Proportions of pearl barley and water for garnish. How to cook pearl barley in water without soaking: proportions and methods of preparation. Video: pearl barley porridge according to an old cookbook

Pearl barley has been known to everyone since kindergarten. And for some reason, in the future we only encounter this side dish in catering canteens, but this healthy porridge appears very rarely on the home menu. Perhaps because not everyone knows: in answering the question of how to cook pearl barley in water, the proportions of the ingredients play a decisive role.

In the minds of many, pearl barley is associated with a viscous mess of an incomprehensible taste. This is because the cereal was cooked and prepared incorrectly. The classic recipe for pearl barley porridge involves soaking the cereal for a day before cooking. Of course, this condition adds extra hassle, which is why many housewives neglect it. But this is not the most flagrant violation of porridge preparation technology. Moreover, there are recipes for which you don’t need to soak the cereal at all. But maintaining the proportions of water and cereal during cooking is a key factor that determines whether your porridge will be crumbly or viscous.

Preliminary preparation of cereals

In order for the pearl barley grains to soften and cook faster, the grains must be soaked. Moreover, the more hours it stays in the water, the better. But if this rule is known to almost everyone, then there are a number of nuances that are not taken into account by many cooks.

• To make the porridge crumbly, it is necessary to free the grains from the husk. To do this, you need to rinse the cereal with water several times. Moreover, during this manipulation the pearl barley should be rubbed - the remnants of the thin shell will be washed off better and will not turn your porridge into a sticky mass.
• If you don’t have time for long soaking, then you can pour boiling water over the cereal in a ratio of 1:4 and leave for 2-3 hours. As an alternative, you can boil the pearl barley for a few minutes, then let it cool and drain the water.
• Another way to soak pearl barley is to use a thermos. The cereal is poured with boiling water and after 1 hour it is ready for cooking.

If you soaked pearl barley for 12-14 hours, then you will need only 15-20 minutes to prepare the porridge.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. pearl barley;
• 4 tbsp. water;
• salt;
• butter (to taste).

Preparation:

1. Wash the soaked cereal thoroughly again.
2. Pour water into a saucepan, bring to a boil and add a little oil.
3. Add the cereal and cook over low heat until softened (about 20 minutes).
4. After the porridge is cooked, add oil and salt to it and leave to simmer for 15 minutes. At this time, it is recommended to wrap the pan with a towel.

If you want the porridge to have a more viscous consistency, add not 4, but 3 tbsp. water.

Crumbly porridge from a multicooker

A multicooker greatly simplifies the process of preparing pearl barley porridge. First of all, the fact that you don’t have to stir it or make sure it doesn’t burn. Although it is still better to soak the cereal before starting the multicooker program.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. washed pearl barley;
• 3 tbsp. filtered water;
• salt,
• butter.

Preparation:

1. Grease the multicooker bowl with a piece of butter.
2. Pour in the cereal and add water.
3. Close the lid and select the “Buckwheat” program for 45-50 minutes.
4. After the cooking time is over, add salt and leave to cook for 10 minutes. Before serving, add butter to taste.

If you cook porridge from bags, then it will take a little less time to soften the cereal - 35-40 minutes.

Quick recipe without soaking cereals

If you urgently need to prepare a side dish, then do not refuse the option of cooking barley. Despite the recommendations to pre-soak the cereal, there are recipes that neglect this condition.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. barley;
• 5 tbsp. filtered water;
• salt, butter (to taste).

Preparation:

1. We wash the cereal well, rubbing it between our fingers so that the husk comes off.
2. Fill with water for 10 minutes.
3. Pour filtered water into the pan, bring to a boil and reduce heat.
4. Pour the cereal into a saucepan and let it boil.
5. Turn the heat to low, add oil to the porridge and simmer for 1 hour.
6. 5 minutes before readiness, add salt, then remove from heat, wrap in a warm blanket or towel and let “rest” for 30 minutes. The porridge is ready.

