Ruth is a longtime family friend and contemporary of my mother.  Ruth contends that she can’t cook.  In fact, the things I’ve eaten at her house have always been wonderful.  Her mushroom/barley soup is rich and hearty, almost like a stew.  Ruth will tell you it’s Minna’s recipe (her ancient housekeeper) and perhaps it was at some point but I had Minnas soup and she never used wild mushrooms, which I think are key to the recipe.  Ruth uses dried mushrooms but I like to use fresh ones. I make vats of the soup around Thanksgiving when the grocery stores bring in loads of fresh Chanterelle, Royal Trumpet, Enoki and other mushrooms that are hard to find during the year.  Once cooked I package it up and put it in my freezer to nourish us during the desolate winter months.

Julie

INGREDIENTS

• 3 lb piece of chuck roast, trimmed
• 1 pound short cut carrot or carrots peeled and trimmed to 2″pieces
• 2 pints of white mushrooms and two pints of exotics: Chanterelle, Royal Trumpet, Baby Bella, Crimini, enoki etc
• 2 cups sliced yellow onions
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons of beef base ( I like Better than Bouillon) diluted in 4 cups of water or two beef bouillon cubes or 4 cups beef stock
• 1 dried bay leaf
• a few sprigs of fresh thyme
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup pearled barley

DIRECTIONS

1. Wipe chuck roast dry with paper towels and cut into 2” pieces. Season meat with salt and pepper and toss with some flour until all the sides are lightly dusted.
2. Heat oil in sauté pan or cast iron skillet. When oil is smoking put in as many pieces of meat as you can without crowding the pan. Sautée until meat is brown on all sides. (The meat should not be touching each other in the pan  I generally have to do this in two pans to sautée the meat and I do it at the same time.  If you only have one pan and need to sautée the meat I. Two batches I advise doing a patch, removing the meat from the pan, deglazing the pan with some water or stock, cleaning the pan and doing the whole routine a second time with the rest if the meat.  The reason I’m suggesting this is so that you don’t burn the fond.
3. Place the meat and deglazed juices in a stock pot and clean the pan.
4. Sauté the sliced onions and garlic in about a tablespoon of oil until the onions are nice and brown. Throw them in the stock pot as well along with the tomato paste, thyme and bay leaf.
5. Add about 4 cups of homemade beef broth or more to cover the meat. If you dont have homemade, I like Better Than Boillion but, I dilute it. They call for 1tsp bouillon paste to 1cup of water. I only use 1/2 tsp of paste.
6. Cover stock pot and simmer for about 2 hours.
7. Check the meat and if it is tender, add the carrots and the barley and simmer until the carrots are al dente.
8. Add the mushrooms and cook until the barley and mushrooms are cooked.