I think the only beef and barley soup I’ve ever had was actually Campbells’s, though it’s one of my favorites. Not that I tried to duplicate theirs here, just saying.

Some days I hew closer to recipes than others. This wasn’t one of them. Saute the beef, add some barley, cook for a while and throw some carrot in at the end. How hard could that be?

The challenge here is that I wanted the beef tender, the barley soft but not too mushy, and the carrots (and any other vegetables that might show up) firm but not crunchy. Maybe some tomato for richness.  Having never cooked with barley didn’t seem like to much of a handicap.

Beef with Mushrooms and Barley
Ingredients, in order of appearance

Stock:

• 2 lbs Chuck Steak – cut into 1/2-1/3 in cubes and browned in two tbspns olive oil and tossed into:
• 3 qts water
• 2 cups chopped onion (saute and add to stock)
• 2 whole carrots (just throw it in, you’ll take it out later)
• 4 celery stalks (like the carrots)
• 4 bay leaves (these too)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

Simmer the stock on low for two hours. Remove carrot and celery and bay leaves.
Then add:

• 1 cup pearl barley

Cook on medium simmer for half an hour.
Add:

• 3 cups chopped carrots
• 2 cups mushrooms (baby bella or other)

Adjust volume with more water to make 4 Qts.
Cook on medium simmer for another hour.

Just before serving, add:

• 3 cups frozen sweet peas (heat through)

Optional adjusters – when it’s all said and done, I’m totally comfortable with adding:

• 1-2 tbspns Better Than Bullion Beef (low socium)
• 1-2 tbspn Gravy Master
• 1 pat butter to garnish each serving

I started out by browning two pounds of chuck steak, cut into 1/3 inch squares, in a few tablespoons of olive oil. They didn’t brown as much s I wanted because I got eager and threw too many in at once. That went into 4 quarts of water, followed by aboout two cups of sauteed onion and a couple whole carrots and celery stalks. The onion I’m willing to leave in, but I’m hoping to fish out the bigger chunks of vegetables. I could have left the beef in larger chunks so I could fish it out and strain the stock but I got carried away with the whole cutting things up experience. So it goes.

I added a tablespoon of salt and four bay leaves to the stock, set it on the lowest simmer I could, and set the timer for two hours. The key to tender beef is slow cooking, or really good meat, but time will tell.

Now, one of the classic ingredients for beef barley soup is mushrooms. I hadn’t been planning on them, but with the simmer on, I felt like going for a walk, so I headed off to the local Giant and picked up a box of mushrooms. I figured I’d brown them in a little oil and add them towards end, but I was still a bit unsure of when to add the barley. My guess was about two thirds of the way done, but…when in doubt, Google.

The Food Network’s Beef and Barley recipe turned out to be on the same wavelength as I was, confirming my suspicions; the barley needs at least an hour to cook. If you want it softer an hour and a half wouldn’t hurt.

At the end of two hours, I picked out the carrots and celery, skimmed the top, and removed excess oil from the soup. I added the mushrooms, which I’d cooked down from two cups of to one, a generous two cups of diced carrot, two tablespoons of tomato paste…and a cup of barley. Then I gave it all half an hour on  a medium simmer and checked the mix. Everything seemed ok, but there wasn’t as much barley as I wanted, so I cooked up another cup in a saucepan so I could add it in until I was happy with the consistency.

A few weeks ago I added more cayenne that I meant to, but Bob’s Lobster Bisque turned out pretty well anyway. Adding in the entire second cup was another one of those moments. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but when the cooking was done I didn’t have nearly enough stock.

Fortunately, stock comes in little glass jars, no matter what they say on the Kojo Nnamde show. I added another quart of water and two tablespoons of [amazon_link id=”B001SB2210″ target=”_blank” ]Better Than Bullion Beef (low sodium)[/amazon_link].

I adjusted the seasoning with a teaspoon of black pepper and a pinch of salt. Lastly I added in three cups of frozen petite peas and let them come to temperature. By the way, the beef was perfectly tender, but still had a nice flavor. To serve, I like a small pat of butter in the center. My gal thought that was odd, until she tried it herself.

I had my moments of doubt and faith, but it came out pretty well…with a few lessons learned.