Having been well pleased with steamed wheat berries from my rice cooker, I decided to try some pearled barley. (In this case, "pearled" means that the grain has had its outer bran layer removed, so it's not quite a whole grain anymore. But close.) Plus, all they had at the co-op was bulk pearled barley. So I bought a little, thinking about adding it to a beef stew.
But of course I always buy too much bulk grain at the co-op. And since the mornings have become too chilly for cold cereal, I decided to make my pearled barley into a hot breakfast. So I steamed a cup in my rice cooker, with 1 cup of grain requiring between 1.5 and 2 cups of water. I like more texture to my grains, so I keep it at around 1.5 cups of water.
When it was cooked and cooled, I removed a little so I could add it to a stew. Then I added some brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger powder to the remainder. Lots of ginger powder! Then I pulsed this in my food processor for a bit - I wanted to break the barley down into smaller pieces, more like a hot cereal.
And it came out beautifully, I must say. Cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar and barley is a great combination. Would be excellent with walnut pieces, too. I'm eating a little bowl of it with some milk added. Has a good mouth-feel to it, still a little chewy.
Incidentally, barley is the grain ingredient in beer and many kinds of whiskey. Also a large part of farm animal feed. It's like barley goes hand in hand with civilization or something.
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