It's made by layering the ingredients just like lasagna. Instead of sheets of pasta, you lay down barley. Here's the barley cooking while my diced onion is sautéing.
After the onion was nice'n'tender and the kielbasa heated, I mixed them with some white beans, a little tomato sauce, and a heaping tablespoon of plum preserves. As far as seasoning goes, it's pretty simple. Just salt, pepper, and marjoram.
The recipe calls for a greased casserole dish with bread crumbs sprinkled about. I had no bread crumbs so it was lined with matzo meal. Start with a layer of barley then filling and continue until you have a final layer of barley on top. In my case, I had enough for only one stratum of filling. Poles love to put sour cream on everything and the situation is no different here. Smooth some on the final barley layer and then throw it in the oven.
While not a fancy dish, I thought it turned out pretty well. The 15 year-old registered no complaints. I liked how the plum sweetness melded with the smoky flavor of the kielbasa with the marjoram lingering in the background of both. And I also enjoyed the way the filling contrasted against the barley. It has the sweet vs. savory element going but there was also a contrast in texture as well. Each bite had the firm pearls of barley mixing with the easily mushed beans.
I am planning on making this again. Some variations might include using another type of fruit in the filling, higher quality kielbasa like a fine jalowcowa which has juniper berry, or mixing something in with the sour cream for another flavor. Perhaps some garlic. I use pearl barley but there are other varieties as well. It might look interesting if you use the black variety.
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