like 6-0
Ambamayng messing around with the crowd…
Can’t make the bench at the ROyal Water Pistols, goes on a free to Barca. Failing upwards!
LOL
El Classico is wildddd
Barcelona is Rockingggg
Conor Gillespie’s entire offense is based on not getting called for pushing off.
I’m not the only one watching El Clásico, am I?
You are not!
More like Fake Madrid.
Barça is playing REALLY well…
And they’re not taking the 2nd half off either. Wow.
That was a thing of beauty.
Hahaha
That’s Rocking
Balls, come on. How many years internet friendship? You know I am at the pub watching.
Did we buy the 1st comfortable and affordable mattress? Yes. Did we buy a couch with no haggling? Yes. Did I make it in time for the game? Yes.
Good man!
Super Fan: “Ohio State is showing signs of life!” [to self: “Unlike that hooker in my trunk”]
Guh! Ohio State “Super Fans” are so pathetic. Concentrate on your real strength-picking up under-age hookers at truck stops along the I-70.
“Truck stops along the I-70” aka scotchy’s safari hunting grounds
Jeez, first the FBI and now you!
For the last time, I was trying to pick up the underage hooker’s mother. There was a language barrier and she thought I was there for her. After booking an appointment the day after her 18th birthday, I got out of there!
Reminder: The Big 10 sucks balls.
+4 losses
Imagine neglecting the balls.
Wife: “Start a fire.”
Me: “What? It’s a beautiful sunny day. Why would we have a fire going?”
Wife: “Just start a fire.”
Me: [starts a fire]
Wife: [opens up every door and window on the main floor, a rush of cold, clean air floods our living room, kitchen and dining room]
Me: [to myself] “I get it now.”
I applaud Yeah Right’s environmentally sound decision to cut back on meat consumption, and to ensure that there is balance in the universe I will consuming his share.
You are the hero we deserve!
As befits their name, Ill Noise going “Pfffffttt!” vs Houston.
Game had the worst technical foul call I’ve ever seen. That ref needs to be publicly executed, or at least not allowed to call another game in the tournament.
The one for hanging on the rim?
Yes
Since they beat my Blazers like Adrian Peterson “correcting” his kid, I’m kind of hoping Houston goes all the way.
[insert tired joke about multiple sex partners here]
“Tired!? I’ll say!”
-Houston after the 500
/Giant hook hauls Horatio offstage
Kofi Cockburn should have 8 offensive rebounds every game.
Are you having another edible Litre?
Yes Mrs Cola , I am because we are going furniture shopping and I can’t smoke in the stores and I am murderous today.
Looks like I will be veggie for the day, but not in a healthy way. Skittles, beer, pizza.
I didn’t eat red meat for about 15 years. Lots of fish and seafood, occasional chicken, turkey, or duck. I’ll be honest, didn’t notice any measurable health benefits, but it was cheaper for sure. After all of those years, I started craving red meat again. I figured my body was telling me something, so back on the cow I went. My cholesterol has gone up a wee bit, not enough to take a pill everyday, so I don’t. But the less meat you consume, the better for the planet, so I do try to limit my consumption. This soup looks delicious, you put way more effort into it than I did!
I go off the red meat train for months at a time now but when I get a hankering I’ll do a prime rib-I really enjoy the whole process of doing a simple dry age, putting it in the oven in the morning at the lowest temp possible and making all the sides. Otherwise it’s salmon, haddock and chicken as far as meat proteins are concerned.
(wifey is not a fan of pork or turkey)
Pork and turkey are very easy to overcook. And bland as fuck, you really have to add stuff or else you’re eating cardboard. Those little pre-marinated pork tenderloins aren’t bad, as long as you don’t hammer them. A little pink in the middle is the way to go. Trichinosis isn’t the threat it used to be, let your pig blush!
People often associate it with things like steak, but I think sous vide cooking really shines with things like turkey breast. (It also works for pork tenderloin, but it’s not really better than conventional methods, just maybe a little more lazy-chef-friendly in that you don’t have to be as precise or attentive.)
