Barley rice for healthy eating

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!

How to get rid of constipation: New Zealand way?

My family of two parents and two children currently live in Auckland, New Zealand. When we initially moved here, both myself and my elder son experienced constipation.

On the contrary, my husband and younger son never had constipation – I guess it is the type of body we have…

So how did I, myself, and my poor elder son manage to come out of our constipation? We found two methods that worked for us….

Going overseas could be a cause of constipation?

People often experience constipation after moving overseas. This could be due to various reasons, like changing in diet or high stress levels you might experience after relocating.

This was the case for our family too, when we moved from Japan to New Zealand. We (mainly myself and my son) became constipated party because we were stressed and tired from the move.

On top of that, all the root vegetables like Daikon horse radish and Gobou, and all the sea weeds that we used to eat in Japan were rich in soluble fibers. But we were no longer eating much of such food after arriving in New Zealand – so there was a lot of dietary changes.

What is easy natural remedy for constipation??

It is important to go see a doctor when your constipation is really bad. But if you can manage it with other means, that would be better too.

So we looked into various “can-do-at-home” ways to solve constipation, and we found two methods that worked particularly well for us.

First is “laying flat on your tummy” method that was featured in Japanese TV show. The second was the very Kiwi way… both as described below.

Easiest method EVER to relieve constipation

So the first method is to lay flat on your tummy method. It is easy and does not cost anything, you can try it right now.

Here is how:

1.First, you lay flat on your tummy. Make sure to lay on a hard surface, like directly laying on a carpet or even wooden floor.

2.Keep laying down for about 10 minutes. Make sure your tummy is flat.

3.After 10 minutes, wiggle your body like you roll half-way on your right, then half-way on your left, half-way on your right, half-way on your left…..

4.You can roll all the way if you want. Make sure to use the whole body to do above half-rolling exercise.

5.Your arms, shoulder, and of course the whole abdominal should come in contact with the floor when you roll on them.

6.Do this rolling exercise for 2-3 minutes.

*Note that this method is not recommended straight after having a meal or when your stomach is full. Try it between the meals when our stomach is reasonably empty.


How does this method help with constipation? This method works by stimulating your bowl movement. Your bowel movement is often blocked by too much gas in your body.

By laying flat on your tummy, exit from your bowl (rectum) now faces upwards and helps gas to float out (eventually resulting in a fart) and helps reduce the gas.

Then the rolling motion helps stimulate your bowl to move.


This method was very effective for us. We could feel our bowel moving after doing the laying flat-rolling exercise, although going toilet was a while later.

If you perform this everyday, many people will see improvements in your bowel activity over a week or two.

Since it doesn’t require anything else other than 12-3 minutes to lay down while watching TV, I it is risk-free cost-free method everyone should try.

Good food for constipation? Try Kiwifruit!!

The second method that really worked for us is…. kiwifruit!!

There are many foods that are said to be good for relieving constipation. Well when I asked around to local people in New Zealand, many people suggested “Kiwifruit will do the trick!”

People like distant family members or preschool teachers, and plunket nurses even recommended kiwifruit.

I suppose it is very New Zealand way to relieve constipation… considering our national bird is Kiwi bird and we produce a lot of kiwifruit in New Zealand!


So we gave this a try, went out to the local shop and bought a bag of kiwifruit.

…. and it works!!

I think it works better than the famous prune juice or “natural fiber drinks” in the health section.


Kiwifruits are rich in soluble fibers like pectin and are also rich in digestive enzymes; both are very healthy for digestive system.

So I guess these active nutrients makes kiwifruit a very good food for helping constipation.

It is so easy to eat as well – just chop a kiwifruit in half and scoop it with a tea spoon!

If kiwifruit is too sour, you could try the gold kiwifruits that are much sweeter and much less acidic. In my opinion normal kiwifruit has stronger effect on relieving constipation, but eating gold kiwifruit is still much better than not eating kiwifruit.

Kiwifruits also are rich in Vitamin C, so combined with constipation-relieving effect, it is a good fruit for our beauty!

These are good ways to get rid of constipation in kids too

So here is the summary of the methods introduced:

• Try eating kiwifruit – even more so if you are in New Zealand!
• Start right now- laying flat on your tummy & rolling exercise

Regularly eating kiwifruits and laying on our tummy before going to bed, we are pretty much constipation-free at a moment.

So in our view, both of above  are very powerful methods for relieving constipation.

They are both natural and cost-effective methods too; and doesn’t require anything in particular (just kiwifruit). So you could try on your children too.

Good luck with getting rid of that constipation and happy toilet life!





Constipation: How to Treat Constipation: How to Prevent Constipation: Along with Nutrition, Diet, and Exercise for Constipation