How to make pearl barley tastier in water?

Crumbly and soft pearl barley is a very tasty side dish for meat, fish and vegetable dishes. But if you add some ingredients to it, then it will be simply delicious as an independent dish. In particular, instead of butter, you can add 2 tbsp to the porridge. l. olive - then the pearl barley will become even healthier and more tender. And some housewives steam the cereal in a thermos overnight (1 tablespoon of cereal to 1 tablespoon of water) so that in the morning, mixing it with dried fruits, they can enjoy a hearty and very healthy breakfast.

The most interesting thing is that in nature there is no such cereal at all - pearl barley. There is buckwheat, rice, oats, wheat, but no pearl barley. Pearl barley is called whole grains of barley, peeled from the shell. This cereal is very ancient. And it was the ancient people who gave the grain such a name. After all, in shape and color the grain resembles a river pearl - pearl. This is exactly what pearls were called in Ancient Rus'.

Barley porridge - general principles and methods of preparation

Only the lazy didn't joke about pearl barley porridge. Whatever they call it - “shot 16” and “tarpaulin” and “shrapnel”. And if you ask a person whether he likes pearl barley porridge, the majority will answer “no.” Apparently the cooks who cooked it, with their “ability” to cook, completely discouraged the love for this tasty and healthy food. It's time to rehabilitate pearl barley porridge, especially since it is incredibly healthy. It is rich in B vitamins, contains vitamins A, D, E, iron, calcium, iodine, copper and a lot of essential amino acid - lysine. Which increases the absorption of calcium in the body, has an antiviral effect, especially on the herpes virus, and takes part in the formation of collagen. Pearl barley is also a champion among other cereals in terms of phosphorus content. Therefore, you must make friends with it and include it in your diet. Although pearl barley porridge takes a little longer to prepare than other cereals, the result is worth the time spent. They are cooked sweet and not sweet - in water, broth, milk, with the addition of meat, mushrooms, vegetables, butter.

Pearl barley porridge - food preparation

In order for the cereal to boil thoroughly, it must first be soaked in water for 12 hours; it is better to do this overnight. Soak pearl barley in water - take 1 liter of water per glass (250 ml) of grain. And then the cereal is cooked like regular porridge. Sometimes the grains are toasted before cooking. If the porridge is cooked on the stove, it takes about 40-50 minutes to cook. You can reduce the cooking time to 25-30 minutes, but then it will need to be wrapped in heat for it to “cook.” If it is simmered in a water bath, then cooking takes up to 6 hours. But when cooked in a water bath, pearl barley porridge turns out to be especially tasty.

Barley porridge - the best recipes

Recipe 1: Pearl barley porridge with milk

They say that Peter the Great really liked porridge prepared in this way. It is prepared without sugar and salt. The recipe, thanks to the great cook Pokhlebkin, has been preserved to this day.

Ingredients: 1 glass of pearl barley, 1 liter of water, milk – 2.0 liters, butter – 50 g.

Cooking method

Rinse regular pearl barley and pour a liter of boiled cold water overnight. In the morning, drain the remaining water.
Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan, add the soaked cereal and simmer over low heat for five minutes.
Prepare a “water bath”. Fill a wide, large saucepan (so that the container in which the porridge will be cooked) can fit a quarter full of water and let it boil. Place the bowl with milk and cereal inside and cover with a lid, reduce the heat under the pan to low. And let the porridge simmer for 6 hours. You will need to periodically add hot water to the pan with the “bath”, because... it will start to boil away. The porridge should taste like baked milk, and its color will become creamy. Add oil to the bowl with the prepared porridge and stir. And already on the plate you can add cream, sugar, honey, i.e. season to your taste.

If you have a slow cooker, the cooking process is easier. The soaked cereal should be poured with milk, brought to a boil, setting the “baking” mode, and cooked for 6 hours in the “stew” mode.

