Barley Water - with photo

[JuliaBalbilla]

Name of Recipe:  Barley Water

Serves:  Makes about 1.5 litres

Ingredients:
40g pearl or pot barley
1 litre water
60g sugar
2 largish oranges, squeezed (reserve the rind and pith as well)
2 lemons, squeezed (reserve the rind and pith as well)

Preparation: 
Grind the barley in the TM bowl, about 2 minutes / increasing to Speed 10.
Add the water and the citrus rind, which has been cut into large pieces.
Cook 25 minutes / 100° / Speed 1.
Add the sugar and the citrus juice and stir 20 seconds / Speed 2.
Allow to cool and strain through the internal steaming basket if desired, or just remove the citrus pieces.
Pour into a jug and refrigerate.

Tips/Hints:  You can use 4 limes instead of the lemons. Experiment with other grains such as oats, or whole wheat berries.  The amount of sugar is an estimate as it depends on the size and sweetness of your oranges, and also everyone has different ideas of what is and what isn't too sweet. I would start at 60g and add more water if too sweet, and more sugar if not sweet enough. I had to add a little extra water personally.

Origin:  The basis for the recipe is a mixture of the one for Lemon Barley Water on the Thermomix Australia website, and a recipe from a 1960s book called To Set Before a Queen which was written by a Mrs McKee who was cook to the Queen when she was Princess Elizabeth.

[goldfish]

JuliaBalbilla -This looks great!  Note on fridge to try it tomorrow  - many thanks for posting the recipe!!

[dede]

That sounds great Julia, looks really refreshing too. Yum.

[judydawn]

I would have been making this tonight except I have no pearl barley    On my shopping list though, this sounds great thanks JB.

[JuliaBalbilla]

It is pretty delish and far better than your average shop bought stuff.  If you find that adding all of the peel takes the bowl content to more than the 2 litre mark, just leave some of it out.

JB

[Cuilidh]

Would you advise using reverse for the cooking once you add the peel and do you leave the pith on the peel or remove as much as possible?

[JuliaBalbilla]

Hi Cuilidh, use reverse if you wish, but to be honest, as the peel is in large chunks, Speed 1 won't really chop it.  Yes, leave the pith on, it doesn't alter the flavour, but of you remove it, you will also have to remove the rest of the flesh which remains after squeezing (and that DOES) add flavour, as does the oil in the peel.

JB

[Cuilidh]

Thanks, JB, it would have been a hassle to remove the pith and keep the skin!  I think I'll give this one a go this weekend - good to have in the fridge after a hot days weeding in the garden!

[Cuilidh]

I made this last night and am very happy with the result.  It is a lovely refreshing drink and I have already gone through half of the bottle.  Perhaps next time I will use smaller lemons as there was just a bit too much of a lemony tang for my taste.  It also splattered a bit towards the end of the 25 minutes cooking time so I popped the basket on top and it was fine.

Nice and easy to make and nice and easy to drink! 

Thanks for the recipe JB

[JuliaBalbilla]

Glad you liked it Cuilidh!  Am making some more tomorrow but the lemons we get here in the UK are probably smaller than you would have in Aus. :-(

JB

[Aussie Brenda]

I have been making the homemade lemonade but this will be made tomorrow, my DM used to say barley water was the best drink and I remember it as a child.

[judydawn]

Just remembered I made this the other day when GD was here and as I gave her a glass of it, I told her she probably wouldn't like it.  She often makes a liar out of me when I say that and yes, she did enjoy it.  We drank the whole lot whilst she was here, just the 2 of us.  Good one JB.

[CarolineW]

I made this yesterday but instead of chopping the skins into chunks I just popped them in, figuring there'd be even less taste of pith if they weren't cut up.  Wrong.  There was a distinct taste of orange marmalade to the drink which I didn't like but DH did.  As no one else has mentioned this I think it must be that lack of chopping.

I'll try it again after my next batch of fruit is delivered on Tuesday .