Beef & Barley Soup + Kitchen Hint

Had a number of really cooooold days. As we all know, the best cure for frigid days is a big bowl of steaming hot soup.

Had shin beef (which I prefer to use for soup) and veggies in the fridge, pearl barley in the pantry, so decided to make a big pot of Beef & Barley Soup.

Substituted celeriac (in storage from my garden) for the celery when I realized I did not have celery. Parsley did not look good, did without and garnished with scallion from my windowsill.

Celeriac – left, unpeeled; center, peeled; right, cross section

The quantities given in the recipe made a big pot of soup, about 6 quarts, 4 of which went into the freezer. ½-ing the recipe is not a problem.

Soup thickens as it cools. Depending on how thick or thin you like your soup, extra liquid, broth or water, may be needed when reheating.

BEEF & BARLEY SOUP 
(This is a 2-part soup, hope my instructions are not too confusing.)

Ingredients for part 1
• 3 – 3½ pounds bone-in shin beef or meaty beef soup bones. Season with salt & pepper (just before browning).
• ¾ cup each, chopped fine: onion, carrots & celery celeriac
• 2 – 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 – 3 dry bay leaves
• 2 – 3 slices fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon whole peppercorn
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 – 2 tablespoons oil
• 8 cups water

Preparations for part 1
1. Wrap bay leaves, ginger and peppercorn in cheesecloth and tie securely.
2. Add oil to preheated stockpot. Add shin beef and brown both sides. Remove and set aside.
3. Add salt, onion, carrot and celery celeriac to stockpot, saute until lightly browned. Add garlic and tomato paste, saute until tomato paste begins to darken a bit, about 60 seconds.
4. Add water to pot, stir to loosen any fond (the brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pot). Return beef to stockpot, add cheesecloth-spice-bundle. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
5. Remove cooked beef from pot. When cool enough to handle, remove meat from bone and cut into small cubes. Return cubed meat and bone to pot. Continue with part 2.

Ingredients for part 2
• 1 cup uncooked pearl barley, rinsed and drained
• 1 pound carrot, peeled and cut into cubes or slices
• 3 – 4 ribs celery, sliced (I substituted 1 celeriac, about 1 pound, peeled and cubed)
• 1 onion (about ½ pound) peeled and cut into chunks
• 10 – 12 ounces mushrooms, cut into chunks or slices
• few sprigs fresh thyme (from my back door garden), tie into a bunch with kitchen twine
• 6 – 8 cups broth, beef or chicken
• coarsely chopped fresh parsley sliced scallion for garnish

Preparations for part 2
1. Add all the above ingredients (except parsley scallion) to stockpot with beef. Bring to a boil. Simmer 1 hour.
2. Remove shin bones and scoop out bone marrow if still inside the bone. Stir marrow into soup, discard bones.
3. Remove and discard cheesecloth-spice-bundle and thyme bundle.
4. Serve soup hot garnished with parsley scallion.

KITCHEN HINTS

I trimmed all the fat from the shin beef so had only a very thin layer of fat on the surface of the soup (which actually is more a pain to get rid of than a thick layer of fat).

To remove the thin layer of fat that settled on top of the soup, I did the following:
∞ Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the cooled soup, above left photo (fat will cling to the plastic).
∞ Remove and discard plastic wrap with fat, above right photo. Repeat if needed.

…   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …   …  …   …

Copyright © by Norma Chang. All Rights Reserved. Do not use/repost any photos and/or articles without permission.