A delicious soup for leftover roast lamb and perfect for chilly weather.
Lamb & pearl barley broth – serves 6-8
25g butter
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely grated
1 bay leaf
a sprig of rosemary
200g leftover cooked lamb, sliced or shredded
1 medium parsnip, peeled and finely chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
100g pearl barley
1.25 litres of chicken stock
2 tbsp chopped parsley
Put the butter and oil into a large saucepan over a medium heat. When the butter is foaming, add the onions, celery, bay leaf and rosemary. Season with salt and pepper, then turn the heat to low, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes, or until softened.
Add the lamb, chopped parsnip and carrot, the pearl barley and the stock. Turn the heat up and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the barley and vegetables are tender.
Remove and discard the bay and rosemary. Stir in the chopped parsley, season to taste, and serve.
(Original recipe from Soup Broth Bread by Rachel Allen, Michael Joseph, 2021.)
It’s definitely a bit more like soup weather in Dublin and this one’s good and hearty!
Puy lentil and pearl barley soup – serves 6
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
100g dried Puy lentils
100g pearl barley
680g jar passata
1.5 litres vegetable stock
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Heat the olive oil in a large pot, add the onion and carrots and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes or until softened and starting to colour.
Add the garlic, Puy lentils and pearl barley and stir for a minute, then add the passata and vegetable stock. Season with salt and black pepper.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 40-45 minutes or until everything is tender.
Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar, season again if needed, and serve.
(Original recipe from Mary Berry Cooks up a Feast with Lucy Young, DK Penguin House, 2019.)
This is a Romanian dish called Pilaf cu pui ciuperci. We haven’t knowingly cooked any Romanian dishes until now, but we recently purchased Carpathia: Food from the Heart of Romania by Irina Georgescu. This is a beautiful book and we’re looking forward to cooking many more dishes. While Irina suggests blitzing the veg in the food processor, we chopped them by hand. Either way you want them nice and fine but not blitzed to a pulp. Serve with salad.
Wine Suggestion: Unfortunately we didn’t have a Romanian wine to hand but we can attest it works well with one of our favourite wines: the Ch du Hureau Saumur-Champigny “Tuffe”. Elegance, style and grace, but also very grounded and earthy and what we love about Cabernet Franc from the Loire.
Oven-baked pearl barley pilaf with chicken and mushrooms – serves 4-6
3 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
1.5kg chicken pieces, we used thighs and drumsticks but you can joint a whole chicken
2 onions, sliced
300g pearl barley
¼ celeriac, finely diced
2-3 celery sticks, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 red pepper, finely diced
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
200g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
600ml chicken stock
2 tsp salt
5g black pepper
25g butter, roughly chopped
a bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
We found it easier to fry the chicken in a large, heavy frying pan and then to transfer to a large roasting tin. Irina suggests frying and baking in a large deep casserole dish, but we didn’t have one big enough. A roasting tin covered with two layers of foil worked well.
Heat the oil in a large heavy frying pan or casserole dish, over a medium heat. Brown the chicken pieces on all sides – it’s easiest to do this in batches. Transfer the browned chicken to a plate and set aside.
Add the onions to the pan and cook for 10 minutes, then add the pearl barley and stir to coat the grains in the oil, cook for another few minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Add the chopped vegetables to the pan with the tomatoes, mushrooms, stock and seasoning and gently combine. You might need to transfer to a large roasting tin at this point. You need to be generous with the salt. Arrange the chicken pieces on top and cover the dish with a layer of foil and a lid or if using a roasting tin you can cover with a double layer of foil.
Bake for 40 minutes, then remove the lid and foil and cook for another 10 minutes. Check the vegetables are tender and that the chicken is cooked through, then remove from the oven. Dot the top of the dish with the butter and sprinkle with parsley.
(Original recipe from Carpathia: Food from the Heart of Romania by Irina Georgescu, Frances Lincoln Publishing, 2020.)
This is a classic for a reason and you really shouldn’t wait until St Patrick’s day to make it; although for some reason that’s what we do every year. It’s a meal in a bowl but if you want to go all out you can serve it with colcannon and turnip mash with bacon and onions. Beware… we kept on taking seconds … and thirds…
Wine Suggestion: The Irish have a great affinity with Spanish wine, so we picked a Mencia from Bierzo, the Dominio de Tares “Baltos” which was full of flavour as well as vibrantly fresh with resolved and mildly spice tannins.
Irish Stew – serves 6 to 8
900g boneless lamb neck or shoulder, trimmed and cut into cubes
900ml lamb or chicken stock, home-made preferably
50g pearl barley, washed
225g potatoes, cut into chunks
225g carrots, thickly sliced
225g leeks, well trimmed and thickly sliced
225g pearl onions, peeled (if you can’t get these you can use halved shallots)
100g smoked bacon, diced
2 sprigs of thyme
chopped flat-leaf parsley to garnish
Put the lamb pieces into a large flameproof casserole and pour over the stock.
Bring to the boil, then skim off any scum from the surface and stir in the barley. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 50 minutes, until slightly reduced and the lamb should be almost tender.
Add the potatoes, carrots, leeks, pearl onions, smoked bacon and thyme and simmer for 30 minutes or until the lamb and vegetables are completely tender but not falling apart. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Scatter the parsley over the top and serve.
(Original recipe from Neven Maguire’s Complete Family Cookbook, Gill Books, 2016.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 