Recipe 2: Barley porridge with meat and mushrooms

Barley with mushrooms and meat - why not a royal dish? Not cooked, as in public catering - somehow, but cooked according to all the rules and with soul invested. It will definitely turn out delicious. You can take any meat - pork, chicken, most importantly, not too old and tough.

Ingredients: barley – 1 glass, 1 onion, 200 g of meat and fresh mushrooms, butter – 50 g, vegetable oil – a couple of table. spoons, spices, salt.

Cooking method

Soak the cereal overnight. In the morning, drain the excess liquid and rinse the pearl barley. Pour boiling water (a little more than 1 cup) into a bowl, add pearl barley, butter, and salt. The oil will coat each grain and prevent them from sticking together. Cook covered over low heat until the cereal thickens and all the liquid has evaporated. Next, the dishes with pearl barley should be wrapped in a blanket for 2 hours so that the porridge finishes cooking (it reaches full readiness and becomes soft). If it was cooked in an energy-saving pan, then there is no need to wrap it, it will come just like that.

At this time, fry finely chopped onion in another bowl, add meat cut into strips and continue frying until crusty, then add randomly chopped mushrooms. When the liquid has boiled away, add pearl barley porridge, spices and simmer all the ingredients together for about 15 minutes. The porridge is ready.

Recipe 3: Pearl barley porridge

It seems that pearl barley is the same, but when prepared in different ways, it gives the porridge a completely different taste and consistency. Porridge prepared according to this recipe turns out fluffy and crumbly. Try it, you will like it. True, the cooking process is not fast, but the result will justify itself. There is no need to soak pearl barley; just use regular dry cereal. You can immediately boil a full kettle of water, and then just heat it up and add water. The finished porridge can be eaten with milk, mixed with stew, added with fried liver and onions, or even jam.

Ingredients: pearl barley, milk (or broth), salt.

Cooking method

Rinse dry pearl barley and pour boiling water (boiling water) until the liquid covers it by a couple of centimeters. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Drain the water. It is convenient to use a colander. Pour boiling water over the cereal again, boil for 4 minutes, drain the water. And repeat this 6-7 times. Each time increase the amount of water by a centimeter and the cooking time by half a minute. This is an interesting technology for preparing porridge. When the liquid is poured for the last time (already at the level of the cereal), then depending on what you plan to use the porridge with, this liquid needs to be poured - milk or broth, add salt. Bring to a boil, turn off the stove.

Try cooking “glass” pearl barley porridge in clay pots according to the Estonian recipe. Soak the cereal overnight. In the morning, put it in pots, pour boiling water over it (a couple of centimeters above the level of the cereal) and place in the oven. Do not cover with lids. Do not forget that the pots are not placed immediately in a hot oven, only in a cold or warm oven, otherwise they may burst. After 40 minutes the porridge is ready. Count the time from the moment the oven heats up. Add butter to the finished porridge. If you want sweet porridge, add honey or sugar; if you want regular porridge, add salt. The porridge is cooked at 200-220 C.

Pearl barley is a simple, inexpensive and undeservedly forgotten grain by many. Meanwhile, it can become not only an excellent side dish for meat, fish, mushrooms or vegetables, but also the basis of many salads, appetizers and soups. What can I say, pearl barley can be very tasty, even if you just flavor it with a piece of butter and sprinkle with herbs.

A little about this cereal

It is no secret that many people now treat pearl barley with slight contempt, believing that porridge from this grain is prepared exclusively for soldiers. How unfair is this! It’s not for nothing that it got its romantic name from the word “pearl,” which translated from French means “pearl.” And if we take a closer look at its rich vitamin composition, then this cereal is rightfully a pearl among all the others.

It has everything to ensure that the human body is always healthy and the body beautiful. For gorgeous hair and clear skin, vitamin B, for strong teeth and bones, vitamin D, vitamin A will improve vision and protect against infections, and vitamin E will prolong your youth.

For those who don’t know, let us immediately explain that pearl barley refers to whole ground barley grains, and unprocessed crushed grains are called barley.

