Archive Recipe: Barley Pancakes

This recipe for Barley Pancakes with Orange Juice and Vanilla has been the most commonly viewed recipe in The Messy Apron Archives for several years. I hope that a lot of you who have visited that post have also tried and enjoyed this ultimately yummy breakfast recipe. The warm, earthy, malty taste of whole grain barley flour deserves to be considered for popular appreciation, and a nice batch of pancakes is a simple and satisfying way to give it a chance.

I received a super-generous gift of homemade maple syrup from my cousin recently, which I took as a sign from the Universe that I needed to get back to this pancake recipe. Great syrup deserves great pancakes! And, if nothing else, such a popular recipe deserves some new photo images, hopefully better ones than what I was able to capture back in 2011. Really, though, the fact that these are just really, really good pancakes should be enough reason for me to be making them more often than I do. I feel a considerable amount of shame.

I don’t see any reason to mess around with this recipe, so I have presented it here as I did originally. Perhaps these pancakes would also be great with some grated orange zest mixed into the batter (grate the zest off the orange before squeezing it for the juice in the recipe), or maybe with some finely chopped walnuts or pecans sprinkled onto each pancake as it cooks. I haven’t tried these variations yet. If you get a chance to before I do, be sure to tell me how delicious they are!

I don’t know that I will ever really run out of new recipes to try, whether they’re good candidates for a The Messy Apron post or not. I’m finding that I do need to exercise some caution, however, as I explore and report on those new horizons. It would be a real shame to lose track of all my good old favorite recipes, or to never revisit something truly delicious. And a warm malty pancake scented with orange and vanilla should be revisited as often as possible.

Barley Pancakes with Orange Juice and Vanilla
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

6 ounces by weight (about 170 g) whole barley flour (about 1 ½ cups)
2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1 ml) baking soda
¾ (about 3 ml) teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons (1 ½ ounces by weight or 40 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons (30 ml) honey
¾ cup (6 fluid ounces or 175ml) milk
½ cup (4 fluid ounces or 125 ml) fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract

1. Preheat an electric griddle to 300 F (150 C) (or preheat a skillet or griddle on the stove over medium heat.) In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the barley flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. In another medium-size bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Slowly whisk in the butter. Whisk in the honey. Whisk in the milk, orange juice and vanilla.

3. Pour the egg mixture over the barley flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spray the heated pan with cooking spray or brush it with oil or butter. Spoon or pour about ¼ cup (50 ml) of the pancake batter for each (4-inch or 10 cm) pancake, placing as many on the pan as will fit with room to spread and flip. Cook the pancakes until they are brown on the pan side 3-4 minutes. Flip the pancakes with a spatula and cook on the other side until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes more.

4. Keep completed pancakes warm in the oven until ready to serve. Serve with butter and maple syrup, or other favorite pancake accompaniments.

Makes about 12 (3 ½ -4-inch) pancakes.

Other recipes like this one: Barley Flour Scones, Light Wheat and Cinnamon Waffles, Orange Millet Waffles, Butter Pecan Pancakes

Archive Recipe: Beet and Carrot Burgers

Until just the other day, I hadn’t made these weird little veggie burgers in years. I love them, so I missed them, but I really felt no special compunction to make them for all that. You see, and I know I’ve told you this before, I hate the taste of beets. I always have. There’s some kind of alchemy going on in this recipe, though, that renders beets not only edible, but delicious. Even crave-able.

I would never go out and buy beets to make this recipe, but I took on a winter CSA subscription this year, and my home is now equipped with beets-a-plenty. This has always been my favorite way to use up those bountiful roots, so as soon as I had the time, I made them. They are absolutely as wonderful as I remembered! I’m so happy!

There are a lot of ingredients in these humble-looking veggie patties, but no tricky procedures to follow. I just start with the food processor, which I highly recommend if you have access to one. For me it makes any recipe with this much shredded vegetables not only easier, but just plain possible. All of the ingredients get piled into a great big bowl, mixed together, portioned out on a baking pan, and baked.

I used the Chioggia variety of beets to make the batch of burgers I photographed here. They are not so bloody red, being a pretty red and white candy stripe instead. As a result, my veggie burgers were paler in color than would be accomplished with another variety of beet. 

I like to serve these burgers on toasted English muffins with dill pickles or dill relish and mayonnaise. They’re good with ketchup and mustard on a hamburger bun, too, or they’re fine nestled into a pita pocket. I think there are other root vegetables that might be able to take the place of shredded beets here, but, I’m kind of growing sympathetic toward these earthy, old-fashioned, knobs of plant flesh. Will I ever come to love them? You know, at this moment, I’m more hopeful of that than I’ve ever been.

Beet and Carrot Burgers

adapted from Farmer John’s Cookbook

2 cups peeled, grated beets

2 cups grated carrots

½ cup grated onion

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup cooked rice, preferably brown rice

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

½ cup sunflower seeds

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley

¼ cup flour

2 Tbs soy sauce or tamari

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp salt

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all of the ingredients in a very large bowl.  Mix until completely combined.

