Thursday, July 26, 2012

FFwD: Lemon Barley Pilaf

I know I'm one of many who made this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe last week, to complement the salmon. I had no idea what to expect out of Lemon Barley Pilaf. I don't remember ever having barley, except for the one time I tried my dad's beef and barley soup. My hatred for the soup stemmed from my hatred for stewed beef. I barely touched it, and the barley made no impression on me.

I was confused by this recipe, because I thought that pilaf had to involve rice. There is no rice in this dish. The dictionary I looked in defined pilaf as a rice dish that is cooked in broth (is that all??), so if the broth is the only difference, then yes, I guess this qualifies as barley pilaf.
This needs some greenery. Bring on a zucchini!
I boosted the amount of vegetables called for in this recipe. It's a pet peeve of mine when a recipe calls for a half of a red pepper. Why not a whole red pepper? Why do I have to wrap up the remainder and forget about it in my fridge? These days, I automatically use the whole thing, no matter how much the recipe calls for. I also added extra carrots to this.

The premise of this dish is promising. It easily could have hosted even more vegetables. I loved the chewy little nubbins of barley. I could kick myself for never trying it before. It doesn't taste like anything, and it's just a nice texture. The dish lacked flavor, though. I couldn't tell there was any lemon zest in there, and I used twice as much as called for. If lemon is part of the title, I want to taste the lemon! Fresh herbs would improve things, too. It was good, but it could have been better. I'll make this again, with much tweaking.

18 comments:

  1. Okay, I am feeling more justified about totally running in a different direction with this recipe. There was nothing appealing about the pilaf concept on a 90+ degree day. Ugh.

    I do like barley though :-)

    And yes, green is crying to be included. Why should the other colors have all the fun?

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  2. You´re right, these dish called for many more vegetables! It´s not a common grain but it looks good!

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  3. Yeah, this definitely needed a flavor boost...you said it perfectly! I love barley in soup, but this didn't win me over~

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  4. The half a red pepper in my refrigerator wants to know where you were yesterday when i made this? Good enough....but not good enough to get into my regular file. Still, I liked it.

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  5. You were right about pairing it with the salmon last week - I agree, Barley Pilaf seems to be nice with fish. And you are right about the vegetables, I always throw in an "extra dose" as well and this Pilaf lends itself very well to some "add ins". And the lemon taste - well, I found that some lemon olive oil did the trick. Having said that, your plate looks colorful and wonderfully healthy!

    Enjoy your weekend!

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  6. I think adding more vegetables is a necessity at my house! I could taste the lemon, but I had a lot of zest compared to the amount of barley!

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  7. LOL, Im with you on the half a veg thing! we used the whole thing and it didnt take over the dish at all... I just make a call on that. you must not have had a very good lemon - we could taste the lemon in ours and we added more lemon since we served it with the salmon :)

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  8. So happy to hear that you have discovered barley, even if this particular recipe didn't work out. I did the version with mint coulis and thought it was pretty darn tasty, so maybe the herbs really helped. I tend to mix barley in with my rice whenever I make it, just to make things more interesting.

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  9. Nice! I'm with you; while we loved it, it still needed a flavor boost. :)

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  10. I did use the leftovers for soup and it turned out fantastic. Added some cooked chicken and a few drops
    of hot sauce to kick it up a notch. This recipe really needed some flavor added to it and it seems everyone
    felt the same way. Have a great weekend.

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  11. The flavors were ok, but I was a little disappointd in the "pilaf". Should've called it risotto. Yours however looks great!

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  12. I'm happy to read your honest critique of this dish, because I'm just about to make this today (it's Saturday, eeps!) and your experience will hopefully make mine taste better! Haha, what a sneak, eh? :) Well, I'm just disorganized, that's all.

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  13. Did you happen to use low sodium chicken broth? When I''ve done that in a grain dish it tends to be less flavorful. I definitely agree use more vegetables.

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  14. No rice? Yeah, is it a pilaf then? Oh, well. No matter. Kudos for making it!

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  15. I liked your comment about the other half of the red pepper. I just ate the unused half as I prepared the dish. I can see this recipe benefiting from any number of additions, too.

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  16. Nice job on the pilaf…I added more lemon zest to mine so I had a bit of a lemony taste. Your pilaf looks great with all those veggies! I enjoyed the barley, too! Have a great week!

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  17. I agree that the lemon flavour was not very prevalent. I enjoyed this dish, but a bit more spice would hace brought it up a notch.

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  18. No one questioned that Pilaf =Rice but You. I thought about it but since I was doing Dorie's Bonne Idee, I didn't think much about it. Just wasn't going with a hot Pilaf in my 110 degree temperature. That being said, this was my first experience with Barley also, except for Barley soup which I love. And, I wanted to go cold which worked great. I think Barley needs oomphf as well as added flavor and that's why I went with ham and a mustard vinigarette. Loved all your inquisitive comments in your Post? I always think More is better and that's why some of my baked goods don't work. Too much of a good thing.......

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