So, let's start cooking! The main thing is to cook the porridge correctly, and then you will become friends with it for a long time. Especially for those who can’t find the right approach to cereal, we’ll tell you in detail how to cook pearl barley in water. In the recipe you will find not only a detailed step-by-step description of the process, but also a photo.

Ingredients

• pearl barley – 1 cup;
• water for soaking cereals – 1 l;
• water for cooking cereals - from 2.5 glasses (depending on the desired viscosity of the porridge);
• salt - to taste;
• butter - to your taste when serving.

How to cook pearl barley porridge in water on the stove

It is not recommended to cook pearl barley in water without soaking, otherwise it will take a very long time. The cereal must first be soaked in water and then the cooking process will be halved.

First of all, measure out the required amount of cereal and sort it out, since even in the best factory packaging you may encounter small pebbles and debris.

Then pour it into a fine-hole colander or sieve and rinse thoroughly under cool running water. During the rinsing process, constantly sort the grains with your fingers. Next, place the washed pearl barley in a container of a suitable size and also fill it with cool water.

Leave the pearl barley in the water for at least 5 hours, ideally overnight. During this time, the cereal should increase significantly in size. After soaking, place it in a colander (sieve) again and rinse thoroughly. Now the clean and swollen pearl barley is ready for cooking.

Bring the water in a saucepan to a boil and add the cereal.

The proportions of water and cereal depend on the viscosity of the porridge you want to obtain as a result. For example, how much water do you need for a glass of pearl barley? For crumbly porridge, take 2.5 glasses of water; for porridge of medium viscosity - the ratio will be 1:3; for a very viscous messy porridge (many people remember it from kindergarten) - from 3.5 glasses to a liter of water.

Cover the saucepan with the pearl barley tightly and place it on the burner set to maximum heat. As soon as the contents of the pan begin to gurgle intensely, turn the stove to low heat and, without removing the lid, let the barley boil for about 25 minutes.

When the specified time has passed, lift the lid: from above the porridge seems completely ready, the top of the cereal has already completely absorbed the water, but there is still a little liquid left at the very bottom. Salt the porridge to your taste (usually 1 teaspoon is enough), stir gently and return the lid to its place.

Simmer the porridge on low heat on the stove for another 10 minutes, then turn off the burner, but do not remove the saucepan from it yet, let it steam for 5-7 minutes, and the pearl barley porridge on the water will be ready!

It is better to serve pearl barley hot or warm. Season it with butter, perhaps also with a handful of herbs. Or serve the porridge as a side dish with meat (fish, mushroom) gravy and vegetables in any form.

The porridge will turn out especially tasty, and the grains will remain intact if you first lightly fry the cereal in a dry frying pan.

Pearl barley porridge is best cooked in a thick-walled container. Barley will turn out good in a double boiler or. But there is another interesting way, try it, and this porridge will forever become your favorite. In the morning, place the cereal soaked in the evening in clay pots and pour boiling water over it (the liquid level should be 2-2.5 cm above the cereal). Do not cover with lids and place in the oven, preheated by this time to a temperature of 100-120 degrees. After this, bring the temperature in the oven to 200-220 degrees and from this point leave for 40 minutes. Serve directly in the pots, adding salt or sugar and butter to taste.

You can cook porridge in a water bath. First, boil for 15 minutes, then place the bowl with the cereal in the bathhouse, wrap and evaporate for 30-40 minutes.

Not only does pearl barley make good porridge, you can cook many interesting dishes with it:

• soup with dried mushrooms or;
• porridge with chicken hearts or chicken and vegetables;
• Christmas kutya;
• or with ;
• cabbage rolls;
• perlotto (this is something like risotto, but not with rice, but with pearl barley);
• barley cutlets;
• barley with meat in pots in the oven.

