It is well known that rice is served daily in many Asian countries as the main source of carbohydrate.
In Japan, many people eat rice daily. But did you know that Japanese people often mix other grains into their rice to make rice more nutritious?
One of the “healthier” rice that is popular among people of Japan is barley rice.
What it barley rice?
In normal white rice, the bran and skin of rice is removed. While this process makes rice white and tasty, it removes most of nutrients.
So people in Japan sometimes choose to eat brown rice, or mix other grains with white rice to supplement nutrients.
One example of this is barley rice; where white rice is cooked with some added barley.
Many people in Japan eat barley rice because it has many health benefit. These include:
- Improving constipation
- Helping you lose weight
- Reduce bad cholesterol level
- Reduces high blood pressure
- Lower glycemic index – better for diabetic people
So when our family used to live in Japan, we cooked barley rice often.
But now we are back in New Zealand, we wondered if we can find “barley” suitable for cooking barley rice.
Pearl barley: can they be used to cook barley rice?
So we headed to our favorite organic shop: Huckle Berry.
Huckle Berry → http://www.huckleberry.co.nz/
Huckle Berry sells many types of organic food. They also sell various beans and grains in bulk (priced per kg).
Many of these organic bulk beans/grains are hard to find in a regular supermarket.
Some of grains/beans that are sold at Huckle Berry, that may interest Japanese food lovers are….
- Millet …these grains are sometimes mixed with white rice to cook nutritious grain-rice. Japanese cooking uses specific millets called “Hie” and “Awa”, but I am not certain which these millets are closely related to.
- Azuki Bean …These beans can be used to make red-bean pastes, used in Japanese traditional sweets.
- Rice Flour … Rice flour. You can use them to make some Japanese sweets, or these can simply be used for gluten-free bakings.
- Miso、Wakame、Kombu …Miso (Soy bean paste for miso soup), Wakame (Sea weeds for soups and salad), Kombu (Kelp for cooking or making soup) are also sold at Huckle Berry. These are all nice to use in Japanese cuisine, but many of these are organic and high in price. It may be cheaper to find alternatives at Japan mart.
At Huckle Berry, we found barley we were looking for.
These were called “Pearl Barley”.
Barley that have skins and bran removed are called “pearl barley”. They can be cooked with other ingredients to make a nice filling for a soup.
Mmm these “pearl barley” do not look that pearly. They look rather brown, compared to barley we get in Japan.
Barley that are used in Japan to cook barley rice are flattened by mechanical pressure. That way these “pressed-barley” are cracked and easier to absorb water/cook.
Pressed barley look similar but not as flattened as rolled oat.
Anyway, we decided to give these “pearl barley” a go and used them to cook barley rice.
How to cook barley rice
Cooking barley rice is simple; you wash and prepare white rice and water, then add barley and extra water.
Typical ratio is one cup of uncooked rice, add 50g of uncooked pearl barley and 100ml extra water.
Of course if you prefer more or less barley, you can adjust the amount of barley.
For each 100g of dry pearled barley added, you want to add 200ml of water.
This time, I decided to reduce the amount of barley than the typical ratio, and cook 1.5 cups of uncooked rice with 50g barley, following steps below.
Step by step: cooking barley rice
1. Wash 1.5 cup of uncooked white rice.
2. Place washed rice in a rice cooker with right amount of water. I simply use the water level guideline on the rice cooker bowl.
3. Add 50g of pearl barley. Add extra 100ml water.
4. Mix barley and rice.
5. Let it sit for at least one hour, to allow both rice and pearl barley to absorb water. I recommend letting it sit longer if you can (like 2 – 4 hours) if you have enough time before meal.
6. Turn the rice cooker ON and cook rice.
7. When cooked, let it sit for 10 minutes, then use rice scoop to gently mix rice a few times. Serve in a bowl.
FINISHED!!
How do barley rice taste?
When we tried barley rice…. rice is well cooked, but pearl barley grains stayed quite hard.
Pearl barley were very chewy. I think they could be softer if they were allowed to absorb water for longer.
In Japan, barley rice is cooked using pearl barley that are partially flattened by mechanical force; these are called “Oshi-mugi” (=pressed barley)
These pressed barley absorb water and cook faster, so they have similar consistency as rice, while having more sticky-texture.
So overall, the attempt to cook barely rice using pearl barley available in New Zealand was a success, with some room to improve.
Perhaps soaking pearl barley alone over night before mixing with uncooked rice may help.
Barley rice does have characteristic brown appearance of barley and some taste from barley.
So I do not recommend using barley rice for a dish that requires plain white rice, like sushi.
On the other hand, barley rice can be easily combined with curry or stew, or used in fried rice.
Summary
Pearl Barley available from local store in New Zealand can be used to cook barley rice!
- Barley rice has many health benefits compared with regular white rice
- We found some pearl barley in local Huckle berry store
- These pearl barley can be used to cook barley rice, albeit a bit firmer than ideal.
- For 50g dry pearl barley, add 100ml extra water.
- Let pearl barley absorb water for at least an hour (a few hours + desirable)
- Barley rice goes well with curry & rice, or fried rice meals.
Today, barley rice was served with Japanese fried chicken and miso soup, a nice authentic healthy Japanese meal!
