February 2012
It's Shrove Tuesday today, and I'm sharing a traditional Estonian Shrove Tuesday recipe with you. You'll need exactly three ingredients - pearl barley, smoked pork and water (and some salt to taste, if necessary). Cheap, simple, filling, flavoursome, and surprisingly delicious :)
You'll need a good chunk of smoked pork - ribs are perfect, though I've often used a fattier smoked cheek. This particular piece of meat is called maasuitsuribi (country-smoked ribs) in Estonian:
Note that this porridge reheats rather well - just slowly warm it until piping hot on your frying pan. I like to serve this with some sour cream.
Barley Porridge with Smoked Pork
(Vastlapuder)
Serves four to six
200 g smoked pork (rib, cheek or thickly cut bacon)
175 g pearl barley, rinsed and drained
1 l boiling water
salt, to taste
Cut the smoked pork into dice:
Fry the pork cubes in a heavy saucepan over moderately high heat, until browned and slightly crispened. (Drain off the excess oil, if necessary - various cuts of pork are rather different. Leave about a tablespoon or two of pork fat).
Add the pearl barley and sauté for about a minute, stirring.
Add the boiling water. Reduce heat, cover the pan with a lid. Simmer on a low heat for about an hour, stirring couple of times, until the barley is just ever so lightly al dente (you don't want it to go too mushy).
Taste for seasoning, add some salt, if necessary.
February 2008
MORE DELICIOUS SHROVE TUESDAY RECIPES @ NAMI-NAMI:
Yellow split pea soup with smoked pork
Traditional lenten buns
Lenten buns with raspberries and marzipan
Chocolate-y lenten buns
5 comments:
I often see recipes translated as porridge but I would call this a risotto as it is similar to a rice risotto. For me, as a Brit, porridge is something made with oats (normally) and milk and eaten for breakfast, for a Scot that is different as they use water and add milk or cream at the end. I wonder do the Scots today call all grain based mixtures porridge or just when it is served as a breakfast meal?
Your post made me check up to see where porridge comes from and whether what I thought was porridge was just a breakfast meal or not and I see that originally it could be a savoury meal. Amazing how language changes over the years.
Sounds delicious Pille! I have only recently started eating savory porridge (usually sweet over here) and I'm quite enjoying it. And my love for smoked meats know no bounds! So I am sure I would love this!
hmm.. it looks yummy, I love the twist you made in this.
Wonderful! This is absolutely a dish my mom would love. She adores barley and pork, I can't imagine a dish she would love more. I am going to pin this on Pinterest so I don't forget to try and make it. :) So nice to meet you!
Joanna, thank you for clearing up the etymology. Another friend said I should call it "barley risotto" or something similar, but then there's no rice and the preparation process it totally different, so I stick with direct translation :) Sue Lawrence, a Scottish food writer, includes recipes for savoury porridges in her book as well.
Joey, Xean, Suzie - thank you all!!
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