Many people underestimate pearl barley, considering it tasteless. It only turns out this way when cooked incorrectly. To make this cereal crumbly and tasty, it must be cooked for a long time - from one to two hours, and sometimes even more. It all depends on the quality of the cereal and the method of preparation. The degree of readiness is determined by the type and consistency of the pearl barley - the finished cereal turns out soft, swollen, grain to grain.

To reduce the cooking time for barley, you need to pre-soak it in water. First, rinse the cereal well until the water is as clear as possible. Fill it with water in the following proportion: per glass of pearl barley - one liter of water. Soaking time is 10-12 hours. However, it can be reduced to 3-4 hours.

Barley will turn out much tastier if soak it in whey or sour milk. If you cook it for dietary nutrition, cook the cereal only in water.

How to cook pearl barley after soaking

You can cook pearl barley in different ways. The most common is cooking in a saucepan. To do this, rinse the swollen cereal and fill it with water at the rate of 2 liters of liquid per glass of pearl barley. An important nuance is that the water should be cold, even ice-cold. Bring the cereal to a boil and simmer over low heat for 45-60 minutes. Remove the pan from the stove, wrap it well with a warm blanket or towel and leave it like that for half an hour. During this time, the cereal will harden well and become more tender.

Do not forget to take into account that the volume of pearl barley increases approximately 5-6 times during cooking. That is why cook the cereal in a spacious pan. Add butter and salt at the very end of cooking.

How to cook dry pearl barley

You can cook pearl barley without pre-soaking. To do this, rinse the pearl barley thoroughly, add water at the rate of 4 cups of liquid per cup of cereal, place over high heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and cook the cereal under a closed lid for two hours. Check the pearl barley periodically to ensure that all the water has not boiled away. Let the finished cereal simmer under the lid for half an hour.

There is another way to prepare pearl barley. Bring the cereal to a boil, as in the previous method, and then set it to finish cooking in a water bath. At the same time, always keep the lid of the pan with barley closed.

Crumbly pearl barley will become An excellent side dish for fish or meat. In addition, it can be used in appetizers and salads, as well as in soups - mushroom, fish, meat. The most popular barley soup is rassolnik. However, it is necessary to remember that you should not add raw pearl barley to soups - the dish may acquire an unappetizing bluish tint. It’s better to pre-cook it until half cooked and add it to the soup halfway through cooking.

It is recommended to use pearl barley hot. In this case, it is not only tasty, but also more beneficial for the body. Nutritionists say that cooled pearl barley is less beneficial and is less easily absorbed by the body.

Pearl barley porridge - previously peeled and then boiled barley grains in a small amount of water. Despite the value of cereals for the body, there are very few lovers of this dish. The thing is that everyone is used to seeing pearl barley in the form of a sticky solid mass. This misconception about it was formed due to incorrect cooking technology. How to cook pearl barley so that it is tasty and does not lose its qualities?

Information about how beneficial pearl barley porridge is for human health suggests the idea of ​​including it in the diet. However, before preparing pearl barley, you need to carefully read the rules, otherwise your expectations and efforts will be in vain.

1. The barley must be thoroughly rinsed with plenty of cold water. Then the prepared cereal is poured with water and left to swell. For 100 g of cereal you need 1 liter of water;
2. After 10-12 hours, the remaining water is drained. The barley is washed again, 250 g of water is poured into the pan and placed on low heat. Cooking time - 30..60 minutes;
3. The pan with pearl barley porridge is wrapped in a blanket and left to simmer for half an hour.

If you don’t have time to soak, you can prepare delicious pearl barley porridge as follows:

The pearl barley is poured with boiling water and left to swell for 1 hour. In order to speed up the process, the cereal can be cooked for 5-10 minutes. The prepared cereal is washed, poured into a pan and water is added. For 100 g of cereal you need to add 300 ml of water. The porridge should be cooked over low heat for at least 60 minutes. In order for it to cook, after removing it from the stove, wrap it up for 30 minutes.

You can prepare soft, crumbly pearl barley using the oven. After the pan has been in the oven for an hour, turn off the appliance and leave the porridge to cook.

