Barley With Spiced Yogurt - Your Recipe Rocks!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Yesterday we had lunch in an Indian Restaurant. Whenever we have lunch buffet, the following evening, we just have either oatmeal, cracked wheat kanji (porridge) or plain yogurt rice for dinner. This time I wanted to try something else and was browsing Jai and Bee’s blog. I’m very glad I did that, because I found an excellent recipe for Barley Thayirchadam. It’s pretty much the regular South Indian yogurt rice, but prepared with barley instead. This was totally new to me. I use barley only in soups. My husband is a big fan of barley. Whenever I make soup he keeps telling that I should have increased the quantity of barley. So I wanted to try this recipe atleast for his sake.
The beauty of this recipe is it has 2 uses. With the pressure cooked barley we can prepare the main dish and with the excess water we can prepare a refreshing lemonade. Jai and Bee had used 1 cup of pearl barley in their recipe. I thought I will try with half a cup. When I measured the barley I had, there was only 3/4th of a cup left in the packet, so I decided to cook it. The taste was excellent. It was a very satisfying meal. This measurement was perfect for both of us. Half a cup would have been less and 1 cup would have been more.
My Notes:
1. I cooked the barley directly in a small copper bottomed pressure cooker and left it for 3 whistles.
2. Whenever I prepare curd rice, I cut a maavadu (south indian style mango pickle, where small mangoes are pickled as a whole without cutting them) into small pieces and mix it with the rice along with the carrots and cucumber. Since my husband doesn’t eat anything spicy, I lightly wash the maavadu and then cut it. This gives a nice surprising crunch and tanginess. So I did the same with this recipe.
3. I also prepared the barley lemonade. In addition to the ingredients mentioned, I also added grated ginger. I kept it in the fridge overnight, so that the lemonade would absorb the flavors of the lemon zest and grated ginger. The next day morning I strained the juice before drinking. It was so cool and refreshing. I think people in India should definitely try it this summer.
Thank you very much for the recipe Jai and Bee. This is going to be a regular in our house. Your recipe rocks!
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May 11th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
glad you liked it, dear madhuram. we now have whole barley (with the hull intact) in the pantry. i’m wondering how this recipe will turn out with that.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Wow is that barley, i have some quick cooking barley in my pantry, i know what 2 do now…
Their recipes and pic re always rocking Madhu 
Beaut pic & Happy mother’s day!
May 11th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
This looks lovely !!! Can you tell me whr we can get barley in US…Do you know if the indian stores here carry them???
Thanks!!!
May 11th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
looks awesome madhu..havent tried my hands in barley yet..thanks fo the recipe.nice pic too.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
You have a beautiful blog! I am seriously tempted to go buy some barley right away, your pictures are so enticing!
May 11th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
lovely. happy mother’s day to you too.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Bee, I’m going to wait for you to experiment it.
Cham, don’t wait to try that. It’s so tasty. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
Kavya, welcome to my blog. In my place I get pearl barley both in the Indian store and in the american grocery store also.
Shweta, welcome to my blog. Thank you very much for the nice words about my blog. Sure, Shweta just buy it right away and prepare it, you won’t be disappointed.
Divya do give it a try. It’s healthy as well as tasty. Start including it in your soups.
Uma, thanks.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Wow!! sounds different and tempting. sure will try sometime.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Food blogs are a great way of getting so many ideas isn’t it? With so much talk about Barley and its benefits, I am sure I will try this recipe soon.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
This sounds awesome.I loved your idea of maavadu.. the tangy flavour is great!!
May 11th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
WOW!!
Never thought of barley in this avatar.
This is one super healthy recipe. Good way to introduce barley into kids meals.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Nutritious, yet filling dish with an excellent by-product.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
This is a fantastic site!I simply loved the recipes
I have a food blog as well, which you might want to visit and share your views on.
http://spicesandcurries.blogspot.com
Cheers!
May 12th, 2008 at 7:14 am
I used to drink Barley water when I was pregnant , I have a great resource to impress my in-laws when they visit us this summer
May 12th, 2008 at 7:17 am
surely Barley thayirsadam rocks madhu,though i am not a big fan of Barley i will try soon
May 12th, 2008 at 7:56 am
What a great substitute for rice in a thair sadam! cool idea - thanks for sharing!
May 12th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Madhu,
Your blog must be a haven for people who do not like eggs
Your recipes look so delicious.
I’ve never tried cooking barley as a savoury dish.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:22 am
wow! your post is really inspiring…cant wait to try it out your way
May 12th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Madhuram,
I am big fan of your blog( came here via Laksh’s blog) and have been an avid reader for some months now. Have been trying to get into your blog since morning, but it kept giving me some error. Finally got in and what a dish! Wow! It looks so amazing and I will defn give it a shot. But I do not have pearl barley, at least what I have is probably not that. Is it alright to use any barley for this dish?
Today with the weather being so dull, I felt like making something crunchy but not unhealthy. What better than to make your zucchini fries! I am going to try them out tonight, hopefully they will come out good.
Sorry about the long comment, but todays dish rocks!
Lakshmi
May 12th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
nicely adapted form J&B’s original madhu! sure looks healthy and tasty:)
May 12th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Hi Madhuram! I’m glad that you had a wonderful Mother’s Day!!! We ended up going roller skating and stuffing ourselves with KFC after that
. (I know - my vegetarian challenge now seems so ‘long ago’. Ha! Ha!). Thank you for all the sweet comments you left me…..
This dish looks wonderful. I’ve only had barley as a drink all these while and never really cooked it as a meal before, not even in soups!! Must give this a go!!
Have a great week!!
May 12th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Thanks everybody for your lovely comments. But I cannot take the credit here, because it’s J&B’s recipe. I have to thank them on behalf of everybody.
SpiceLove, welcome to my blog. I did visit your blog. You too have an interesting space there. I will be back again.
SS, you are flattering me now.
Cynthia, welcome to my blog. I’m very glad to see your comment here.
Sangeeth, welcome to my blog. Glad you liked the recipe.
Lakshmi, thank you very much for such a wonderful comment. Don’t be sorry. I love to read the comments. Sort of an addict now.
Hope you got my email too.
Spillay, try it with soups and this dish too. It’s very tasty and healthy too.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Madhu,
I tried the zucchini fries. Came out amazingly well
Harish loved them and my daughter Nandini also had a couple of bites. And the best part is, we did not feel guilty digging into the “fries”. Thanks for the recipe.
Lakshmi
May 13th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
This is wonderful….I love barley in my soups too, I’d like to try this.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Lakshmi, thank you very much for trying it. Glad that it came out well too.
Trupti, you won’t be disappointed with the taste at all. It was absolutely delicious.