Grains Grains Grains

Rye grains

I’m working through a list of whole grains, treated in the same way - 1.5 days soaking in water, dried a little and cooked in a frying pan with salted butter. The rye grains are chewier than the spelt, which although not unpleasant (they would be good in a porridge) is not the point of the exercise, which is maximum crunchiness.

Next up: Oat Groats, Barley, 
After that: Different liquids for the soak - vinegars, kombuchas, juices, wheys from buttermilk, yoghurt etc -  and different fats my collection of animal fats - oxtail, bone marrow, roast chicken, dry-aged forerib, super-aged raw butter to fry with.

Barley  (Hordeum vulgare L)

A field of barley at my brother’s farm in Gloucestershire. Every now and then it’s good to see food growing up close, especially grains, which, most of the time I encounter after they’ve been dried, milled into flour and packaged. Barley grass has such a beautiful structure and colour, and to stand in a huge field of it, it’s long spikelets swaying in the breeze, brushing each other and making a sound not unlike a strong wind, is a serene and special experience. 

I picked a few strands, squeezing the unripe germs from the husks, and discovered not only that they are delicious and intriguingly textured, creamy and sweet, but that they taste uncannily like the bee larvae which we investigated and cooked with at Nordic Food Lab in April. Weird, huh ?