Barley is one of the leaders in the content of macro and microelements: phosphorus, calcium, potassium, iodine, manganese, selenium, copper and many other essential substances. Thanks to an impressive list of elements, the kernels have many beneficial and healing properties.

• the main feature of the composition of barley is the presence of the amino acid lysine: the substance significantly improves the condition of the skin and prevents its aging, normalizes the functioning of the cardiovascular system, strengthens the immune system;
• due to the presence of folic and nicotinic acid, as well as vitamins D, E, PP, B, A, pearl barley improves the condition of the skin, hair, nail plates, it also helps improve vision and restore the nervous system;
• phosphorus improves the functioning of brain cells, improves the functioning of the endocrine system;
• the porridge contains gerdovin, which has bactericidal properties;
• pearl barley, rich in fiber, normalizes the functioning of the digestive tract and also gently removes toxins;
• despite the fact that grains contain more than 70% carbohydrates, pearl barley porridge is often included in the diet of people who adhere to proper nutrition and those who are trying to lose weight;
• Regular consumption of boiled barley grains can improve the functioning of the kidneys and liver, and the substances in its content improve the condition of teeth, help cure a runny nose and cough;
• promotes the removal of excess fluid and expectoration of sputum.

In 100 g of pearl barley porridge cooked in water without adding additional ingredients - 109 kcal.

Many people do not know that pearl barley porridge is suitable for cooking in a microwave or slow cooker, since without soaking the cereal takes a very long time to cook. For those who want to taste a healthy dish, but do not have enough free time to wait 12 hours, the following innovative technology is suitable.

You can quickly cook pearl barley using a slow cooker. For those who are faced with preparing cereals in a modern appliance, all the steps are described in detail below.

1. The cereal must be washed well, filled with water and left to swell for 1 hour;
2. The water is drained and the cereal is poured into the multicooker bowl. For 100 g of cereal you need to add 200 ml of water;
3. Depending on the model of the device, choose one of the following modes: Porridge, Buckwheat, Milk porridge. Cooking time 20 minutes.
4. If there is water left at the bottom of the bowl after the end of time, you need to turn on the “Toasting” mode for a few minutes.
5. The fastest way to prepare is pearl barley, which is sold in packages that have a pre-processing mark on them.

The taste of porridge depends in equal parts on the preparation technology and the quality of the products used. After deciding to try a dish, you need to select high-quality products for preparation. To ensure that the kernels not only cook quickly, but are also filled with flavor, add salt, butter, nuts, honey, and dried fruits to the pan.

The ingredients should be added in the prescribed order:

1. The porridge is salted immediately after it boils, and then the heat is reduced to low;
2. As soon as a small amount of water remains in the pan, add ½ of the amount of butter indicated in the selected recipe. The barley is thoroughly mixed, covered with a lid and left to cook until all the liquid has evaporated;
3. At the end of cooking, add the second half of the oil and the rest of the ingredients to taste.

It is recommended to serve the porridge soon after it is prepared. Depending on the recipe used to prepare the barley, it can be sweet or salty. In the first case, the dish is supplemented with slices of sweet fruit, in the second, porridge is served as a side dish for meat or fish. Cooks use pearl barley to prepare pilaf and pickle.

The main nuance in cooking barley grains is its ability to harden after cooking over high heat. This porridge has an unattractive appearance and a too dense structure of the nucleoli due to the folding of vegetable protein.

1. To make the porridge crumbly and cook faster, the grains are soaked in water for 10-12 hours;
2. You can achieve the desired consistency by following exactly the ratio of cereal and water in the selected recipe;
3. Beans that have been soaked overnight are boiled for no more than 45-60 minutes;
4. After removing the pan from the stove, move it to a warm place for half an hour or wrap it in a blanket. Such manipulations are necessary to ensure that the barley grains become as soft as possible;
5. To season porridge, it is preferable to use butter, which will fill the grains with an unobtrusive taste and aroma.