Oh, I *love* pork tenderloin in the sous vide. It’s idiot proof.
Yeah, that’s one of its virtues to me. People often associate sous vide with fancy-pants complicated culinary shit and think “oh, I’m an idiot in the kitchen, I can’t use one of those.” They’re great for culinary idiots, or for when you suck at planning and have trouble timing things so the pork is ready when when the vegetables are coming off, etc.
I can’t do Anthony Bourdain-type shit like know when a steak is ready in the pan just by the sound it’s making. I guess I could spend a lot of time and money learning exactly how long a particular kind of steak needs in my pan on my stove…. or I could just put a steak in the sous vide, give it a good sear, and have it come out right every time.
The timing thing is particularly nice. Like, it’s no big deal to leave it in for an extra hour if the game goes into overtime and you haven’t gotten your sides started yet.
I have been threatening to buy one of those gizmos for years, now might be the time to do it, with summertime fast approaching. Anything that will keep my kitchen cooler in the desert should be the way to go!
Looks fantastic, buddy.
/donoteatphonedonoteatphonedonoteatphonedonoteatphone
Made a giant pot of chicken and rice
soup yesterday
The recipe is for turkey and rice soup and I had leftover turkey bones that I used for the broth. But didn’t have turkey, so grilled some chicken breast on the BBQ. Added a package of frozen veggies and a can of tomatoes and some rice. Love this soup. Soo good. Have lunches made for the next week or so.
Yum. I could eat soup everyday. I made chicken noodle the other day, my “secret” ingredient is tarragon.
Added thyme and Old Bay and pepper
Tarragon and chicken were made for each other.
I like it. The pescaterian thing is pretty cool, veggies plus all seafood plus milk and egg products. A fatwa on cheese or ice cream or good pastries is living in hell.
I really need to get back into the fish (PHRASING)
/Troy McClure enters chat
The first week or so of the vegetarian thing was a bit of a challenge but after close to a month it’s easy. There are so many things you can make that are incredibly satisfying. It’s also a good way to test your cooking creativity.
I’m actually cooking this soup again today but I’ll be adding in a couple of huge handfuls of spinach diced into ribbons and some San Marzano tomatoes that will be playing the role of “Beef.”
Beef was unable to perform today.
Eggplant and mushrooms are also great playing “meat”.
Youngest has decided to go vegetarian but its really just cut out meat and not added much else to her intake, so I’m excited for what the next few weeks will bring from you and hopefull that she’ll like a few of the recipes and that we can add them into the rotation
And congrats on being almost off the meds.
I’ve got 4 soups in my current rotation next week is the 2nd one and it’s close to my favorite.
I make stuffed peppers with orzo, goat cheese, spinach, sundried tomatoes, and kalamata olives that I looooove. I’ll dig it out for you, it’s really good!
The recipe is what I’ll dig out!
On the one hand, I am really pissed off about Everton (yet again) this morning. But the silver lining is that I channeled that anger into clearing out multiple work matters. And now I can relax in Footy Manager-verse for awhile.
Crazy how popular F1 has gotten. It’s the new Sunday morning bar sport
That was us
-Netflix, probably
One hundred percent it is. I totally am hooked again after wandering away from the sport for about 5 years.
There is lots of yummy vegetarian food, but whether or not it agrees with you health-wise seems to be on an individual level, and probably is related to how much meat you were eating previously as well. Definitely worth trying to see how you respond to it though! Both Ethiopian and Indian cuisine have really delicious veg dishes that work for mains. Ethiopian especially does amazing things with greens
You are an astute observer and a true prognosticator. Wait for next week when we hit a couple of these notes.
When and who built the monstrosity that now sits on Astor Place??
I know at least one Hippo that is not starting his day off well.
/in the fall I did a bunch of vegetarian cooking (Go Fightin’ Lentils!) over a three week period and the pounds just disappeared.
Well done Buddy. I hope you do get off the meds, best of luck on that.
Found a funny;
[Depeche Mode as middle managers at an office] Reach out and touch base
love a two-parter like this, yeah right slays it WOO!!!