Tag: summer

Lamb & Berry “Barley-otto”

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This recipe came about the other day when Oatmeal went to a dinner and a movie with a friend while I relaxed at home. Since I work long hours, I rarely get the apartment all to myself, so I wanted to make the most of it! Normally, that means consuming an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s straight from the box while sobbing hysterically because none of my research works and I’ll never graduate from school. However, I’ve promised Oatmeal I’ll stop doing that (is it too late for take-backsies?), so I decided instead to make a meal with ingredients that Oatmeal usually gives me a hard time about: red meat and alcohol.

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Lamb is one of my favorite meats, and red wine goes perfectly with lamb (especially Bordeaux, the one wine pairing I can ever remember!). I knew that red wine usually contains notes of dark, red fruit such as cherries, so I decided to add some of those into the mix. The rest is history!

This dish is really, really good! There is a nice taste of lamb throughout, accented by tender morsels which burst with flavor and are complemented by the light flavor of wine and berries. The cherry halves provide a dash of sweet to accentuate the meal, and the barley serves as a nice, creamy base for all of it, resulting in a refreshing, comforting dish.

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Lamb & Berry “Barley-otto”

  • 1 lb ground lamb
  • 1/3 cup crushed raspberries
  • ¾ cup crushed black berries
  • ¾ cup stemmed, pitted, halved cherries
  • 2 cups washed, uncooked barley
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • Olive oil
  • 1 ½ cups red wine (Bordeaux)
  • Around 3-4 cups chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 350 °F.

In a 9 x 13 in., deep baking dish (2 in. deep should be fine), mix the lamb, raspberries, black berries, and cherries until uniformly mixed. Cover the top of the dish with aluminum foil, and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Now, we’re going to cook the barley like a risotto, so let’s cover how that’s done. As ol’ Mamma Ice Cream taught me, “The rice should never look dry.” Despite working with barley, the same principle applies here. The barley should always look wet or creamy, never dry. Whenever the barley starts to dry out, add another ½ cup of liquid to it (in this recipe, we use either wine or broth). A good way to tell if you need to add more liquid is by scraping the bottom of the pot with your spoon, and seeing how quickly the barley-liquid mix fills in. If it fills in immediately or quickly, you’re still good. If it lags behind by a second or so, it’s time to add more. Check the video for examples!

While the lamb is cooking, sauté the onions in the olive oil until translucent. Stir in the barley, and cook while stirring until it reaches a boil. Add a ½ cup of the wine and stir constantly. When the wine has boiled off appropriately (check the video for an example), add another ½ cup of the wine. Let it boil down once more and add the last ½ cup. From here on out, switch to the chicken broth. Continue to stir the barley, adding chicken broth as needed to keep it from drying out. After 30 minutes of cooking, (counting from when the barley hit the oil/onions,) taste the barley to see if it’s cooked (like al dente, it should have a nice give, but not be too hard or too soft.

Once the barley is ready, add the lamb/berry mixture to the barley, and stir until evenly combined. Continue to cook it until the excess liquid has boiled off and the “barley-otto” is at your desired consistency.

I prefer to add salt at the table, since it’s always easier to add salt than to remove salt.

Enjoy! 

Mustard Chicken Burgers with Farro

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Hello, and welcome to Oatmeal and Ice Cream, where we take leftover food and ingredients and make strange, but delicious, new meals! However, you can’t use leftovers if you don’t have any left over food to begin with! So here’s a little recipe to start us off. 

The idea behind this one is that Oatmeal and I were eating a dinner which consisted of chicken burgers topped with rice, pesto sauce, and a lightly fried egg. As I was eating, I asked myself: “Could I cook the rice inside the patty without it getting mushy?” This recipe is an experiment to answer that question! What results is a delicious burger with a consistency you wouldn’t normally expect.

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Now, Oatmeal tells me that I need to describe how the burgers taste so that you guys can make sure that you got the recipe right. Look, if the end-result tastes good, who cares if it’s the same result I got?! But here’s my description, just in case you’d like a guide.

The meat of the burger should be soft and tender, but the farro is cooked al dente, so when you bite into it, there should be a nice chew to it. As for taste, the onion and garlic will sing out from the burger itself, while the mustard adds a very nice sweet/tangy flavor. The tomato will add a refreshing, sweet burst at the top. Overall, the dish is slightly sweet, tangy, and flavorful, with a satisfying chew.  It should not taste burnt or caramelized (unless you like that sort of thing! In which case, instead of searing the burger, I would sautée it in olive oil at a high heat for 3-5 minutes per side instead of 1-2 minutes without oil.) If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them in the comments!

And remember, save some of the leftovers so you can use them in another meal!

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Mustard Chicken Burgers with Farro

  • 1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped (or pressed)
  • 1 cup uncooked farro, washed (If you’d like, you can substitute with rice or other similar grain)
  • 1 egg
  • 2-2.5 lbs ground chicken (You can substitute with turkey or other white meat).
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Dijon mustard
  • Two tomatoes, cut into thick slices

Preheat the oven to 225°F

In a large bowl, mix together the chopped onions, garlic, farro, egg, chicken, salt and pepper until thoroughly combined. (I didn’t add any salt or pepper, so add these at your own discretion.) Divide the mixture into eight, thick patties, and set aside on a strip of parchment paper (or on anything, really. Just something to get them out of the way without creating more dishes to clean later). Place a non-stick skillet over a medium-high flame, and let it heat up until drops of water sizzle on contact. Once the skillet is hot, place the patties in the skillet and sear them for 1-2 minutes. Then flip and sear them on the other side for another 1-2 minutes, before moving them to a baking dish.

Once all of the patties have been seared and placed in the baking dish, spread a layer of mustard on top of each of the patties. (Make note: The mustard is really the star of this dish, so don’t skimp on it! You can definitely use way more than what is shown in the accompanying pictures.) Put a slice of tomato on top of each patty.

Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake it in the oven for 30 minutes at 225°F, or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the mustard is just starting to brown. (I put them on the bottom shelf of my oven, but you’ll have to adjust for your own oven’s quirks.)

Once the burgers have been cooked to your liking, take them out of the oven and remove the aluminum foil. They are now ready to eat! You can eat them on their own, with a side of vegetables, or you can put them in a bun and eat it like a regular hamburger. We enjoyed them with an extra dollop of the mustard. Be sure to keep experimenting!