It was storming when I decided I had to start cooking, and hadn't actually bought barley yet - so the barley portion of the show waited til the weather calmed down a bit. Pubilx apparently doesn't carry any brand of (wtf is "pearled") barley but its own, and in no package size larger (i.e. more economical) than 1 lb. Same as their lentils, 1 bag is labeled ~14 quarter-cup dry servings, but I only got 13. So if this becomes a standard recipe I guess a batch will have to be adjusted to 1.125 cups each of lentils and barley. Thieves.

Each 1/4 cup nominal serving provides 100 kcal, 3g protein, 5g (20%DV) fiber and 6%DV iron. Package directions call for 2.5 cups water per cup of cup of dry barley, plus 1/8th teaspoon salt which... y'know, who has a 1/8th measuring spoon, really. For uniformity's sake I went with 1.5 cups dry and 3.5 cups of water. (Should be 3.75 if you want to be exact but I'm taking cues from the excessive water ratio in their lentil package directions.) Bring water to a boil, add barley and reduce heat to a low simmer for 40-45 minutes or until "tender but still chewy".

Killing the remains of the bottle of wine didn't help my focus at all, so my best guess at the barley cook time was 35-40 minutes. Yes, it was slightly "stiff" but it was already getting quite sticky, so I transferred it to a storage container and gave the pot a good scrub. Sufficiently tender, chewy and with two shakes of salt, a tasty complement to the lentil/greens recipe.

The addition of pickled capers to a bowl of barley-lentil mix was an interesting experiment, but they just taste like more salt. Didn't ruin it, but didn't add anything of real interest either, so I won't be buying pickled capers again.

As for pearl(ed) barley, it's barley which has been milled to remove both the hull and the nutritious bran layer. If you wanted hulled but not bran-stripped barley, you'd look for "hulled", "Scotch" or "pot" barley, or barley "groats".

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So it turns out when you don't combine barley with anything, just cook it up and store it, you get a sticky mass with a very weird rubbery consistency. The texture combined with lentils is much nicer, although it may also have something to do with chilling overnight. I had already eaten half the lentils by the time I got around to combining with the barley, ergo I ended up with quite a bit of just plain barley. I heated up a couple cups of beef boullion, dumped that in the barley and let it soak a few hours in hopes that it would change the sticky rubbery consistency for the better, but no, that didn't accomplish what I'd hoped.

Thankfully, that portion of the learning curve is behind me, and I'm ready for a properly-proportioned revisit next Sunday or so. I also have one bag of 4-bean non-lentil mix to work with, I'll probably cook that up Wednesday or Thursday evening.