6 cup water
2 tsp salt
2 lb boneless lamb, cut into
1 serving chunks
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup barley
2 tbsp olive oil
Directions
1>. Place the water, salt, lamb and garlic in a 4-quart heavy, covered
saucepan. Bring to a boil, turn to a simmer, cover and cook for 2
hours. 2>. Remove all from the pot, reserving the broth. Remove the
fat from the broth and add enough water to make six cups. 3>. Place
the barley in a grain grinder and grind very coarsley. You want
something like groats or bulgar wheat in terms of texture. 4>. Stir
the olive oil into the barley groats and place in the pan. Return the
meat and broth to the pan and bring to a light boil. 5>. Simmer,
covered, for 25 minutes or until the barley is soft and tasty and the
liquid is absorbed. 6>. Serve with crusty Italian bread or with pita
bread.
~ Jeff Smith "The Frugal Gourmet"
Servings: 6 servings
Barley Pudding With Lamb Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Dessert; Lamb; Meat
The History of Recipes
It is quite possible to follow the history of recipes way back into ancient history, certainly as far back as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and quite possibly further than that. Having said that, mostly, these ancient records were just primitive pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing food.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered, according to experts in ancient history are a few clay tablets in Sumerian which recount the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel `wonderful`. Progressing into The time of the roman empire 25BC a man called Apicius compiled some scripts describing recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. In his publication, he recounts how the meals of wealthy Romans were separated into hors d`oeuvres, main course and desserts, something we still use today. He also tells us how the ancient chefs made use of a wide range of spices, including some familiar names for example bay, fennel and dill. Later on, we have a couple of interesting recipe books published in the fourteenth century ; a book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary titled `Curye on Inglish`. Don`t be fooled by the titles though, these books are not about the indian curry that is familiar to us all today, but rather descriptions of the types of food prepared for the upper classes of those days. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought us many foods and spices from the holy land, including rosemary and coriander. The introduction of these new foods and spices caused a torrent in books on cooking, most of which still exist in academic collections. For the centuries that followed, the rich families of Europe competed with each other to lay on the most extravagent banquests, and consequentially the best cooks and their recipe collections increased in prestige. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century that fine cooking and recipe books really came of age. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, dedicated the best years of their lives to assembling, testing, and writing down recipes common in their social group. By the time we get to the 20th century, recipe books were in high demand, as a result of better eduction, more leisure time and a general increase in wealth. The introduction of the TV brought us cooking programs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. And that neatly brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, permitting us all to search through massive numbers of recipes just like those on this recipe site. |
We hope you enjoy this Barley Pudding With Lamb recipe.