2.  Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions.  Form each portion into a patty and place on baking pans that have been well-greased or lined with a silicone baking mat. The patties will not seem to hold together well at first, but they will solidify more as they bake.

3. Bake the patties at 350 F for 25-35 minutes, or until they are well set and beginning to brown on the edges.

4.  Serve immediately on an English muffin, on a bun or in a pita (or on a plate), or cool on pans and freeze.

To freeze the burgers, place them in a single layer on a plate or pan on wax paper or parchment paper.  Freeze until firm.  Remove from the pan and store flat in a freezer bag or other freezer-safe container, separating layers with wax paper or parchment paper.

Makes 12 veggie burgers.

Other recipes like this one: Lentil Barley Burgers; Potato and Sauerkraut Cakes; Winter Vegetable Galettes with Cheddar, Mustard, and Caramelized Onions

Recipe Revisit: Asparagus and Pasta with Balsamic-Tarragon Sauce

It’s time to revisit an old recipe from The Messy Apron Archives: Asparagus and Pasta with Balsamic-Tarragon Sauce and Bacon. This one goes way back to the first year these pages were online; from the second month, in fact. It’s embarrassing to sneak a peek at some of those old posts (especially the sad photographs!), but this is really a great recipe. I should be making it at least once a year during local asparagus season, but, and this is even sadder than those old photos, I don’t think I’ve made it since I put up that post all those years ago.

This is quite a simple dish, as most of my weeknight suppers tend to be these days. Onions and asparagus get sautéed in bacon drippings and then a swim in a sauce of balsamic vinegar and sugar. This sauce gets reduced even as it soaks into the asparagus, becoming richer and more complex, not to mention sweeter. A good dose of fresh tarragon adds some delicious anise notes, and it all gets tossed with pasta, pecans, and crisp bacon.

The inspiration recipe that I tinkered with to produce the original post was a side dish without the noodles and less sauce. I just increased the sauce volume and plumped it up to a main dish with the pasta. I had originally made it with short pasta, but, I tried it with linguine in this recipe revisit with excellent results, which leads me to conclude that pasta of any shape would be just great, as would whole grain noodles.

I also added Pernod to the dish all those years ago, but in this retest, I went without it and found that it’s not necessary. It probably just overpowers the more subtle flavor of the tarragon. It probably also helped to make the sauce especially sweet, since I wrote a lot in that old post about how sweet the dish was, but I did not find it especially sweet without the Pernod.

Overall, I prefer the ever-so-slightly altered version of this recipe that I have below. It’s more inclusive when it comes to pasta shape, and is therefore easier to pull off with what’s in the pantry. The Pernod can go, but if you can’t get your hands on some good fresh tarragon (I grow it in a pot on my back porch), perhaps a teaspoon or two of some kind of anise-flavored liqueur can help you get that particularly fitting flavor kick.

The only additional alteration I might try is to leave out the bacon and make this dish vegetarian (actually, it would even be vegan without the bacon if you used vegan pasta). The onions and asparagus could be sautéed in olive oil instead of the bacon fat, which would change the flavor, but might still be pretty darn good. Bacon does give everything a certain something special, but if you’re not into pork, you should still be able to have lots of delicious happiness with asparagus and tarragon and balsamic vinegar all by their flavorful selves.

Asparagus and Pasta with Balsamic-Tarragon Sauce and Bacon
If you don’t have tarragon available, you could replace it with thyme or basil, or with 1-2 teaspoons of an anise-flavored liqueur, such as Pernod.

3 strips thick-cut bacon
8 ounces any pasta, short or long cut
½ cup thinly sliced onion
1 pound asparagus, tough ends removed and cut into 1-inch pieces
½ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
¼ teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt (or more, to taste)

A few grinds of black pepper (to taste)
½ cup toasted chopped pecans

1. Cook the bacon in a large saute pan until crisp. Remove the bacon and drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings from the pan. Chop the bacon into small pieces when cool.

2. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until it is done as you like it. Drain the pasta. Reserve about ½ cup of the pasta cooking water to have on hand in case you need more moisture at the end of cooking the dish.

3. Return the reserved bacon drippings to medium heat (in the same pan). Add the onion and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4 minutes, or until the onion starts to brown. Add the asparagus and sauté 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Cook several minutes until the vinegar has reduced by about half and has become slightly thicker and syrupy.

5. Add the tarragon and pepper. Cook about 1 minute. Add the pasta and toss well. If the pasta appears too dry, add some of the reserved pasta-cooking water. Stir in the chopped bacon and pecans.

Makes about 4 servings

Other recipes like this one: Pasta with Asparagus, Snap Peas, and Lemon; Pasta with Caramelized Onions and Arugula; Spaetzle with Cabbage, Bacon, and Onions