Barley Cakes and "Lemon" Butter

This morning I was feeling a little frantic -- not in the mood for cooked-grain-with-sweetener for breakfast, no leftovers for Sophia's lunch, and no breads or biscuits ready made. I had enough time to make a quick bread, but I was out of almond meal, which is one of my standard biscuit ingredients, and low on corn meal, which is another, and which also meant I couldn't make corn bread or muffins either. That left buckwheat, which I've never seen a baking recipe for, and barley, which I haven't used on its own before.

A couple weeks ago I discovered this ancient Roman recipe for barley cakes, and this seemed like a good time to try it. So I looked it up again. Of course, it would be denominated in metric -- those darned Romans. It's simple enough to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit using an online converter, but grams to measuring cups is not so straightforward. And, oh dear, I was running out of honey too. I decided to make a smaller recipe, throw in some raisins for extra sweetness, wing it on the amounts, and hope for the best. After all, the real ancient Roman recipe probably went something like, "bake barley with honey." It most certainly did not include a ten minute residency in the fridge.

Half an hour later, I gave Sophia a small bite to sample, to verify that she was willing to have it as part of her lunch. Next thing I knew, she had half a barley cake in her hand and the other half in her mouth, and was reaching for another. So I chased her out of the kitchen, hoarding the four remaining cakes (they were pretty small) so I'd have enough to pack for her.

After she left I did a Greenstar run for more honey, and made a second batch for my own lunch, measuring things more carefully. Here's what I came up with:

Barley Cakes (a not-so-ancient Ithacan recipe)

3 T honey (or to taste)

2 T sunflower oil

1/3 cup water

1 1/2 cups barley flour

1/4 t salt

raisins (to taste -- optional)

Set oven to 400 F. Mix honey & oil into 1/2 cup flour. (The honey tends to glop up in the water otherwise.) Mix in water, salt, and raisins, then mix in the rest of the flour a bit at a time. Let stand for 10 minutes in the fridge (or on the counter -- I'm not sure it matters, since it's a liquid oil.) Add flour as needed to keep it from sticking as you remove it from the bowl, shape it into a ball, and roll it out thinly (I stopped rolling when the raisins started to stick out.) Cut with a cookie cutter or thin-edged glass and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes, to taste (they don't seem to brown much, but they gradually change from chewy to crunchy as they bake longer. Thinner ones get more crunchy.)

The Result

Kind of like a cross between a biscuit, a cookie, and a soft cracker. Noticeably sweet, but not sugary. All gone again, though. Sophia wants me to make a third batch.

9/16 Menus:

breakfast for Sophia: grits (Cayuga Pure) with raisins (arbor), maple syrup (Schoolyard Sugarbush), and almond milk (exception)

breakfast for us: omelets (eggs from back yard chickens) with broccoli (West Haven), scallion (garden) and sweet pepper (garden)

school lunch: buffalo snack sticks (Glenwood Farms); barley cakes (barley (Cayuga Pure), honey and sunflower oil (Greenstar bulk local), raisins(arbor grapes)); red sweet pepper (garden); frozen blueberries (Farmer's Choice u-pick)

my lunch: barley cakes; ants on a log (celery (garden), peanut butter (exception), raisins (Thornbush Farms)); raspberries (garden)

snack: barley cakes. and apples. lots of apples (Littletree)

dinner: green and wax beans with sorrel butter (garden, Meadow Creek); Japanese Steak House style veggies (onion, summer squash (garden) and baby bok choy (Sacred Seed) with salt, cider vinegar (Littletree apples), and cooking wine (arbor grapes))

When we got back from apple picking, I wanted something simple for dinner, and I did not want to put tomatoes in it. I had a vast number of green and wax beans (oops, I ignored them for a few days too long) and I was in the mood for steamed beans with lemon butter. But I've been resisting using lemon juice, even though it probably technically qualifies as a seasoning.

While I was pondering what to do, I overheard my roommate suggesting to her daughter that they add curly dock to a dish they were planning. She described the flavor as "lemony." Voila! I didn't want to use curly dock, because its flavor could also be described as "bitter," and its texture could be described as "slimy." (I'm picky about my wild foods, what can I say?) But I have french sorrel growing in my garden, which I rarely use because I'm not sure how to cook with it. This, however, was easy:

Local "Lemon" Butter

1-2 T butter

3-4 french sorrel leaves, sliced very thin

salt to taste

Melt butter, add sorrel, stir until it "melts" into a greenish sauce. Salt to taste. (This could probably be made with wild sorrel as well -- you know, the clover-like garden weed with heart-shaped leaves and little yellow flowers and a lemony flavor.)

Can't get much simpler than that. Makes me happy.