These days we’re always looking for a quicker dinner. This is very unlike us, as generally we are a slow cooking, easy moving, enjoy the process kind of family but with the shop, our time is more frugal than it used to be. Who knows how long this will last, it is not in our nature so we are already scheming other fantasies, trying to make other plans but those take time as well. However, our ‘quick’ dinners are not probably as quick as many would think. We still make almost everything from scratch but some things we have our own way, which feels fast to us. This stew is lovely because our local mushroom farmers are having a great Winter season, we’ve still got a lot of dried herbs, the storage onions and carrots from the CSA are great, and their hoop houses keep churning out great greens, add in a couple of pantry shelf staples and we’ve got ourselves a delicious Winter dinner.
Take this Mushroom Chickpea Barley Stew — because we’ve had some bone broth working on the stove for a bit, we already have the base of all the good stuff happening (this time ours has chicken bones, lamb bone, turmeric, onions/carrots/garlic/celery, ACV, parsley, and kale in it). The mushrooms will saute slowly in olive oil and butter with a little onion, garlic, sage or rosemary (optional), and carrots until they are deep in color and a little crispy on the edge (always season your veg while cooking), then go into a pot of simmering broth. Add the barley (if you are using hulled, soak first. If it is pearl, just add — see pic below; hulled looks more like wheat berries, the pearl has the husk removed and has a whitish edge), and cooked chickpeas, and simmer for 25-30 minutes (add more broth if needed or desired for stew/soup thickness). Add chard or spinach and let simmer for another minute or two, then add heavy cream and let simmer another 5 min. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to come together. Season with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. I will probably roast up the last of the Delicata Squash in rings, as a sweet savory garnish.
[If you desire amounts (I generally just wing it based on what I have and we love leftovers): Serves a crew…(great for a sledding party, Imbolc gathering, Scotch tasting, etc). This is a vat, scale down to your liking.
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Butter (or bacon fat, or vegan butter)
I will go heavy on mixed gourmet Mushrooms (though you can use whatever you have — my mushroom folks show up at the Farmer’s Mkt every now and again and I go crazy) at about 2lbs chopped coarsely
1 medium Onion (because my kid doesn’t like them so she won’t notice 1) chopped small
3 white or yellow Carrots (again, my kid doesn’t like cooked carrots so if I choose a different color than orange, she doesn’t notice as much but you can use whatever you like) chopped small
2-3 large cloves of Garlic
2 Tbsp Fresh Sage, Thyme, or Rosemary leaves (or 1 Tbsp Dried), optional
5 cups good Broth (homemade, bone, chicken, veg, whatever suits your fancy)
2 cups dry Barley (mine is hulled so I will boil some water, add it, put a lid on it taking it off the heat, and soak it for a couple of hours first)
2 boxes (or 14 oz cans) of cooked Chickpeas (or soak and cook dried the day before) drained and rinsed
1 big bunch of Chard (or Spinach, or if you only have Kale, let it cook an extra minute or 2) chopped (I throw the less leafy stems back into the broth pot with any trimmings from the carrots, onions, garlic, and mushrooms)
2 cups Heavy Cream
Sea Salt & Fresh Ground Black Pepper
For the Focaccia, I will just take a frozen Pizza dough (we use ours which is fully-fermented and naturally-leavened), thaw in the fridge overnight and bring to room temp on the counter day of (takes an hour or two), spread out on a parchment covered sheetpan dusted with semolina pressing two fingers in two lines down through the dough (but not making holes to the parchment, just big indentations). Drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil liberally over top and into dents, sprinkle with coarse Sea Salt, and Dried Sage or Rosemary, and cook in a preheated oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes until it is puffed up and golden. Cut in half longways, and then into long 2″ pieces, perfect for dipping into stew.
With the snow still on the ground, this stew calls to me — cozy up!
Rock Bottom Homestead 