Bacon & carrot barley and steak

I’ve shared a couple of versions of this recipe, just because I love this dish and can’t get enough of it. As a kid my grandma was the only one who even cooked with barley and she always used it in her Bean and smoked ham stew. Growing up and cooking on my own I used it in stews as well. As I always search for new ways of preparing certain ingredients, vegetables or in this case grains, I’ve decided to cook barley and prepare it as a side dish with root vegetables, knowing that it pairs well with them in the stews I had prepared before. The result was so yummy that I’ve cooked it a number of times since, and enjoyed it with both friends and my family.

A couple of interesting facts about barley:

• Due to its high nutritional value, barley is important part of human diet. It is mostly used as an ingredient of breakfast cereals or in the form of flour. It is also used in the food industry, as soup thickener.
• Barley is also used in the manufacture of vinegar.
• In the Ancient Greece, barley was used as a special food for gladiators.
• Biggest producer of barley in the world is Russia – 16 metric tons of barley each year.
• Roasted barley was used as a coffee substitute during the First and Second World Wars in Italy.

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Enjoy & happy cooking!

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Preparation: 20 min

Cook time: 25 min

Servings: 4

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Ingredients

• 4 pork shoulder steaks
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 dl dark beer
• 1 cup barley
• 50 g bacon, chopped
• 70 g carrot, chopped
• 50 g parsley root, chopped
• 50 g kohlrabi, chopped
• 40 g celery root, chopped
• 50 g onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tbsp pork fat or butter
• 1/2 tsp marjoram
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• Salt & pepper to season

How to

1. Season pork shoulder steaks with ground pepper, salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder, chili powder and dark beer. Set aside to marinade.
2. In a small pot bring slightly salted water to a boil. Cook barley in boiling water until soft.
3. In a small sauce pan melt butter or pork fat. Add chopped bacon and cook until crispy. Add chopped onion and pressed garlic, simmer for a few minutes. Add chopped carrot, parsley root, kohlrabi and celery root. Simmer the vegetables until soft before stirring in cooked barley.
4. Season barley and vegetables with nutmeg and marjoram and simmer for a few more minutes.
5. Sprinkle some vegetable oil over a grill pan and heat over medium heat. Grill marinated steaks over medium heat until medium rare. Enjoy with bacon and carrot barley!