Paraphrasing The Second Avenue Deli's recipe from their cookbook:
Farfel and Mushrooms
3 tbsp corn oil 2 cups chopped onion 2 cups scrubbed mushrooms, chopped into 3-4" slices, about 3-16" thick (look, that's what it says, OK?) 2 cups uncooked egg barley 3 cups clear chicken soup or stock Salt if needed 1-4 tsp pepper
Heat 2 tbsp of the oil and lightly brown the onion. Removed with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Brown the mushrooms and add to the onions; set aside.
Preheat oven to 325 deg. Pour egg barley into a pan (maybe 9x13), add a tbsp corn oil and mix well. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, so it browns evenly. While farfel is baking heat the chicken broth and keep it warm. Remove the pan from the oven, add the onion-mushroom mix and add the soup. Reduce oven temp to 300 deg and bake for another 30 minutes or until all soup is absorbed, stirring after 15 minutes. Remove and serve.
All righty. Here's my question: This is the second recipe from that book wherein one bakes, roasts, fries, toasts, or otherwise treats the pasta or the grain before "cooking" it. What's the point? Is it a truly necessary step? How do you suppose it came to be?
I await your counsel and advise. And since I have more homemade chicken soup at the ready, and a mess of various already-sliced mushrooms at hand (and the egg barley on hand) I think I'll make maybe half a recipe for supper.
Having the egg barley on hand makes me think I've done this once, but I don't remember a) using a recipe ("That's different") or roasting or toasting the egg barley. I don't think I baked it, either. I should maybe check with Sheryl about this.
-Barb --
